Review by Richard, January 28, 2009

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Of all the newsletter I receive, and I am a sucker for about a dozen, my favorite is Kevin Kerr’s and Bryon King’s Outstanding Investments. You can get a pretty good evaluation of a newsletter’s pitch from its recommended portfolio. I have been a subscriber to OI for a couple of years and I found that their recommended portfolio most accurately follows my own investment outlook.
A quick way to observe their investment philosophy is to list the major sectors of their portfolio. First is Oil & Gas, both drillers and servicers. Second is Power, with recommendations in coal and uranium producers, Third is Alternative Technology, with plays in geothermal, sun, and wind. Fourth is Precious Metals with suggestions of Gold, Silver, both in mining and personal accumulation. Last is Infrastructure & Logistics with transportation, and engineering taking the lead.
Following their recommendations has been quite successful for me, although they like the rest of the world have been hit hard with the current recession. However it is my opinion that their recommendations have a good chance of leading the market in its recovery.

Review by Tampat, February 7, 2009

I have subscribed to this service for about 9 months. I believe they advertise they were ranked #1 newsletter the past 5 years. When I began many of their rec’s were up a great deal, but then they got killed like so many others with the market downturn. My biggest complaint is they dont seem to recommend when to sell, looks like a long term buy and hold service. They will need some gigantic gains to get back to break even.
They do give good analysis, but I wont renew when the service is up.

Review by McDrifter, February 7, 2009

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I second what Richard said. OI does a very good job at explaining their picks and they are down to earth picks not some obscure fringe stock. I have done well with their picks in the short time I’ve been with them (2 months). The most consistent picks I have come across.

Review by farley 5, February 7, 2009

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Just a case of being in the right place at the right time and then not telling subscribers when to get out. Absolutely no consideration of supply and demand. Without names, in reverse purchase order,

Oil & Gas, -1.89%, -82.52%, -55.35%, -44.60%, -59.32%, -35.58%, -3.97%, -39.32%, -41.96%, +7% sold in5-14-08, -38.07%, -54.62%, -30.35%, +142.59% purchased in 3-10-03, +236.38% purchased in 4-1-01, and +126.70 purchased in 11-1-00.

Power, -29.89%, -38.81%, +87% sold in 12-11-07, -22%, -57.48%, -69.46%, and -16.48%.

Alternative Technology, -67.03%, -45.90%, -89.60%, -3.58%, -32.16%, -72.31%, +17.10% purchased in 6-9-06, -63.04%, and -48.62%.

Precious metals, -83.91%, -79-25%, -61.54%, +45.92% purchased in 9-5-07, -15.26%, +44.55% in 11-14-05, +79.24 in ’05, +110.76% in ’05, +110.76%, +79.03%, 165.74% in ‘01, and +293.13 in 2001.

Infrastructure, +4.94%, -19.53%, -10.78%, -64.54%, -25%, -4.86%, -33.76%, +31.67% in 2005, -29.51%, and -15.98%.

If my track record was this bad, I would be fired.

Review by jchere, February 7, 2009

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Value for the Money

I subscribed early last year. I canceled last month. I found that their recomendations looked good until I looked closer.

They list the total gain and not CAGR. As a result, the investments of 2-6 years ago have large growth #s. As they seem to buy and hold, several of the older holdings have good looking #s until you calculate CAGR. Some still have good returns but they don’t look so good as the gross numbers. Ie: 150% gain, but they have held for 5 years. Now we are talking 8.4% CAGR. Their recomendations in the last year have largely negative gains. Only by adding their old summary #s into the balance do they look good. I have done better (+12%)in the last year than what I was paying them for.

Review by adamtapps, February 8, 2009

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All their picks were losers, none of the selections reached
a positive number. Their number one rating was when the market
was doing well. There never was a sell signal on any of their
stock picks. I lost a bundle. The agora newsletter in my
opinion is a scam.

