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written by reader Ultimate Wealth Report

By gina, February 7, 2013

Has anyone subscribed to the Ultimate Wealth Report from Newsmax and written by James Rickards and Bob Wiedemer? This seems to be a new publication and I wonder if anyone has any thoughts about it. How would you rate it? It’s being highly advertised but I wonder if they’re just using scare tactics. Any thoughts would be very appreciated.
Thanks.
Regina

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Jeff Cooper
Guest
Jeff Cooper
January 28, 2014 9:26 pm

Here it is again folks. A secret, magical biblical code to investing. Send your money to Sean and he’ll reveal this secret, magical biblical code to you. But you must send him your money first. Shhh! It’s a secret. And it’s magical. And it’s a code found in the Bible. Send Sean your money and he’ll tell you what it is. Remember to send your money to him first. He can’t reveal the secret, magical Biblical code to you without your money. http://w3.newsmax.com/newsletters/uwr/video_money_codea.cfm?p=n&promo_code=141D8-1&gclid=CP6p6PvV1roCFUlp7AodQxAAcw

Danny Smith
Guest
Danny Smith
February 4, 2014 5:58 pm

I like Seans chart analysis but most of his picks are from foreign companies and he almost never brings up current events that are happening with the companies. Its almost always on the premise that “these are multi billion dollar companies that aren’t going anywhere”. Well that doesn’t exclude the fact that they may be seriously mismanaging resources and are awful for shareholders even if they are “cheap” with a very low “P/E”. In fact most of his current picks in the Ultimate Wealth Report are serious losers over the course of 2013 which was really hard to do since the S&P 500 saw a record 30% gain.

In summary he’s awesome on chart analysis and sentiment but has a clear bias towards foreign companies and doesn’t present any current events or future prospects for the company except that “we’re in a 5 wave and this is the 5th wave so it must go up from here.”

Frank
Guest
Frank
January 11, 2016 6:09 pm
Reply to  Danny Smith

You hit the nail on the head, his Elliott wave chart reading sounds great but every stock I bought well below the at or under price, I still lost my shirt.

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Greg Andrews
Member
Greg Andrews
February 10, 2014 12:27 am

Hey Scott and Ken —

Thanks for your on point, responsive comments about Ultimate Wealth.

One more question: Have you — or has anyone else — actually made a profit following Sean’s recommendations? Buying and selling the stocks he recommends when he recommends doing it?

Thanks again —

Robert
Member
Robert
March 24, 2014 4:26 pm
Reply to  Greg Andrews

I’m looking at Sean Hyman’s Ultimate Wealth Report Vol.2 No. 8/ August 2013.
Re: VALE Entry Date 27-Sept-12 Enter Price $ 18.22 Todays Price 3/24/14 $ 13.19
In his commodities Portfolio he has 20 picks in Vol.2 No. 8/ August 2013.
17 out of 20 are losers.
Loses range from -2.01% to -59.27%.
I like the guy and his vedio presentation but the results speak for themselves.
Robert

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Sandi
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Sandi
May 9, 2015 12:57 pm
Reply to  Robert

I have lost a serious amount of money as a direct result of recommendations from Sean Hyman. He said that VALE would fall to around $11 before it would then surge upward. It’s currently sitting between $7-$8 and despite asking Newsmax for a refund within a couple of days of being relentlessly pestered by email, suddenly I never heard from them again. So they have my initial trusting payment for shoddy subscriptions and for questionable advice from a ‘missionary man’. Shame on you Mr. Hyman!

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maxx
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maxx
May 10, 2015 6:52 pm
Reply to  Sandi

What do you expect, Newsmax just passes lies about more than info. If I read s/t on Newsmax I can pretty well be sure it is a lie or at best a shading of truth to get whatever silly point they want to tout or sell.

