Anyone use/familiar-with Investools?

[Muse]

Hi Brian.

You mentioned Cameron May, and how he told people to expect big returns back in 2009. I have been in some of Cameron May's online coaching sessions over the last few years. He's not among my favorites. Have nothing against him, I guess, but he's not "on my radar." Probably my favorite current online coaching guy is Scott Thompson. He's very down to earth, sincere, energetic, honest to a fault! He speaks his mind unequivocally and evidently has no difficulty doing so. He's very candid about explaining how he learned his most important lessons by virtue of mistakes and he tells you about those completely seamlessly along with the other information he imparts. I don't have access now, but a few months ago he did the 6-7:30AM Saturday session, and I'd rarely miss it. Scott, and a few of the other coaches do succeed in inspiring participants to believe that it's possible to succeed using their systems, however he makes no promises. I have a lot of notes I've kept about Investools stuff, keep that info digitally.

Many of the coaches plug Tyler Thomas's ETF Trading Room (which used to be, maybe still is, at 9AM PT Thursday's). He candidly said he concentrates on ETF's because he wasn't good at trading stocks. His methodologies seem excellent, you find yourself thinking that you have to make a lot of money using them, however I put the question to him in an email what his returns are, how do they compare to the "general market," i.e. the $SPX (tradable as SPY). His reply was that the only way he beats the SPY is by employing options. I don't believe he does that in the trading room, so what's the use of attending the trading room?

Frankly, given my profound lack of success last year and this (when the markets have been very upbeat) have had me thinking that I should adopt the 10/40 exponential crossover method to get buy/sell signals trading the SPY and forget about everything else. I know that this defies the typical financial advice to diversify, but that doesn't deter me in this thinking. Right now, I'm just mostly sitting on my money, as it were, mostly in cash. I have a couple of relatively small trading accounts that I'm continuing to trade in the hopes that I suddenly "get it" but unless and until I do, I figure I'll either hold off until I get my buy signal on the 10/40 system (that could take years!), or possibly get on board with the private client investment wing of JPMorgan/Chase, who have been courting me. I expect a call from them some day soon, and figure I'll ask them how confident they are that they can get me a positive return until such time as my buy signal comes along (market recovering from a bear market). If JPMorgan can't tell me (convincingly) that my odds are decent that they can do better for me than my just socking my money away in a savings account, I'll just stay in cash for the time being.

 

[Brian Alburn]

Hi Muse:

Just remember that people who make their living in the financial markets NEVER have to demonstrate the ability to make money in the markets. At no point in their careers, do they need an organized, systematic, consistent, and disciplined approach for entering and exiting positions. The only qualifications they need are: the ability to sell, the ability to sell, and the ability to sell.

If anyone tells you they have high expectations for an investment, keep in mind: that is just their opinion. Moreover, it is the opinion of someone who probably does not have well-tested rules for entering and exiting the markets. Such a person has a 50% chance of making money for you (and a 100% probability of making money for themselves).

Bye for now,
Brian

 

[Muse]

Hi Muse:

Just remember that people who make their living in the financial markets NEVER have to demonstrate the ability to make money in the markets. At no point in their careers, do they need an organized, systematic, consistent, and disciplined approach for entering and exiting positions. The only qualifications they need are: the ability to sell, the ability to sell, and the ability to sell.

If anyone tells you they have high expectations for an investment, keep in mind: that is just their opinion. Moreover, it is the opinion of someone who probably does not have well-tested rules for entering and exiting the markets. Such a person has a 50% chance of making money for you (and a 100% probability of making money for themselves).

Bye for now,
Brian

Yeah, my cousin's husband, who is a pretty successful investor told me to think of them as having "their own axe to grind." Not the best metaphor or usage, but his meaning I figure is essentially what you said. That guy buys stocks with really good fundamentals, he subscribes to Valueline, does no technical analysis at all. He buys, takes a look at each of his holdings once in a while to make sure the company's fundamentals still fulfill his criteria, doesn't fret when the markets correct. He taught a small group of us around here a multi-session course of his devising on stock investing, did this around 3-4 years ago one summer when he visited his kids in this area. When I told him I'd been getting killed not because I was in the wrong stocks but because I was getting stopped out he just scoffed. The idea of having stops is anathema to his methodology.

