MetaMarkets.com: A Requiem
Don & Dave sum up what we've all achieved together on MetaMarkets.com
"My soul would be an outlaw."
Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman, Harlan Ellison
"Trust thyself: Every heart vibrates to that iron string."
Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
Thomas Edison
"Rules serve best when broken."
Time Enough For Love, Robert Heinlein
Nearly two years ago to the day, we embarked on a great adventure. On August 31st, 1999, the first fund managed by the MetaMarkets.com investment team was started: OpenFund. Today we mark the end of the journey.
Our goal was not modest - to revolutionize the way mutual funds deal with their customers - completely in the open, and in real time. At the same time, we set out to pioneer a new kind of investment journalism - coming from the heart of a real investment management process. We vowed to expose every part of the process, warts and all. Those of you who've been with us from the beginning watched as we invested those first dollars in the fund (largely from friends and family to whom we will be forever grateful). A few weeks ago, you had the dubious privilege of seeing the fund's final unwinding trades.
Along the way, we kept our heads up, stuck to our principles, and kept lit the torch of mutual fund transparency. We stirred the pot, so much so that the Investment Company Institute felt it necessary to dedicate its entire research effort to proving that mutual fund transparency is hazardous to your health - yet on the horizon are new SEC rules moving the entire industry closer to the standards we have pioneered.
But we are not an immovable object in the wake of what has been a nearly irresistible force, in the form of a savage bear market. And so, we find ourselves - as a company - faced with the task of winding up our affairs.
One of the biggest and best surprises in this process has been you - the MetaMarkets.com community. This is a community of which there have never been leaders, as such - only many, many enthusiastic partners. Around our grand vision, a group of investors - novice and professional alike - coalesced. For every article we wrote (each and every day for over 500 market days), we learned something from the community. Through the contributions of the MetaMarkets Think Tank, our compatriots on the investment team, and total strangers, we leave enriched. And for that, we thank you.
But every ending is a beginning. While this site may fade, our interest in the markets won't. Nor can the muse that brings us to the keyboard each morning be easily muted. Some of us whom you've come to rely on for commentary - or just a good laugh - will be carrying on at Trend Macrolytics . Others of us will surely move on to different paths. We hope you'll track us down - we'd love to hear from you.
The best is yet to be.
Don Luskin & Dave Nadig
August 17, 2001
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