Charles E Kirk

Education

Charles E. Kirk graduated from the St. Charles Preparatory School in Columbus, Ohio in 1989 and from Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa in 1993 with a joint major in philosophy and political science. He received certification for private investigation from Georgia Piedmont Technical College in 1994, and a juris doctorate degree from Hamline Law School in 1999, where he was managing editor for the Hamline Law Review.

Career

After graduating from college, Kirk began part-time trading in 1993. From 1994 to 1996 he was employed as a private investigator for a law firm in Atlanta, Georgia. The same year he graduated from law school, 1999, his father died. On his deathbed, his father advised Kirk that if he does what he loves to do, success will follow. Instead of practicing law, Kirk turned to the stock market. He began trading stocks for his own account full-time. In 2000, he wrote a subscription newsletter called MoneyXperts which featured a model portfolio that showed a cumulative 323% gain by 2003. It developed a cult following. But Kirk wanted to reach "the little guy" who had less means and needed more help, the kind of help he needed when he was starting. So in 2003 he ceased publication of MoneyXperts to launch The Kirk Report. In blog format, something new at the time, Kirk shared the trading techniques and strategies he used to build his own net worth. He traded both stocks and ETFs (day and swing trades) using proprietary tools he had developed. A combination of hard work and unusual performance garnered quick and widespread recognition. Over the years, he continually made changes to its content to help educate his readers and give them the tools to help their performance. As he fine-tuned his format, Kirk made sure to include what he enjoyed most, mentoring aspiring traders.

The Kirk Report

In the years 2003-2006, Kirk posted on his site information about stocks, trading, investing and the stock market with the emphasis on teaching rather than recommending stocks. He wanted to create an educational environment that fostered individual trader development rather than guru following. He wanted his readers to learn by doing it themselves, just as he had done. His mission was to teach the little guy trader and investor to make informed unemotional decisions and to shorten the learning curve it takes to be successful.

Although Kirk's mission was to enable his readers to think and act independently, he was fighting an uphill battle. Most of his readers, attracted by his outstanding track record, wanted to copycat his trades. In the early years, Kirk reluctantly agreed to share with his followers the stocks he was buying and selling, and the details of the trade. Explaining how he set up and executed his own trades in real time was the maximum teaching tool, but that exposure put him under constant pressure.

Word of Kirk's track record and his blog spread quickly. The Kirk Report received favorable exposure in The Wall Street Journal (2007), Forbes, Kiplinger, Time Magazine, Stocks & Commodities Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, San Francisco Chronicle, American Association of Individual Investors (AAII Magazine), MSN Money, and CNN Money, among others. In 2006, the widely followed investment publication, Barron's, sent a reporter out to Kirk's home in Hugo, Minnesota to do a feature profile. Words like "remarkable" and "amazing" were used to describe Kirk's track record. The article reported Kirk had never had a down year as a stock trader, and in a sweeping bear market he showed substantial gains, and that 4 out of every 5 trades were successful. The article caused Kirk's readership to explode. Traders and non-traders flocked to his website (Kirk says he received over 26,000 emails) wanting to know what stocks he was buying. Kirk explained, "After the Barron's interview, I became famous throughout the world for The Kirk Report."

Kirk was unprepared for the overnight deluge, many of whom were unwanted "seekers of short cuts, easy answers and get-rich-quick methods". It put strains on his resources and on himself, personally. Trading in a fishbowl, he felt continuous pressure to have to prove himself. The process of having to perform, and, at the same time, servicing the needs of his burgeoning daily readership, caused a near nervous breakdown. It was clear that major changes were needed in his method of operation to relieve the stress. The "Barron's Curse" was taking a toll not only on his health but also on his market performance.

In the years that followed, Kirk has actively changed The Kirk Report in many ways with focus on education rather than providing personal advice or trading/investment recommendations. It is his view that what investors and traders most need to succeed in the markets is to have the knowledge, experience and skill sets so they can create and maintain their own personal strategies, rather than copy any other person including his own.

Mentoring

Kirk's passion is to help students who want to improve their trading skills. He says, "The very best experience I have had in my career comes from mentoring other traders. There is nothing quite like knowing that you have helped another trader achieve some major lifetime financial goal (like paying for their children's college) because of something you did or said that was helpful." Kirk's fervor is rooted in his desire to give back for the help he received when he needed it. "I was fortunate that early in my career I had a mentor who took me under his wing and showed me everything he knew. I now do The Kirk Report in order to pass my experiences and skills to others so they can also benefit as I did from my own mentor."

