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Richard
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Richard
January 28, 2009 4:36 pm

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.

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Tampat
Guest
Tampat
February 7, 2009 9:41 am

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.

McDrifter
Guest
McDrifter
February 7, 2009 9:42 am

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.

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farley 5
farley 5
February 7, 2009 5:11 pm

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.

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jchere
jchere
February 7, 2009 9:21 pm

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.

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adamtapps
Member
adamtapps
February 8, 2009 4:33 pm

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.

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thomas
Member
thomas
February 8, 2009 7:44 pm

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.

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jp
Guest
jp
February 8, 2009 10:02 pm

Agora in general is a scam….

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eds
Guest
eds
February 11, 2009 7:21 pm

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.

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Bernie
Guest
Bernie
February 11, 2009 11:28 pm

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.

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Darrell
Guest
Darrell
February 12, 2009 11:44 pm

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

Elton's Dad
Member
Elton's Dad
February 15, 2009 3:16 pm

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.

MJ
Guest
MJ
February 16, 2009 11:22 am

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…

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NK
Guest
NK
February 27, 2009 2:45 pm

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.

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ala
ala
March 5, 2009 4:22 pm

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

Computer Guy
Computer Guy
March 23, 2009 3:59 pm

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.

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Oliver Vandagriff
Guest
March 24, 2009 6:36 pm

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.

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MichaelC
Member
MichaelC
March 27, 2009 1:40 pm

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.

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DrH
Guest
DrH
March 28, 2009 11:11 am

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.

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john
Member
March 29, 2009 1:41 pm

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.

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