Review by thomas, February 8, 2009

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I bought Hecla at 1,, rode it up to 13 and sold, then read that OI recommended to buy it up to 15, will double to 30 in 2 years. I bought it back. Then the stock rather quickly fell to 1, and now is less than 2.
Notes to the editor Byron King did not get answered, and I found his attitude arrogant. He never told us when to get out, or acknowledge that the dynamics of the company and sector had dramatically changed.
I dont believe he is “the best newsletter performer in the last 5 years”. I will cancel within my full money back guarantee.

Review by jp, February 8, 2009

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Agora in general is a scam….

Review by eds, February 11, 2009

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Farley hit the nail on the head. Right place right time-not really much prowess. No sell disciplne, no attention to supply/demand. Has several stocks in the portfolio which are down 80% and should have recommended selling earlier. Completelty missed the commodity crash and continued recommending oil stocks right up to $147 despite the parabolic move.

Review by Bernie, February 11, 2009

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I subscribed to OI back in 2007 and I noted that most of the stock picks which had made good money had been around for awhile. Example:Eca was purchased originally in November 2000 and as of my last letter dated December 2008 stock had gained 157 percent. I cancelled in December 2008 for a lack of success. The publication is very good for information and the Editor Byron King is a very nice person but seldon ever recomends a sell. Out of 48 stocks only one had a sell and that was to sell half your holdings. Ten of the stocks were in the plus category from 18 percent to 308 percent. The stock with the 308 percent was Suncor energy purchased in April 2001. The balance of the stocks were in minus territory from a minus 3 percent to a minus 75 percent. It is in my opinion not a good choice but with the market being down, OI might be a good choice for new subscribers. One of my choices was Hecla Mining which went from my purchase price of $10.80 to $2.80 before I sold. I purchased 16 of the recomended stocks and experienced some huge losses.

Review by Darrell, February 12, 2009

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Still have a couple months left on subscription and have not made any good profits. Don’t see the value.

Review by Elton's Dad, February 15, 2009

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I have subscribed to OI for 3 years off and on. I lost money a few years ago on the last big downturn. My objection is their advertizing copy (reports) are written late in the year for next year and by the spring they are out of date. You can get sucked in with their write-ups from last year while the whole market tanks.

I agree with the thought that some time this year may be a good time for some of their quality pics to recover if you are strong enough to take further downturns and can hold for the long term–years.

Review by MJ, February 16, 2009

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I too lost a bundle on Agora’s pick of Hecla Mining. I believe it is still rated a buy on their news letter. In fact it’s worth so little I keep it in my portfolio as a reminder… Can’t say much positive about Agora except that they have a decent fundamental, entertaining out look at the markets and driving influences. They push investing in gold to the point of being obnoxious…

Review by NK, February 27, 2009

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Agree with farley 5.

OI is al about hard assets. If hard assets do good OI does good. When oil was at 147 OI subscribers were the happiest of all. Byron shud have sold off then and he knew that oil prices were too high. But the market sell off took him by surprise too like many others. But really there is no excuse for lack of timing. Otherwise i would running an advisory too.
For what it does OI is great. And who knows with peak oil coming of age maybe his portfolio will rise again like the phoenix. But still getting burnt by more than 50% is not excusable. The problem is it will always tell you to buy no matter what. It should be used in conjunction with a market timing advisory to help you get in/out at the right time.

Review by ala, March 5, 2009

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When I first subscribed just over a year ago, I did an appraisal within the first 4 months and saw that the Hulbert praise had shortcomings. Yes, they did not give an exit point or buy more now hold etc., which was the reason I left Maybury’s Early Warning Report. I decided to use a few of their recc. as a basis for my own research. I Isolated a few : MDR, NG,HL,STP,IFX,DMLtsx,TRN. Bought NG at 0.49,IFX at an aggregate of $1.05,deep & at a loss of about48%,HL at $2.60,also about -50%as I write but intend to hold on as BUY and hold for may be 2 years. I intend to renew my subscription purely as a starting point for my own due diligence

Review by Computer Guy, March 23, 2009

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I subscribed to OA in September 2008, not long before the stock market decided to tank. I have rollover IRA: I’m not currently adding money to it, and I cannot withdraw the funds without paying taxes and a substantial penalty.