 

[Muse]

Greetings Muse:

In an earlier message, you said: "The bottom line is not exactly to beat the S&P500 on a consistent basis so much as to overall beat it significantly." I agree, that is often the dream that is sold by companies that offer investor education. If I misstated "the pitch" in a previous note, please accept my apology.

You remind me of me when I was passionate about "the markets." Because you seem like a kindred spirit, I would like to send you (free of charge) copies of the following non-copyrighted WebEx files that were presented in 2005, 2006, and 2007 by our favorite investor-education company: Basic Stocks Trading Rooms, Basic Options Trading Rooms, Advanced Options Trading Rooms, Advanced Technical Analysis Trading Rooms, Active Investor Talks Stocks (presented by Mr. David Johnson), Three-Day Live Course, and others.

I even have several System Development Courses that were each presented over five or six sessions by Mr. Johnson. In my experience, most anything presented by Dave is of the highest quality. He brings a wealth of experience and integrity to the subjects he teaches.

If you are interested in the preceding files, feel free to send me a personal note and let me know what non-copyrighted material you want and where you want me to send it.

Per our private messaging, I'm looking forward to receiving the files. Thank you so much! :thumbsup:

I'm really glad I started this thread, I needed the perspective that I've gained by doing so, getting responses/viewpoints from people who aren't either Investools employees or current paid subscribers.

 

[Brian Alburn]

Dear MomentsofSanity:

As I have mentioned in this thread, I spent about 8,000 unpaid hours investigating the "former" corrupt business practices of Investools, Teach Me to Trade, and Better Trades. Based on that experience, the injunctions that were ultimately imposed by the SEC against the three aforesaid companies don't mean squat.

If you are interested in learning how investor-education companies can (and do) rip people off, read the following:

Based on my 8,000-hour investigation, I suspect that Investools reps continue to use deceptive sales tactics that create unrealistic expectations in the minds of consumers; otherwise, few people would buy the firm's courses. The only difference is today’s deception probably doesn’t quite violate securities laws.

For example, it is not unlawful for a company to say it offers "the best investor-education in the world." Other corporations make similar claims about their hamburgers and other products. The law considers such claims to be perfectly okay.

To illustrate how easy it is for investor-education companies to dupe investors, consider the following deceptive tactic used by Investools that, based on my investigation into the Firm's business practices, is legal:

In my experience, Investools sales rep claim that the firm’s 3-Green-Arrows System produces winning trades about 70% of the time. This is a true statement. You might ask: How can this be? Here's how:

After investors buy the Investools Stock Course, they learn that Investools defines a "winning trade" as any trade that doesn't lose money. Basic logic tells us that only three things can happen when we buy a stock: It's price can 1) go up, 2) go down, or 3) go sideways. Statistically speaking, its price goes up in value about 33.33% of the time; its price goes down in value roughly 33.33% of the time; and its price stays approximately the same an estimated 33.33% of the time.

Based on the preceding rough probabilities (and on the preceding definition of a "winning trade"), whenever we buy a stock, we are going to "lose money" or have a "non-winning trade" approximately 33.33% of the time. Therefore, the 3-Green-Arrows System produces winning trades (that is, trades that don't lose money) roughly 66.66% of the time, or no better than pure chance. If we round that percentage up, we get 70%.

That is a pretty sleazy and deceptive sales tactic. Don't you agree? After all, when most people hear that a system produces winning trades 70% of the time, those people will think they will make money 70% of the time by using that system. According to Turtle Trader founder Richard Dennis, most new traders think that the winning percentage is the most important part of a successful trading system.