When he initiated a mentorship program in 2009, he realized his long-term vision of helping others take their own trading strategies and skills to the next level. The rapid growth and success of his mentorship program has led to Kirk's reputation as an industry leader in advancing trader development. Kirk plans to continue to expand and develop his mentorship group and has expanded his devotion to the mentorship group after his retirement from full-time trading in 2014.

Investment Strategy

By far the most important part of trading successfully, according to Kirk, is the management of risk. "When a trade moves against me, I focus on losing as little as possible. A friend of mine made millions each year even though he was correct only some 40% of the time. Why? Because he knew how to manage risk." Kirk minimizes his risk by proper allocation, position sizing and consistent use of stop-loss orders. He has previously quoted Stanley Druckenmiller, "It's not whether you're right or wrong that matters but how much money you make when you're right and how much you lose when you're wrong.

Kirk described his strategy as a swing/position trader. In a January, 2013 interview with Traders On-line Magazine, he says he uses both technicals and fundamentals. "Technicals are used to determine entry, exit and evaluation or risk/reward potential, while fundamentals are used, through screening, to help identify high value prospects." He is a big proponent of stock screens (he calls himself a "self-confessed stock screen addict") as a means of identifying stocks that have minimum downside risk and overwhelming upside potential. He uses popular screens that have proved useful but then customizes them with his own innovations. He utilizes his own proprietary screening software to monitor for actionable trading setups and patiently waits for low risk, high reward entry points and will stay out of the market until he finds one.

In discussing the outlook for the market, Kirk's priority is always on the price action of the market itself, not what he or others think that price action should be. He says, "My goal is simply to make money, not to prove to others how smart I am." The biggest mistakes that traders make, he claims, are trading too frequently and too aggressively without proper risk management, i.e. without using stops and position sizing. Kirk is not a big user of "indicators". He says, "The best indicator is the price action of the stock itself and the patterns that develop from it, remembering to use a consistent stop loss system." Kirk tells traders to learn how to use their emotions, i.e. use fear to be aggressive and exuberance to be cautious. Kirk says his own Achilles heel is that he tends to be too risk averse.

Kirk is brutally honest with his readers about how extremely difficult it is to be a successful full-time trader. He says it takes a tremendous amount of time, hard work, determination, persistence, self-motivation, and skill. In addition, he says, traders must learn to control their emotions, they must enjoy research and statistics, they must have had prior success in "paper" trading and part-time trading, they must have strong family support and they must be willing to live frugally (early in their marriage, Charles and Rachel made a commitment to live below their means, to be debt free, to save and invest for their retirement). "You'll need initial trading capital, three years of savings to live on separate from your trading capital, and you must be debt-free. For every person who trades full time for a living, there are probably 20 or more that can't make it. As a profession, it's suitable for only a few."

Kirk feels strongly that over 90% of investors/traders, including his own subscribers, would be better off adopting passive strategies such as "lazy portfolios", which are not actively managed and relieve the investor of almost all decision-making (thus the term "passive" rather than "active"). Says Kirk, "The only thing the 90% plus have to learn is passive portfolio management, i.e. how to match the market's overall performance." Kirk has employed some passive vehicles in his own long-term, retirement portfolio, managed by his wife. However, the money in his long-term portfolio comes mostly from his very "active" short-term trading.

Performance

At this time, it is not possible to verify Mr. Kirk’s performance in the market. While it is believed by many of his followers that he has been successful, no independently audited returns or track record are available to verify that performance. When visitors to The Kirk Report request performance stats, they are informed that he is not a trading advisor or broker and does not provide investment advice. Therefore, no track record has been maintained to provide upon visitor request. During an interview with Barron’s magazine in 2006, Mr. Kirk reported his previous six years of trading results where each year showed he significantly outperformed the S&P 500.

