FAQs

No — Defender is not based on predictions or guesses. It doesn’t try to “call tops” or anticipate short-term swings. Instead, it adapts systematically to what the market is actually doing, in real time, based on lessons learned from over 100 years of data.

• Proven across cycles: 36+ years of historical validation, across bull, bear, and sideways markets.

• Stronger results, lower risk: Average annual outperformance of +500bps vs. buy-and-hold, with significantly reduced drawdowns.

• Reliable adaptation: Fully invested when markets are healthy, defensive when liquidity dries up.

• Key insight: Market timing fails because it relies on guesswork. Defender succeeds by systematically monitoring real-time market data—breadth, liquidity, and participation—to adapt allocations and manage risk without predictions.

At the core of Defender is market breadth analysis — measuring how widely liquidity is flowing across stocks, not just whether prices (as reflected in major price indexes) are rising.

• Early warning: Narrow participation (few stocks driving gains) signals deteriorating liquidity — the “musical chairs” effect.
• Small-caps matter: Marginal stocks weaken first, which breadth tools like the NYSE A/D line capture before indexes show stress.
• Volatility link: Weak breadth often leads to increased volatility, driving the VIX higher, even before prices fall.
• Positive signals too: When liquidity is strong and momentum is turning, breadth confirms broad participation, marking sustainable rallies early.
• Bottom line: Breadth reveals both when liquidity is drying up (risk ahead) and when it’s abundant (growth opportunities).

• 55% higher annualized returns with 30% less volatility since 1988
• $1M → $88.8M with Defender vs. $19.3M buy-and-hold
• Maximum drawdown: -22.49% vs. -56.78%
• 2025 max drawdown: -8.71% vs. -18.91%
• Key Point: Defender enhances long-term wealth creation by reducing drawdowns and avoiding behavioral mistakes.

While Defender’s primary strength is protecting portfolios during major drawdowns, it’s equally designed to enhance returns in healthy bull markets.

• Tactical Buying overlay: In Regime 3 (sustained uptrends), Defender systematically adds exposure during meaningful market pullbacks, using a four-tranche approach. Positions are scaled in during weakness and reduced as markets recover.

• Frequency & duration: Since 1988, Tactical Buys have occurred just over two times per year on average, with a median holding period of ~48 days — short, targeted opportunities.

• Performance impact: Adding Tactical Buys lifted Defender’s CAGR from 13.27% to 14.71%, improved its Sharpe Ratio from 0.78 to 0.86, and raised upside capture to 91% while keeping downside capture low (~52%).

Key takeaway: Defender isn’t just downside protection — it’s a cycle-aware overlay that strengthens returns in bull markets and preserves capital in bear markets.

Defender has an exceptional track record:

• Only two false sell signals in 36 years — both quickly reversed
• 78% chance of progressing to a second sell after the first signal
• Median bear market drawdown: -8.53% vs. -19.92% for buy-and-hold
• Average bear market drawdown: -8.01% vs. -28.65% for buy-and-hold
• Even when early, signals provide valuable protection — small opportunity costs versus catastrophic drawdowns.

To keep results simple, transparent, and conservative, we used the following criteria:

• Trade execution: Next day’s closing price after signal
• Dividends: Excluded (live returns would likely be higher)
• Cash returns: Modeled at 0% (conservative; advisors may allocate to money markets, T-bills, other asset classes, etc.)
• Transaction costs: Excluded; low turnover makes them negligible.

This ensures the backtest reflects the raw effectiveness of the process without embellishment.

That’s a fair concern — and why we took the extra step of tracking results in real-time. Live performance began on January 1, 2024, in an account registered in the company’s name. Every monthly report includes a current snapshot of that account, providing full accountability and a transparent record of how the Program is performing in live markets.

Yes — that’s a common misconception. Defender is optimized for U.S. equity exposure, but its signals are highly adaptable:

• Individual stock positions (especially growth/momentum strategies)
• Sector ETFs and industry exposures
• International equity allocations (with correlation analysis)
• Alternatives with equity-like characteristics.
• Proven results: Applied to the Nasdaq Composite, Defender delivered a 22.32% CAGR vs. 13.88% for buy-and-hold from 1988-2024. The key is applying Defender where downside protection provides the most value — in volatile, growth-oriented equity exposures.

Wealth managers leverage Defender in several ways to enhance client outcomes:

• Tax-advantaged accounts: Maximize tactical positioning without triggering taxable events
• Retirement or near-retirement clients: Protect against sequence-of-returns risk in an aging bull market
• High-expectation clients: Demonstrate clear value to clients questioning advisory fees
• Growth-focused portfolios: Reduce downside exposure while keeping upside potential
• Volatile allocations: Apply to sector ETFs, individual stocks, or momentum strategies where protection creates maximum value,
• Real results: Advisors report stronger client retention, fewer panic calls during volatility, and easier fee justification conversations.

Subscribers receive clear, actionable signals indicating recommended equity allocation levels (100%, 66%, 33%, or 0%). Signal reports are delivered immediately when triggered, while monthly market updates are provided regardless of allocation changes. All reports are distributed via email and available anytime through ViewRight.ai.

• Designed for flexibility: Signals apply specifically to the equity sleeve of a portfolio and any allocations correlated with U.S. equities. Advisors maintain full control over implementation.
• Low turnover: Allocation shifts average only 1-2 times per year, ensuring minimal disruption.
• Advisor Benefit: Your process becomes more systematic and defensible, backed by institutional-grade risk management that clients can easily understand and trust.