Based on my 8,000-hour investigation into Investools' business tactics, the preceding sales maneuver is perfectly acceptable to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

To help you understand what you are up against with investor-education companies, here is an excerpt from an Investools intercompany email message that I received from a former Investools employee who helped me gather evidence against the firm:

I know for a fact that they [Investools] take a position of “don't tell the student how to really trade, so that we can tell them they need to buy another class.” We used to have company-wide meetings where they would stress this to us time and time again.

As for me, I choose to think that none of the firm's workers employ trading systems that produce significant profits in their overall portfolios. If they did make such returns, I don't think they would be teaching the firm's classes. Moreover, if they were making excellent returns, they certainly would not share their systems with the company's students.

I acquired the preceding opinion by doing a lot of research. One of my sources said: Any method [or trading/investing system] loses its value as more and more people use it. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine published the preceding statement in a March-2010 article titled “Our Man Goes Undercover and Tells All.” The author of the report said, “I couldn’t help but wonder why those who possess the magic formulas for successful trading would give away their secrets—even if they did earn $4,000 per customer. After all, if you can earn 80% per year, why would you run the risk of seeing the effectiveness of your strategy diminish as more and more people started using it?” The reporter went on to say that such reduced effectiveness is “a common occurrence in investing.”

The March-2010 Kiplinger report continued as follows: An October 2009 study by New Zealand’s Massey University revealed that of more than 5,000 strategies that employ technical analysis, none produced returns beyond what you would expect by chance.

Given the preceding facts, it is reasonable to conclude that, to make sales, Investools employees must create unrealistic expectations in the minds of consumers. Otherwise, very few reasonable people would purchase the firm's courses.

Ciao for now,
Brian

 

[Hugo Drax]

No one with an edge does seminars.

 

[Brian Alburn]

No one with an edge does seminars.

True, True, True.

 

[Muse]

No one with an edge does seminars.

My introduction to growth stock investing was at a presentation done by William J. O'Neil himself in the late 1990's in an auditorium setting at a hotel in my vicinity. O'Neil developed the CANSLIM system of trading growth stocks, wrote "How to Make Money in Stocks," and subsequent books, made his fortune in the stock market and founded Investor's Business Daily and it's online derivatives (online version, Market Smith), and an investment industry service that's used by large portfolio managers.

He came off as a crusader, genuinely wanting to show people that they can be extremely successful. It's not as easy as it seems, but some people have been extremely successful using O'Neil's system. You can find some books on it at Amazon, some written by people who have been extremely successful. O'Neil and one of his hugely successful disciples, David Ryan (winner of a number of investing competitions), were interviewed in the Market Wizards books.

 

[Brian Alburn]

Dear Reader:

I have hundreds of non-copyrighted Investools WebEx classes. These presentations took place in 2007, 2008, and 2009. Most of the material is relevant today, but some of the company's tools have likely changed since the classes were originally broadcast.

I am looking for someone who wants free copies of these courses. In return, I want this person to post the courses so that anyone can download them, free of charge, via the Internet.

If anyone is interested in my proposition, let me know. I estimate that investors paid at least $30,000 for the non-copyrighted Investools classes I want to give away.

Here is a summary of the material I'd like to give you: 4-Day Live courses for which people paid $7,000; two investor psychology classes for which investors paid $1,000; various tutorials (including Dave Johnson's Trade Entry and Exit Techniques); many complete 3-Day Live classes that were part of the "$20,000" PhD; complete trading rooms for all subjects covered in the Associates, Masters, and PhD curriculum: basic stocks, basic options, advanced options, advanced technical analysis, currency trading, and so on.

The reason for my offer is this: I want people to have access to the classes... especially if they are considering paying thousands of dollars for investor education. The WebEx classes contain no copyright notice, so they are in the public domain. It seems selfish for me to be the only one on the planet that has access to this material.

Bye for now,
Brian Alburn

 

[tr3ndz]

Brian I can show you how to upload your videos.... that said, I have mixed feeling towards Investools.

I worked in an IT department for 10yrs and saved some cash. While in between contracts, I decided to trade from home since I had access to a Bloomberg Terminal which included BU Bloomberg University, all the charts, indexes and real time pricing for subscribed indexes.

