Dr. Richard Smith’s TradestopsIs there anyone who has got into Dr. Richard Smith’s Tradestops? Do you recommend it?
Jim Russell
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I have TradeStops. I first signed on early this year (2015), just couldn’t get the hang of it, cancelled. Kept seeing the promos for it, so looked again, signed back up, and now I “get” it. Dr Smith has improved the interface and it flows much better. The things you can do with it are eye-opening, For example there is a position sizing tool that you fill in the basic data & how much you want to risk (losing), and it calculates the various factors that go into a stock (potentially losing money) and gives you several choices on how to get out, such at a straight trailing stop & at what % or $, or a stop based on the volatility quotient of the stock (new term for me & really cool), or a “smart trailing stop” – a bit less aggressive. The end result is that instead of putting just a straight % or $ of your overall portfolio you want to risk, you can tailor it to how much RISK you can handle. I was surprised at how over-allocated I was in terms of risk! So I am slowly rebalancing my portfolio to risk management. This is only a toe-dip in the lake on what this thing can do. Not a bad price, & there is a “pro” version for a bit more features & money. Try it, has a money back offer for trial. To Your Good Investing
So Jim, did you get the Pro version? I’m curious too. Is it worth 1,600?
I started with the trial membership. Suffice to say I am now a lifetime member which I can pass on to my children. It is very intuitive and user-friendly. Support is excellent with frequent software updates and improvements. A revised Risk Rebalancer tool will be introduced within the next week or so. There is a very useful series of webinars that explain every facet of the system. These are put on frequently, the most recent being earlier this week. Although, as the name suggests, one of the principle tools is the trailing stop, that barely scratches the surface as to the wealth of information available. It is truly an integrated investment system, sophisticated yet completely manageable and useful for any investor.
Donphin,
Have you tried the latest version of the tradestop software. Is it helpful?
Thanks
I’m a lifetime subscriber and think it’s oe of the bet things in decades. I have switched my portfolio using his directions and feel much better prepared for market moves.
Hello Richard,
I am interested to join the Tradestop membership. Is the lifetime membership worth for the support you get from the system?
Thank you
Looking at it following Moneyweek webinar looks pricey in pound terms although they are offering two years for one fee £999, the cheaper options don’t seem to be available in UK but need to check if we can register through US site
I also looked at the Moneyweek webinar and checked out the TradeStops site picking up on the cheaper options which Moneyweek are pointedly ignoring. That said I think the $499/year option would suit my needs so the two years at £999 works out the same. However an on-going yearly charge of £999 is hefty given the amount of trading I do. Does anyone know if there are any alternative packages out there?
I watched the Moneyweek presentation and signed up to the trial to have a look because my weakness was knowing when to sell. Then of course you have the problem of knowing when to buy back in? My intention was going to cancel before the 60 day trial runs out but I have been very happy with what the software does. So I have been contemplating keeping the 2 year subscription for the £1000 because the key to successful investing is limiting your losses and maximising your wins, something that this software is great for. And as another person has stated the portfolio rebalancer is a great tool as well to help you manage your risk.
I think they offer a lifetime subscription which would make sense if you manage your own portfolio for at least several years.
Definitely. And even better for a lot less. Look at http://www.smartstops.net
Am testing the software at present but have found the beta test for automatic uploading of portfolio from UK brokers is a disaster and had obviously had no prior testing by the company (gave me US STOCKS in $ for my UK companies so IP Group -IPO-L became Renaissance Cap – IPO).
However having said that there are some very interesting aspects to it so hopefully the downsides can be over come
Have been a member for a year. I’m hands-on when it comes to my retirement portfolio (I am retired), but have several problem with this expensive program. 1) I like the approach using volatility to help keep me from investing too much in highly volatile or too little in low volatile investments. Volatility, albeit not perhaps calculated the same way as Tradestops is easily available on all financial sites like Ameritrade. 2) In using the rebalancer tool, the results are counterintuitive. For example, in all cases I checked this feature, it recommended huge increases in my low volume but very highly volatile positions. I would NEVER do this. Plus, with a 20 position portfolio, the rebalanced made huge changes, not tweak to my positions. So, in order to get the promised gains, I would have to make these changes which assuming I did, I would not really be able to ascertain any gains for potentially years- because I would exit many that were in the RED area, then wait years in most cases for me, in order to reenter the same position. Then and only then would I know the delta between staying in (and losing) and getting back in low. Way too complicated, and way too hard to discern the promised gains. 3) When ever dividends are reinvested, in most cases, I had to manually enter the new shares. The percent gain/loss was alway off because the base of shares and therefore total actual cost were off. Customer service in general was excellent in that i was able to talk to a real person when I had issues or lacked understanding of some aspect of the software.
