Advisory Services?

Quote from Cache Landing:

Speaking from experience (quite some time ago). I know what it's like to trade strategies that allow you to double your money every week. We all know that it's possible with options. I even had a stretch of like 6 months that I had consistent tremendous gains. I was fairly new to options and I loved the tremendous leverage. I was wreckless because I had gathered together a couple thousand dollars and I was with a crappy broker that only allowed long calls/puts. I told myself that I was only 20 years old and if I lost all the money it wouldn't be a huge problem.

Never at any other time during my "trading career" have I considered myself to be gambling, but at that time I was. One morning I watched as the underlying of one of my positions gapped up and turned my $6,000 account into a $20,000 account. And you know what happened a week later? My $20,000 account became a $10,000 account due to an IV collapse even though the underlying moved in the right direction.

Anyway, doubling your money in a month is possible, but now let's talk about what's probable. Trading those strategies, it is highly probable that you will lose more than you gain, and eventually end up with nothing. They also won't teach you any of the valuable hedging strategies that you would learn if you weren't so bent on getting rich yesterday. You've had some of the more skilled/experienced options traders on ET already advise against joining one of those sites. We all know what kind of strategies they promote and that they are very risky. Some of us know first hand how ineffective they are. But you seem determined to give away several hundred dollars to someone you don't know, and probably a few thousand to the savvy traders that take the other side of your positions.

Do yourself a favor and just start reading through some of the journals on this site regarding swing trading. Some of us post our trades when we enter them so you can feel free to follow along without paying a penny. It is more than you will get from any pay site. This way you will learn the mechanics of trading and how to repair a damaged trade. You will also figure out what kind of strategy fits your personality. You'll soon realize that it is much nicer to have the knowledge and skills to effectively trade your own money without depending on someone else for recommendations and instruction.:)
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Well I'm new here, but not new to trading, and I have to say: that is a great post.
 
Okay guys... This is what...my third time posting at ET. First time posting a genuine inquiry into advisories was met with some "elite" criticism by some pissy crap trader who assumed I was a shill. Nope, I'm not... I'm just trying to learn like all the rest of you.

So, it's been more than a year now since my post about DayTradeTeam. I joined them and got hooked into a discounted one year subscription with those dorks. Let me save you guys some time and money. DO NOT GIVE DAYTRADETEAM your money!!! They are slimy, unethical sleaze bags who grossly misrepresent their performance. They sweep -100% losses under the rug and tout their 20% gainers. They also block any subscribers from their forums and restrict access if you're around long enough to catch onto their inconsistencies and lies. Stay away from Andy Swan and Landon Swan's advisory service. In short, they suck.

Now, I know a lot of you traders think advisories are useless and often pose the question, what happens when your guru dies or goes out of business?. Here's the thing though, a lot of these gues who join ET are new and look to advisories not just for tips, but for experience and education. I like getting ideas from advisories. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't... Even with my strong dissatisfaction from DayTradeTeam, I can say that I gained knowledge of what NOT to do from those guys. I subscribe to RedOptions and TheOptionsReport and have learned a lot from them as well.

Anywho... I found this thread because I was looking into other advisories and did a search on StockOptionInvesting.com. They do seem too good to be true. Their Silver weekly newsletter is only $40/mo though so I'm going to check them out and report back three months from now. Errh... My trading buddies have appointed me to be the guinea pig...

See y'all later.
 
Check out www.redoption.com --the advisory arm of ThinkOrSwim. It is an ala-carte, subscription base service at $20 per month per advisory.

Good luck,

~B

Quote from sarahs1fan:

Okay guys... This is what...my third time posting at ET. First time posting a genuine inquiry into advisories was met with some "elite" criticism by some pissy crap trader who assumed I was a shill. Nope, I'm not... I'm just trying to learn like all the rest of you.

