Author/Editor
Byron King
Publisher
Agora Financial
Description
This monthly newsletter focuses on natural resources investments.
Overall Rating
Rating: 2.7/5. From 3 votes.
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2.8
Rating from 12 votes
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Investment Performance
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Rating: 2.3/5. From 3 votes.
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Quality Of Writing/Analysis
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Rating: 3.7/5. From 3 votes.
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Value For Price
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Rating: 2.3/5. From 3 votes.
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Customer Service
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Rating: 2.7/5. From 3 votes.
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I think a lot of folks that subscribe to this kind of investment material think that they’re going to invest in recommendations that are going to give instant gratification – and if they don’t, then it’s a ‘scam’ (remember when you assumed your home value would keep going up 8% a year?). I’m enjoying the irony of all of those commenters from last year that formed a negative opinion about OI from the Hecla Mining recommendation (just one example). Well with a little hindsight, that worked out well, didn’t it? Look, you bombed out on the SAME stock that I’m doing exceptionally well with simply because you got OI’s recommendation (at $11) before I, a more recent subscriber, did (at $3). Same newsletter / same stock – different result. But look at what has happened since (personally, I think an even $11 purchase on Hecla might look good a few years from now).
Look, I can only form an opinion on OI based on my own experience, but that experience so far has been fantastic. I realized that I needed some professional guidance after a period of some hits and more misses on my own – and the simple fact is I’m doing far better using OI as a guide than I was prior. I believe all you can ask of anyone that provides stock recommendations is for a well-researched, good basis for the recommendation. YOU have to understand that you’re taking on some risk from there. I feel like I get excellent research and a good basis for the recommendations – and all for a relatively paltry price.
If I have a complaint . . . I really wish OI would add a simple ‘hold’ recommendation to the over-simple ‘buy’ and ‘sell’ ratings. OI has a great portfolio but they leave it a little vague on where to really zero in on from purchase to purchase. It’s difficult to look at a portfolio of 40+ companies – all of which are rated ‘BUY’. How about adding ‘hold’ (which means don’t buy at the moment) and various buy levels (like strong buy, moderate buy, etc.) like the rest of the world.
Keep in mind guys, we live in a world where energy is becoming scarce and fiat currency is losing value – OI offers recommendations that will help we the investor cope with, and perhaps profit greatly from, those realities. The OI portfolio holdings are, IMO, crafted for events that are looming on the horizon.
Check your ‘day trader’ hat at the door and you’ll be very happy with OI, in my humble opinion.
I subscribed for a year or so and dropped it because it underperformed the market. Since Hulbert ranked it high I resubscribed, but again it underperformed and I wont reneww
I appreciate and found Byron’s insights into the oil & metals field very interesting.
That aside, after paying and signing up, I found all of the materials they sent were clearly out of date by about 2 years!! All this talk of deep water drilling, and no mention of BP or how public perception may have changed since the accident! They clearly try to disguise the age of the articles; there are no dates anywhere in the articles. But most importantly, the articles mention great gains on all these investments, but it is not clear the timeframe they are talking about.. a 267% increase sounds good.. but maybe it’s over 10 years, which isn’t very good at all.
Agora Financial’s other email advice and other articles appear to be pure spam/garbage to sign up for more newsletters. To their credit, they did refund my money without any problem. I do like reading Byron’s views, and if they were timely I would even take some of his advice. But don’t send me a 2 year (or even a 2 month old report) if I’m paying for advice.
i approciate reading this review. what i want to say is what people might have forgetten is to use a “good ’til cancel” order as protection against loss. use those fibinacci ratios/charts to find support and resistance levels. do not take more than 5% to 7% loss. ok so what if the stock goes up after it was automatically sold? well thats just the insurance you pay for disaster.
I have been a subscriber for over 5 years. I have consistently made money on their recommendations. They pick the cream of the crop of the natural resource sector, mostly large caps plays. Yes, these resource stocks tanked when the market crashed a couple of years ago along with EVERYTHING else. But almost all of them have recovered to pre-crash levels and then some. I have only two complaints: There are a ton of stocks in their portfolio and it may be hard to buy all of them if you follow other services as well; and they don’t follow a stop loss strategy. If you believe the natural resource sector is where you want part of your portfolio, then you won’t find a better value for the money. Just follow your own stop losses as you should with all of your investments.
The most vexing aspect of receiving this letter is the deluge of manipulative pitches (averaging 3 per day) that arrive in the inbox of subscribers. I have repeatedly asked to receive only the newsletter in question and not any other related offers and updates and customer service does not respond to my emails. I have written customer service three times and received nothing in response. The overtly smug political tone of everything they send also makes a huge assumption about subscribers that is annoying, to say the least. But that’s just the personality of this service, how about the performance?
I’m interested in the precious metals area and subscribed for that content. I’m not interested in the energy stocks and don’t pay attention to that portion of the content. The precious metals recommendations are, so far, entirely underwhelming. If you follow the sector at all, you’ll find Byron tipping all the old favorites: metal streamers, known miners, unleveraged ETFs etc. Looking at his portfolio’s performance over time, you can see that his batting average isn’t too hot . . . but then again, at the moment, it’s hard to look good in this sector.
I will not renew my subscription when offered the choice.
I subscribed for a couple of years then dropped it in a newsletter cull. It was always an interesting and educational read from a geological standpoint. I never lost money on any of the recommendations, because I never bought one!
Well written, have had some good picks.
Byron King maintains a high rating for his OI investment letter by keeping 12 year old picks in gold funds/stocks that were made by his predecessor. He rarely ever issues a sell reco or takes profits (in the three years I subscribed), just keeps piling up ever larger portfolio that no one could possible keep up with. Doesn’t use trailing stops so large losses can and do occur, like during the gulf BP disaster.
But the most money I lost was with his Energy & Scarcity Investor letter. I lost many multiples of the over priced $1500/yr I paid ONCE investing in those picks! Not even one of 5 stocks I bought into failed to crash.
What does your newsletter cost?
I subscribed for 4 or5 years prior to 2008 – they focus on ‘hard assets’ meaning oil and metals – they did well in rising market but did not predict the collapse – I lost some but then quit subscribing
I subscribed for 4 or 5 years, and early on I had some winners from following his recommendations. As time passed, however, the performance became poor to the point that I lost significantly and ceased to subscribe.