Investorplace.com: Trader's Advantage

Bad 2010 Performance

I calculated the performance using the trade history that is provided on the website. The first 7 or 8 months of 2010 have been dismal. About -30% overall assuming similar dollar amount risked on all trades (i.e. the options winners of 100% equate more to about 10% compared to stock trades). I'm extremely disappointed in the performance, especially considering the amount for subscription. I don't know how he can continue to claim huge success in the promos.

Trust Score

2.1

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Great Writer, Not So Great Stock Picker

Jon is a great financial markets writer and has excellent and deep fundamental and technical research to back his picks. I subscribed for about 120 days and finally canceled the service after realizing that his long and short picks (which in fairness included a span of two market corrections) usually followed a recent uptrend in a stock or a lagging sector which was expected to turn up. By the time you got to them, the trades seemed already crowded, in a fake-out upturn, or near the end of their runs.

While I had a couple of profitable trades, the majority were losers or were stopped out too soon right before they resumed their uptrend (stops were too tight). There are option trades that expired worthless (to be expected) and Jon has switched to daily updates, but some days his writing seems hurried, forced and not deeply researched. In some cases, trades should have been cut short due to adverse news (e.g., he recommended Trina Solar as a pick two days after Jim Cramer told his audience to get out of all solar stocks-that one lost 16%). Jon seems to be very busy with his writing (he writes the Strategic Advantage as well, a longer term investor newsletter) and presentations, so the website is often not up to date with the picks, status indicators (buy, sell, hold, short) are outdated and there are no intra-day updates or flash alerts to help traders. Sometimes trades that were stopped out showed up as "buys" on the website for days thereafter. Some swing trades stopped out on the same day with 8-10% losses, obviously not his fault but certain trades should not be recommended during market corrections. Sometimes Jon did not comment on certain losing trades for days or weeks even though some had 20%+ losses (e.g., a short on J Crew during a market uptrend).

In all, Jon is a great financial writer, but not so great stock picker or market timer. I had 30 days to get out with a full refund, but ended up subscribing for a total of 120 days to give him a fair chance. There were far more losers than winners here, so I did not renew.

Trust Score

2.2

User’s Review Ratings

Overall

Consistent Returns

I have followed Jon for over a decade now. First through Supermodels over at MSN Money. I received an email for this service. I have tried many and am a natural skeptic. They had a trial offer so I tried it out. I went back through the archives and looked at some of the trades at different points. I looked at his record. Both are impressive. He plays things from both the Long and Short sides. He sometimes suggests options as well.

The one true test for me is did I make more than it cost and the answer is yes. In addition it has given me insight and different perspectives on the market and Technical Analysis. The time frame is usually 1-60 days with the average probably being 2 weeks hold period.

The site is updated sometimes daily and at least 2 times per week. As market conditions change he updates the site more frequently.

The stops are set tight and are based on Technicals. He does what a successful trader needs to do which is stop out on the losers and let the winners ride.

I did a spreadsheet with all the trades for 2009. The numbers I came up with (not official from the site) are:

average holding period: 14 days

average return: +12.1% (not including commissions)

average number of trade recommendations per week: 4

percent winning trades: 67%

I just renewed for another year and enjoy this site a lot. I find it valuable and inexpensive compared with what is provided.

Trust Score

3.1

User’s Review Ratings

Overall