LA JOLLA, Calif., Nov. 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Richard Lion Russell, 91, of La Jolla, California, passed away on November 21, 2015 from natural causes at his home, surrounded by his family. Russell was founder and publisher of Dow Theory Letters. To his last day he continued to write his daily opinions and analyses on the stock market. He never skipped his scheduled letter, and after moving to a digital format in 1991, he began writing every market day. His analysis was based on the Dow Theory, which he discovered in the stacks of the NY Public Library in 1958. Russell's Dow Theory Letters has been the oldest service continuously written by one person in the financial advisory business.
Russell gained wide recognition via a series of over 30 Dow Theory and technical articles that he wrote for Barron's during the late 1950s through the 1990s. Through Barron's and via word of mouth, he gained a wide international following. Russell was the first (in 1960) to recommend gold stocks. He called the top of the 1949-66 bull market. And almost to the day he called the bottom of the great 1972-74 bear market, and the beginning of the great bull market which started in December 1974. He was the first of the original "gold bugs" of the 1960s. It could be said that gold was Richard's armor, his protection against the world, and he always recommended that his subscribers have a solid position in the metal.
Russell has been quoted in such publications as Bloomberg Magazine, Barron's, Time, Newsweek, Money, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Reuters and others. His subscribers hail from all 50 states and countries all over the world. In his 57 years of writing, he has absorbed several other advisory services, including Julian Snyder's International Moneyline, and the Zweig Forecast. From Peter Brimelow in MarketWatch (8/6/07): "According to the Hulbert Financial Digest, Russell is tied for top place as a market timer on a risk-adjusted basis since 1980."
A native New Yorker, born in 1924, Russell has lived through depressions and booms, through war and peace. He was educated at Rutgers and received his BA at New York University. He flew as a combat bombardier on B-25 Mitchell Bombers with the 12th Air Force during World War II. His children say that the stock market was a living, breathing member of the family. It kept him obsessed and was his pulse, his reason for living. Russell and his family moved to San Diego in 1961 and in 1967 to La Jolla. He is survived by five children: Daria Russell Doering, Nicole Russell, Betsy Russell, Ryan Russell and Lauren Bedford Russell; five grandchildren: Nicholas Doering, Jake Doering, Nina Doering, Duke Van Patten, and Vincent Van Patten, Jr. Also three ex-wives, Constance Lerner Russell, Paula Bedford Hauer, and Faye Hunter. His sister Kate Russell Bobker of Greenwich, Ct. survives him as well.
Richard was a perpetual collector; he loved cacti as they were the only things that would grow year round in his New York home. They were one of the reasons he came to Southern California. He loved dogs, ranging from English Mastiffs to Standard French poodles. His never-ending quest for self-improvement and psychological understanding continued to his dying day.
Dow Theory Letters will continue to be written and published by Richard Russell's team of analysts at www.dowtheoryletters.com. Members of the press may contact Dow Theory Letters at [email protected]
Please post tributes or reminisces on Richard's memorial website at Richard-Lion-Russell.forevermissed.com
In lieu of flowers, Richard would ask that donations be made to the Autism Society (autism-society.org) and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (nationalmssociety.org).
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SOURCE Dow Theory Letters
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