Personal life

Charles Kirk was born (4/27/1971) and raised in Columbus, Ohio, the only child of Betty and Charles Kirk. His father, an executive for a shoe company and a strong positive influence, died from diabetes at 57. Charles married his college sweetheart, Rachel, who he calls "my most trusted advisor". They lived in Atlanta where Charles worked as a private investigator, and then in St. Paul, Minnesota where he graduated law school. They moved nearby to Hugo, Minnesota and Charles set up shop in his home to trade stocks full-time rather than practice law. The stock market was his passion. He says he read over 500 books on the market. He wanted to know everything. Encouraged by some early success trading part-time, Kirk hoped he could make a living and trade full-time doing what he loved to do. He felt he had an edge, namely his willingness to work harder than others. He was an extreme workaholic, averaging 80 hours a week with no day offs, trading stocks and writing a blog. The blog took time to grow but he had immediate success trading stocks. In 2008, the couple moved to a small college town, Cedar City in Utah because Rachel was offered a position as a Professor of Spanish at Southern Utah University. In 2014, Charles retired from full-time active trading and moved he and his wife to the island of Kauai, in the state of Hawaii. To the present day, he now devotes his time to mentoring and producing The Kirk Report while trading and investing on a part-time basis.

It was not too many years into Kirk's full-time trading life that certain traits emerged. He had a natural "feel" for trading stocks—over and above what can be learned from books. He was tenacious about constantly striving to improve both his skills and his web site, working tirelessly to do both, at the risk of his personal health. He put into practice what his father had taught him: "never accept mediocrity". To help his subscribers become the best traders possible, he exposed them to thinking and strategies different than his own. He conducted monthly Q&A sessions with the best known traders in the business. Instead of focusing on his own successes, Kirk exposed and praised his competition. He wanted his readers to know what worked for others.

The life of a trader and blogger is lonely and impersonal. Kirk compensates by mentoring. He not only enjoys the one-on-one contact but he also found that teaching mentorees is especially gratifying because, unlike some of his members, they were totally committed to the task of becoming better traders. As the years passed, Kirk carved out more and more time for mentoring. It seemed likely, that at some point, his love of mentoring would replace full-time trading and he retired from full-time active trading in and moved to Hawaii in 2014.

Kirk believes traders will increase their performance and extend their time on earth if they lead a balanced life i.e., they should have activities away from the trading desk. Kirk is an avid, near scratch golfer and tries to play twice a week. Playing since he was 16, he calls golf "life's best game". He quotes Bob Hope, "If you think golf is relaxing, you're not playing it right," and says the same can be said of trading. Kirk is an outdoor enthusiast and likes hiking, biking, body surfing, riding ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) and gardening. He is fond of watching movies, playing card games, and is an avid reader. Music is especially important. He says, "Encouraged by my parents, music has always been a huge part of my life. I often use music to elevate my energy levels so I can perform at my best." Kirk enjoys traveling with his wife. The Kirks were married on 7/2/1993; they have no children. Underlying all his activities is Kirk's desire to help others which he does, not only through his work, but also through volunteerism and charity. He is an active philanthropist.

Character

Ironically, unlike most people in a money business, Kirk does not trade to make money. He's never had to because he and his wife have lived below their means and saved. It's more about his competitive nature. Says Kirk, "For me, trading isn't about the money — it's about challenging myself daily to do the best I can do. The markets afford that opportunity daily and I love the challenge".

Motivating most all of Kirk's activities is a passion to help others and "to make the world a better place". In a 2009 interview in The Wall St. Cheat Sheet, he says, "I don't have an agenda or an axe to grind with anyone. My only interest is helping others succeed." His goal is to shorten the long learning curve for aspiring traders. He gives away his time and he gives away his money. He helps his subscribers via daily postings on his web site. He helps his mentorees by teaching them one-on-one, free of charge, including regularly scheduled retreats. He helps his community by doing volunteer work and he helps the poor via philanthropy and via future plans to give away his wealth.

Stock market author, newsletter publisher and broadcaster, Dick Davis, has known Charles Kirk since 2004. In his book, "The Dick Davis Dividend" Davis describes Kirk as "laid-back and self-effacing." He writes, "It's unusual for someone in the stock market world with that kind of talent to be low-key, modest and soft-spoken. The combination of genuine humility and high performance is rare on Wall Street. On his website, Kirk writes more about his losing trades and the lessons that can be learned from them, than his winners. He is most comfortable out of the spotlight. Rather than exposure, he seeks the anonymity that enables him to ply his trade without diversion." Other Kirk character traits are described by Jeff White, a friend and securities trader, who writes a trading blog and who worked with Kirk. He calls him "brutally honest, tenacious, self-confident, highly organized, disciplined, goal oriented, persistent, reflective, positive and fiercely independent with an uncanny ability to focus and visualize." Finally, Davis characterizes Kirk as "down-to-earth, living below his means, a loyal friend having zero fear of failure, a good son and a devoted husband, and a man with an unwavering commitment to constantly improve both his skills and his website."

Interviews

Press coverage