Expert: Paul Henneman - 10/24/2004

Question
I'm unsure from the Valuengine website how to use the Benchmark Portfolios -- since they change once per month, can I assume that when stocks rotate off the list, (in order to try to approximate the Benchmark results) one should sell them and buy the new ones that appear on the updated list?

Thanks,

Randy

Answer
Randy,
   Thank you for your question and interest in ValuEngine!
   Yes, the benchmark portfolios are designed to run once per month. The screen is run each month with the top stocks chosen for that portfolio strategy. We list the current holdings for each portfolio, which is updated once per month. You would take the current list, compare it with the new list, and sell any stocks that no longer appear and buy the new ones that do appear. Some additional information that may be of help:
   There are two ways for you to try to duplicate our benchmark portfolios:

1.  From the main www.ValuEngine.com home page, click on 'benchmark portfolios' link on the left side, then click on the portfolio you are interested in to 'view current holdings'. This will bring up a list of the holdings according to what ValuEngine is tracking. We update them each month. However, we do several things to avoid having thousands of users trade these portfolios all at the same time, which would affect the price of the stocks in the portfolios: we do not release when exactly we update the portfolios, and we hold the release of the new holdings each month for a random time period. You can still trade these, but would have to check often to see when the holdings are updated, and would not have the most current data to to the random hold time period.

2.  Click on 'screeining' on the left side navigation bar on the home page, then click on the text link called 'ValuEngine benchmark portfolios'. This brings up a list of the same 12 benchmark portfolios we are tracking, with links to view the current holdings. However, when you view the lists of stocks from this page, it is as of that point in time. The system will run the screen and show you the current list of stocks. Most of our users pick a day of the month that is convenient for them, and then run the benchmark portfolio this way. ValuEngine stresses the importance of  the stock selection process, not that your list matches ours. Doing it this way, your list will not match the stocks ValuEngine has in our sample portfolios  unless you happen to run it on the same day at the same time. But you will instead get an absolutely current list of stocks that meet that benchmark portfolios criteria based on all available data as of that time. This is the preferable method.

I hope this makes sense and answers your question. Please do not hesitate to follow up, or call us directly at (800) 381-5576 if I can be of any further service!

Sincerely,
Paul Henneman
ValuEngine, Inc.
www.ValuEngine.com
www.VEInstitutional.com