James Altucher
by Anonymous Questions | October 21, 2015 1:46 pm
Via Stansberry, James Altucher[1] is teasing a $2500 investment letter touting substantial gain saying he is connected to the early phase investors. Thoughts?
Endnotes:
- James Altucher: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/james-altucher/
Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2015/10/microblog-james-altucher/
I am a novice investor, but I have subscribed to Altucher’s letter. Recommendations are sent monthly, if not more often. Recommendations seem well researched and are well documented.
Teaser seemed targeted to early phase insider investing (almost non-public, or near-angel). But, stocks recommended so far are all public, though not huge companies.
please let us know what his performance/picks have been.
Thanks
Just listened to and read his pitch for the service. Also read a number of his blogs and reviews on several of his books. He’s a very colorful character with solid credentials. I like much of what he says but feel his view of domestic life is colored by being born and raised in NYC. I, too, felt his service was going to be recommendations on early start ups or perhaps investment in some type of “fund” he might be starting to hold positions in his top 1% of new start ups. I would actually LIKE to find such a fund which would offer a little more protection in diversity for the average person. But then, I guess that is what a hedge fund is for. Please let us know if you make a killing on anything.
PRIVX
rvhancock, would you mind sharing what Altucher’s picks have been and at what time? I would like to see if it’s worth investing in his newsletter.
Thanks,
Altucher’s first two recommendations were FLEX and CLH, mid-September 2015. Both are slightly up at this point. I subscribed to his service more recently and he says his recommendations are generally long-term. No sell recommendations yet.
He recommends some very dangerous smallcaps at risk of bankruptcy, saying he gets his ideas from a network of “smart money” hedge fund superinvestors.
Recommendation LXU is down 75% within 2 months of recommendation. He offers no assessment of bankruptcy risk. If you can assess various bankruptcy warning metrics like Altman Z, it is very high.
He also recommends MARK – very weak balance sheet. According to Altman, the company is in severe distress.
None of this means that Altucher’s desription of the upside in these is wrong, just that they have 100% downside in what appears to be a market environment which will lead to a corporate credit crisis.
For this reason, his position sizing advice, often up to 7% of a portfolio, is CRAZY! If you subscribe, I would put no more than 2% in a position.
Others HHC [i am sure he stole this idea from Chris Mayer, not any hedge funds], DY, FLEX, CLH, AER,
I have noted more than once that he has made errors reading the financial statements of some recommendations.
He answers readers questions. They appear to be all from asinine fan boys, starting out with how great Altucher is and then asking very, very basic questions. Obviously some readers are investing at the $1000 level and should not be paying anything like the fee, instead using it to get an education in accounts interpretation
I have asked 3 times for his assessment of bankruptcy risk in LXU. [I am down >$40,000]. No reply. I a have now asked for a 4th time. If he does not take the question and produce a serious answer. I will be getting a refund.
Bottom line: do not be surprised if half of his recommendations go bust in a serious downturn.
The thing with James Altucher service most of the emails he advertise to a $2,000 service with no refund. I feel its a bait and switch thing.
It really gets me, how clever these stock advisers are. They are not risking any of their own money. If they fail they go to work for another publisher, most of which are connected to Angora. When a newsletter isn’t successful, they merely change the name. Stock Gumshoe does a good job at providing investors with information about many of the newsletters, and their writers.
I subscribe to newsletters from two other writers, besides James Altucher. I may not make any financial gains from Altucher’s risky stock picks, but I have had fun reading the things he has sent me.
He admits his failures, and encourages us to try something else. He’s a very entertaining writer. He has something to say about everything. He’s a unique character.
Thanks for the post. What have been his latest picks?
Figured I’d sign up 6 months ago because of the guarantee. Wished it would have been more cutting edge and start-ups, new technology, as mention before. A lot of it is generally run-of-the-mill, boring, everyday companies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Real companies, making real products, with real cash flow and all that. But have decided to cancel. Like #4 above, I’m of the notion that a serious downturn is not just possible, but quite likely, and a number of his recommendations will tank.
So I send in my cancellation and they throw a bone into it. They will send out the refund upon return of the Welcome Kit they sent me. When I signed up there may have been a mention of a welcome kit, but that wasn’t what caused me to sign up. Most times when you sign up for something like this, you get a free report or two. This kit was actually quite decent. Three books, a couple of CD’s, a pen, a notepad, a $2 bill. And 2 welcome booklets, which I have to try to figure out what they were. If his picks were even halfway good, he’s likely made enough to cover the cost of the Welcome Kit 2 or 3 times already. But no, they want that back.
I certainly didn’t order this just to get this free stuff; now I have to jump through hoops to get the refund. Call me so not impressed.
I read a post her on Stock Gumshoe that spoke positively of James Altucher,
and I immediately subscribed to his Altucher Report, without checking any further. I took the $100/4 years offer. I’ve only made one investment based on his recommendation (Synlogic Inc). James is in a class by himself. I could spend the entire day reading over all the information & offers that he sends. I find him to be a unique character (very entertaining). I was disappointed when I read all the negative things about him, here on Stock Gumshoe). I subscribe to Paul Mampilly and Bill Spetrino newsletters (they’re more reserved). I like Altucher’s straight-forward approach. If nothing else, he makes you think. I don’t feel that I’ve wasted my money.
Kicking an old thread because Stansberry is pushing Altucher again. Just noting some of the stocks mentioned are up nicely from January when that comment was posted. That doesn’t say that Altucher was right – he may have recommended a sale, but it’s an interesting point– at least it is to me.
AER Up then down, about even from January
CLH Up some
DY Up
FLEX Up nicely
HHC up
LXU up nicely since January, but down BIG before that
MARK down
the longer the PITCH , the higher the PRICE
I am very doubtful of his promises
Altucher’s newsletter just sent out a “special offer expires soon” dated July 2016 (seven months ago as of this writing) suggesting hasty, despirate marketing. Wonder why? There are more comments/reviews in Gumshoe from October 2015 about this same newsletter. Read & be warned.
I just got pitched Top 1% Microcaps from James Altucher. Seems like the same thing. This is June 2017 and there is also an expires soon deadline.
Great pitch, backdoor to the best silicon valley ideas, backed by the most successful investors, courtesy of his network. With lots of 10X returns (in less than 18 months!)
Price tag of $3,000 seems pretty high (to me) for a microcap tipping service. Particularly since there is no free trial. Though if you believe the pitch, starting with less than $10,000 you could be a multi millionaire in no time at all.
Saw this too and previously signed up as member of his income advantage too. We’ll see what happens in the long run…
This doesn’t sound like a good deal to me. I subscribed to two of Paul Mampilly’s newsletters, a few month’s ago, that cost me over $5,000. It may be too soon to judge whether it was worth buying, but I already have regrets. His $100/year Profits Unlimited has paid for itself 10 fold, therefore I expected the other newsletters to also be well worth buying.
Recently he has been touting himself as a crypto-genius, but he has been very silent on recommendations during the current super-meltdown of cryptos.
I was surprised that James said there was a 100/1 chance of making big gains investing in cryptocurrencies. He cautioned me to only allocate 1% of my portfolio in such companies. That’s very good advice to follow. He shows a slew of videos of investors telling us what they would do if they got a gain of $100,000. There’s more of a chance of losing your $1,000 investment. Many of us are willing to take the risk.
It’s fun to buy Lottery tickets, and it’s fun to gamble at a casino. Just make sure you can afford to lose whatever cash you play with.