I am fairly new to the stock market. I figured that some advice would be helpful, but I can’t pay for the advice with funds from the IRA itself.

So first of all, OA is an inexpensive newsletter; one should set expectations accordingly.

Second, much more savvy stockholders than I have lost their shirts in recent markets.

Third, I like the focus areas that OA has: Oil & Gas, Alternative Technology, Precious Metals, and Infrastructure & Logistics

Advice usually arrives at least monthly via E-mail just after the market closes for the day, which I find a nuisance, but I can deal with it. I’m not trying to trade often, I just want to find a good place to park the funds so they will grow.

OA often makes recommendations to buy, and occasionally to sell. A few stocks in their portfolio have the recommendation to “hold”. My semi-fixed trading balance means I have to sell something to buy something else, so I cannot easily buy all their recommendations. Currently there seem to be more losers than winners in the bunch that I selected.

Here are stocks I currently own that I bought on the recommendation of OA. Close prices are as of close on Monday, 23 Mar 2009.

Symbol Name Share Cost Close % Gain
AA Alcoa Inc $12.34 $7.28 -41.00%
AUY Yamana Gold $5.04 $9.25 83.55%
BP British Petroleum $47.26 $41.75 -11.66%
HL Hecla Mining $3.14 $2.09 -33.37%
IFX Infeon Technologies AG $3.71 $1.06 -71.43%
KGC Kinross Gold $15.21 $18.09 18.93%
MDR McDermott International $16.99 $14.19 -16.48%
NAT Nordic Am Tanker $31.78 $28.90 -9.06%
NG Nova Gold $3.12 $2.32 -25.68%

In most cases, the stock price went down at some point after the OA recommendation, so in almost every case, I was able to buy under the OA recommended entry price, sometimes by a substantial margin.

Having bought most stocks at below the recommended price, I have one clear winner: Yamana Gold, up 83.55% The other gainer is Kinross Gold, up 18.93%
Big losers include Infeon Technologies, down 71.43%, and Alcoa Inc, down 41.00%.

If I had closed out my position on these stocks today, I would have sustained a 4.64% overall loss. This is hardly a stirring endorsement for the OA newsletter, but it could be worse.

These stocks are only a small sample of the recommendations made by OA. The selection of these stocks represents my bias for precious metals, and my preference for inexpensive stocks. I do not own the same number of shares of each stock. This selection of stocks does not constitute my entire portfolio.

Agora Financial publishes a large number of newsletters, which they advertise profusely. I admit to subscribing to two other inexpensive Agora newsletters, Capital & Crisis and Penny Stock Fortunes. Reviews of those newsletters will be forthcoming. A cynical person might say that Agora starts a new newsletter every time they think up a compelling advertisement campaign.

I suspect that OA looks like a much better buy in a bull market, but that can be said of almost any financial newsletter. Since I still hold all the above stocks, the jury is still out. I plan to retire in 2020 at the age of 70, if my finances allow it. A lot can happen in 11 years. I do not know yet if I will renew in September.

Review by Oliver Vandagriff, March 24, 2009

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I subscribed to outstanding Investments about 9 months ago. If I had followed all their picks in equal amounts of stock, I would have lost more than 8%. I can only guess, but their analysts must have bought more stock (or options) in some of the winners than most of the losers. Of course they don’t share that information. I have looked for trends in trading on specific stocks on the day the email alert is received, and the following day. I have noticed that in 70% of those suggested picks, they will inevitably rise (average 4.3%) then lose it back within the next few trading periods. So my suggestion is, buy their pick (on the best performers), then sell them within 24 to 36 hours and get out. And I only buy them when I can catch them relatively low with the technicals indicating the stock is likely to rise. In other words, buy low and sell on the first rally. Period. They do not advocate that. Some of their “Holds” are down 20% or more.

Review by MichaelC, March 27, 2009

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This one did great as long as oil and commodity prices went up. No stop losses; Byron fell in love with every pick and rode them all the way down so I dropped this service last year. Customer service sucked. Nobody ever returned and e-mail question and it was a pain getting anybody on the phone.

