Author/Editor
Mike Larson
Publisher
Weiss Research
Description
This investment newsletter focuses on safety.
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I have subscribed to “Safe Money” for almost two years. The subscribers that label him a “Permabear” may be right because everything I have read in the service has been bearish. That having been said, if I had gone to cash (Treasuries) a year ago as he advised, I would be way ahead of the game. Like Bob S., I too am trying the Contrarian Portfolio. It is fully refundable within 90 days. I’m only using one tenth the value of the reccomendations and will use the rest of my portfolio to pursue much more bullish positions when the time comes if their recco’s do not.
I have subscribed for years. I always understood that he was ahead of the curve about predicting the fall of housing etc. I think that he has been waiting to duplicate his father’s success during the depression. He can’t see the trees because he is only interested in the forest.
That said he has made some good picks along the way. For the price there is a lot of good information in his newsletter.
The newsletter that I trust for market timing advice is The Shepherd Investment Strategist. It is much cheaper than the new newsletter that Weiss is promoting and will do the same thing; it will recommend sectors and strategies at an appropriate time.
I have had numerous investment advisory newsletters for 3 to 10 years including Agora Financial Reserve for which I paid $5000 about three years ago for life time subscriptions to a half dozen or more newsletters–those of which actually report their portfolios have done poorly since mid 08 with the exception of Don Amoss. Agora’s general advice to buy gold has also fared well.
But I digress: I’ve had Weiss Safe Money and Edelson Real Wealth for about 8 years. I’ve had mixed results. Although their recomendations often make a lot of sense, somehow I haven’t made much $ following their advice. However, I admit that I failed to follow their advice in the last several years to sell investment real estate–I should have. Also, I did not follow Weiss’ advice during the bull market of the 90s and made a ton of $$$, but failed to limit my losses in 08 so lost 1/2 a ton of $$$.
To BOB BROWN above:
Yes Bob, it was as bad as you recall. Because of a different class action suit (against the trading exchanges-details of which I don’t understand), I was recently required to submit all the trades made for me in 2004 as recommended by the Weiss Options program. I believe Weiss eventually paid a fine related to the program for some technical reason. At any rate the trades were automatically executed by a brokerage house so I didn’t really understand it or notice what they bought. In that program, I naively trusted their judgement (and knew even less about options then than I do now). I invested $50,000. After about a year I closed the account with about $2000 left, almost a 100% loss. If a reader is thinking, “What fool would let himself lose almost 100%??–I agree, I was a fool, based on having been stopped out of significant profits in the past,trusting Weiss, knowing little to nothing about options, and in the middle of the slide, there were just enough gains to not close the account. Get this: when I recently had to submit the details of every trade to the class action, there were about 30+ trades and EVERY TRADE WAS A PUT!!!. All PUTS in the middle of the biggest bull market in decades or maybe ever.
So why haven’t I rated Weiss lower or abandoned these losers? Maybe I never learn, or just maybe, none of the other advisory letters are any better, they are just permabulls. (I was not following Elliot Wave until 2009. Elliott Wave definitely called the bear slide and made huge profits). The other advisory newsletters just keep recommending buying long. I can’t recall any of them advising me to go to cash in mid 08. The $50,000 I lost with Weiss Options pales beside the massive losses I took in 08. The Weiss view that we don’t always live in Bull markets is an valuable balance to other advisors which always recommend going long.
To Bud:
I also would like to recover my fee on the Weiss Options, could you forward the contact info?
Does a fool ever learn? I don’t know, because like others above I have invested in Weiss’ Million Dollar Contrarian venture. His German manager of the account who has actually directed/advised specific investments for German banks, sounds to me to be much more of a an account manager/investor, whereas I think Weiss is more of a economist/theorist. Edelson sounds good at times, but I don’t know if he’s ever managed big money. For myself, I believe small investors are like high school football players taking on an NFL team. I hope Weiss’ German advisor at least played college ball.
Smitty
Is Weiss a permabear? He claims that like his father that after the markets tank even further and that when the economy is truely recovering that he’ll go long. We’ll see.
Re Elliot Wave: I think Weiss gets a lot of his thinking from Elliot wave, just takes out the tecnical and adds fundamental data. Elliot has been warning about a big correction in gold and silver–so far I’ve lost a lot of $ because I’ve been selling the metals over the last few months.
Smitty
Spenser, it is too late to join the class action. I was solicitated from that law firm a year ago this past January. You only had a couple of months before the trial which ended in a settlement to respond with all kinds of documentation including the receipt. You may have gotten the solicitation and thought it to be junk mail; at any rate, I’m sorry that you weren’t able to participate. I am still waiting for the check.
I have subscribed for 18months, believing there was credibility because of the safe bank ratings.