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John
Member
John
June 4, 2015 1:34 pm
Reply to  Sandi

Sandi, VALE is a position which has not yet received a recommendation to sell from UWR In other words, we don’t yet have the entire story. Every position I’ve taken and subsequently sold following recommendation i’ve made 12 to 20% or more. I own VALE and believe that this will be the case with this company as well. Vale is a Brazilian metallurgy company and both metal prices as well as the Brazilian market and currency are on the rise. Vale is the largest world iron ore miner and with demands from the East and other reasons has strong future growth prospects. I expect that by the time it is appropriate to sell I’ll make in the 20-30% on this stock, I only which I had the funds to be more invested in it.

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frank
Guest
frank
January 12, 2016 9:55 pm
Reply to  John

Hi John, Hows VALE working out for you, I lost 80 percent on it. it is now under 3, so there you have it, another looser courtesy of SEAN HYMEN from the Ultimate looser report. I trusted him and his eliotte wave BS aswell, and lost most of my 30,000.00 that I invested in his pics. At the end of the day it is my fault because I trusted him. News Max is disgusting,
they should have bench marks that have to be met by these guys, but what do they care they still get our money. The only news letter I follow now is the DIVIDEND MACHINE by Bill Spetrino. Doing really well with that.

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hendrixnuzzles
May 10, 2015 8:06 pm
Reply to  Robert

You can’t judge til he closes them out.

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Danny Smith
Guest
Danny Smith
June 28, 2015 12:56 pm
Reply to  hendrixnuzzles

This is complete gibberish. Sean Hyman has never issued a SELL to an active losing position that I am aware of. He just holds on to them in perpetuity bring up his charts and claiming Elliot Wave will turn everything around. Meanwhile his stocks continuously make lower lows. This includes BTU (95% loss since his recommendation), VALE, and CIG. Sorry I can judge if a stock has lost 95% value that it isn’t going to make that up any time soon.

Meanwhile anytime a stock goes up 10-15% Sean is quick to sell it to take profits. Take Apple for example. He sold that twice and bragged about a 60% return in less than a year. Well what he didn’t say was that you would have to pay a higher tax for that twice since its less than a year. And that if you simply kept Apple since his last SELL recommendation you would of make 45% MORE profit and had a lower tax to pay on it. Sean has no clue when it comes to a company like Apple. All he knows is his charts. He kept hammering on the fact that the 7 to 1 stock split was driving the stock upward. He never mentioned that stock buy backs, incredible Iphone sales, the Iwatch etc were the real catalyst.

Seriously stay away from his portfolio. I have lost thousandths following his horrendous picks. Follow Bill Spetrino instead. He’s the only reason I still have any money left to invest in. Bill is an actual investor and not just a newsletter writer. He puts his own money into the stocks he recommends. He feels passionately about them. In short he has skin in the game. I had high hopes for Sean’s newsletter 2 years ago. But enough is enough. All his active picks are SERIOUS losers. It got so bad they took away the percentage losses column from the newsletter. How this man still has a newsletter is beyond me. Seriously how many horrible picks do you have to have before you get canned?

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roots
Member
roots
April 7, 2014 6:51 pm
Reply to  Greg Andrews

Not been with Sean long and am new to investing. But so far so good. Made a little money and am following what he advises. We share see as time goes.

Frank
Guest
Frank
January 11, 2016 6:10 pm
Reply to  Greg Andrews

I lost on every pick

Rob
Guest
Rob
March 29, 2014 9:25 pm

Hey I’m in Australia. Does anyone know if I subscribed to Sean’s UW, can I invest in the recommended trades from Australia?

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hendrixnuzzles
May 10, 2015 7:36 pm
Reply to  Rob

All of Sean’s picks are fairly large cap companies easily available from major US brokers.
He likes large companies.

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Dave
Guest
Dave
June 23, 2014 3:36 pm

I am a member of the Ultimate Wealth Report, and have been for about 9 months. Although I cannot reveal his portfolio choices, he has earned an average return of 26.08% to date after taking profits on 15 positions. The highest return was 51.46% and the lowest was 12.72%. He has been extremely educational in his approach, and transparent about his decision making processes.

NewsMax is a very aggressive sales type system, and caused me initial red flags as well. NewsMax has had some complaints about some of the people selling things via NewsMax, but nothing I can see regarding Sean Hyman himself.