Thanks Jack, very helpful.
I’m curious, Does Dr Smith go over how he measures market sentiment?
Most market valuation metrics, like Total Market Cap vs. GDP, show the stock market richly valued for last 2+ years. But sentiment has been bullish so stocks just keep going up in spite of valuation.
Dr Smith uses back tested charts to show how his system would have limited most of the downside in both 2001 and 2008. Ok, but he doesn’t share any detail on what his black box is based on (moving averages, trade volumes…) for sentiment. His marketing and presentations seem to say “…look at the back tested charts. I’m really smart, it’s complicated. You’re just going to have to trust me.
I don’t need to hear his formula just the factors he uses to measure sentiment?
The Volatility model is completely insufficient. Need something much Smart(R). You can see how COVID market drop results were pitiful compared to SmartStops. https://invest.smartstops.net/faq/does-smartstops-perform-better-then-tradestops/
Since this was last discussed numerous features have been introduced. One, available to lifetime members. is The Billionaires Club. This is a listing of all the holdings of 14 of the richest men (and women) in the world including Buffett, Soros, Icahn, Paulson, Gates, Einhorn, Ackman, etc. OK. That’s over 500 stocks. Now what? Now is his latest innovation: Pure Quant. With Pure Quant you enter any amount you want to invest and the number of securities (the recommendation is 10-20). You then enter any combination of stocks and funds and the program ranks the selected number in order of potential profitability. Since there is understandably a great deal of interest in the billionaires, the holdings of each one can be entered as a group. eg. they list 41 stocks for Warren Buffett, so all these can be entered as a portfolio rather than having to add them individually. You can also see how each stock within the portfolios stacks up. A previous poster mentioned that when a stocks hits the trade stop, ie. turns red, he might have to wait years before reentering. Well, one of the advantages is there are always stocks “in the green” that are profitable NOW so there is no reason to wait. In case anyone is interested there is a webinar tomorrow at 10 AM pdt explaining in depth Tradestops research tools.
I too have this and although I’m not rich by any means my portfolio has increased by about 6K this yr I attribute that mostly to the things I’ve gotten thru trade stops especially where a stock is before I entered buying it. RIchard rates them on a scale he calls SSI Kinda like a traffic light Red is stopped out, of course you can still buy it if you want but every time a stock was recommended and it was in the RED I stayed away from it except once. Every time they lost money. The one I bought in the Red lost money too. The others are of course Yellow and Green. He gives a time frame along with this as well,and yellow he tells is going up,down or sideways. This is assistive w looking at charts for me.
I read one person said they didn’t like the rebalance part said had to sell stock or buy more in the Red. You can remove stocks as you want when you rebalance your portfolio. I’m managing three so I’m learning a tremendous amount here. Not sure if I’ll become a lifer, I bought 2yrs for price of 1Premium level, but I must say I don’t think I’d like to be without it now. There’s a lot there. More than I can tell you. Go to Google there’s several different rices. I saw today,all for basic I’m sure but they’ll prob ask you to upgrade 1 was $99/ yr and 1 was ad save $100 off reg price of $149 so pay $49 today is Sat 7/29/17
Jim Rickards just gave a prom0 webinar for Tradestops 11/16/17.
Anybody using the latest version?
Stuartmd, me too. Have life time membership on all Rickards programs. Spent big bucks, you’d think Rickard’s would just incorporate
TradeStop into his expensive service that I already paid for?? I feel like I’m being “sold up AGAIN” despite already paying an embarrassing amount of money for supposedly full program. Based on mixed comments above, I’m probably going to pass on spending another $1500 fee.
That;s the Agora way! ANd they are costing you money with an insufficient algorithmic model. https://invest.smartstops.net/faq/does-smartstops-perform-better-then-tradestops/
Guys I have just reported (2/7/2018) a huge flaw in there Tradestops software if you are using it. Showed a 21 % gain that was actually a loss. I had 10 positions in the portfolio and every position was inaccurate. One day I had a $4,000 gain that was not even accurate! I also informed them that 10 different dividends were not accounted for so my adjusted entry, profits and losses for these stocks are now inaccurate. I spoke with them on the phone and they were very dismissive about it. So I sent a detailed letter along with pics of my broker and their portfolio to prove this options flaw exists. I would post here the letter along with the pics if I could. They are carrying serious liability if someone closes a bunch of trades for thousands in losses they thought were gains. Most of us are smarter than that, but some unfortunate person won’t be and could lose all their money. Please do not spend the money for this until they are fixed. And certainly do not rely on the data to be accurate. The VQ and position tools are fabulous but not worth the fee’s they are asking. It is no good if you can’t track your portfolio accurately. Besides, you can’t even track how anything effects your portfolio as a whole. Current and closed positions are separated which deceives you as to how your portfolio is performing as a whole. Kind of critical people! I’ll keep you posted on what happens.
