The year 2009 was a very interesting year. While 2008 was one of our most profitable years ever as we went short the market during the crash, 2009 turned out to be the second best year we've ever had. While we knew that the fundamentals of the economy were in the toilet and getting flushed daily, we also knew that the plunge of 2008 couldn't last forever and they're be a monster rebound rally. We were so sure of this, that we Covered all our shorts and suggested in our letters in February 2009 that it was very soon time to get involved with the market from the "long side" as indeed a huge counter trend rally was to take place.

In one of letters published in late February of 2009 we said this:

So, do we fall to 6K from here, or  do they hold us and we roar higher?????

I'm in the camp that says we roar higher. The tax rebate season is upon us and people are NOT going to save it, they can't afford to save it. They're going to go splurge on anything they haven't been able to buy in the last 8 months. This is going to give us a few elevated retail sales figures, and might even reach into such areas as durable goods, etc. At some point the market is going to latch onto one of those reports as "proof positive' that the economy is healing, and they are going to scramble to get in. The money that's been taken out of treasuries, and parked in money markets is going to come out, and they'll pile it into stocks.

As Early March rolled around, the market bottomed. We had moved 20% of our 401K money out of the safety of cash and into 3 mutual funds in our 401K plan. Then in our March 8th edition,  the very week that the market hit "bottom" this is what we said we'd do if we had 5 grand laying around to invest:

If you had 5K to "roll the dice" what would you do with it? I'd look at a few things. First, I'd consider the FAS. This is a 3X etf, The Direxion Financial Bull 3X Shares ETF (NYSE:FAS) is designed to return three times the performance of the Russell 1000 Financial Services Index ("Financial Index"). The underlying financial services index is a capital weighted index of financial service providers ranging from large capitalization banks, like Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) and Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), to insurance providers, like Aflac (NYSE:AFL) and Allstate (NYSE:ALL).   If the banks are going to scream higher because of a suspension of MTM, this should be quite an etf to own, and it trades at 2.64 a share. If you bought a thousand shares, you'd still have 2,360 dollars left to roll. But where?

I'd use the balance to buy some longer dated call options. Placed around the table, you could buy calls on IBM, AAPL, GOOG, the DIA's, Q's and SPY's. That would give you some real firepower if a bounce develops and holds.

Then we made a startling prediction. With the market still under DOW 7000 we said that the "bounce" was going to be more powerful than anyone realizes, and the first stop would be 9500. Then to make it even wilder, we said this: And if we make it past 9500? Then DOW 11,000 isn't out of the question" As the weeks went on, we increased our 401K exposure from 20% of our cash, to 40% and then on to 60%.

Along with those bold predictions, and us moving money into the 401K funds, we also told our members about individual stock buys. We picked many many stocks in those early days of the run up, from FAS, to UYM, to CLF, BUCY, UYG, XLF and many many more.

SO, HOW'D WE DO?

Let's take a look.

So there you have it friends. We called the bottom within a couple days of the true bottom, and stayed long for the entire year. Because we suffered NO loss in 2008, it was all pure gains. Did your fund manager do that for you? No? Well maybe you ought to consider being a member here, and see if we can help you in the future?

Years like 2009 don't come around that often, but when they do and you can recognize them, you can add an awful lot of wealth to your portfolio in a short amount of time. It's our job to know when to move and we feel we're pretty good at it. Give us a try and see what you think.