Review by DrH, March 28, 2009

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I subscribed to OI last month. They sent me a packet of 6 folders. All of the information was old (probably 12-18 months old). They had some recommendations for companies (on their HOT LIST) that said “buy now at $32 … up to $34″. That stock is currently trading at $13 and hasn’t been $32 for over a year. Not impressed.
Over all, the companies they recommended seem to be good and their explanations for why they recommended them are good. But, with the market collapse, all of those companies are down. Now might be a good time to start buying those companies but if you would have bought them when they recommended them, you’d be down 25-50% just like the market.

Review by john, March 29, 2009

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Value for the Money

I have subscribed to OI for 2 years. I am not sure whether I will renew or not.

It is relatively cheap as newsletters go and if nothing else it is a “good read” providing lots of information and interesting stories.

As far as buying something because they recommend it goes, I have not done that very often and when I have it hasn’t worked out well. The problem? stories are so engaging that it is far too easy to to fall in love with the companies and forget that the whole purpose of investing and trading is to make money.

It is a good source of potential watchlist additions, but as for entering positions I thing you need to develop your own criteria.

As mentioned before, when natural resources enter another uptrend, this one will probably start looking better.

One thing I DO appreciate is that by leaving their picks on the list for a long time they are being more honest about their performance than most. How many services show you a list of just winners with no reference to their misses? Too many in my experience.

Review by Greg, March 30, 2009

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I’ve subscribed to Outstanding Investments for about six months now. They are the good, the bad, and the ugly of investment newsletters. The good is they provide some interesting ideas and a good general education into market segments that should have some long term value. The bad is as previously stated, they don’t adjust their portfolio or holdings to account for the substantial market turbulance that we have today, rather sticking to more of a longer term buy and hold philosphy which is risky in today’s bear market. The bad is they have a horrible “read non-existent” statement of risk. I was reading a marketing piece from them yesterday and asking myself is this piece even legal under the SEC regulations? I always thought that every piece of advertising needed a balanced view of the risks and the rewards, but this piece had only the rewards and NONE of the risk even though the underlying assets were options that are hugely risky. This newsletter has value in the information, but certainly buyer beware…

Review by NYCguy, April 25, 2009

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I have subscribed to OI for many years (from shortly after Meyers left as editor). OI picks in the natural resource sector, especially oil/ngas were very good. However, their timing is non-existent. So if you were an early subscriber like me, you might have made 100% or more on some of the picks, but if you didn’t sell you’ve given it all back and then some. I can’t recommend this newsletter because it doesn’t take profits, use stop losses, or use any sort of hedging technique to minimize the risk. However, I do enjoy Byron King’s writing, and Kevin Kerr is a genius/guru.

Review by Max, April 29, 2009

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They had a good run for 5 years on PM, energy, oil etc. but they never sold anything even though their other newsletters warned about the impending doom that came late 08. At the top the portfolio was up huge, but at the bottom? early 09 out of maybe close to 100 stocks only a few were in the black. Stocks went from +190% to -50% in few months!

This newsletter is concentrating mostly PM, oil etc. so until they start moving again there is no hope for it. Only thing that is good is the price: $69.

Review by John, May 2, 2009

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I just cancelled my subscription after 3 months. With the low price, I did not expect a lot. However, it has less to offer than I expected. I like their areas of focus mentioned in the first review, but their picks are pretty conventional. You can come up with a lot of these yourself without a lot of work. They take a couple of pages to review each pick, but there are very few original ideas in the writeup - most of the info can be found on the company’s website. Also, there is very little follow up of previous picks. Nearly all their active picks are rated “buy” with no ranking. Some of these go back to the early 2000’s with no apparent followup since then. I guess they want you to take their word for - sort of the color by numbers investing style -just do what you’re told. In short, if you’re going to pay for advice, there should be more original content and occasional followup on recommendations.

Review by Barbara, May 26, 2009

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Overall, I’m a VERY happy subscriber. That is, I’m a happy “$1-per-week” subscriber to a $50 newsletter.