I believe the recent effort to get subscribers to buy his book at 29.99 and send copies to their politician, to friends etc, buy multiples and get an equivalent value in a service from Weiss, was plain opportunism. He lied by saying it would cost them nothing. He aimed to get 50,000 signatures to take to Washington, and you could put in a signature if you bought a book.t was self promoting opportunism, and profitable. As are his video/online seminars nastily promoting his products.
Additionally several months ago I responded to his request for “help” as in “I need your help”” to find out what we really need to know. Oh, I read the broken hearted responses from people who had lost homes and savings, and Weiss recommended they buy BONDS. When every sane analyst was fully aware of the danger. As well he wanted them to sign up with him to manage their money etc, he is, in my opinion, exploitive and manipulative.
I am revolted in fact. I really warn people to be careful of this man.
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Anyone who expected any advice and recomendations to happen overnight would been and will still be disapointed. While the market is being manipulated by proping up failed institutions anything can happen. The market will eventualy fall and reflect the economy instead of the hype, spin and hot air it is based on at the moment
Anything offered by Dr. Weiss or his group (including Edelston “the gold expert”) should be viewed with a jaundiced eye. I once paid 5K for an options newsletter of Weiss’s and then lost my shirt in one month following his recommendations. So, did many others who put their trust in him. Consequently, the SEC fined him heavily, pointing out Weiss’s blatantly false advertising and other deceptions in arriving at their decision. The fact that he continually advertised (via a barrage of e-mail ads) that his latest option picks made money when they actually lost money is indisputable, as I saved his ads and submitted them to the federal investigator assigned to the Weiss case. In sum, Dr. Weiss is like a broken clock. Twice a day the clock is correct through no effort of its own.
The two biggest mistakes I have made in my investing “career” were to not get out of the market a year ago, and then later to follow Martin Weiss’ advice to sell everything, which I finally did in late February, thus missing one of the largest upturns in market history. I would be far better off financially had I never heard of Weiss Research. He is still predicting a depression. Perhaps he will be right (his arguments are still compelling), but as of now his followers have paid a very high price in missed gains and have not done well in various inverse ETFs.
I’m on my 3rd or 4th year of subscription. I’ve followed most but not all recos, however with only a portion of my investments. Results, I think, are mildly positive. As indicated in these previous reviews, “premature” is the best description of Weiss advice. And I’m beginning to think that also applies to the new “Contrarian” letter.
Dear Stock Gumshoe:It has something of a trickster.He keeps sending you requests for new services that are just one a repetition of the other.But what I will never forgive him is his pounding on silver in 2001.He started calling it a dead duck and never stopped not even when facts denied it .The missed gains he caused had been enormous because I was invested in silver.To me it has been the greatest blunder I have ever seen.He completely missed uranium and base metals bulls.The only good thing is he gives you your money back if you ask for it.
Terrible. Martin Weiss is an idiot. Subscribed for 10 years throughout the 90s.
Missed out on the entire raging Bull market as Weiss always had us short or buying puts on the markets.
Broken clock is right twice a day, wrong the other 99.99%.
Weiss is that broken clock.
Sorry, but he has zero intuition on market direction… zero.
Willaim
Review of Weiss’s Safe Money Report
I just
found this site last week, when googling a newsletter teaser. Gumshoe seems to be a great idea and I support your efforts.
I currently subscribe to Weiss Safe Money, Jim Shepherd’s Shepherd’s Investment Strategist, and Elliott Wave.
I have subscribed to Safe Money Report for 10 years, and I have subscribed to several Weiss premium services with mixed results. I agree with the review writers that are tired of the screaming headlines and overblown marketing style. I still trust and use Weiss’s bank ratings, insurance ratings and bear market “SAFETY’.
It’s way too early to tell if the Million Dollar Portfolio will fly or not, but I admire the explanations and can see the logic behind Claus Vogt’s thinking. My goal with Weiss is to avoid losing. I have been able to use the Safe Money Ideas and have learned to sift through the fairly heavy additional sales crap.
I follow Jim Shepherd for my major investment focus and he displays sound reasoning and I made a total portfolio gain of 16% for 2008. His model looks like it fits this market well. I rate Shepherd’s Highly.
I have only spent 6 months reading Elliott Wave and it appears to make more sense the more I read. Prechter’s EW Theorist seems to give me a good Big Picture. The socionomics is interesting but will take me some time to tell if it’s useful for investment decisions.
I have subscribed to the Weiss “Safe Money” report for a while. Following his instructions I bought 50 shares of DOG, PSQ, and SEF. His May issue still said buy these. He never said to sell, and I took a bath before I realized what was happening.
Should haveknown better because he states that “editors and research staff do not hold positions in companies recommended…”
If he is not willing to put his money where his mouth is…I shouldn’t have either.