I have seen Sean’s performance, and understand where he is going with the program.I am inclined to believe what he is saying in general, understanding that past performance is not always an accurate predictor of future results.

This system is really about minimizing your risks, rather then guaranteeing future profits. He makes recommendations, and encourages you to learn investing basics, and to put your knowledge to work for yourself.

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Frank
Guest
Frank
January 11, 2016 6:11 pm
Reply to  Dave

B.s. you did not,

Frank
Guest
Frank
January 11, 2016 6:13 pm
Reply to  Dave

I bought during the same time your talking about ABX, pbr, cig, vale, gdx, and about 7 others and lost on every one. So you are not telling the truth

jcounts
Member
jcounts
December 14, 2014 5:18 pm

I am a subscriber to Sean’s newsletter. He is very informative about his recommendations. Never talks about the bible only says God bless at the end. He has made me money. I recommend his newsletter. It is a great one for beginners. Never follow blindly do your own research.

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hendrixnuzzles
May 10, 2015 7:31 pm

Robert and Jeff Cooper— we get your point of view, you are entitled to it.
No need to flog it.

I am a subscriber to UWR and became one because Sean’s outlook on value appealed to me. I was predisposed to hard assets to begin with, and when I saw his picks, they were primarily in asset-backed companies although he does not present himself as a “hard asset” guy”…he looks at the surviveability, earnings, and staying power of the companies.

At the time, it just so happened that his picks were in the commodity sector. I agreed with the picks. And have been savaged in the recent months, but I cannot fault Sean for this. The timing of entry was very poor for commodities, but Sean is a longer term view investor and has…um… faith that the beaten down companies will turn around, and he sticks with them because he understands their fundamentals. Eventually his picks will be mostly vindicated, although patience will be required for it.

I have found Sean’s approach towards emotions to be extremely helpful. He ignores the noise and recommends value where he sees it. He believes in Elliot Wave although I think he sometimes sees patterns that are not really there.

About his religious beliefs. It is my surmise that the publisher polishes up Sean’s piety
to appeal to a certain market segment. This is the copywriter at the publisher, whose job it is to sell sunscriptions. Sean himself does not proselytize, nor does he make his picks by some mystical Biblical message. He looks at numbers, market cap, and technical analysis. What I do get a sense of, is that Sean is ethical, practical, believes in what he is doing, and has the welfare of his clients at heart. That he seems to be a person of religious conviction is a plus for me, although I do not necessarily share in his religious
denomination, which is not disclosed nor is it of interest.

The picks that were a disaster six months ago are likely to be pretty good in the coming year. If you got blown out of Vale, Newmont, Barrick, Gazprom, or Teck in the last year,
I understand you may be skeptical. But if you go into them now, and Sean still recommends them, my guess is that you’ll do pretty well.

Long all tickers mentioned. Teck is one of my largest positions.

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hendrixnuzzles
May 10, 2015 7:33 pm
Reply to  hendrixnuzzles

One other thing, the price for UWR is very reasonable, and Sean’s calming of emotions in his regular updates is worth the price of the subscription.

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marrdrm
Guest
marrdrm
June 25, 2015 4:06 pm
Reply to  hendrixnuzzles

I have been with UWR since the beginning and agree with much of hendrxmuzzles cooments above. I also am in Sean’s absolute profits- it is worse. I have a few comments:
1. The portfolio is down in total over 20% in almost 2.5 years while the market is up!
2. I think the one place Sean is wrong is he never sells a loser. 4 of the stocks or around 20% of the port is down 50-87%.
3. No one ever new the dollar was going thru the roof which is killing about everything we own, But he never adjusted.
4. Just listen to the weekly video and how all our positions are set to go up. 7 of them were down 3-7% TODAY! The market is down .25%
5. What really frosts me now is they( NEWSMAX) don’t have the nerve to publish the return for the portfolio . They have deleted it from the Newsletter! They show total return on what he has sold but not what he owns in the current portfolio. Can the editor do that ? Seems like it not full disclosure. I don’t need him to tell me – I know where all my positions are. It just is discusting that they don’t report their own performance- but watch some of their ads!