On average, just 1-2 times per year. This makes Defender:

• Low turnover
• Tax-efficient
• Easy to implement without disrupting existing portfolios

Defender is a signal overlay, not a model portfolio or TAMP. Advisors remain in control.

• Signals delivered only when triggered (email + ViewRight.ai)
• Act on signals with market-on-close orders the following trading day
• Monthly reports plus signal alerts — what you need to know, when you need to know it.
• Signal clarity: Unlike most research firms that flood you with daily reports to justify their existence, we send actionable intelligence only when markets demand it. No noise, no filler — just the critical information that drives portfolio decisions.
• Designed for real-world use by busy advisors — no high-frequency execution, no trading desk required.

Defender signals only apply to equities. Advisors choose where to allocate reduced exposure — cash, money markets, treasuries, or other defensive assets.

• History: Fully defensive (0%) only 15% of backtest period, averaging 510 days per occurrence; fully invested (100%) 75% of the time, and averaged 941 days
• Opportunity: Many advisors generate a 2–4% yield during defensive phases
• Perspective: Defensive periods preserve financial and emotional capital, positioning clients for the next growth cycle with greater compounding.
• Clients don’t see “missed opportunity” — they see confidence, prudence, and protection.

Yes. The greatest threat to client wealth is behavioral mistakes during volatility.

• Fewer panicked calls in downturns
• Clients trust the process because it’s systematic, not emotional
• Stronger relationships → higher retention + more referrals.
• Seatbelt analogy for clients: “We don’t wear a seatbelt because we expect to crash, but because accidents happen. Defender is that seatbelt for your portfolio.”

We don’t offer free trial accounts. Our research is published monthly and only when new signals are released, so access without context or timing can be misleading. It’s designed to support a broader advisory process, and without that framework, it’s easy to miss how advisors actually apply it with clients.

Additionally, our platform is a streamlined delivery mechanism for reports and a repository of historical research — not a complex system that requires training or frequent use. The point of Defender is to provide clear answers — not more data to analyze, as is common with other services.

That said, we’re happy to provide sample reports. These are most useful after a brief conversation, where we walk you through the framework behind the reports and show how advisors integrate them into portfolio management. This way, you’ll gain more than just a glimpse of the output — you’ll understand how it supports real-world decision-making.

• Bear market ROI example: During the 2022 drawdown, Defender limited the decline to about –5% vs. –19% for the S&P 500. On a $100M book, that difference equates to roughly $14.3M in client assets preserved. For a typical advisory fee of 1% AUM, that’s about $143,300 in retained annual revenue — directly attributable to avoiding deeper losses. Compared to a $7,200 annual subscription, that’s a 20x+ return on investment in real, recurring revenue.

  Key takeaway: Protecting clients from steep drawdowns isn’t just about client experience and retention — it has a measurable, outsized financial impact on the advisor’s practice.

• Client retention: Avoiding even one lost client pays for the subscription many times over
• Differentiation: Most advisors offer passive hope — Defender offers active protection.
• It’s not a cost. It’s the most affordable portfolio insurance on the market.

Yes — compliance teams generally prefer Defender because it’s systematic.

• Transparent, rules-based, and historically validated
• Advisors retain complete discretion over client portfolios
• Provides a clear audit trail and fiduciary justification

No — small and mid-sized practices often benefit most.

• Institutional-grade risk management without institutional cost
• Quarterly billing flexibility
• Works at any scale ($20M or $10B+ AUM).
• Many sub-$100M firms report Defender as their most valuable competitive advantage.

Yes — family offices, hedge funds, and multi-asset managers use Defender for:

• Timing of hedges
  Always-on hedging (via puts, collars, or structured products) typically costs 1–3% per year in calm markets — and much more during stressed periods when protection is needed most. Defender provides a systematic, data-driven overlay that adjusts exposure proactively based on objective market signals, rather than constantly paying for insurance. This makes it a more cost-effective and efficient hedging approach that doesn’t erode returns in strong markets, yet still provides robust downside protection when conditions deteriorate.

• Tactical overlays
  Many allocators look for ways to tactically tilt exposure without overhauling their entire portfolio construction. Defender can be layered directly onto existing long-only portfolios as a low-turnover tactical overlay, helping managers capture early uptrends while scaling back risk when markets weaken — without relying on stock-picking or wholesale portfolio changes.

• Equity risk management
  For managers overseeing broad equity exposures, the challenge is reducing drawdowns without giving up upside. Defender acts as a dynamic risk management system, shifting exposure across four levels of equity allocation depending on the health of the market. This provides transparent, rules-based downside protection while keeping portfolios aligned with client objectives.

• Long-only or long/short implementation
  Defender’s adaptive process works whether paired with long-only mandates (as a drawdown buffer) or in long/short structures (to guide net exposure). In both cases, the framework offers an objective discipline for adjusting risk, minimizing emotional decision-making, and helping managers stay consistent across market cycles.

• Transparent downside protection
  Unlike opaque hedging structures or discretionary calls, Defender’s approach is fully transparent and rules-driven. Managers and clients alike can understand when and why exposure shifts are happening, which helps deepen trust while delivering measurable protection against severe drawdowns.

Yes — Defender is fully eligible under Section 28(e) and has already been approved with Goldman Sachs and Virtu Financial. We can assist with approval at other custodians or platforms as needed. For additional CSA-related questions, email service@viewrightadvisors.com.