My broker at Ameritrade has been very helpful to date. I never felt any pressure to buy product, maybe once at the beginning, but I quickly let him know I had a Bloomberg Terminal and wasnt interested in any product the establishment was selling. Over a period of time of trading he even reduced my transaction charges of 9.99 to 6.99 for stocks trading and 5.99+ 50c for option contracts. He got me a 1 month membership for Investools.

OK, a couple of times, it did seem a little odd that whenever the market was down, and I was holding larger negative positions, I would get a call from my broker to see how I was doing. He'd look over my accounts and suggest tuition at Investools to solidify my strategies, but it could just be coincidence. One time he gave me free 50 trades. He conferenced in a sales rep of Investools. She was extremely polite, and asked what my long term goals were, then suggested I take classes either a 2 day stock trading class, or a 2 day options strategy class for $1549 but if I signed in next 2 weeks, she would try and get me $600 off so it would $949. She also mentioned that I might want to back the class with a 4 month mentoring that could either start immediately or anytime after the class in case I had any questions, for an additional $550. There was never any pressure at all to sign up. I told her Id think about it. Meanwhile I watched David Settle and Brandon videos daily. The charting was at times a little much, because I wasnt using Think or Swim, and wasnt familiar with the option strategy names like "iron condor" , "vertical bull spread" etc. The more I watched, the more fascinated I became. Brandon called market direction a couple of time. This was around the time of Greece crisis and China possible flooring out, summer 2015. At this same time I was long and holding a negative position, and getting nervous. I reached out to Investools and expressed my concerns with my current trading strategies. The rep immediately suggested again I consider the 2 day Option strategy course with 4 month mentor with complete access to the toolbox. She offered me 7 days full refund and told me to poke around the site, and if in the 7 days I was not satisfied she would give me refund. Nothing to lose I handed my Amex and a contract was drafted.

It was only till I started researching reviews and came across this thread, I started having 2nd thoughts. Today Monday I cancelled and told her i needed more time. She was supercool about it, no questions asked eg why I was cancelling, and offered the full refund. She told me if I change my mind I should reach out to her, as she will not further approach me.

So here I am, I cancelled my subscription to Investools, no money spent so far, and now to decide what to do next. The truth is, I need some guidance if I stay in this line of work, and I need some knowledge. Reading a book seems to put me to sleep. What to do next?

Im sitting on cash, till i build confidence again, maybe Ill have to suck it up and read books, watch free videos, or return the workforce for a new job.

Time will tell what happens next. Just wanted to share my experience with Investools. Im on the fence, but leaning more positive than negative at this point.

 

[Brian Alburn]

Hi tr3ndz:

Thank you for your offer to show me how to upload my videos. I have plenty of non-copyrighted Investools material that I accumulated from 2005 through 2008. The fact is, the material was relatively useless back then, and it will most certainly be useless now.

I think you are wise to have mixed feelings about Investools (or any other investor-education company). I spent roughly 4,000 hours studying the Investools PhD and Active Investor Courses.

My take-away from that experience is this: The only way investor-education companies can make sales is to use deceptive sales tactics. I base that opinion on the 2,000 additional hours I spent writing a document that I "The Investools Fraud: How the Company Swindled Investors Out of $475 Million." This investigation also involved two more companies that were accused of similar shady dealings: Teach Me to Trade and Better Trades. You can read about all these companies on the SEC's website.

Before you invest a dime in any investor-education courses, or books or tapes, I suggest you read "Brokerage Fraud: What Wall Street Doesn't Want You to Know" by Tracy Pride Stoneman and Douglas J. Schulz.

I also think you will benefit from reading "The Way of the Turtle" by Curtis M. Faith. Mr. Faith explains how he suffered a 70% draw-down in his account at one point in his Turtle-Trading career. Nonetheless, he continued to trade the Turtle system (by using someone else's money) and eventually made millions in the market. He explains that such losses, including system death, are what cause most traders to end up losers in the market. He expounds of various other factors that make trading a very unlikely path to riches (or even financial stability).