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Danny Smith
Guest
Danny Smith
June 25, 2015 11:46 pm
Reply to  marrdrm

I agree with this 100%. His videos have been showing the chart setups due to go up for the last year and a half. In fact almost all his positions have gone down by 50% or more. The brazilian stocks have got hammered. Sean never sells his losers. He’s got one stock which I had the misery of following which has lost 90%. He still thinks it will go back up to the point he bought it and even higher.

Its clear Sean doesn’t trade these stocks with his own money. If he did he would of gone bust a long time ago. I’ve been fortunate to only follow a couple of his stocks and not make an entire portfolio about it.

On the flip side his winners he sells too fast. Take Apple he sold it twice and was bragging about his 60% profit he’s made twice in a year and he “would take this every day”. Well Apple has since gone about 50% higher while the rest of his portfolio has gotten trounced. On top of that selling it twice within a year subjects you to a much higher tax rate for the gains than if you would of kept it the entire year. Sean incorrectly believed the 7 to 1 stock split was causing all the stock movement and never considered the fact that Apple is one of the best companies in terms of innovation and growth. He just looked at his chart, saw price overextended, and reacted without really doing too much long term analysis on the company. Fortunately I did not follow his sell recommendation however I feel for his subscribers who did.

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emmanuel de castro
Guest
emmanuel de castro
September 21, 2015 3:12 pm

I am fully aware that I subscribe to one of their services. Last May 2015, I cancelled Ultimate Wealth Report. I seldom read the email. Today, my wife noticed in our credit card statement that an amount $97 was charged in our credit card. Vendor is High Income Factor. I called High Income and reasoned out that I cancelled it last May. The lady explained to me that I have 2 subscriptions. One from Ultimate Wealth, second is High Income. I explained that I am not aware that I have 2 subscriptions. As far as I know of, I only have one which I already cancelled month ago.

I checked my email. Last Sept 5, 2015, they sent me an email informing me that my subscription to High Income will be renewed if I will not respond within 30 days. I said, today is only Sept 21. 16 days only. below the 30 days . How come they already charged my credit? The lady explained that while the email mentioned 30 days, but it is not always like that. I voiced out that I do not appreciate their misrepresentation. I emphasized to the rep that I am not mad at her but disappointed on how they company is doing their business.

In fairness, the rep said that I will get a refund in 60 days. Let us see if they will hold their words.

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Lady Lawler
Guest
Lady Lawler
October 16, 2015 7:57 am

Hi, I subscribed to the Ultimate Wealth Report less than three months ago. I had all my money in cash as I had ported over a former company IRA. I have a significant portion of that portfolio invested based on Sean’s report and to date I have done really well. With the volatility in the market, I have seen big swings in many of the stocks, but overall I’m up (based on yesterday’s close) over 9%. I have 13 investments, 12 are Sean’s recommendations. Four investments are up between 12-18%. One (1) is down 1.27%. I like the way the report is structured. Where to buy in at, where they (whoever they are) bought in at and yield. I’m happy with my $90 investment. I’ll see what the long-term results are. I’m not going to make all the money. I recognize that as a 30+ year investor. I won’t get the maximum amount from each investment because that still involves timing the market which, even if it did work, doesn’t work for me. I have a life. A 9% return is less than 3 months does.

hendrixnuzzles
November 7, 2015 10:34 am
Reply to  Lady Lawler

Hi Lady, your timing is your salvation. Sean’s picks just don’t have a lot lower to go, they have fallen so far a lot of them are at multi-year lows. Buying now has to be better than 18 months ago.

