“Unclaimed Dividends: 2-page form, collect $1,200” Jeff Clark

by Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe | July 7, 2008 8:29 pm

This article originally appeared on June 3, it has not been updated.

“If you complete and return the 2-page form sampled above, your broker could pay you $2,100 in less than 2 weeks. What’s even more incredible is that soon after you could receive an additional check for about $1,200.”

That’s the latest “free money” tease from the folks at Stansberry & Associates — leading us into a letter that promises income without having to buy a single share of stock (or bonds, or anything else like that). Could it possibly be real?

Well, the short answer is, “sort of” — as long as you don’t believe that it’s really completely “Free.”

And the long answer? Well, for that let’s peruse our clues:

Apparently, if you fill out this two-page form before June 12 and send it to your broker, you could get $2,100 on that date after you give your broker “two instructions.”

All you have to add to the form are “name, address, phone number, and a few other basic details.”

Of course, we all know what’s in the details … that’s right, the devil. Eeek!

The example of Smith Barney is used …

“Like all brokerage firms, Smith Barney accumulates millions of dollars through buying and selling stocks, trading options[1], and charging annual maintenance fees.

“But what you may not realize is that Smith Barney (like every other U.S. brokerage firm, whether online, discount or full service), is legally required to pass on a portion of this cash to anyone who wants it.

“For example, if you had filled out Smith Barney’s 2-page form at the beginning of last year, you could have since collected up to $6,500.
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“You see… each month, brokerage firms offer payouts to those who fill out a 2-page form requesting what I call ‘unclaimed dividends[2]’.

“I call these payouts ‘unclaimed dividends’, because most investors don’t know about them and, as a result, the money usually sits unclaimed.

“Naturally, you won’t collect this money unless you ask for it. There isn’t a single brokerage firm in America who will offer it to you upfront.

“But if you take the time to fill out a simple 2-page form (which I’ll explain below), you’re entitled to receive as much as $2,100, effective immediately.”

What on earth are they talking about? Smith Barney is required to pass on a portion of their cash to us? Really?

Again, “sort of” … but not really. Let’s continue.

There are some more clues.

There is an “approval process” after you submit this form (meaning, the broker has to approve you for this “dividend.”)

We get a few quotes: Kiplinger’s apparently noted in this article that this kind of trading was the “province of professional traders.”

And some Minnesota farmer named Jim Bracklin apparently invests exclusively in this, according to Barron’s. No, I don’t know who he is, either.

So what else do we know about collecting “unclaimed dividends” — aside from the fact that Jeff Clark[3] thinks this is the “single best income generating strategy in the world?”

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There are a few more quotes that help to illuminate the issue …

“You fill out a little-known 2-page form that allows you to collect the money that other people – those who trade options – send to their brokerage firm. One of the best things about this opportunity is that you can collect these payouts whether the markets go up or down. It sounds a little complicated – and that’s another reason why 99% of the investment public has no idea this opportunity even exists.”

And, more usefully,

“… as author Lee Lowell[4] states: Collecting ‘unclaimed dividends’, ‘is not a secret, arcane system that only a physics scholar will understand… it is a time-tested, legitimate strategy and is an incredible way to earn passive income… ‘

OK, so no surprise — this has something to do with options trading (the “no surprise” is because we’ve written quite a bit about Jeff Clark before, for his California Overnight Dividends, Transfer Dividends, etc., and apparently all of his strategies are options-based)

And how can you get other peoples’ options trading money without buying stock yourself, or buying call or put options?

There’s really only one way — selling call or put options. And since you don’t own the stock, this would be what is usually called “naked” selling of options.

Selling a naked call option, for example, would mean that you sell someone else the right to buy a particular stock at a particular price before a particular date. If you’re “naked” then you don’t actually own the stock, so if the person exercises that option you’ll have to buy the stock in order to sell it to them. For that reason, your broker will probably require you to have a portion of that amount of cash needed to purchase those shares in your account, in case.

I’m not sure that this is what Clark typically recommends — it could certainly be true that he recommends more complex trades like straddles or strangles or various animalistic options trading strategies like Condors or Butterflies to manage risk and boost returns. But he clearly is recommending an options trading strategy that does not involve actually owning the stock, which would be the more conservative (in my opinion) “covered” puts or calls.

So this is an advanced type of options trading — much different than what the typical individual investor might do, which generally falls into three … OK, four … categories:

And to do this kind of more complicated, advanced, or sometimes riskier options trading requires approval from your broker, just like basic put and call buying — it’s just another level of approval. That’s what the two page form is for, though some brokers do it online. And that’s the reason for the “requirements” for the service:

“You see brokerage firms value long term relationships with their customers and in order to allow you to collect ‘unclaimed dividends’, your broker requires that you have a cash reserve on hand. This way they know that you’re a serious investor who isn’t just going to collect these payouts once or twice and then hit the road.

“You should also have at least 5 years of investing experience.