I wish you well in whatever you decide to do. But like I've said before in this thread, "After talking with hundreds of victims of the Investools debacle that was "settled" by the SEC around December 10, 2009, I did not meet a single Investools student who claimed to be able to beat the S&P 500 Index on a consistent basis. This is not surprising because, based on my research, in any given year, 80% of all professional money managers do not outperform that index.

Bye for now,
Brian

 

[pete6032]

Financial advisors hate him! This man's one weird trick will teach you how to beat the market time and time again. Click here to see the secret investing strategy that financial advisors are holding back!

 

[tr3ndz]

Brian thanks for replying so fast. I will def research your references. Thanks so much.
Before my temp userId expired I was able to look thru all the video on the Investools website and find every single video on youTube.

The website separates them out in the following category in this order:

1 Stck Inv
2. Fund Anlysis
3. Tech Anlysis
4. Opt strategy
5. Adv Opt Strats
6. Forex
7. Fut. Trad
8. Port Mngment
9. Income Invsting.

All the videos are right here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Investools/playlists

Thanks very much for starting this thread.
Best

 

[TheGardener]

I'll be upfront that I didn't read the responses due to the length of them. And I know nothing about Investools, other than their have been countless number of these outfits that have come and gone since the Web opened up day trading and online brokerage firms. Making a living off of day trading is a losing proposition, let alone getting rich.

The reference you didn't understand from OverVolt to the red and green signals may have to do with another firm that developed and sold software and seminars based on the software giving the person red and green signals to indicate buying and selling. Kind of not having to understand charts and other quantitative signals to buy and sell.

I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article some dozen years back about a firm that provided training and workstations to people. Of roughly 100 people, only one person was making money, and he wasn't getting rich.

Consider this if you bought SPY 3 years ago, you'd have a total return of 18% per year, which is unsustainable going forward. Trading in and out by your own comments would have earned you far less. Then there are the commissions. Say the commission is $7. If you are in and out 5 times a day, that is 10 trades. Your commission cost is $70. If you trade 200 days a year, you need to make $14,000 just to breakeven, before accounting for any gains. So assuming you have a speculation pool of $100,000, your cost is 14%. Even you were to gain 12% for the year, you still be in negative territory. Since we are backdating, which means nothing going forward, that same $100,000 invested 3 years ago would be worth $164,303 minus $7 for the broker. Professional traders, who trade options, can have 20 bad or breakeven years and have one super year where they make big money. How many bad years can you afford? Daytrading is a suckers game. Selling seminars and software is a way to make money. These people can't make money using their own techniques and advice.

 

[cabri]

I'll be upfront that I didn't read the responses due to the length of them. And I know nothing about Investools, other than their have been countless number of these outfits that have come and gone since the Web opened up day trading and online brokerage firms. Making a living off of day trading is a losing proposition, let alone getting rich.

The reference you didn't understand from OverVolt to the red and green signals may have to do with another firm that developed and sold software and seminars based on the software giving the person red and green signals to indicate buying and selling. Kind of not having to understand charts and other quantitative signals to buy and sell.

I remember reading a Wall Street Journal article some dozen years back about a firm that provided training and workstations to people. Of roughly 100 people, only one person was making money, and he wasn't getting rich.

Consider this if you bought SPY 3 years ago, you'd have a total return of 18% per year, which is unsustainable going forward. Trading in and out by your own comments would have earned you far less. Then there are the commissions. Say the commission is $7. If you are in and out 5 times a day, that is 10 trades. Your commission cost is $70. If you trade 200 days a year, you need to make $14,000 just to breakeven, before accounting for any gains. So assuming you have a speculation pool of $100,000, your cost is 14%. Even you were to gain 12% for the year, you still be in negative territory. Since we are backdating, which means nothing going forward, that same $100,000 invested 3 years ago would be worth $164,303 minus $7 for the broker. Professional traders, who trade options, can have 20 bad or breakeven years and have one super year where they make big money. How many bad years can you afford? Daytrading is a suckers game. Selling seminars and software is a way to make money. These people can't make money using their own techniques and advice.