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loreto
Member
loreto
October 16, 2015 11:29 pm

I’ve been a subscriber for 3 + years and all the stocks he recommended that are losers are still in the porfolio and they keep on going lower and lower and more and more losses. Please stay away from him..just find a good mutual fund.

alastair
Guest
October 27, 2015 12:30 am

I am with Loreta on this man.
I paid a sub about 2 years ago. What a waste of money. the overall portfolio down about 35%. Hopeless. Worst one was (DB) DEUTCHE BANK. It went below 25% of purchase price. Hyman kept preaching to hold. I got out at about 35% loss( you need to stop them out at 25% at least). So I sold the thing. DB descended from about $47 US down to $28 or so- still Hyman said to keep it!!! What a lot of codswallop. His latest revealations are HGO harlery Davidson and USO Harley D has plummeted to a yearly low. Hyman has no financial nous whatsoever. He has no degree in finance. He has no anointing for wealth, I feel. You would lose big time if you succumbed to his “bible code” God is not a loser. He makes good profits, 30, 60 90 fold.
The bible code is this. Get out of bed early, pray, get a good job, learn about your work, learn about hard work diligence and wisdom. Issac got out of bed, worked hard for 14 years leasing his father in laws sheep. He made big profits thru hard work and endurance and studying his farm and sheep. that is the bible code.
I will not buy one single recommendation of Hyman’s cos it will be a loser!!!!!
I have made good gains with Stansberry and associates; not wasters and lazy and spooky men!!!

Frank
Guest
Frank
January 11, 2016 6:30 pm
Reply to  alastair

I am so far down on seas pics cause I kept believing in him. I have lost my shirt on this guy

Tyler Phillis
Guest
Tyler Phillis
October 30, 2015 6:10 pm

I was a subscriber to Sean Hyman’s Ultimate Wealth Report for two years and have thus far experienced a (roughly) 60% drawdown in the stocks bought on his recommendation. Some reviewers complain that people here aren’t subscribers…well, here’s one telling you that Sean’s picks are worse than random.

Two of his picks (VALE & PBR) were embroiled in corruption scandals, causing stock sell-offs of 62% and 68% respectively.

BTU, a coal energy company, has plummeted over 88% since Sean recommended it. Recently BTU has tried to mask the horrible performance of its stock by a stock split – a REVERSE stock split of 15 TO 1! All but two of the picks I bought (at or below his recommended price, as he prescribes) are suffering price declines of no less than 50%. THEY’VE LOST OVER HALF OF THEIR VALUE WHILE SEAN RECOMMENDS HIS SUBSCRIBERS TO HOLD AND BUY MORE!

Here’s the real kicker: Sean graciously offers a $10,000 guarantee as part of his welcome letter sent to new subscribers. A $10,000 “no questions asked” money guarantee. I’ve tried numerous times to contact him with the intent of collecting, but Newsmax (the publisher of his letters) won’t pass my requests on to him, nor will they supply me with Sean’s personal contact information. I have the guarantee in black and white and PDF format for all to see.

So, here you go…a review from a real subscriber of two years. I followed his recommendations, bought when he said buy, sold when he said sell, and now the account dedicated to his newsletter picks is 60% smaller than it was when I began.
Sean, if you read this and do not make good on your guarantee you can count on reading more reviews from me like this in as many places as I can reveal the truth. No personal attacks, no embellishment, just facts.

Here are some of the declines you will suffer if you subscribe to Sean Hyman’s investment news letter:
ECA: -52%
BTU: -88%
PBR: -68%
VALE: -62%
TCK: -57%
MBT: -60%

…but there’s more! However, I’ll save those for the next review.

Sean may be a nice guy, but it’s a good bet that he makes more money with his newsletter subscriptions than his investment picks.

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marrdrm
Guest
marrdrm
November 7, 2015 7:17 am
Reply to  Tyler Phillis

I have been with Ultimate wealth from the beginning. Tyler’s summary is right on.
How can someone pick over 20 stocks and they are all down 10-90%. It will take 3-4 years to recover (just recover). The sales pitch was we invest for 12-18 months not 5-6 years. No wonder we never see him on TV anymore. CNBC and Fox figured it out.

hendrixnuzzles
November 7, 2015 10:31 am
Reply to  marrdrm

Hi Tyler,
You are accurate but Sean’s mistake was not in the stock picks per se, it was that he was too concentrated in commodities.

