Description
Recommends trades using forex options.
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CURRENCY OPTIONS INSIDER / BRIAN T. MIKES / Hyperion
Ok, so I’ve recently starting trading options and received Brian T. Mikes pitch via email. He claimed he’s made his readers a lot of money with currency options. I looked at his track record and for his picks EVERY SINGLE ONE was listed as a winner. BUT, and this is a big but, he puts as his “exit” point the absolute highest price the option traded at during his time period. I’ve now found out that in practice this is COMPLETELY USELESS & MISLEADING. On a Euro option position that I just exited at a loss he emailed his readers that “he hoped we took a 20% profit”. It may have briefly traded at a 20% profit, but unless you sit in front of the computer all day, you certainly didn’t see it! What about stop loss and limit orders? Well, I suppose I could have locked in that 20% profit if I put in a good till cancelled limit order at 20% higher than I bought the option at, but I didn’t get into the currency options game to limit my profits at 20%. Currency options are EXTREMELY volatile; they bounce all over the place and hence risky. I didn’t get into the currency game where in every trade 50-100% of your money is at risk to limit profit potential. I was hoping Brian Mikes had any particular insight and could pick real TRENDS. He can’t. On a recent Swiss Franc Call option pick just three days later the Swiss federal bank cut rates and the options tumbled. I lost over 50%! Also, he does not provide any constant email alerts or follow ups. The day the Swiss bank cut rates he didn’t send out any alerts or suggestions. He only sends out a weekly alert on Fridays; what was I supposed to do – wait until Friday as the option tumbled further? The newsletter is also very pricey. $285 per quarter. I should have known, like all touts, if Brian Mikes had any real insight or proprietary knowledge he would keep it to himself and make millions on his own instead of pitching newsletters – he just launched another one “Section rotation strategy”.
Bottom line: You would do just as well (probably better) with currency options by reading the wall street journal every day, especially the section on currency/forex.
I’ve been subscribed to this service since about April 2008 when it first came out. Overall, I’ve had very good success with Brian’s picks. Obviously not every pick has gone up, but most have (and some are up a substantial amount- like the British Pound puts from October that I made over 800% on)
What I like about the service is that this guy really seems to have a handle on the currency markets. He keeps me informed on what’s going on with the 6 major currencies and his previous picks.
I also like the fact that he’s not stubborn about his trades. If a trade goes wrong, he’s not afraid to admit it and change course. I have other subscriptions where the writer doggedly sticks to a losing ‘theory’ about a particular trade idea and just keeps reissuing basically the same trade over and over.
One thing I wish was a little different is the number of trades put out. Personally, I’d like to see more than 2-3 per month. But overall I can’t complain as I’ve had some nice profits with this program despite the market.
My experiences with Brian Mikes Currency Options Insider do not lead me to recommend them. I took a 3 month subscription & took my time to get going with it, read through the 3 pdf’s several times to try & get my head around it as I had never traded currencies before. I ended up taking Mike’s advice to just “jump in” after which it would make all make sense. All trades are US $ settled on the PHX.
First trade $AU/US call. I purchased my contracts at well below the price recommended (happy) & watched as the $AU strengthened against the $US then realised that I didn’t actually understand if I was making a profit due to the rise in the price of the options contract or in the difference between the price of the $AU when I purchased & the price when I sold (say .4c x 10,000 which is the size of the contract. I re read all the instructions & this was not made clear anywhere.
I emailed the helpdesk & asked how did I determine the profits? If it was by the increased options value where could I find out what the new value was? I also asked for a definition of the terms “support & resistance” in relation to knowing when I had made a profit. As the other ex subscriber pointed out you get no updated information on when to exit, or currency moves on the trades in either direction.
They replied that they could not assist me & to contact a broker for advice. I then asked them to either point me to the page in their instructions where I would find this necessary information or to create an additional page & send it to me so it would not be deemed “private advice”. Or better still post it on the website under Q & A as other people may also be having the same problems. They declined.
Given I had just had my 3 month subscription renewed for $295 US ($400 Aus) I wasn’t impressed, & suggested they send my cancellation email to Mr Mikes. Sadly they said he apparently he gets 1,000’s of emails each week & wouldn’t have time to read it. Perhaps I could keep an eye out in the weekly updates (what after I had cancelled?). Good work Hyerion & stellar customer service.
I understand that by SEC rules they cannot give independent investment advice but all I wanted was some clarfication of what they had already supplied to me.
I have subscribed for almost 2 years, seduced by the supposed returns. I am experienced in options but lousy at Forex, so I really hoped this service would provide some real profits for me. The opposite has been true. Most of reco’s have lost me money. True, he show’s every one as a winner but I never got anywhere near those fills. Often the spread on the options are so large you could drive a bus through them.
In his reco he so often says, “in case of a pullback, exit the position” which I (and probably plenty of other subscribers)do. Once out we don’t follow it, and he does not update it. In fact, to quote him on his “Open Position Updates”.
“Just a quick note: Remember, we won’t update every open position every week. I try to focus on the positions that have some significant news or price movement.”
Heck, for a $1,000 bucks a year he should be updating every position and giving timely exit / entry advice, or at the very least propose stops and limits.
I’ve now cancelled and the only payback I’ve had is that I’ve been mostly selling his reco’s over the last 9 months and then buying them back almost worthless.
Mikes has done wonders for my portfolio and therefore also my kids college funds and my boat fund! hehe While he has predominantly bullish attitude sometimes he surprises you ( in my case very pleasantly) by unexpected moved. I have had a few frustrating losses but most of his picks are complete and utter winners. I have tripled my investment in a matter of 7 months and won basically every trade since I started paying closer attention to the email and website updates. In this game it’s you snooze, you loose, so it’s very important to be on your top game and check for updates once a day. If you have a passion for trading and are willing to do some work the options insider will do magic for you.