All the naysayers regarding Martin Weiss’ “short”comings are right on. Although I had subscribed for a period back in year 1999, I can attest to the legitimacy of the complaints offered in the prior comments relating to Martin being a permabear and missing just about every bull run imaginable. I too, out of sheer morbid interest, continue to opt to receive the fear-mongering Weiss emails. They make me want to scream. I also believe Martin is highly manipulative and cares nothing about others. He appears to be a true psychopath who actually hopes and prays for a depression in order to recreate his father’s experience at making millions in a crisis.
It was on the weekend beginning Friday, March 6th of this year that another alarmist email from Martin Weiss came that proclaimed “All Hell was to break loose” the coming Monday March 9th. Well, the Hell broke loose alright, to the upside just as I had previously anticipated. Here’s the bad part: the @#$! Email made me rethink my strategy. I had just bought a significant amount of US Bancorp $12.50 March calls on Thursday March 5th. After getting the email from Weiss and questioning my own wisdom (which I now know far exceeds that of Weiss) I sold those calls at a loss before the end of Friday. Within 2 weeks their value had increased 5-fold, which would have earned me a quick 50 grand. But, regrettably, I did not trust myself as I watched, with a sick stomach, the market continue to climb. The best advice for anybody out there who seeks to abide by his advice is to cancel all Weiss services and emails, though some of the other associates are seemingly very competent and far less alarmist and opportunistic. That one stupid email has changed my future for the worse. Feel free to email me at larryjones777@comcast.net
Improperly named service. Should be called “Martin Weiss’s Never Ending Self-Serving Promotional Media Machine”. He even sends you his world’s coming to an end emails on Sundays and holidays. Another losing service I bought into along with the MDCP. That’s the new service that assists you in buying high and selling well never because they don’t believe in stops, just mental notes. That’s an example of some of the secret sauce that makes this service so invaluable. One pick alone is down after today over 18%, but no need to worry as Claus has a mental stop in his head. I can only pray that Claus doesn’t get hit by a car on the autoban because it would be difficult to find another money manager who could lose my money as fast as Claus can.
Damien: Your reviews are hilarious as well as true. You should take over for Conan whats his name on late night TV.
Bob Brown
Martin sold his bank rating service to thestreet.com
Go to thestreet.com – click ‘Portfolio & Tools’
On drop-down menu click ‘Banks & Thrifts Ratings’
Follow instructions – fill in banks name
This service is free
Subscriber since September 08. Thanks to all who have shared an opinion. I read his most recent book, and drew the conclusion that he positions for a deflationary depression. If this happens, it will happen in spite of every politicians’ every effort to inflate the economy, because debtors benefit from inflation, not deflation-and the voting populace in America is rife with debtors! So, Weiss probably misses the mark on this one.
But Weiss’s bailiwick is safety. OK, fair enough. But I have to agree that 75% of your portfolio in short term Treasuries is overkill for safety. Heck, even Jeremy Grantham said recently that he sees some compelling values in stocks right now, and Jeremy is extremely cautious.
The croupier says, “Place your bets.” The prudent investor hedges bets. Go with some deflationary bets (cash), but go with some inflationary bets, too.
I made the mistake of believing the fear and hype of the latest product from Weiss in his million dollar portfolio. I should have known better. I ran across a copy of his 1980s book “How to Survive the Money Panic” and really believe he is on a mission to do the same thing his father did and will look for disaster everywhere it might seem to appear and wants to be a savior. Unfortunately, this makes him a constant bear. I am down 18% now after 3 months….so much for capital preservation.
He also said the fund would be closed to all new investors after the urgent close date, but they keep mysteriously appearing… probably because old ones are bailing.
On the plus side he does give a 90 day money back guarantee.
I don’t mind playing the downside of the market, but I”m tired of hoping it will crash just to break even with the fund’s manager Claus. Although the analysis has been very interesting and I must say I can’t fault his reasoning, the timing is horrible and removed from actual trading practices. We can’t get him to let us know what his “mental stops” are.
I’ve learned a valuable lesson in following a market guru and I supposed it was worth the price for that.
PS: 1000 people X 1500 = $1.5 million. A quick half million profit even if the “fund” goes to zero. We have no idea how many are in the fund as the blog posts are monitored. You can bet, though, that profit will be preserved no matter what the fund does with new members even past the absolute final join date.
Sammy
Instead of Safe Money Reports… or Million Dollar Contrarian… Dr. Weiss should change the name of his services to Unsafe Money Reports… invest your money using my recommendation, I sure will help you lose your money.
The sky is falling all the time…. He pray in the fear of others. It is shameful!. … but even more shame on me for actually listening.
The one thing that he does have is that he returns you your money promptly..
Buyer behave…. he is a SCAM!