His overconcentration in stocks based on physical commodities led to disaster, of which I have been a participant. Within the commodity sectors , I’m not sure his picks have been a lot worse than other stocks in those sectors. If you were in mining, oil and gas, South America, Russia, and coal, you got murdered.

He never pitched his service as a commodity or resource newsletter, but his picks were mostly in those sectors and you have accurately described the results.

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Jay
Guest
Jay
May 13, 2016 11:33 am
Reply to  Tyler Phillis

Tyler’s analysis is spot. I could copy and paste it as my own.

Danny Smith
Guest
Danny Smith
November 7, 2015 6:02 pm

I wish I read these before I started taking Seans picks. Its a shame he promotes his picks as a sound Christian philosophy. Judge the man by his results. Most of his picks are down 20-97%. I have lost thousandths from this charlaton. BTU is going to 0. Vale, CIG, pbr, abx are all near their all time lows. I would love to get his response. To me he is a wolf in sheeps clothing. I will never be this naive again.

Gordon
Guest
Gordon
December 9, 2015 8:25 pm

I was a subscriber for a year and waited to watch how the stock picks performed. Some of them did really well but many of the commodity related stocks dropped way down. Sean never sold any stocks that were way down because that locks in a loss. However, the stocks could take 5 years to recover. His oil and commodity related investments really tanked. He stopped publishing the return rate when the early returns went from positive to negative. I didn’t renew after a year because I wouldn’t use his picks after observing the performance.

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agmonaco
Guest
agmonaco
January 29, 2016 11:15 am

I subscribed to Sean Hyman and the Ultimate Wealth report for a couple years. At first I didn’t do to bad when I was testing the waters.. Then I went in rather aggressively for my portfolio. First thing I noticed was there was no exit strategy or stop loss on his losers. He would drone on consistently about how the waves in the market or stock would predict a positive return for those stocks or funds he recommended. Then I noticed that he stopped posting the % of loss on his selections I assume because it showed how disastrous his selections were, that the vast majority of his selections were in the red and 1/2 of them were grossly in the red. VALE down 80% and BTU down 99% and numerous others I invested in by his advise tanked. And this was in an up market. Beware of Sean Hyman and the Ultimate Wealth Report. I am surprised that Newsmax promotes him.

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Mike
Guest
Mike
February 11, 2016 11:59 am

Signed on over two years ago. Began with just over $10,000 with 7 or 8 of Sean’s picks. As of today, my portfolio worth is around $300. Wish I could go back in time. I blindly trusted Sean despite the naysayers. Wish I could get my money back.

soutpaw
Member
soutpaw
March 21, 2016 10:24 am

I invested on Sean’s recommendations for over 2 years and only had 2 or 3 winners. The rest are dramatically lower. Overall I lost about 40% of what I invested and I got out.
So here is an unbiased opinion of UWS from someone who lost real money using Sean’s advice:
Pros:
1. After using a traditional investment broker for years and never getting any calls returned or feedback I really liked that I got a weekly updates breaking down each pick and a monthly news letter with new picks.
2. There really is a lot of good information on the site for the novice investor. Information is presented in a way that a novice can understand.
Cons:
1. Sean makes bad picks. He is heavily leveraged in commodities, and foreign companies that are highly speculative given certain geopolitical environments (MBT, VALE, RIG), and the global policy position of the current administration (BTU). Although to be fair I’m holding on to my oil because I think it will come back at some point.
2. There is no backstop strategy. Sean will ride a pick into the dirt. There are many examples of this from comments above.
3. Based on the last few weekly updates I’ve received I don’t think Sean is being honest with himself, let alone investors. The video updates seemed to have transitioned from chart and trend data to hope and wish sentiment.

Bottom Line:
If you buy some of his picks now you may have a chance to make some gains, simply because 90-95% of his picks are at historic lows. But if you took his advice 2 years ago you’ve most likely lost all your money you invested based on his picks.

I started transitioning 85% of his picks over to blue chip dividend stocks a couple of months ago to see if I can make up some of the money I lost. It’ll probably will be another 3 years before I begin to recuperate that money through this strategy, but it’s a lot safer. I’ve also started looking at VC stock investing and put a little into one company to see if that works.

