Become a Member

Oxford Club / The Communique

Overall Rating

Rating: 4.3/5. From 664 votes.
Please wait...
4.4
Rating from 2800 votes
If you’ve subscribed to Oxford Club / The Communique, please click the stars below to indicate your rating for this newsletter, and please share any other feedback about your experience using the comment box below.

Investment Performance

Rating from 784 votes
Rating: 4.3/5. From 784 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote

Quality Of Writing/Analysis

Rating from 676 votes
Rating: 4.6/5. From 676 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote

Value For Price

Rating from 676 votes
Rating: 4.5/5. From 676 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote

Customer Service

Rating from 664 votes
Rating: 4.3/5. From 664 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote
guest

12345

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

210 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Skeeter
Guest
Skeeter
January 28, 2009 3:29 pm

The Communique is the monthly newsletter that the Oxford Club produces. It is definitely an interesting read. There are specific trade recommendations given as are the explanations of why they are recommending them. You receive this newsletter every month regardless of the level of membership you join at. I believe the higher the membership the earlier you receive it, but not certain on this.
I originally subscribe to the Oxford Club in 2003 at the minimum level $99 to try it out. I was tracking the recommendations before I joined any deeper. I would say most panned out.
I did join later at the highest level of membership for $5000. I did have issues after joining for I feel I did not receive but about half of what I should have received and I did complain but did not receive any customer service at all, they had my money now. I joined specifically for a certain newsletter portion and started receiving it but then they stopped sending it. I got caught in the middle of changes at the time I joined so, they decided not to give me access to the things I thought I was going to have. They separated the newsletters into different offerings and although I joined before they did that, I still did not get all of them as expected.

Overall, I would say it is information and I paid, not getting a refund, so I guess I have to take what I can get.

Add a Topic
2112
Add a Topic
6291
Add a Topic
366
John Parken
Member
John Parken
January 29, 2009 3:05 pm

I am a regular member. You receive the “Communique” twice monthly. I have to say that their advice is usually spot on. I especially like their 25% trailing stops on stock buys. I usually go a bit lighter and sell at a 20% stop loss. The one thing about them is that they continually push their higher priced products claiming even better returns. I don’t bite on any of that stuff. It’s just a simple “delete” in my email inbox. That’s why I rated their customer service as so-so. Overall, I would give their picks an A-. I must say I have made money with them, and did not lose as much as the ordinary investor in this bear market.

Add a Topic
2112
Add a Topic
6291
Add a Topic
5971
Dusty
Guest
Dusty
January 29, 2009 10:24 pm

Oxford Club is entry level, a screen for finding prospects to whom a pitch can be made for more expensive offerings. The stock picks are OK but it is important to buy them about the same time they are added to the Club Portfolio and sell them when advised. The fine bragging record of OC picks depends upon buys at the bottom of the Telecom Crash and selling at the end of 2007 or very early 2008. Little concern is given to the current chaos. It is not a time to be invested for bull market conditions and this is all the Club is set up for. They are presently providing picks to buy and sell- usually at a loss- so subscribers will think that the system is doing something. I paid my subscription in the spring of 2006 because someone I respected was a ‘member.’ I intend to let my subscription lapse at the end of this cycle. I was pushed to ‘buy’ at the top of the market and as my portfolio values fell I was hit with both ‘sell’ and advice that selling is the wrong thing to do. I did keep the “Perpetual Income” CEF’s. Oxford Club is still pushing ‘buy’ on those. Judgement will have to wait until all this is over. They also are haughty about their “Allocation Model.” Good advice, but impractical for a small investor. They could care less. Oxford Club is a part of Agora and Agora overall, in my opinion, should be viewed with skepticism and extreme caution; especially so by the small and independent investor.

Add a Topic
366
Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
996
MachineGhost
Member
MachineGhost
March 19, 2017 12:07 pm
Reply to  Dusty

Looks like you sold near the bottom too?

Chicken Little
Guest
Chicken Little
February 7, 2009 10:08 am

I’ve subscribed since 2005. I found their recommendations better than average with several spectacular ones. They use a 25% trailing stop and this bear market really hammered them. For a time, the entire “Trading Portfolio” was stopped out and empty. They seem to have gotten back on track of late with some recent picks doing well.

