In a series of emails, Jim Rohrbach, president of Investment Models, Inc., expressed disagreement with the findings of “Jim Rohrbach’s Technical Timing Approach” and requested removal of the review. So that readers can assess the basis of his request, here are the verbatim emails, with raw links replaced by descriptive links:
On August 5, 2012, Jim Rohrbach wrote:
Please remove all references to jim/james rohrbach and investment models from your site. My marketing group tells me that you are causing me to lose sales.
CXO Advisory Group LLC (represented by Steve LeCompte) responded on August 5, 2012:
I can find three references to “Rohrbach” on CXOadvisory.com:
“Jim Rohrbach’s Technical Timing Approach” from September 2010 reviews your timing signals for SPY during 2003 through 2009, as originally published on your web site. Since you have removed the record of detailed signals from your site, I have replaced the link to it with one to the historical page as preserved at the Internet Archive.
“Comments from Jim Rohrbach on the Review of His Recent Performance” from November 2006 documents your comments in response to a prior version of the above. [Replaced by this item since the original comments no longer reflect Jim Rohrbach’s views.]
“Robert McHugh Objects to Our Evaluation of His Commentaries” from October 2007 contains only a link to your [prior] comments. [Removed because this item replaces Jim Rohrbach’s prior comments.]
We do not remove material from CXOadvisory.com on request. If you identify any errors in these items, I will make corrections.
Jim Rohrbach responded on August 5, 2012:
You say that a subscriber asked you to review my performance. Please provide me with the name of that person. How did you get my Buy and Sell Signals?? That information is the work product of Investment Models, Inc. and is for the sole personal use of the subscriber,and may not be used or distributed by the subscriber for any other purpose without the prior written permission of Investment Models, Inc. Each of my Newsletters reminds my subscribers that It is a violation of federal copyrite law to reproduce or distribute all or part of this publication or it’s contents by any means.
Therefore I am going to forward this e-mail to my Copyrite Attorney.
1.Please provide me with the name of the person who asked you to do the study, and also 2.provide the source of the Buy and Sell Dates you used to do the study.
CXO Advisory Group LLC (represented by Steve LeCompte) responded on August 5, 2012:
I do not say [in “Jim Rohrbach’s Technical Timing Approach”] that a subscriber (of yours) asked for a review of your performance. I say that a reader (of CXOadvisory.com) asked for a review.
I got the buy and sell signals from the publicly available part of your web site as of 2010. Please read my prior response carefully. Those signals are still publicly available via the Internet Archive. I do not have now, nor have ever had, information proprietary to your company.
Jim Rohrbach responded on August 5, 2012:
Give me the name of your subscriber who asked for the study. You were not authorized by me to do a study. Please provide me with all of the details in your study. The Newsletter clearly states that the information may not be used for any other purpose without without prior written authorization of Investment Models, Inc. I never authorized you to do the study and the simple solution is for you to remove any reference to me or my company.
!.Please provide me with the name of the person (reader) who requested the study.
2. All details of the study including dates when the study was performed.
3. Name(s) of person(s)Who performed the study.
4. Was a cost basis used for each transaction and how was money invested while out of the market.
4. The name and contact information of your C.E.O.
I will spend some time to review your study and I can assure you that I will find it to be invalid. So lets save each other some time and effort. Talk to your C.E.O. and ask him if he will agree to remove all references to me and Investment Models, Inc. I will take my marketing company’s opinion that you are hurting my business, and I think you will agree that isn’t the purpose of providing information about my Company.
You are telling me that you will do a study on any company when one of your subscribers requests it, without obtaining written permission or verification of the input data from that company without regard for the impact of those studies on companies involved and when you are requested to remove the studies you say that you do not remove studies even if they negatively impact those companies.
CXO Advisory Group LLC (represented by Steve LeCompte) responded on August 5, 2012:
The original request for a review is from 2006. I cannot recover the name of the reader who made the request. In any case, the requester’s name is not germane to the review.
We do not require authorization to review publicly available information.