Anyone here try another system that actually produces overall gains? I’d love to hear some good news right about now.

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benchmarker
March 21, 2017 10:25 am

BUYER BEWARE- I have followed the Sean Hyman’s Ultimate Wealth Report (“UWR”) for three years. Since 4-20-12, UWR has recommended 50 investments. Appreciation returns (as of 1-27-17), both realized and unrealized, have been dismal and produced a shortfall to a market benchmark of approximately 27%. Within the total portfolio, 23 (46%) of the investments underperformed the benchmark by about 65% while the balance of the portfolio, 27 of the investments (54%) outperformed the benchmark by about 4%. Portfolio returns have proven to be far less than the outlandish performance claims made by UWR when touting his approach in 2013. For example:

• “Imagine earning 6.30% annually, while you wait 12 to 24 months to double your money?” (Actual return was a large double digit loss on this stock!)
• “Typically, we hold a stock six to 12 months, and sometimes 18 to 24 months. And if conditions change, we may bail out sooner, and be happy with a 30%, 40%, or 50% gain.” 
• With respect to one investment with a 25% return in just six months, Sean Hyman wrote: “I do this kind of thing all year long, every year!”.

Similar outrageous claims are made in Sean Hyman’s current web site where he “Reveals His Secret” to “Use a Biblical Money Code” for successful investing. Several examples are as follows:

• How to “Use a simple trick to buy stocks at a 50% discount”.
• “…so you can be positioned,again,again and again to make solid gains of 30%,40%, 100%.
• “This triple-pronged system has helped me scoop up powerful companies ‘on the cheap’, time and time again.” Sean lists PBR, MT, Vale, BP, and NEW as companies he was able to get at an average “discount” of 59%. I am not sure what he means when he claims, in this promotion, that he was able to buy these stocks at a 59% discount since the average actual realized returns he currently reports on these assets is less than zero.
• There are numerous positive testimonials from subscribers cited in this promotion that could not be achieved if an investor had followed all the UWR recommendations.

Sean reports, in his Biblical Money Code, that more than 114,000 subscribe to his UWR. With that number of subscribers, at the current advertised fees of $47 to $97 per year, that would produce between $5.4 to $11.1 million in revenues.

PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE VS. A MARKET BENCHMARK-METHODOLOGY- The UWR only reports individual return performance on sold assets (31) but does not reflect the aggregate returns for this segment of the portfolio. For investments not yet sold, unrealized appreciation (or total) returns are not even reported to the subscriber. It is important to note that 18 of the 19 unsold investments have underperformed the benchmark by 40%.

Individual investors may have experienced returns that would be better or worse than the UWR. This may occur if they only bought select assets or if the timing and prices were different than those recommended. To fairly evaluate UWR as an investment newsletter, it is more appropriate to evaluate return performance on all 50 assets compared to a market benchmark assuming an equal amount of each of the 50 assets was bought and sold on the same date, and at the same price, as recommended by the UWR.

I used the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (“VOO”), excluding any dividends, as a market benchmark and compared portfolio performance as of 1-27-17. For simplicity, this analysis evaluates the unrealized appreciation compared to the market benchmark (excluding dividends) since the dividends would not materially change the conclusion.

SALE DECISION- The UWR sale decision depends almost exclusively on Elliot waves, ignoring any tax implications if a stock is sold prior to qualifying for capital gains treatment. The sale decision is executed when the asset price varies too far from the moving averages, and many times is made without regard to the underlying long-term fundamentals of the company. The sold portfolio has underperformed the benchmark by about 19%.