BTW, the Communique is published twice monthly except there is no mid-month report in January. And starting this month, the mid-month report is available only on-line; it will no longer be mailed to subscribers.

I consider Oxford Club a decent value for not too much money. But, oh yeah, you do get a lot of ads to upgrade your membership.

Add a Topic
2112
Add a Topic
6291
Add a Topic
366
Clint
Guest
Clint
February 7, 2009 10:11 pm

I joined the Oxford Club and was almost immediately sorry. There were some interesting pitches on the Communique but over time I didn’t feel they were particularly interesting and I got really REALLY tired of getting all the constant pitches in small type and large type and REALLY large type for additional services, promises of wealth and returns, etc. etc. I can read just fine, and I never felt treated as a member, just as someone they can throw more pitches at. I canceled after a year and I now throw out or delete anything from Monument Street (Oxford and all the related services).

Add a Topic
366
Add a Topic
2112
Add a Topic
6291
adamtapps
Member
adamtapps
February 14, 2009 10:51 pm

I was a subscriber off and on the past five years. There are
so many spin-offs in the Agora family trying to sell every-
thing under the sun. No longer interested in any thing the
Agora is putting out, I have lost money with this organizatiion.

Add a Topic
6137
Add a Topic
5916
Add a Topic
6137
SageNot
Member
SageNot
February 16, 2009 11:30 am

Sadly I’ve been a member off & on since the ’80’s. Have cancelled them at least 3X & I have to agree with most of the nay sayers above. OC is an incomplete investing service, & offered very little protection to their subscribers during 2008. It’s as if they never expect to see bear markets or severe market corrections.

If you had one more rating category above it would have t/b the measurement of the “heads in the sand” approach to a sharp reversing market. How many 25% stop losses did their portfolio suffer when it crashed & burned? They had the company of the Madoff’s & most of the major Wall St. crooks in the 2008 decline & we know how fraudulent those folks were.

MachineGhost
Member
MachineGhost
March 19, 2017 12:11 pm
Reply to  SageNot

The trailing stops would have protected you in 2008. They stopped out of every one of their positions, most for a profit. They’re not market timers if that pipe dream is what you’re looking for.

Tom C.
Guest
Tom C.
February 24, 2009 4:33 pm

I’ve been a member of the OC since 4/06. I originally signed up for their basic $99. per year membership and in the Trading Circle in 7/07. I had some good returns in the basic membership but lost pretty good in the Tading Circle.
These guys are the absolute masters of the teaser letter and inundate their members with attempts to sell you more” get rich quick schemes “.
I’m still looking for a really good newsletter.

Trinette
Guest
Trinette
February 24, 2009 5:24 pm

I have seen this letter over the years, and have seen the quality fall greatly. To Tom C, if you are looking for a good newsletter, try the Weber Global Opportunities Letter. They don’t try to sell you more expensive products.Read the reviews on this site.

Reuben
Guest
Reuben
March 17, 2009 8:27 pm

I subscribed quite a few years ago. A year or so later in a moment of utter madness I took one of their special offers to upgrade to a lifetime subscription. I don’t have any record of what I paid initially, but now I pay an additional $25 per year to continue. If I could replay history I probably would not have subscribed, but since I am already there I will keep it.

A couple of their writers do seem to be reasonably knowledgeable, but on the whole I think they overrate their own expertise. I have taken some of their recommendations, with mixed results. As others have written, it’s important to follow their trailing stops, which I have not always done.

Customer service is not too good. They will bombard you continuously with all kinds of teasers and come-ons for all the other services of Agora publishing. Even a forceful request to customer service to cease and desist doesn’t work for long.

Add a Topic
372
Add a Topic
6137
MachineGhost
Member
MachineGhost
March 19, 2017 12:14 pm
Reply to  Reuben

I agree they overrate their own expertise, but that’s par for the course. Doom sells newsletters, hope sells stock picks.

Customer service is reachable through phone, not e-email.