I subscribed to Outstanding Investments in May 2008. It was just as oil was running up to $147. When I signed up, I vowed that I would not just plunge in and start buying stocks just because some newsletter writer was talking about them. For a $1-per-week newsletter, I wanted to spend a couple of months just reading the email updates and other issues. I figured I’d just take it from there. At $50 per year it seemed like a good way to get some education.

I don’t think I was all that “smart” by not buying into the list of OI stocks. Maybe it’s just me being cautious. All the same, I didn’t buy into any of the OI recommendations until the fall. When the stock market started to tank in August and September, I froze. But in November I figured that stock prices were really low. (Yeah, they could go lower.) But my gut instinct said to start buying, and this time I used many of the OI stocks as a guide.

The end result is that by starting to buy from the OI list last November and December, I’ve done REALLY WELL with the OI stocks. I picked up a bunch of great stocks at super-bottom prices - energy, oil service, gold, others. I’ve been riding the price appreciation through the winter and into the spring.

It’s not just the stock ideas, either. I like the weekly emails from the editor Byron King. He’s incredibly smart about energy issues, and understands precious metals. He must spend a great deal of time studying and learning the subject matter, because he puts things into a great context.

Really, if all you want are the stock picks, you’re missing the best part of the newsletter. You’re not enjoying a great, running dialog with a super-smart guy who understands how the world works. For those of you who complain about how you “lost money” by following an advice newsletter that costs $1 per week? Well, maybe you’re getting what you paid for.

Review by JHEII, July 14, 2009

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Been a subscriber for several years and just have not got the hang of this newsletter nor made any good profits. Today’s email gave almost 20 sells almost all will be losers so Agora must be planning something new or they think the world is ending.

I will not resubscribe as I am trying to extricate myself from all the Agora Publications which have all been losers for me.

Review by Kevin, July 15, 2009

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Just look at the stocks on the back of the newsletter - the overall performance has been a disaster for the last few years. You can agree with their long term philosophy, but that does not make them good stock pickers or market timers. They claim to be long term “buy and hold”, but they occasionally give sell recommendations, but always on a stock in which they have lost a fortune. I can not recall ever seeing them give a sell recommendation on a stock which they had made money.

Review by oilman, July 30, 2009

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I subscribed to this for one year, but fortunately didn’t buy anything they recommended. The paper losses were about 80% loss in one year! If you note their “up” picks, they picked them several years ago. Anything they have recommended in the last year or two has been an absolute disaster. If you were lucky enough to buy in Jan-March, sure they are up, but so is everything.

Look at their recommended purchase price, and where it is now. Disaster after disaster.

Customer service was non-existant and they refused to answer my emails.

Agora Publishing basically has over 150 newsletters they produce. They loudly trumpet the (very) few that are temporarily up, and totally ignore the poor performers (until they are temporarily hot). When they give poor advice, which is often, they totally ignore it. It never happened. Then they tout their lastest newsletter to get folks hooked and money coming in the door.

Review by wesm, August 24, 2009

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Outstanding Investments–Agora Financial Group. Well written. Seems to give in depth analysis, but like all advisors I read, the picks are not up to much. I think advisors problem right now are the tricky times were are in. Wesm

Review by GudStock, September 9, 2009

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Subscribed early ‘08 to Out. Inv., after seeing them ranked so highly in Hulberts. You can imagine their ‘performance’ the next 1-1/2 yrs., however I DID renew since every newsletter(as well as almost every investment)TANKED! I still like them, I subscribe to several newsletters, however THANK GOODNESS I finally discovered “Stock Gumshoe,” cause those Teaser ads drove me crazy! Thank you, Stock GumShoe.

Review by Martin C, September 14, 2009

Outstanding Investments Byron King
Picked the beleaguered oils early this decade. Superior performance.

Review by Gary Nole, November 18, 2009

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Interesting to Read/Educational	Not Rated
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Value for the Money

I bought the Outstanding Investments newsletter for the gold recommendation. It said that NG(Nova Gold) was its best gold recc. I have found now that of all of the minor gold stocks available that NG is the very worst of them all performance wise. It has stagnated, gone up and then gone down to about where it started. All I will say is O. I. reccs are not very good on gold.Very disappointed .