There was a saying 40 years ago that would seem to apply.

Those that can - DO
Those that can't -TEACH

 

[Brian Alburn]

Dear Readers:

I am the author of a 102-page document called, "Investools Scam: How the Company Swindled its Customers Out of $475 Million." I also wrote a 48-page follow-up report called, “Proof Investools DVDs Contain the Same Fraudulent Messages Used by Employees.” About three or four years ago, I gave these reports to Sean McKessy of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SED) as part of the SEC’s Whistleblower Program.

If you would like a copy of the aforementioned reports, you can contact me privately, and I will send you PDF versions to a location of your choosing. If you want Microsoft Word versions, which contain links to hundreds of audio recordings that substantiate all of my assertions, I would be happy to mail you DVDs on which I will burn the reports and their accompanying sound (and other) files (including hand-written money-back guarantees).

As mentioned earlier in this note, I wrote the aforesaid reports because, many years ago, I enrolled in the SEC's Whistleblower Program. I naively thought that, if I could prove Investools committed a $475 million swindle, the SEC would impose a large fine of which I would receive 10%.

After I spent years assembling evidence (which included thousands of sound files, recorded directly from Investools workshops), I found that our current laws protect companies that break securities laws (as long as those companies are willing to pay a relatively small fine). The fact is: The SEC is limited to a maximum of $150,000 per violation against individuals who break a securities law and $725,000 against institutions. This is true regardless of investor or customer losses.

At the end of the day, I think you will agree the evidence shows that Investools committed a crime of nationwide proportions. Nonetheless, the SEC would only impose a $3 million penalty against the company. This is true even though the evidence suggests that Investools made $475 million, over a four-year period, by breaking securities laws as an integral part of its sales presentations to hundreds of thousands of investors in various states across the nation. You can read the SEC's pared-down version of the case at http://sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2009/lr21331.htm

Even if Investools (or similar companies) no longer engage in all of the practices outlined in my reports, I think any consumer can benefit from reading my tomes. They are very well researched, if I do say so myself.

Best Wishes,
Brian

 

[Muse]

Buy when green sell when red.

The red and green signals aren't buy/sell signals. It's way more complicated than that. We're talking about Investools' "trend trading" strategy with these signals and that's just one of quite a few of their strategies. In any case, their "trend trading strategy" only works in certain market conditions, and they readily admit that. And it's not guaranteed, you will lose sometimes using that strategy. The idea is to overall make significant money. Yes, it's harder than it looks.

John Bogle said "the stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing." I think this statement (paraphrased here a bit, possibly), is worth contemplating a considerable amount. The biggest distraction, I'd think, would be day trading. Personally, I have done a bit of that but I don't believe in it and do believe the statement I read online from a guy who was a huge day trader that he'd never met one who hadn't gone broke at least twice!

A guy I know handed me a print out of what you see at this page, being Achieving Greater Long-Term Wealth Through Index Funds by Charles Rotblut, CFA and John C. Bogle. He told me to read this 5 times!

 

[Muse]

Meanwhile I watched David Settle and Brandon videos daily.

I am no longer subscribed to any Investools program or system, my subscriptions ran out a few months ago. However, anyone can access the daily Market Forecast Video produced usually by David Settle, occasionally by Brandon Van Zee and very occasionally by Blake Young, IIRC. It posts usually after 4PM Pacific Time. I have been watching it frequently, a few times a week the last week or so. They post this Monday - Friday on trading days. For instance, here is yesterday's video (I don't think today's has posted yet):

July 13 Market Forecast video done by David Settle of Investools, at Youtube

Edit: I do still use Think or Swim, the markets' charting and trading tool freely available to people who have accounts at TDAmeritrade, where I have two trading acounts, one "margin," the other for my Roth IRA. Think or Swim incorporates a lot of stuff that Investools does, for instance it has the red/green arrow thing going on with some of their studies (which I think number well over 100). It also has Investools' proprietary chart indicator, the Market Forecast indicators, which David Settle (and the other coaches who do the Market Forecast) riff off of every single time they do the video. You get a feel for what those indicators are about after watching a number of the videos. They will not tell you how those indicators are calculated, what the algorithms are. In fact, the coaches tell you that they don't know themselves! Just how true that is, I can't say. Obviously, somebody knows.

