Peak Velocity NewsletterBanyan Hill Publishing (James Dale Davidson, Paul Mampilly, J L Jastine among others) is promoting another newsletter … Peak Velocity…Allegedly a Michael Carr spent 10 years and $300,000 developing his software program that will give subscribers 2-3 recommendations per month of stocks ready to explode. The idea is to buy high and sell higher .. momentum plays. Carr tested his program with 7 beta testers … they made 1,191% profit in two months buying call options on recommended stocks. Now we get to subscribe for $2,995 provided we’re amongst the first 1,000 subscribers.
I almost went for it but had reservations when I learned the guarantee did not refund my dollars if not satisfied, but only gave me the option of applying the money to another Banyan Hill newsletter. Further, the service may have been great for 7 testers, but what will happen to those option premiums when 1,000 subscribers all place orders on the same options?
Ugh!!! Lee Salisbury
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Interesting you say that. I liked what he had to say, but am wondering what would happen. I also thought you got your money back if you weren’t satisfied.
No refund at all even after multiple losses. Stated 70% success rate, more like 0.002% success rate. Mick can sure pick out the looses…loss after loss after loss and even manages to pick 3-4 100% losses.
I think you would do very well by taking the opposite position of his recommendations.
Although the 1,191% sounded fantastic, it is grossly overstated. They added up the individual percentages and came up with 1,191%. The actual gain was closer to one fifth of that assuming that many of the trades were simultaneous, not serial. I think I will stay away from anything like this that misrepresents itself.
My sentiment itself. Way more losers than winners with no returns
I have tried to keep up with the posts that apply to Banyan Hill, since I’ve been
subscribed to three of Paul Mampilly’s news letters (cost me$5,400). This is the first post (besides my own) that points out the pseudo math that’s used to obtain their gains. They simply add up the gains and losses for stocks still held in the model portfolio. All the writers are intelligent, and have years of experience in financial matters, so they know exactly what they are doing.
They spend a good deal of their time & effort as Salesmen. Mampilly just sent me another offer to subscribe to Mike Carr’s Peak Velocity Trader at a discount price of $3K. Your money is mot refundable, but you get an addition yer’s subscription free, if you don’t get the gains that Mike guarantees. My
father-in-law had a great saying that applied to anyone he thought was spreading falsehoods (such as many Politicians). They ought to lock them up.
I got suckered in with the inexpensive $100/year Profits Unlimited. The Market was doing great, and so were Mampilly’s stock picks, so I went for the
other two newsletters. No one made me do it. I failed to do a thorough research about Paul’s newsletters. I’m guilty of not doing “due diligence” when trading stocks. You would think that a man my age (84 yrs old) would
have learned a thing, or two over the years, but apparently I haven’t. Sad to say, from many of the posts here on Stock Gumshoe, many old people placed their money and their trust in the hands of professionals who know how to make money for themselves !!
Don’t trust anyone who uses percentages instead of real numbers, you’re being gamed. Example, $1 increases to $2 is a 100% gain, and $50 to $25 is only a 50% loss, so you can claim you are up by 50%, despite having a massive hit to your portfolio.
The Peak Velocity Marketing blurb is very compelling!
However, when you try to do further research on Michael J Carr nothing much comes up. I mean the man is a genius and I would have thought there would be loads about him via Google.
At $ 2,995 with no money back guarantee and just a promise of another years subscription if things don’t work out it seems like a big risk.
Does anyone know anything about this system or even better has tried it and has success!
Look forward to comments.
I joined from the initial beginning. Just about all losers, now he is telling you to grab 0.15% if it happens to come up. Stay away or go broke very soon following his recommendations.
Total scam, I was suckered in before Mike took over for Jeff. Bottom line they recommend losers so best to stay away.
I just listened to the presentation. Michael has 4 rules for finding Peak Velocity Stocks: #1 the Market has to be trading above its 200 day average (if the opposite is true the strategy is to buy puts on falling stocks/ all of his rules are reversed in a down market) #2 the stock has to be within 1% of its 52 week High. #3 the RSI on the stock has to be above its 26 week average. #4, the 5 Day RSI has to be above 70. So when all four of these conditions exist, you can buy call options that are from one to two months out. Buying $10,000 worth of call options in a stock could be a lot of options and all of that $10,000 is at risk. Then if the stock rises, you sell half of your position when you have a 100% gain. Somehow you set a 20% stop loss which would be a loss of $2000 if the option loses value. What gets tricky is that on some of the stocks he claims to have used this strategy, they often lose value in the next couple of days before they start to go up if they do. I can see getting stopped out and loosing $2000 and then seeing the stock start to go up and being whip sawed by the stock going higher. He only buys calls on S & P 500 stocks which makes the strategy somewhat safer and also gives you options with a smaller spread between Bid and Ask prices. But is this worth $3000 a year for 2 to 3 recommendations per month? And does his Strategy of buying Calls on High Momentum stocks really work? Time will tell, I would love to hear from someone who has put down their $3000 , and not just take his word that his 7 Beta testers, made millions within months. The claims are to grandiose I fear.
I’m so glad I found this site!!! I also was ready to take the 3K plunge but decided against it when A) Nothing can be found about Michael Carr results from Peak Velocity except from the beta test B) Why is the guarantee not a “full refund” but just an another year of service. If the program doesn’t provide results adding a free year of service is not going to help. I would love to hear from anyone that has invested in Peak Velocity and has had either good or bad results or has more information about Michael Carr’s track record as an investor.