Of the 31 assets sold (as of 1-27-17), 10 were sold prior to the 12-month holding period required to qualify for capital gains treatment. If the holding period had been extended to 12 months (qualifying for capital gain treatment of 15% and assuming an ordinary 40% federal and state rate), 9 of the 10 sales would have sold for a higher price with lower taxes and the after-tax return would have been 2.5X greater! One such example is a recent sale (January 2017) that was made after only about 7 months that would require an ordinary tax payment. Readers were assured that we would re-enter this “safe haven”, “fundamental fortress of value” once the Elliot waves have receded since this would be an ideal asset for the next downturn. As of 3-18-17, the holding period is only 3 months from qualifying for capital gains treatment. The stock price is up by 17%, and if held to qualify for capital gains treatment, could decline by about 19% before reaching a break-even after-tax return.

HOLD PORTFOLIO- It is interesting to note, unlike the sold portfolio, that the advice to sell is different for those investments still held in the portfolio. When these “underwater” investments (40% worse than benchmark returns) stray too far from the moving averages, the advice is not to sell or worry because this is just “normal market mechanics” and the UWR informs the reader, while there may be a temporary price decline, to expect these investments to “snap back” or “rocket higher”. Note that these unsold assets have been held, on average, almost twice as long as the sold portfolio.

In a recent weekly update, Sean assured clients that these assets represent a good “sleep at night portfolio”. If you happen to be an investor who did not invest in all 50 assets and happened to pick a disproportionate amount of the 23 (46%) of the investments that underperformed the benchmark by about 65%, you are probably not having a good night’s sleep, regardless of Sean’s assurances. On the other hand, if you are collecting millions in fees for your investment advice, it would probably be much easier to sleep at night.

DUE DILIGENCE SUGGESTION – I am precluded from providing the specifics of the UWR portfolio. However, it is not too expensive to subscribe to the UWR to complete your own due diligence. I would strongly recommend, before following the investment advice, that you:

1. Carefully review the portfolio reports issued by UWR and compare the actual returns (realized and unrealized) against a market benchmark. Determine if there is any value added by the UWR as even the “moms and pops” (as Sean likes to refer to as the uninformed investors) could have done better by simply buying a cost efficient and diversified ETF.
2. Pay close attention to assets that were sold prior to qualifying for capital gains treatment. Test, if the investments had been held for a least a 12-month period, to see if the after-tax returns would have been substantially better because of future higher prices and lower taxes.
3. Review claims of portfolio diversification. The UWR postures that the number of investments held creates a diversified portfolio. Determine if the overweighed investment in commodity based companies may have contributed, in addition to some poor picks, to the shortfall compared to the benchmark.

Some of the current investments, that have plunged since being recommended, may now offer opportunities, but be sure you are not trying to catch a “falling knife”. But do not confuse these opportunities with the UWR performance.

PERFORMANCE CLAIMS – See the following links that demonstrate performance claims recited earlier in this review. While it appears that the first reference below may have initially been published 7-25-13, the website’s header is automatically updated to reflect the current date. The second reference is the first listing you currently will see if you Google “Sean Hyman” where you can learn the “simple trick to buy stocks at a 50% discount”.

*Sean Hyman: How to Build Your Fortune on Obama Administration Policies by Christian Hill and Sean Hyman
And now, for the first time in a Newsmax exclusive, Sean will be revealing his unique low-risk strategy for today’s market. 

http://www.newsmax.com/Finance/MKTNews/sean-hyman-fortune-obama-administration-policies/2013/07/25/id/517034/

*The Biblical Money Code by Sean Hyman – See How I Used the Lost Investment Principles of Scripture to Go From Making $15,000 a Year . . . to Giving Away Up to $50,000 a Year.

https://w3.ultimatewealthreport.com/Finance/ULT/LP/UWR-Biblical-A-Taboola?dkt_nbr=nl7lf8v5

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8u9i0o
Member
8u9i0o
May 24, 2017 6:34 pm
Reply to  benchmarker

Try The Dividend Machine. I started in 2011 and I’m up about 50% over 6 years. I’ve tried or subscribed to several of Newsmax’s newletters. FIR, Blalock, Mind health, UWR (never bought any picks here). Newsmax overall is kinda schlocky, but I’ve done well with TDM.

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robtcohen
Irregular
January 16, 2018 10:44 am

ANDI ? Up 3000% ! Software apparently. Opinion wanted, please.

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