Jim Rickards` Impact SystemIs anyone familiar with this new pitch from Jim Rickards? He says it is a new way to make money that does not involve forex or stock trading!
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I will let you know in 3 months. Trying it out. I selectively follow his recommendations based on my own evaluation and thought.
Against my better judgement, I subscribed to Currency Wars Alert. Yes, I admit, it was the hype that drew me in. I mean, the “snake oil” letter mentioning huuuuuge gains. Rickards’ letter implies early on that we can make gains of: 530%, 848%, 2196%, and 1657%. Then comes the caveat. He tells us: “Of course, these are all examples of past trades. There’s no way I’m going to promise you’ll make 1,000%-plus returns on each and every trade or that you’ll never see a loser. And there’s no guaranteeing you’d be able to catch all of these trades.” Wow, thanks Jim. Gosh, such an honest guy. OK, I have some investing know-how and I’m a realist. Not looking for promises here, yada yada. But then the implied big rewards starts right back up again: “Because using my proprietary IMPACT trading strategy, you could have made 1,276% … in less than 30 days.” Then we learn about a gain of 1657%. And then an even bigger one on GLD: “But consider this: If you had used my IMPACT strategy, you could have made an incredible 9,194% return … in the same three-month period. 2196% in just 10 days. Then we hear about returns of 1628%. And then these: “173% in less than four months from moves related to the Brazilian real. 356% in less than three months from moves related to the Swiss franc. 364% in less than 30 days from moves related to the Russian ruble. 393% in four months from moves related to the Argentine peso. 615% in five months from moves related to the Canadian dollar. 955% in six months from moves related to the U.S. dollar. An incredible 9,781% in three months from moves related to the Mexican peso.” OK … ENOUGH. Folks, I think I’ve made my point that he IMPLIES that your gains would be (or as he says, “could be”) astronomical by using his system. He says “could have made” a zillion times in this letter, and I’ve gone only 1/4 of the way through it. Well, if only the reality were a whole lot closer to the gains that he suggests you could make. Because I went to his closed portfolio — not available until AFTER you subscribe of course — to see how things stacked up. I added up the gains and then the losses. The gains (by percentage) came to 274%. The losses (by percentage) added up to 727%. These were closed positions (15 to be exact) covering the period from the first entry on Jan. 6, 2015 to the final close on Nov. 5, 2015. Where were the 1000-plus percentage gainers, I wondered, feeling a little like the guy who asked, “Where are the customer’s yachts?” But I digress. Turns out the biggest gainer by percentage was 110%. The largest loser was 96%, with several others in the minus 90s and minus 80s. Was my methodology the most scientific? Hell, I don’t know. But what I know for sure is there was a lot more red ink than green ink in the closed trades — 10 losses to 5 wins. You may wonder what instruments he uses, the underlying equities, etc. but I really don’t give a crap about all that. The bottom line is that he paints a pretty picture but in the end, it’s all illusion. I’m not out much. I’ll cancel and get my subscription fee returned less 10%. No big deal. I consider it my fool tax for allowing Agora to sucker me in.
Update for you people: here is the dismal performance of this totally awful so-called-advisory letter. IMHO, though I like the historical works (books) by Jim Rickards , he has now totally sold his soul to the marketing machine called Agora. Yet (again) he turns out to be in for the money, not for the truthfulness of things.
Too bad.
Here are the closed positions as of today 23/3 (please follow the link to Postimg.org) :
http://s9.postimg.org/owdwxegn3/2016_03_23_closed.jpg
And here are the past positions:
http://s7.postimg.org/5ufhlhykb/2016_03_23_open.jpg
Now go figure what THAT would have done to your portfolio…. Utter devastation, I would argue.
I’m pretty sure, that you could not even spare a dime to buy Mr. R a coffee on the street, if you were to bump into him. And neither would he buy you one, as that would be “bad investment, since it won’t produce ME money”. Pun intended 🙂
So let’s pay the guy thousands over and over again?
I don’t think so….
I took a trial with the IMPACT system and it didn’t take me long to figure out the portfolio held loser after loser. I pretty quickly asked for my money back (fortunately there was no problem with that, at least). Since then I’ve come to see Rickards as one of the sleazier members of the financial advisory tribe. Case in point: the rash of emails I recently got, headlined, “Don’t miss this video of Jim Rickards at the White House!” (or some such). Start the video and he is standing out on the street with the White House in the distant background — on the other side of the fence. Now that’s class!
Personally I’m totally sick of the media fear porn, financial and otherwise. I believe it’s one true purpose is to move more power and wealth to those that need and deserve it the least. If you’re not prepared for ugly market moves at any moment (as most fund managers aren’t, apparently) then you should not be trading. “Expect the best, prepare for the worst.”
frankgr, Well said!
As I mentioned in another post today: I see Agora as the problem for agora promotes all of their clients the same… IMO, Rickards did not serve himself well by joining Agora and I hope he leaves them… or I amy be mistaken and it is both him and agora!