Add a Topic
5971
Jimbo
Guest
Jimbo
March 19, 2009 1:18 pm

Subscribed in 1980’s and now lifetime member, on $25/year. Have seen this service go from good to not quite so good as new philosophies dominated. Point: start a new high-dollar letter with a flashy pick, and fold it when it depletes; and hey, infrastructure costs more when it gets top-heavy. Point: Forget the subscribers when the market tanks; we don’t time the markets, just use stops. Point: Develop picks according to new market conditions, such as more volatility, more mortality, more surprises, more extremes, less safety, and more show biz.
A bright light in Oxford Club now is Alex. For sheer mind, Bill towers still, doom and all, and I will ever be indebted to him. Yes, try them. I did. Not for everyone, now. You have to be able to ignore the junk mail style copywriting, and see talent and value on its own merits. Not recommended for small or beginning investors.

Add a Topic
366
MachineGhost
Member
MachineGhost
March 19, 2017 12:17 pm
Reply to  Jimbo

Oxford Club sucked in the beginning up until Alex came in and cleaned up shop during the late 1990’s. Now they are better than they ever were before, excepting the trading advisory services.

Add a Topic
366
jsarz
jsarz
March 19, 2009 5:48 pm

I tried patience with this newsletter – however their portfolios were decimated over the last year or so. I can understand normal portfolios taking a hit – but they have a Perpetual Income portfolio which is “income based” and supposedly safer than the rest. Unfortunately they were asleep at the wheel when the credit crisis hit this portfolio as well with 70% losses. This portfolio is one retirees depend on for income.. On top of that they had “buy” recs on it all the way down. Now they finally switched to be cautious note with 6 holds and 2 buy – when in actuality now is the time to buy.. Oxford never again!

Add a Topic
996
Add a Topic
996
Add a Topic
996
JPA
Guest
JPA
March 21, 2009 8:23 am

Like so many other subscribers, Oxford has tried to get me to do the lifetime bit at a very expensive price. I didn’t bite and I’m glad I didn’t. I subscribe to several newsletters and have found duplication in their recommendations, many from sources affiliated with the same group or with Stansberry & Associates, which I will talk about at another time. OC held firm on DSU for far too long and cost me serious money, only to lately recommend selling it in favor of BLW, which I have already lost 12% on. Who gives a damn what the dividend yield is if the value drops that much that fast!! In one of the two issues each month, members can place ads for things for sale, not what I am paying for. And each featured author of an article has his own newsletter which he is pushing for you to subscribe to. The only other guy who has more newsletters than anyone out there is Steven Leeb. I will not renew OC after nearly ten years with them.

Add a Topic
3183
M Martiz
Member
March 21, 2009 4:18 pm

Agora products have been much like the Stansberry publications. Excellent, timely information. Incredibly informative — however, once again, I just don’t have the kind of money to get the kinds of returns that matter. Overall excellent material.

Add a Topic
6137
Jill K.
March 23, 2009 9:40 pm

I’ve subscribed twice. Once at the $79 level for the first year, then let it expire and then again but at $49/year but I wouldn’t be able to place a “free ad”. I don’t care about the ad. What I noticed was being inundated with emails and snail mail for subscriptions at exhorbitant amounts of money. Many of these ads appear to tout the same information but teased in a different story. They are avid about dollar cost averaging all the way up and all the way down until the stop-loss is hit. I won’t subscribe again. I figure I can save a forest from their snail mail. Between Tickerhound and Stock Gumshoe, you don’t really need the others.

Add a Topic
5971
Richway
Guest
Richway
March 28, 2009 1:43 am

I am also sad to say they hooked me into the Chairman’s Circle, and what a waste of a lot of money. Anyone can use 25% stops and get lucky once every few years. I am so disgusted with them and Stansberry I don’t even know if I will continue paying the yearly fee to continue their service.

I really did not like seeing Alex sitting in first class when leaving a retreat, after they tried charging extra for my Spouse to attend, and of course they had a couple of huckster’s at the retreat trying to get private placement money for some wild–s oil scheme. All these Agora pubs and their spinoffs are no better than Madoff. Please don’t waste your money.

Add a Topic
359
Add a Topic
6137
Add a Topic
644
MachineGhost
Member
MachineGhost
March 19, 2017 12:21 pm
Reply to  Richway

Eight years later… did you decide to continue paying the yearly fee?