So, it's been more than a year now since my post about DayTradeTeam. I joined them and got hooked into a discounted one year subscription with those dorks. Let me save you guys some time and money. DO NOT GIVE DAYTRADETEAM your money!!! They are slimy, unethical sleaze bags who grossly misrepresent their performance. They sweep -100% losses under the rug and tout their 20% gainers. They also block any subscribers from their forums and restrict access if you're around long enough to catch onto their inconsistencies and lies. Stay away from Andy Swan and Landon Swan's advisory service. In short, they suck.

I found this thread because I'm looking into other advisories and was doing a search on StockOptionInvesting.com. They do seem too good to be true. Their Silver weekly newsletter is only $40/mo though so I'm going to check them out and report back three months from now.

See y'all later.
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Quote from Bben1006:

Check out www.redoption.com --the advisory arm of ThinkOrSwim. It is an ala-carte, subscription base service at $20 per month per advisory.

Good luck,

~B
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Bben,
I have been trading both stock options and index options since the 1990's. When I was a beginner, I did the same exact
thing that you are doing: looking for some magic advisory to hand me successful trades. I literally spent $10's of thousands of dollars on at least 20-25 newsletters and advisories over a period of the first four years, searching for the holy grail.
When I finally realized that none of them performed well,
I decided to learn how to trade stocks using technical analysis.
I surmised that if I could figure out what makes a stock move and successfully trade stocks for a while, I would simply start using options for the same stock trades.
The long and short of it is this:
I learned how to successfully trade stocks first, using a technical analysis method taught by someone reputable.
When I could regularly win 6 or 7 out of every 10 trades trading stocks, I used the same exact technical procedure to pick a new stock trade, but this time I substituted the nearest
"At the Money" or "slightly In the Money" option with
between 1-2 months left before expiration.
When the stock triggers the stock entry price (according to the methods taught to me), I buy the option, but I limit the entry price of the option to a "maximum entry price" of the prior closing price +.10
If the stock price triggers the Profit Target on the stock,
I sell the options.
If the stock price triggers the Stop Loss on the stock,
I sell the options.
The stock trading method you learn must have a defined entry price method, a defined price target method for the profit goal, a defined stop loss method, and a clearly defined trade management method.

I say this with all respect, "stop wasting your time and money with all these subscription option advisory services."


Jeff
 
Jeff,
I completely agree with you. I have no delusions whatsoever regarding advisories, except as an occasional curiosity --please see my previous post here (#29). I merely wanted to suggest the poster an alternative which I think is much ‘cheaper’ and more appropriate as an educational tool.

I need to congratulate you for the sense of market direction you have—and on your successful implementation of TA. This is an area where I am very weak at—(in fact I am really terrible in picking directions) and this is why I am sticking mostly to theta and vega plays. After about 2 or so years of learning this, approximately 1/4 of my current positions are complete duds, 1/4 are still cooking and the other 1/2 have already morphed into riskless (or nearly riskless) positions—and this is the most-fun part for me.

Ben




Quote from jeffalvinson:

Bben,
I have been trading both stock options and index options since the 1990's. When I was a beginner, I did the same exact
thing that you are doing: looking for some magic advisory to hand me successful trades. I literally spent $10's of thousands of dollars on at least 20-25 newsletters and advisories over a period of the first four years, searching for the holy grail.
When I finally realized that none of them performed well,
I decided to learn how to trade stocks using technical analysis.
I surmised that if I could figure out what makes a stock move and successfully trade stocks for a while, I would simply start using options for the same stock trades.
The long and short of it is this:
I learned how to successfully trade stocks first, using a technical analysis method taught by someone reputable.
When I could regularly win 6 or 7 out of every 10 trades trading stocks, I used the same exact technical procedure to pick a new stock trade, but this time I substituted the nearest
"At the Money" or "slightly In the Money" option with
between 1-2 months left before expiration.
When the stock triggers the stock entry price (according to the methods taught to me), I buy the option, but I limit the entry price of the option to a "maximum entry price" of the prior closing price +.10
If the stock price triggers the Profit Target on the stock,
I sell the options.
If the stock price triggers the Stop Loss on the stock,
I sell the options.
The stock trading method you learn must have a defined entry price method, a defined price target method for the profit goal, a defined stop loss method, and a clearly defined trade management method.

