Description
Offers two different ETF/Index options trading strategies (Puts and Calls, and Spreads), with generally 3-6 open trades that can be autotraded with some brokers.
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Rating: 3.2/5. From 5 votes.
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3.6
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Joined their Newsletter 8 months ago and I am very satisfied. There were some ugly trades recently but the month to month results are still very good. Here are the results as outlined in Pro Trading Profits:
Start Date 1/1/2010
Service Months 19
Trading Months 18
Total Net Profit/Loss $28,101.91
Average Annual Profit/Loss $17,748.57
Average Monthly Profit/Loss $1,479.05
Profit Factor 2.42
Maximum Consecutive Wins 8
Maximum Consecutive Losses 5
Total Trades 101
Number of Winning Trades 68
Number of Losing Trades 33
Average Gain per Winning Trade 25.2%
Average Loss per Losing Trade -27.5%
Deviation Ratio 4.79
Largest Winning Trade 242.9%
Largest Losing Trade -92.9%
Largest Win/Average Win Ratio 9.64
Average % Return per Trade 8.0%
Average $ Return per Trade $296.86
Average Cost per Trade $2.79
Maximum % Drawdown -20.2%
Maximum $ Drawdown -$863.29
Date of Largest Trough June 2011
Average % Drawdown -9.7%
Average $ Drawdown -$402.02
Drawdown Ratio 2.09
Longest Drawdown 2 Mths
Average Drawdown Length 1.33 Mths
Annual Downside Deviation 18.2%
Average Strike Rate 67.3%
Required Strike Rate 52.2%
Strike Rate Ratio 1.29
Average Number of Contracts per Trade 13.02
Average Investment per Trade $2,930.79
Average Brokerage per Trade $0.00
Average Trades per Month 5.32
Average Days per Trade 14.55
Average Winning Trades per Year 42.95
Average Number of Open Positions 2.99
Current VAMI Value $3,418.85
Percentage Winning Months 77.8%
Largest Monthly Gain 45.5%
Largest Monthly Loss -19.9%
Monthly Compound Rate of Return 7.1%
Monthly Standard Deviation 13.0%
Risk Adjusted Monthly CROR 6.1%
Annual Compound Rate of Return 126.9%
Annual Standard Deviation 113.4%
Risk Adjusted Annual CROR -17.0%
Average Annual Return 116.9%
Current Year Annualized ROR 6.1%
Top Trader Index 115.00
Annual Sharpe Ratio 1.97
Annual Sortino Ratio 4.88
Annual Sterling Ratio 6.31
Monthly Fee $99.00
Free Trial Yes
Autotrade Yes
Please read all the negative review to realize what can happen to your hard earned money! My balance was $32,000 in April 2011 when I started autotrading with CJ exclusively. In 2 months my account balance was $12,000, lost over $20K. You are better off trading ETFs than handing over control of your money to CJ.
First, it should be noted that the strategies have recently changed for this newsletter. There is now an ETF strategy (straight buy and sell recommendations) and an options strategy (comprising a mix of the old spreads and puts/calls strategies). Also, if you chose not to autotrade the service you now get a discount.
I started with TOFI in the spring of this year based on reviews here and based on the published results of the newsletter’s performance over the previous 2 years. (BTW, these are the actual results). Initially, I autotraded the account but the broker I was with decided to drop autotrading this newsletter. This particular broker did NOT do a credible job executing the trades and left the existing positions hanging without automatically closing them before stopping the autotrade service. It left a sour taste in my mouth for autotrading. I have since changed brokers and opted to trade the strategy myself.
At first I made quite a bit of money but then the markets turned weird (2% daily swings is not normal) and it has been a tough sled for all newsletter publishers. If looked at over very short time frames most option trading can appear very ugly OR incredibly successful. Of course any trading disipline must be evaluated over a longer span of time than a single (bad) quarter. My initial success with this newsletter has been stymied by a non-typical trading environment. By sticking with the recommendations and following through on the adjustments to existing trades (and using a bit of my own intuition as to timing) I have been able to recover my inital stake and am up a little more than 2%.
Customer service is exemplary as this is a small business with personal service. I have been able to correspond directly with Mr. Mendes and, within reason, he has answered all of my (dumb) questions and even gone out of his way to provide full explanations of his reasoning.
For those who fear the short term risk nature of options trading this service is probably not your best choice. At any time a particular position can be down a large percentage. This is the nature of options trading and great patience is required to be successful at it. If you commit too much of your “hard earned” money to this type of strategy you may have trouble sleeping. So be prudent and patient and you will find that, over time, this newsletter could provide the added income to make life a bit more comfortable.
I wanted to take the time to follow up on my previous review. I have upgraded the overall rating for this service since my original review at the end of September last year. This is due to the more consistent performance I have experienced in the preceeding 3 months.
Back in September I was hovering close to the break even point after a tough summer of trading. (I had started with the service in the late spring of 2011). Since that time the account I use for trading this service is up 25% since I started in the spring. That is 25% of the original account value and not based on just the money I’ve put at risk. That makes for a pretty good quarter.
As I said in September I had decided to quit autotrading this service due to trouble with a particular online brokerage. As a bonus for managing the trades myself I get a $20 discount from the regular monthly fee of $99 (not to mention the fact that I also save about 40% on commission charges by placing my own trades).
And, as I mentioned before, the customer service is still exemplary and Mr. Mendes’ analysis of the short term market conditions quite credible and insightful. If you’re in the market for a short term trading system you should find this affordable and profitable…but as with all investment vehicles, be prudent and patient. Don’t commit your life savings to any one investment service, regardless of record.
I actually got this options for income course recently. I do not get any strategy or position management help, or recomendations as people say they get.
Anyway, I have had extreme success with this system. It requires a lot of adjustments on certain positions at times, but I average between 20-40 percent on 90 percent of my positions. I actually keep positions small because when you adjust, it is important to exponentially add contracts usually. I averaged thus far no less than 3000/month since I reached the 25k account size. I started with less than 5K. Recently, I not only do the etfs, but I trade some options, just because these positions are somewhat boring, but honestly I would imagine most people lost money only if they started with larger positions that did not allow for adjustments properly, as the program teaches you and tells you that you will need to make. I literally start with 1-2 contracts first buy-in as is taught in the program, and have had to adjust the positions to levels of 15-20 K in a month and I made 5-6 K a month doing this. Although my account grew, I STILL trade the same way, start with 1-2 so I can make adjustments.
I feel most people failed to truly understand the program, the videos, and truly take in the education provided by Trading Options for income, because I do not think I have had a losing trade in months, had a couple that made only 100-200 dollars, but generally i make thousands monthly.
Watch the videos again guys. I papre traded for 4 months successfully as well before ever putting on a single position and only worked that position the first month for profits of 1100 on a 4200-4400 account. And one last thing, did you only do condors? There is a reason you do diagonals/calendars….Remember the greeks training? Anywho, I love this system, I average more than 20 percent a month thus far on the monthly investments I make.
How about now?
Jim Fink appears to be a smart fellow BUT and a “VERY BIG BUT” he is intolerant moody and very selective in who he chooses to respond to in his stock talk.
many of his recommendations end up in potentially extremely potential compromising situations and yet he refuses to comment to questions of concern. He is intolerant and appears to be moody . So unless you are willing to be one of those suck-up clients . stay away.
Who can give me an honest opinion today if I should join Trading Options for income. I have never traded a single day of my life.