Wolf26, thanks for sharing your experience. Any update on this situation?
The best on the web! Backs up his programs with historicaldata then makes it simple to do great things to your portfolio! I suppose the last step ios stock ranking.
Best?? Seriously? https://invest.smartstops.net/faq/does-smartstops-perform-better-then-tradestops/
Is there any updates on the issues mentioned above? I wanted to know what the difference was between basic and plus, has anyone tried the basic version? for the small portfolio im building it seems expensive and you don’t appear to get the ssi which seems the best feature so is it worth it?
So my question is: Is this making anybody a more successful trader, or is it just a nice or convenient tool to have around?
So I just watched Dr Smith’s promo for Tradestops lifetime at $3500 (plus sales tax)- looks like something I would really like- Portfolio around $100k, aggressive and volatile- but concerned about comments regarding adding dividends and inaccurate info with no further comments about these subjects- hoping for some relies before asking Smith directly…
Thanks everyone for sharing your experience with this software. I ma interested to try out the system.
I would appreciate if someone can give me his/her feed on the latest version of the software.
Thanks
I joined as lifetime member. Wish I had my money back. Lots of confusing emails, site requires work and effort to understand what the various data mean. Once I was advised to buy a certain amount of a stock, only to be told a day later to sell it!
It seems that these days ‘Lifetime Membership’ is a precursor to diminished services. I have notices several offers of the Lifetime deal. I bit on one and quickly noticed that they started offering new Newsletters while my special membership petered out to nearly useless.
Now when I see Lifetime offers I suspect the endgame is in.
Not really. You have to be smart about managing the inflow of newsletter pitches. Look, Agora is a business. Surprise, they sell financial newsletters and services.
Whether you get newsletters / services from Agora or anyone else, expecting that you’ll never get another pitch is just silly. And you always can just Unsubscribe and not get any more… I don’t understand why people would rather noisily complain than just click that little link.
I have several lifetime memberships of services through Agora daughter publishers and I’m extremely pleased. (Oblig — I have zero affiliation with any of those services besides being a client.)
I have both Tradestops and Ideas by Tradesmith. They’re quite good and frankly the Lifetime prices are dirt cheap if you expect to use the tools for more than a couple years. They keep being developed (and the prices keep rising to go along with the improvements). I’m glad I got in when I did.
Tradestops is a joke in the models being used. ANd Agora loves to suck your money dry. https://invest.smartstops.net/faq/does-smartstops-perform-better-then-tradestops/
TradeSmith site requires “work”? What exactly were you expecting?
I have a pilot’s license. It cost a lot, and it “requires work” to know what to do with the instruments. Does that mean my license is worthless because flying airplanes is a complex effort?
Do not use this useless program. I lost 60k in the 2018 Oct-Dec correction using there “recommended” stops which was quite high. I blew way below that before I got out.
I even called the company and ask which stop I am supposed to use they said 25% vs. 37% as per the program algo history.
Totally useless. I now use Fib retracement for high probabilities where the entire market is headed not A particular stock.
Absolute useless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t trust. They cherry pick when they market their program. I’ve been using SmartStops (www.smartstops.net) nd compared the two. Found it to be a better intelligent adjusting approach. Plus – a heck of alot less. They even offer some free tools like their position sizing calculator which seems alot slicker. And they don’t just base their algorithms on figuring out a volatility factor.
Tradestops has a serious flaw in their back box system with the data feed for UK stocks, especially to do with recording dividends. Some dividends are missed, some duplicated, some lower and some a lot higher than the actuals. This bad data probably feeds through to the price line “adjusted for dividends” and therefore also probably to the yellow and red stop levels. Look at HSBA.L for an example. They recorded dividends way higher than the actuals earlier this year, which may have caused the red line to rise above where it should be. Consequently, when the price of HSBA.L dropped recently it went below the red stop, suggesting one should sell. If they had got the dividends right it may well still be a buy. I have been alerting them to this flaw since April 2018, with around 15 separate UK-based investments showing bad dividend data. They have corrected most of them and have been very polite in replying to my mails. They say that the problem will be fixed in Q1 2020. I asked them to make an announcement to all all users about the danger of relying on the signals generated by their system while the problem for UK stocks remains. They have more or less ignored this suggestion. So to all users who monitor their London investments via Trasdestops, beware! Tradestops are hoping that they fix the problem before too many people notice what is going on. Boeing tried that recently too…..
I notice a couple of posts here from people invested in UK stocks. My question is does Tradestops include the full range of ETFS, Funds, and Investment Trusts traded in UK and Europe? I emailed them recently but haven’t got a reply yet.