Welcome
Tonge Investments is a Registered Investment Adviser, located in the State of Maine, specializing in managing assets in the securities markets. We work with our clients to articulate individual goals and risk tolerance. We then devise a personalized investment plan using a variety of strategic tools:
- Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)
- Common Stock
- Bonds
- Long/Short
- T24 Income
Our mission: to provide consistent investment returns without exposing our clients’ portfolios to unreasonable risk.
- We invest with a conservative, long-term approach designed to increase asset value over time.
- We offer you a custom-tailored portfolio based on your hopes and plans, your income needs, and your risk tolerance.
- We view investing as a process – not an event. Your individual goals form the basis of the investment strategy that we develop together.
We encourage you to browse through our pages and call us with any questions, comments or suggestions.
History
Tonge Investments is a Registered Investment Advisor, licensed in the State of Maine, specializing in portfolio management for individuals, trusts, retirement plans, and endowment funds. Rick Tonge (pronounced Tonj) first entered the business in 1974 as a third generation broker, working for his father’s firm. In 1996, he moved from the brokerage to the adviser side of the business so he could work in a fiduciary capacity for clients.
Tonge Investments employs a unique research method, based on technical analyses, in order to identify investment opportunities. Technical analysis focuses on the tug-of-war between supply and demand in the stock market, discovering the relative strength of assets. Relative strength, derived through technical analysis, is the most notable attribute of profitable investment portfolios.
Process
We will talk with you. We will ask questions. We will strive to know what your unique situation is, eventuating in a needs profile and a risk profile. Once we arrive at a common understanding, we will use our experience to develop the appropriate mix of assets to enhance your financial status.
Fees
Management Fees are invoiced at the beginning of each quarter and are based on the total market value of the portfolio. The quarterly fee is one-fourth of the following annual rates:
- 1.00% on the first $500,000
- 0.70% on the next $500,000
- 0.50% on the balance
- T24 only is 2.00%
Portfolios less than $100,000 are subject to a minimum fee of $1000 per year. Two or more related portfolios may be combined for fee calculation. A 50% discount is provided for not-for-profit organizations.
In what follows, we're trying to be brief. The descriptions may sometimes seem arcane and confusing. Indeed, the financial industry as a whole may seem mysterious. We're in business to bring some measure of transparency to the world of investment. Please call us, or come in and see us, if we can be of service to you.
ETF
Exchange Traded Funds provide perhaps the best opportunities for sound, safe investment that have evolved in recent years. You can learn about ETFs by viewing our video (LINK). Our ETF portfolio comprises both domestic and international ETFs in order to diversify your holdings.
Stock
This is a portfolio of 20-25 individual common stocks. Technical analysis and Relative Strength are used to select each stock. These two research tools allow us to move seamlessly between these investment styles (growth and value) and capitalization (small, medium and large cap).
Long/Short
A very aggressive portfolio using an ETF to be 100% long or 100% short in the US stock market. We have a specific research tool based on supply and demand that guides the investment decisions.
Bonds & Other Income
A ladder portfolio of Treasury, Corporate and Agency bonds or ETF bond portfolio as used to create income. Our T24 portfolio is designed to produce income for IRA accounts.
T24
This special portfolio utilizes both an ETF and a very conservative strategy to generate monthly income at about 2% per month. As market conditions change, we may or may not be able to apply this process each month. However, every time we do, it will get about 2% for the 30-day period. Since the income is all taxable, we encourage clients to select this for their IRA or other retirement assets.
T24 is a unique investment process designed to increase the return and reduce the risk in investment accounts by creating income.
Characteristics
- In an up market or a flat market we will create income at approximately 2% per month.
- In a down market more income is created but it is used to offset the market decline. This offset usually amounts to more than one-half of the decline. Your portfolio loses only half as much as it might have by not using the process.
Safety
- This process is less risky than owning any of the major indexes such as the Dow, S&P 500 or Nasdaq.
Net Results
- More income and less risk for your portfolio.
How It Works
- The T24 process is best used in tax-free accounts, such as an IRA, 401K or non-profit endowment. This is due to the taxable nature of the income created.
- Call us!, we will be happy to explain the process and all other features to you.
Current
Get the PDF version of this newsletter here.
The Tonge Telegraph
November 2008
Where Do We Start?
Last month's market activity will merit its own separate chapter in the economic history books. The emotions and the scars will not disappear anytime soon. It was a disastrous month to be exposed to the markets. Nothing was safe to own except US treasuries and cash. The Dow Industrial Average swung 500 and 1000 points in both directions numerous times. The inter-day swings were even larger; the last hours of trading days were night-marish.
Some of the activity was explainable, much of it not. Fear dominated the markets as we teetered on the Edge of the Abyss I wrote about last month. Fear dictated some of the late-day selling to cover margin calls and mutual fund redemptions. Then a reasonable fear degenerated into panic . . . to the point where overnight futures markets traded down to the maximum allowable limit and trading shut down on the S&P 500. With the Dow already trading below 8000, the average might have declined significantly by the end of that day. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and we ended down only (!) a few hundred points
But here came the R word. At the end of September our focus was on the $700 billion bail-out of the banks. Once this was passed and we stepped back from the abyss of a collapse in the financial structures we depend upon, we looked up to see the tsunami of a worldwide recession descending. Central bankers of the major industrialized countries were galvanized to unite in the first-ever coordinated interest rate cut. Now everyone is at least on the same team with the common goal of stabilization.
What's ahead? Generally, I resist crystal-balling. Too many variables, including variables that may not even exist yet. Still, some events upcoming will have positive effects. We have (blessedly!) the election of a new President, who starts with a clean slate of opportunity. The nation finds energy in the belief that important changes are imminent. The effects of the bail-out may start to take hold before Christmas and credit markets begin to ease. (You can once again get a car loan without putting up your first-born as collateral!) We survive a holiday season that sees retailers discounting like never before to get us into the store. The inauguration in January provides another psychological boost, and we enter the first 100 days of the new administration.
Some time in late winter . . . Oops, condensation in the crystal ball. Through a glass darkly, some will see by next May that the recession might end by autumn. Others will see it lasting much longer. Some reports say we have already been in a recession for a year.
I'm lining up with the optimists: oil prices down, stock valuations are better than we have seen in years, and a fresh understanding that we are all in this together, globalization hurried through its painful childhood, moving into an adulthood of great promise. I don't mean—for a moment!—that some day we'll all look back on this period and have a good laugh. Too many people got hurt. Too many of the perpetrators may walk away. Still, as the song says, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and start all over again.
Archive
Please Note:
The information contained in the Tonge Telegraph Archive is for historical research or reference only. This information is dated material and should not be considered current.
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
Contact
Tonge Investment Services
22 Common Street
Waterville, ME 04901
Phone: 207-877-7762 or 800-546-7762
Fax: 207-877-7868
E-Mail: rstonge@gwi.net