 

[Muse]

There was a saying 40 years ago that would seem to apply.

Those that can - DO
Those that can't -TEACH

I believe they claim that their instructors are able to make profits trading, presumably at least some of them use their techniques. The instructors never reveal what they might be doing in terms of their own investments, it's forbidden. By and large their instructors did not strike me as shady people. This is basically from attending live online coaching sessions, where you hear the instructor, see what he's doing on screen, and the attendees engage in chat, configurable to show to everyone else (which is what most people do). There are scheduled online coaching sessions for each of around 8 or so different programs. You have to be subscribed to a program to gain access, must have current paid-up Level 2 support, and must have paid for the program up front, which gives you access to the online training courses as long as you have Level 2 support (which I no longer have). I believe that each course will run you in the neighborhood of $2000 to subscribe. Level 2 support is on a yearly basis, something like $800. They sugar coat things by throwing in a few free months, is my experience, plus a few free months of Level 3 (one on one coaching via telephone). They want to get you hooked on Level 3. I don't remember what that costs, but I was never comfortable with it and never subscribed to it. To get all their courses would cost you over 20k, I'm pretty sure. Then you'd need to subscribe to at least Level 1 to keep access to your online courses and the entire Investools site.

 

[tr3ndz]

Again many thanks to Brian and Muse, and other contributors for recent comments. Im definitely not signing up. You saved me Time + Money.

I do find it very frustrating when I watch the daily videos that they never specify any trades with specific entry, exit points with profit collected by the techniques they apply and teach. Never anything. Anyone can analyze a chart and speculate after the fact.

Anyway I did some digging around and found 3 DVDs sets on Usenet for download free:

Just for knowledge in-case anyone wants to watch and learn:

Investools Stock Trading "PHD" videos incl Live presentations, pdf course manuals and syllabus
https://www.investools.com/content/courseSyllabi/Brochure_PHD_Online.pdf $299-$1549

Investools Basic Option Trading
https://www.investools.com/content/courseSyllabi/Brochure_BasicOptions.pdf $1549

Investools Advanced Option Trading
https://www.investools.com/content/newcurriculum/CurriculumOverview.pdf $2100

PM me, I can explain how to get them free.

 

[Brian Alburn]

Dear Muse:

Without question, Investools can truthfully claim that some of its instructors make profits by trading. It is also true to say that “All Investools instructors that trade the markets make profits by trading.”

Please do not be fooled by such "truth in advertising." Here is what I mean: If you place 999 trades, by pure chance you can reasonably expect to make money on about 333 of those trades; lose money on roughly 333 trades; and break even on approximately 333 trades.

Now, if you made profits on 333 trades (or whatever number is true for you), you could truthfully tell people that you make profits by trading. You may not make net profits, but you make profits. That’s why, based on my thousands of hours of research into how to legally scam and swindle people, it is perfectly legal to say that all Investools instructors who trade the markets make profits by trading.

Here is one of my favorite deceptions that the company used, from mid-2004 through mid-2008, to swindle about 76,000 investors out of $475 million:

At workshops presented to hundreds of thousands of investors across the United States, Investools' salespeople claimed that The Investools Green-Arrow Method is a proven system that produces winning trades about 70% of the time. After roughly 76,000 investors paid an average of $6,100 to learn the system, the company revealed that a winning trade is simply defined as: Any trade that doesn’t lose money (that is, a break-even or profitable trade).