I say this with all respect, "stop wasting your time and money with all these subscription option advisory services."


Jeff
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Do not waste your hard earned money on any of Schaeffer's crappy services. I have tried three of them and each single one loses money. No trial period, no money back guarantee whatsoever.

Actually since their wining rate is so low, I am considering do the exactly contrary trade against their recommendation. (buy put if they recommend buy call, etc)



Quote from Bben1006:

Well, it is one thing paying $20 per month for an ala-carte RedOption advisory versus thousands elsewhere. I subscribed on and off to a number of the RO advisories, primarily for educational purposes and also to take a peek into one (very experienced) trader’s mind and moves—namely Scott Snyder. This also allowed me to have an inexpensive scheme to lose my own money practicing trades and gaining some experience. (I opted out of those papermoney trades). Still I was always curious to learn more about how successful people are with other type of advisories, for instance, those of Schaeffer’s, say: Schaeffer’s Players Series, at $1,995 per year, or Schaeffer’s ETF Option Series, at $2,995 per year, and the likes. I know that Schaeffer provides solid services overall, but would like to know a bit more about their advisories? Anyone cares to share?
Ben
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Quote from sarahs1fan:

I found this thread because I was looking into other advisories and did a search on StockOptionInvesting.com. They do seem too good to be true. Their Silver weekly newsletter is only $40/mo though so I'm going to check them out and report back three months from now. Errh... My trading buddies have appointed me to be the guinea pig...

See y'all later.
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Get your buddies together and paper trade a full month of their free picks and see what happens. Each person would get a free week so you need 4 people. Simply sign up for the free email each time and paper trade the picks. My buddies and I did that and we were very impressed. However, their strategy for their picks is HORRIBLE. If you use the trailing stops you'll lose almost every time. We simply waited until a couple days before each expiration day and looked back at the historical prices for the options they picked. We watched their picks from 4/5/06 through 5/12/06 and the results were a 42-8 W/L record. The lowest % gain on a winning pick was 3% and the highest gain was 791%. This was looking back at the highest historical prices so actual gains would have been somewhat lower but their picks for around a month were successful. 42-8 is pretty good IMO. Check it out and see. All you have to lose is time.
 
Quote from tj1320:

Get your buddies together and paper trade a full month of their free picks and see what happens. Each person would get a free week so you need 4 people. Simply sign up for the free email each time and paper trade the picks. My buddies and I did that and we were very impressed. However, their strategy for their picks is HORRIBLE. If you use the trailing stops you'll lose almost every time. We simply waited until a couple days before each expiration day and looked back at the historical prices for the options they picked. We watched their picks from 4/5/06 through 5/12/06 and the results were a 42-8 W/L record. The lowest % gain on a winning pick was 3% and the highest gain was 791%. This was looking back at the highest historical prices so actual gains would have been somewhat lower but their picks for around a month were successful. 42-8 is pretty good IMO. Check it out and see. All you have to lose is time.
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42 winners and only 8 losers. Nice! Now all one has to do is have an account large enough to cover 50 open option trades for a month, and there's the rub. Most people can't cover that, so what to do? They pick the "few" they can cover and if they "guess" right, it's a great month. If they guess wrong, well you know the story. The advisory service can still claim a great winning percentage.
 
No, actually I've been trading straddles and strangles with good success. I messed up and had a MAJOR volatility collapse when I had about $12,000 in my account, taking it down to about $4,000. I'm back up to $8,000 now though, mainly thanks to RMBS having a 30% run up a couple weeks ago. I'm seriously thinking about trading their picks though because 42-8 is pretty good, IMO.
 
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