Remember: Jeff will only apply ADVANCED income strategies. They are very easy to use once you learn how, but they are definitely not intended for novices.”

They’re not actually even available for novices, unless you lie on the forms — brokers will require a certain number of years of experience trading stocks and options before providing approval for this kind of advanced options trading. And you will have to have a cash reserve — so you can say that you “don’t have to buy” any stock, but you do have to have the cash available to do so. Having that cash available to buy the shares if the put is exercised, for example, is what covers a “naked put” if you bet incorrectly.

And no, you’re not getting free money from your broker, and they’re not “required” to share their wealth with you — that’s just a greed-inducing smokescreen. They are required to give you any money that you make by trading profitably, of course, but that’s no surprise. This is just another kind of trading, one most brokers will allow you to do, but which most of them don’t particularly market or encourage (some do, and there are certainly plenty of brokers who particularly focus on options, but most of the older ones will still probably consider it a sideline).

If you’re interested in options trading, anywhere along the spectrum of strategies from risky to risk-averse, there are lots of useful places to go to read up on them — OptionPundit.net is run by one of our Irregulars[6] and has some interesting articles about his (or her, I don’t know) strategies[7], and you can always go in to the Chicago Board Options Exchange site for the official stuff. CBOE gives a nice list of worksheets for most of the common options strategies here[8]. If you request permission to trade options, at any level (buying calls, selling covered calls, selling puts, doing fancier flim flammery, etc.), your broker will require you to read (OK, at least pretend to read) the CBOE booklet, “Characteristics and Risks of Standard Options[9].” I’d suggest actually reading it.

Jeff Clark has been getting a lot of promotion from Stansberry for the last six months or so as a great options trader, and the claim is that performance for his services has been spectacular — this particular one is Advanced Income[10], but he also has a more-highflying and expensive newsletter called the Short Report.

I don’t know whether his record is genuinely as good as promised, but certainly it is possible to make a good income from options trading, and particularly from selling options (you’ll usually hear about selling options as an income strategy, and buying options as a speculative leveraging strategy), but you do need to understand that these are fairly advanced techniques that often require quick and/or active trading, and if you don’t understand them well you can easily get fleeced — either by an advisor who sells you a service that doesn’t work for you, or by failing to manage your risks in actual trading.

I can’t tell you whether or not to try any particular service, and there were no specific clues about his next trade in this ad so I don’t know what he’ll be recommending you buy or sell on June 12 … but I can tell you that you’ll be better off in any options trading service if you have a pretty good understanding of options trading, and perhaps even paper trade some options to see how they perform, before you send anyone else your money.


Want to keep up with the Gumshoe? Click here to subscribe now — free email alerts.[11]

Endnotes:
  1. options: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/options/
  2. dividends: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/dividends/
  3. Jeff Clark: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/jeff-clark/
  4. Lee Lowell: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/lee-lowell/
  5. leverage: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/leverage/
  6. Irregulars: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/donate
  7. some interesting articles about his (or her, I don’t know) strategies: http://www.optionpundit.net/articles
  8. worksheets for most of the common options strategies here: http://cboe.com/Strategies/DefaultEquity.aspx
  9. Characteristics and Risks of Standard Options: http://cboe.com/Resources/Intro.aspx
  10. Advanced Income: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/advanced-income/
  11. Click here to subscribe now — free email alerts.: http://www.stockgumshoe.com/free-stuff

Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/reviews/advanced-income/unclaimed-dividends-2-page-form-collect-1200-jeff-clark/


18 responses to ““Unclaimed Dividends: 2-page form, collect $1,200” Jeff Clark”

  1. Investor person says:

    If Mr Barney wants to really help people he needs to get the feds to lower the boom on the small print of some of the teaser guys working the internet. Make them pay when they say you will get rich if you use my service, I have an excellnt pick for the week. Like the “best damned penny stock” pick of exto. How many people got burned on this one? They should have to give back the moneey. CTGLF was another one. A guy in New York kept promoting this stock ASSURING it was going on the good list on wall street. It went to the pink sheets, people lost big time. I even had his phone number in new york and talked to him. what a scamer he was. The feds covered for these guys by saying put in a disclosure. SCAM! We need to start prosecuting these people!

  2. SageNot says:

    I see that the Stansberry copywriters have been let loose again, I picked up on your use of the word “fleeced” Travis, even experienced option pros can get fleeced in an ultra volatile market gyration.

    To think that Jeff Clark offered the initial “Advanced Income” letter for well under $100./yr as late as April, 2008 makes you wonder. Made me cancel that ‘tease’ too!

  3. Randy H says:

    Thanks Gumshoe — as always, enjoyed your analysis and screening out the crap. As an ex-Short Report subscriber, I’m highly suspicious of Jeff’s win record. Of course we always hear about the wins and never hear about his loss record, such as the losing options recommendations in the last 12 months. He’s obviously an experienced trader who has figured out there’s a lot less risk in simply writing about options. Keep up the great work.