Do you see the beauty of the aforementioned scam? The sales pitch (namely, The Investools Green-Arrow Method is a proven system that produces winning trades about 70% of the time) is true. After all, by pure chance, you can expect to make money on 1/3 of your trades; lose money on 1/3; and break even on 1/3. Therefore, if you make money or break even roughly 2/3 of the time, that is a 66.66% winning percentage. If you round that percentage up, that’s 70%.

Clearly, it is true that The Investools Green-Arrow Method is a proven system that produces winning trades about 70% of the time. Of course, when you know the definition of "winning trades," the 70% winning percentage is no better than pure chance... but such a disclosure would not make sales.

Please do not be fooled by slick salesmanship. Keep in mind the prudent advice: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Ciao for now,
Brian

 

[Brian Alburn]

Dear Readers:

If you are thinking about trading the markets, I thought you might like to read an excerpt from the March 2010 issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine:

An October 2009 study by New Zealand’s Massey University revealed that of more than 5,000 strategies that employ technical analysis, none produced returns beyond what you would expect by chance.

According to former SEC chairperson Arthur Levitt, such market timing rarely works and/or is similar to gambling. I spent two years in the Investools PhD and a couple more years studying and applying the Firm's advanced teachings. I have no reason to refute the findings of the Massey University study or the statements made by Levitt.

Best Wishes,
Brian

 

[pcsailor]

Again many thanks to Brian and Muse, and other contributors for recent comments. Im definitely not signing up. You saved me Time + Money.

I do find it very frustrating when I watch the daily videos that they never specify any trades with specific entry, exit points with profit collected by the techniques they apply and teach. Never anything. Anyone can analyze a chart and speculate after the fact.

Anyway I did some digging around and found 3 DVDs sets on Usenet for download free:

Just for knowledge in-case anyone wants to watch and learn:

Investools Stock Trading "PHD" videos incl Live presentations, pdf course manuals and syllabus
https://www.investools.com/content/courseSyllabi/Brochure_PHD_Online.pdf $299-$1549

Investools Basic Option Trading
https://www.investools.com/content/courseSyllabi/Brochure_BasicOptions.pdf $1549

Investools Advanced Option Trading
https://www.investools.com/content/newcurriculum/CurriculumOverview.pdf $2100

PM me, I can explain how to get them free.

Hi Tr3ndz,
I would like to contact you but I do not have 25 posts so I can not PM you. Is there another way we can talk?
Phil

 

[Muse]

Concerning the fruits (or detritus) of technical analysis, in post #26 in this thread I briefly referred to my intention to implement a 10/40 week (50/200 day) crossover buy/sell strategy trading the SPY ETF based on the S&P500 index. There had not been a buy or sell signal using this method since Dec. 2011 until the middle of September of 2015. At that point there was a sell signal. Not having bought shares of the SPY using this strategy, I of course could not act on the sell signal. However there was a buy signal approximately the middle of November 2015.

When I looked at the chart at that time, however, I didn't like what I saw. The SPY (which is almost the same as $SPX) was approaching a level of pretty strong resistance, so I did not buy shares. Alas, the index reversed course and another sell signal is forming right now and unless the index shoots way up from today's close by Friday (two more trading sessions) there will be a definite SELL signal, being the end of the three week confirmation after the crossover. I did a quick and dirty approximation of how much of my wager on the SPY I would have lost if I'd followed the Buy/Sell signal (assuming we close Friday were we are today, Wednesday), I would have lost about 15%!!! My backtesting of this strategy since the SPY came into existence ~1992 produced a ~12% annual return verses ~10% just buying and holding from 1992 until the point of my analysis (July 2014 IIRC). But the last buy/sell, as I just illustrated, was something of a catastrophe in the short term.

I sit in cash right now! I may trade the 10/40 crossover at some point but right now I'm thinking I'll probably put my money in Vanguard index funds, some mix that makes sense for my situation.

I am thinking of contacting Investools and negotiating to get free access to their Basic Options course in exchange for committing $100,000 to my TDAmeritrade margin account for one year. Hopefully, I can negotiate a year in that account and do OK, meantime get a grip on options on some level. I also have a good book.