By the way, when I see a recommendation with a “symbol” I look it up first. If the chart does not pass my filters I pass!
Charts Family are my only Trusted Friends and Equalizers.
Very interesting. Thanks to all that contributed to this thread.
I would like to hear what David Stone has to say now about his gains. Thanks
Copied from net this afternoon:
Overnight a historic event took place when China, the world’s top gold consumer, launched a yuan-denominated gold benchmark as had been previewed here previously, in what Reuters dubbed “an ambitious step to exert more control over the pricing of the metal and boost its influence in the global bullion market.” Considering the now officially-confirmed rigging of the gold and silver fix courtesy of last week’s Deutsche Bank settlement, this is hardly bad news and may finally lead to some rigging cartel and central bank-free price discovery. Or it may not, because China would enjoy nothing more than continuing to accumulate gold at lower prices.
The first Chinese benchmark price, derived from a 1 kg-contract traded by 18 participants on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE), was set at 256.92 yuan ($39.69) per gram on Tuesday, equivalent to $1,234.50/ounce.
This should lower the price of all fiat currencies and may make Yellen happy.The Fed may finally get the inflation they want to bail on the cheap. Once started it often takes a deal of pain to stop.IMHO Gold should now rise against $ Pound and Euro or more correctly they will drop.. Yen is such a mess ,,,, who knows? Ironic if Yuan becomes new reserve currency down the road.
Has anyone received the latest’Penny Gold’ MIDAS system? Charging $2000. From the comments above I won’t get suckered in. Agora.
Anything from “Agora” I delete immediately if not sooner 🙂
Rickards, a most brilliant man, UNFORTUNATELY, joined Agora to market himself. Rickards letters are very informative but were never dated until as subscriber I challenged Agora and eventually they started dating the letters. Surprisingly, Agora would not let me write to Rickards directly and would not tell me if they would pass my questions to him! My subscription will not be renewed.
I have received the same solicitation as v_vacious, and I think Ill take a pass also. Thanks for the valuable info.
I just subscribed to Rickards’ Unrestricted Access, which is a lifetime subscription for $5000 to all his offerings: the Gold Speculator, 5 min forecast, currency wars alert, intelligence triggers, and strategic intelligence. Look, I’ve read a lot of comments, and I notice guys found out what it was, placed a couple of trades, lost money and got out in the 60 day period with 90% of their money. Rickards almost always suggests long dated puts, Jan 17, so I don’t know that you gave the guy half a chance. You expected him to pick winners as soon as you buy in. That would be coincidence only if you did.
I’ve looked at his writeups, and he does more analysis than I could do on my own. I’m not saying I could never have a hunch some foreign currency is going to go down, but I don’t have the time to absorb all the info I would want to collect to place these bets on my own. I’m willing to stick with the program – all investments involve risk taking, and I’m tired of looking into stocks and having my grand slam winners be something like 60%. I need to hyper charge my portfolio. Maybe you wait until the option starts moving in the direction you want, and then get in, adding a momentum trade aspect to his recommendations.
Last year I made a Google Portfolio of all the 30 stocks he recommended would go down, and guess what – 24 of them went down – SIGNIFICANTLY. He says he’s doing this to help as many people as he can. I’m sure making money is part of his desire to use Stansberry, but why reinvent the wheel when you can just use their platform? Sure, Stansberry gets a cut, but that’s capitalism; you pay people for expertise that you COULD do with time and motivation but you choose to leverage someone else to do more efficiently by doing it for a lot of customers. I’m in.
For $49 a year I am subscribed to “strategic intelligence.”
The May issue which I just finished reading is so interesting and instructive that I may change my mind and renew! IMO, Rickards is brilliant.
By the way1, I have asked Agora to never send me anything but the Letter and they have stopped do so.
By the way2, since I never buy anyone’s stocks unless they pass through my personal filters, I am safe from all buy recommendations 🙂
Maybe he’s branching out into an exercise program?
Me encanta leer a Mr. Jim Rickards, pero he olvidado mi ingles, y me cuesta muchisimo trabajo la lectura en ingles. Soy español, de 80 años y lo que he leido de él, sus libros estan en español
Some of Mr. Rickards arguments regarding the price of Gold make sense – however, his timeframe not so much. Undoubtedly at some point Gold will go to $10K per oz. one but the question is when?
Other predictions such as the Dollar declining because the Yuan it is now part of the SDR’s just do not make sense. SDRs are not a living currency and thus the addition of the Yuan to the basket should have no impact at all on the Dollar. Additionally, I have my doubts that SDRs will take over the Dollar as the de facto reserve currency. There is probably a batter chance of BitCoins becoming a reserve currency than SDRs.
So, thus far ever since I joined his newsletter all his suggestions have led to losses, at some point they may reverse but his predictions are no more accurate that the cyclical tendencies of the markets.
Agora Financial on the other hand like so many others is nothing but a boiler room operation for selling memberships.