Zenith Trading Circle: caveat emptor
by armakusa | December 15, 2016 9:20 am
I subscribed to Michael Lewitt[1]’s Zenith Trading Circle[2] (ZTC) from Oct 1, 2016 for over two months, gingerly following each Monday’s long Put alert (less than $2,500 at risk each time). I subscribed believing, and still believe, that his tests have a high probability of identifying stocks that will eventually collapse. But from the start I had doubt, which has only increased, that his tests result in a high expected return within the relatively short period of each Put, usually 2 to 5 months. ZTC marketing says his method identifies stocks with a “94.5% chance of collapse”. But that does not mean his Put alerts have a 94.5% chance of producing a positive gain. Indeed, I have had only actual losses and paper losses. Hope springs eternal; I may eventually have a winner, maybe one that compensates for all the losers. Nevertheless, here is why I resigned and got my money back: his intermediaries at Money Map Express customer support offered to refund my money instead of answering my simple question. That is, how does Michael often achieve a purchase price that is significantly lower than the GTC price he suggests in his Monday alerts, and how might I do the same? For example, in one recent alert it was $0.06 cents for Michael or some other lucky buyer (we learned ten days later) versus $20.0 cents for me and presumably most others, the GTC price of his alert. The underlying stock was going sideways, with very little volatility, so it’s hard to understand how the Put would experience so much volatility in a short period of time. That sort of thing allows Michael to often claim gains while I only show losses. In summary, it’s not the negative returns I have experienced that cause me to advise against ZTC, it’s the unexplained mismatch between his portfolio claims and mine.
- Michael Lewitt: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/michael-lewitt/
- Zenith Trading Circle: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/tag/zenith-trading-circle/
Source URL: https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2016/12/microblog-zenith-trading-circle-caveat-emptor/
Hey armakusa, I share your pain! I thought about subscribing to his publication, as well. But I had the exact same experience with another options trading service I tried a few years back. I could NEVER get in at the posted entry prices they published and was never able to exit at the posted prices, either.The one I subscribed to did NOT offer a money back guarantee so I l lost a bundle. I think the only way to succeed with these “services” is to buy more time than they recommend and probably you’d have to start with a strike price closer to the money or IN the money. Probably never do as well as their posted results. Glad you got your money back, though.
Warrenator – “I think the only way to succeed with these “services” is to”… Leave the driving to StockGumshoe.com and the finest Gummunity members available on the planet.
Best2You&all ~ Ben
I, too, signed up for ZTC in late September. This morning I tried contacting Money Map Press to exercise my option to cancel the service. My experience is very similar to the one above stated. Michael Lewitt has a practice of basing his profit/loss model on the price of an option just prior to his recommending it to his members. There has been only one offering where I was able to get a price anywhere near what his stated paper price was. Today, he sent out an alert basically closing nearly all the open positions, those particularly that have a January expiration. He states he wants to grab any profits from these positions. I closed out the January Puts that he had recommended and my experience is a booked lost in excess of $4,000 with two positions still open and worthless for another $2600 in losses. I was equally attracted by his scientific method, but always questioned if he had the timing necessary to pull off profitable trades. I am now convinced that he doesn’t. BTW, the remaining positions that have expirations in Mar and Apr are currently underwater to the tune of another $4k+. All in all, not a good experience on my part. What really pushed me over the edge is his GPRO trade, where he managed a very quick profit in a day or two. There was no way for me to enter the trade since the price had already exceeded his entry window by the time I got the notice. Lucky for him, GPRO had a negative news event that sent the price of the position skyward. Just pure luck on his part. But now, that’s his bellweather ad to entice investors, that he was able to make 200+% profit on this one deal. A very dishonest man.
Same experience(s) here. I canceled on 12-16-2016 and will not look back. His service can only work if you buy at the top and the market declines – he touts the one or two successes and glosses over all the losers. Clearly it’s a scam to string people along and rake in the newsletter money. I’m sure the service name will change soon to ‘wash’ out the negative press from his terrible first year performance.
Subscribed and lost, lost lost. At least I got my subscription money back. DO NOT use this service. Terrible.
Thanks. You just saved me at least $2150.