  4. Tom D says:

    Thanks Gumshoe
    I recently cancelled my subscription to the Short report.Randy H said it best, Jeff Clark doesn’t talk about his losers, and the customer service reps will not respond to your inquiries about not being able to get into trades or anything else negative about the service.Options trading is not for everyone.The people at S&A make it sound easy.
    My advice STAY AWAY from these people.

  5. Stu G says:

    For the record, I’ve made a LOT of money using Jeff Clark’s option recommendations. I find his approach to be consitently well thought out and his trading approach to be quite conservative in the sense that when a position goes his way, he usually suggests taking some $ off the table. He also admits when he’s wrong nad gives advice accordingly. Are all his trades winners? Nope. Have I made a lot more $ than I’ve lost? Yep. Options are inherently risky, and anyone gong into an options trade should have clearly defined entance and exit stragies in place before doing the trade. Jeff is pretty good at defining his target prices and manges trades well.

  6. JohnnnyB says:

    I like Jeff Clark. Why? Because of all of the traders who write for Stansberry he consistently is emailing his thoughts and feelings about trades he has recommended while we are in the trade. He doesn’t leave you dangling, in other words. He’s there saying hang on this will turn around or the market turned on us we need to cut our loses. He is an excellent teacher as well. He constantly illustrating in easy to understand terms what the trade is with charts, graphs etc. On the Stansberry site is a section where you can read about options in all there various forms and how to apply them to your own investment needs. I wish I could give Jeff my savings and let him invest it for me. Jeff writes like a man who is sincerely concerned about the subscribers he writes to and wants nothing but the best for them. Among the Stansberry newsletter writers I rate him at the top. His ways convey to me a deep feeling of trust.

    That said, your service to the investor community with Stock GumShoe is also excellent. The teaser portion of the industry is just the noise I guess we will have to put up with as we all search for the synphony characterized by a genuine newsletter writer that we can all trust. Thank you, thank you, thank you – you to have been a good teacher and your outlook is very instructive.

  7. brenda says:

    This is great — thanks for the helpful comments.

    I really appreciate hearing both sides about services like this, I think that’s part of what helps folks decide how to choose a financial advisor/newsletter that meets their needs — and to remind them that if it doesn’t meet their needs, there are hundreds more out there … to say nothing of the fact that perhaps not subscribing to any newsletters is also perfectly rational for many investors.

  8. Bluebonnet says:

    StockGumshoe, I love you. So glad I found your site. You tell it like it is.
    As far as options are concerned, I am learning as much as I can as quickly as I can. The last few years have seen our accounts at three mainline brokerage firms lose as much as 30% in these so called “managed” accounts. Phooey. I have done better myself with an online account at a low cost brokerage. At least I can go to cash when I think it is necessary.
    My latest is to learn how to buy and sell OPTIONS. I am paper trading at ThinkorSwim. Their software is great and I can paper trade at no charge while I learn. I am also taking a Home Study Course from Optionetics.
    Learning how to manage risk is their main thrust. They emphasize that before you even get into a trade, you MUST have an exit strategy.
    Again, Stock Gumshoe thanks for your service!
    Lynda

  9. Spencer White says:

    How do I buy Seadrill? The stock (under SDRLF?) showed no movement yesterday, and when I tried to place an order through Schwab it bounced it. Thanks,I want to take advantage of the opportunity, but am obviously missing something.

    Spence

  10. Edafiejire Mudiaga says:

    The thing is that I want to buy good shares from reputable companies abroad because I live in Nigeria. I want you to send me some financial opportunities that I can buy from here in Nigeria.

  11. Lawless says:

    S&A Short Report isn’t that great. Most of Mr. Clark’s recommendations are impossible to get into – by the time you read his email and go to the market, the price will usually be beyond buying range. His paper profits track record is probably calculated under the untruthful assumption that you’ll get to buy all the options at the price he recommends. I think you might be more interested in what’s happening in real life. I can tell you that my actual S&A Short Report trades were profitable from March through August this year, but since then, losses have eaten up all the profits. Mr. Clark’s stock recommendations have been outright disastrous – on average, 1 profitable trade out of 5. I will not extend my subscription for another year.

  12. Flogeneskiskiz says:

    vswxbqwwgkhmgzlzwell, hi admin adn people nice forum indeed. how’s life? hope it’s introduce branch 😉

  13. Stansberry Research says:

    If you have any questions about Stansberry and Associates, please do not hesitate to call customer service at 1-888-261-2693. We would be happy to assist you. We are open Monday – Friday 9-5 EST.

  14. John C. Reyes says:

    I can’t believe that you guys actually put up this kind of s_ _ _ for people who actually are looking for some kind of miracle like “Unclaimed” dividends! I, too, believed there was such a “Un”claimed dividend!! What a lousey joke! Come Monday morning (5/28/12), I “will” cancel The Sovereign Individual!

  15. Deborah T says:

    Just wondering if anyone has any experience with Options Animal. By the way, S&A Short Report is now 4000.00 annually.

    Thanks

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