John Parken
Member
John Parken
April 22, 2009 12:39 pm

Oxford Club Communique — i find it’s choices very good and always based on logical financial reasons. Of course, no newsletter is always correct about their selections, but I find that more often than not, their selections have done quite well, even in our recent economic downturn. And I always follow their advice to have a 25% trailing sell stop of every one of their recommendations. Overall, of the 4-5 newsletters I have paid for in the past, this one ranks weel above those. I give them an overall ‘4’.

Add a Topic
366
Add a Topic
6291
max   thweatt
Guest
max thweatt
April 24, 2009 1:12 pm

i have been a subscriber to several of the oxford publications for approx 18 months.they seem to be fairly accurate with their forecasts.i also like the fact that they don’t seem to have so many of the teasers that you refer to.cost for most of the service’s is $49.95.i will renew my subscriptions with them.

Craiger
Guest
Craiger
May 19, 2009 12:45 pm

I am a lifetime member and have subscribed to the Oxford Club for about a decade. I have never attended a seminar or subscribed to any supplemental offerings. Reading the prior reviews makes me sad. The best of this club are the 4 pillars of wealth. The allocation model, and the stop loss based on the closing high price are the top two. All of their investment recommendations must be plugged into the allocation model to achieve results. They do state this, but not very often in the monthly letters. The best use of this club is to focus on the letters, then under the “Members Only” menu look into: Allocation Model, Urgent Investor Reports, and Oxford Portfolio Updates. Keep in mind this club is conservative, some of the Portfolio Update choices are too risky to put on any of the actual picks lists. The allocation model will show you which picks fit into which allocation piece. The Urgent Investor Reports are all of those teaser reports they offer to new subscribers and a very good education source. The four pillars are in the Reports section too. They also have great reading lists for investors at any level. I gave my oldest son the gone fishing portfolio, and explained how to reallocate annually. For the uninformed or uninterested, that portfolio with annual reallocation is better than an investment advisor, and a whole lot cheaper. I agree about the e-mails, too many, too long, and of little value. The Portfolio Updates are a much better and less frequent source for a similar type of info. The Ox Club is not making quick pick/gains for you. Every pick has to be weighed in relation to the allocation model. With few exception the recommended investment in any one security is 2%, maximum of 4% under certain circumstances. The four pillars have been back tested and will be checked against our current volatility soon, but I am confident if you adhere to the four pillars you will be consistently better off than any other investment newsletter. You won’t get rich quick, but you won’t get poor quick either. I know OxClub often reads like a get rich quick newsletter, but it’s not. It’s conservative and steady. Customer service is best by phone. I have had poor results via e-mail and immediate results – every time by phone. Be sure to call during their business hours.
As far as Agora and the get rich quicker people, I’ve discovered the GumShoe now so I’ll just tune them out. The next $50 I earn will go to support the Gumshoe and I will have two long term newsletter subscriptions. I also subscribe to one of Leebs newsletters, but will let it laps, another review. Craiger.

Add a Topic
366
Add a Topic
5916
Add a Topic
5916
theaccusersgift
Guest
theaccusersgift
July 27, 2009 3:41 pm

While occasionally I will see a good pick in the other portfolios, the portfolio for which I subscribe, and in my opinion the only portfolio worth reading is the “Gone Fishin’ Portfolio”.
Hulbert has tracked the performance of the “Gone Fishing Portfolio” and it is one of the better diversified portfolios in his review, beaten only by the asset allocation portfolio of http://www.fundadvice.com.
If you don’t want to subscribe to the Oxford Club, the Investment U newsletter is free and also occasionally tracks the “Gone Fishing Portfolio”.
Alex Green, the author of the “Gone Fishing Portfolio”, has also published a book available at http://www.amazon.com which also includes an ETF portfolio in addition to the Vanguard portfolio.
My ratings are only for the “Gone Fishing Portfolio”, the rest of the newsletter is barely worth reading, although the rest of the newsletter occasionally has some good ideas.

Add a Topic
366
Add a Topic
256
Add a Topic
900
1 2 3 9

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.

More Info  
210
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x