The study is as presented at “Jim Rohrbach’s Technical Timing Approach”, based on information you made public on your web site. I repeat that we do not have now, nor have ever had, information proprietary to your company.
I performed the study.
The study states all assumptions.
We are an LLC. I am the Managing Member. We have no CEO. You have my email address.
When a CXOadvisory.com reader requests review of an expert’s performance, we determine whether: (1) the review would be of broad interest to our audience; and, (2) there is enough publicly available information to conduct a meaningful review. We do not assume before conducting the review that the performance will be good or bad. We do not require authorization from the reviewed party. The review is a service to readers.
Jim Rohrbach responded on August 6, 2012:
That Newsletter clearly states that the information may not be used for any other purpose without prior written permission of Investment Models, Inc. You violated my Copyrite. Also you say that someone requested the study, but do not know who it was.
Let’s go on record right now. You are not authorized to make any mention of me or Investment Models, Inc in any future issues of your service. I guess you are not going to send me a copy of your study. So let’s agree that it too was invalid.
CXO Advisory Group LLC (represented by Steve LeCompte) responded on August 6, 2012:
You are willfully ignoring the fact that you made the buy and sell signals used in the study publicly available. The study cites and uses, but does not reproduce, these signals. There is no violation of intellectual property rights or infringement of copyright.
The name of the CXOadvisory.com reader who originally requested the study six years ago is irrelevant.
We do not require your authorization to review the outcome of these signals, or any other information you make publicly available.
You are willfully ignoring the fact that the study is available to you at “Jim Rohrbach’s Technical Timing Approach”. We know of no errors in the study.
Jim Rohrbach responded on August 6, 2012:
[The name of the reader] is irrelevant because you can’t produce it. I would like to aske that person if he asked you to do a study. If hed did not then I must conclude that you kdecided to do the study and since that study is hurting my sales, you might want to remove it from your site.
Also I want to see every calculation in your study not just summary results. I will then prove to you that your study is not valid. You would have to show me that you used a “Cost Basis” for each transaction and you would have to show the interest earned while out of the market. If your analysis is flawed then the entire study is flawed. I want to prove that to you. Send me the complete study showing every calculation on every date that you used. You said you would make that available to me and that I would be allowed to review the data and provide feedback on any errors that I might uncover. It’s not irrelevant to me when a third party looks at your study and tells me that you are hurting my sales. That is as relevant as it gets. It is as relevant as your boss telling you that he is reducing your salary. By the way, who is your boss??
CXO Advisory Group LLC (represented by Steve LeCompte) responded on August 6, 2012:
Whether you believe that someone asked for the review is up to you.
The published review completely specifies all data, assumptions and methods used. I have at no time offered to supply additional detail. Whether you make the effort to challenge assumptions or validate findings based on these specifications is up to you.
I repeat that we are an LLC. I am the managing member. There is no other boss.
Jim Rohrbach responded on August 7, 2012:
You may think it’s okay to publish negative information about any company but you are wrong. I am turning this over to my Trade Mark attorney. He may be asking you for the detailed study information as part of his discovery.
Jim Rohrbach added on August 8, 2012:
I guess you are not going to show me the detailed analysis, because you can’t deliver it. So your subscribers have to trust that you never make mistakes and we have to trust you. Zig Zigler says, “You can have whatever you want, If you help enough people get what they want.” It looks like your approach is to publish anything about companies even if it is incorrect and even if it hurts the results of those companies. In the long run you are going to fail with your approach. I have worked 40 years to build my business and I am proud that my mission is to help investors. By the way, Timer Digest ranked me on their Top Ten Timers list again this week. They rank over 100 Timers in this country. Let me know when you make any good list.
CXO Advisory Group LLC (represented by Steve LeCompte) responded on August 8, 2012:
I repeat that the published review completely specifies all data, assumptions and methods used. Whether you make the effort to challenge assumptions or validate findings based on these specifications is up to you.
The data are all publicly available. Any reader who doubts the findings can check them.
