TrimTabs History
TrimTabs Investment Research is the only independent research service that publishes detailed daily coverage of U.S. stock market liquidity, including mutual funds and Exchange Traded Funds, as well as weekly withheld income and employment tax collections.
TrimTabs’ unique perspective relies on the insight that price is a function of supply and demand and has nothing to do with value. Thanks to proprietary web-spiders and aggregation methods, TrimTabs tracks new offerings, buybacks, insider trading, cash takeovers and daily flows in mutual funds and ETFs. TrimTabs’ research is currently used for market-timing by 25% of the top 50 hedge funds in the world.
- In 1990, Charles Biderman founded TrimTabs, starting with short ideas. By 1995, as takeovers and mergers fed the bull-market, TrimTabs shifted to equity market liquidity and started surveying US mutual funds. Until today, TrimTabs remains the only company to track daily flows in mutual funds.
- In late 1999, Charles Biderman prophetically called the market top: “Starting in February, the float could grow each month by $37 billion. Where will the more than $37 billion of new cash monthly come from to stop a market collapse?” TrimTabs Weekly Liquidity Review, December 27, 1999.
- In late 2002, TrimTabs launched the Weekly Macro Analysis which uses real-time indicators such as income tax collections and online job postings to assess the strength of the US economy.
- In 2005, former Citadel Senior Vice-President Conrad Gann founded TrimTabs Asset Management (TTAM) along with Biderman. TTAM’s absolute return strategy seeks to use insights from TrimTabs Investment Research to generate superior performance.
- In March 2006, TrimTabs launched the Sector Liquidity Review which applies TrimTabs’ unique liquidity approach to identify top-performing sectors. In its first year, TrimTabs’ published market calls-based model portfolio returned 27%, outperforming the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index by 21.5%.
- Soon after the firm added coverage of LSE & Euronext markets and 2007 saw the addition of Hong Kong coverage. In all these markets, liquidity analysis appears to be a powerful market-timing tool.
Biderman is also a regular columnist on Forbes.com To learn more about the history of the firm and about TrimTabs approach to equity markets, read Forbes’ March 12, 2005 Issue: “Boom Time”.