This is a looser from the beginning. He boasts of a winning ratio about 70%, WRONG. Should be about 0.01% – 0.02 % winners with 98% losers. Try for yourself. # or four recommendations suddenly lost 100% within a couple of weeks wirthourt warning. His 4 point system is a dud. with no refunds
I really want to believe this is true. But I agree with other comments. No mention of Michael Carr any where on the Internet except Banyan Hill. And no testimonials anywhere but Banyan Hill. I would suggest that if one could get a 3 month trial at a much lower price, I would sign up. At 3-5k, can’t buy in.
If it was that good, he should sell it for less. Big price item, beware. Some people will not realize it is about options.
I have been trying to do my due diligence on this, but have had a couple of trusted advisors tell me to stay away from it, although they did not personally look at the program. I think all of us want it to be true. Maybe he has discovered a more reliable way to select companies primed to hit peak velocity. It also concerns me that they are pressuring us to sign up by midnight 3/29/17 or the service goes away. It may be another example of ‘if it is too good to be true, it probably is’. And, yes it does concern me that he is not willing to put his money where his mouth is and not offer a money back guarantee.
I would strongly advise you to resist this “opportunity”. Upon examining the 4 rules and the formula “Code” that Mike lists in the presentation I concluded that the rules and the code do not always work. Essentially, you are buying a stock at its all time high and expecting it to go higher. The chances of that happening in the near term are not 50/50, in fact, usually there is a pull back when a stock hits an all time high. The reason stocks go higher is because they have consistently good earnings reports on increasing sales. These two together drive stock prices higher. And no one can tell you when this is going to happen before the earnings are released. If some one has this information before, it is insider trading and that can lead to jail. The other flaw to the pitch by Mike is that it requires you to pyramid your investments in order to make the 1000% gain. This means you have to risk $10,000 on buying call options on a stock he recommends. These options then have to double in value to make the 100% gain and they have to do that before the option expires. If you are lucky enough to have that happen, and believe me it does not happen that often, you then have to be willing to risk your proceeds, $20,000 on the next option purchase and then that option has to double within weeks or a month. You have to then risk your $40,000 in the next option purchase. And So on and So On. I don’t know about you but I am not comfortable putting 40k and then 80k and then 160k and then 320k and then 640k down and hoping it will double to be 1280 k on the last wager. I don’t know anybody who has that kind of guts to put it all on that last bet because at any one of these wagers, you can loose everything you have bet because when the option runs out and has not doubled, you have lost it all! The final tell tale sign in all of this is showing you Michael’s log cabin in Colorado and his Mercedes, etc. This is all the hype around how his system will make you rich! Believe me, no one wants to make you rich. People only want to make themselves rich! If Michael sells 1000 subscriptions at $3000 each, that is 3 Million Dollars that Michael will make. This is why people like Mike go to all this effort, not to help people like us get rich. If the system works, he should be willing to give a money back guarantee, not just another year of subscription, which could be just as worthless as the first year was. And no one I know so far gives a money back subscription for that kind of money. Basically in the end, there is no system out there that can read charts flawlessly and tell you which stock is going to go up in the coming weeks and months. I am afraid there is no free lunch and no way to know consistently which stocks will go up enough for you to double your money in options every time you put your money at risk. I would suggest you take a look at Gorilla Trades, a service I do you that has a pretty good track record of picking stocks and advising you when to buy, when to take profits, and when to cut losses. They have a free trial membership and their price is not out of line. And most importantly, their advertising is not based upon their homes, cars and yachts.
Thanks for your post Gary. I have made some gains by investing in stocks that were soaring. but I would sell my shares right away. I
lost money, when I got suckered into a “pump & dump” scheme for cheap stocks. I watched part of Carr’s video, but didn’t realize it was for option traders, which I am not, nor do I have any interest in becoming one.
Great comments and totally agree with all of them. Same experience here, the price is to high and it seems to good to be true. Nothing comes out about Michael. I am glad I found this chat, that confirmed my opinion.
If he collects 3000 from 1000 people that’s 3 million dollars. If his system is that great he would more motivated to let people have it for a lot less. Now they are asking for another 200 people to sign up. This is a scam, and nothing is guaranteed. If he is so positive, money back guarantee should apply. STAY AWAY!!
I agree, I have been following his recommendations on his less expensive Program and he is batting about 60% on his recommendations going up. He seems locked in to GE and IBM on his normal newsletter and they are not doing well.
Hi Gary, you are talking about a different guy, Paul Mampilly, who has actually sold IBM and GE in the last few weeks. He has recorded a gain of 40% over the last 11 months or so with a lot of these stocks held only a month or two. The justified criticism is with another guy, a Michael Carr of ‘Peak Velocity’
I subscribed to Paul’s excellent newsletter Profits Unlimited two months ago. He only made a 6% gain with IBM, and a 4.4% loss with GE. I was surprised about GE. They were investing in the Information of Things, so I don’t fault Paul’s
judgement on them . Immelt deceived his stock holders, and
him, and others should be bought up on criminal charges.
Yes, I too backed out of this opportunity. Too much risk so I wanted to hear from anyone who is trying or testing the system to see if it is working. If there are no big losses, then these boards might stay quiet. Hopefully, it is working out for everyone. I just hate options services that you have to “rush to the door” to get the right buy in price.
I joined his service and Put 5k in to hpq……This was my first trade….I closed the trade for a 45% gain in two weeks….almost made my money back immediately
How did you do that? I also subscribed and we are still in HPQ from what I understand. Did you close on your own or on Carr’s recommendation?
HPQ closed at 100% loss.
Tommy Boy
I bought the PV service when it was $2997. My first 5 trades weresmall but they were all losers. I lost almost the full 3k cost in the initial trades. Then I started modifying the game a little. I watched each alert and when they went down, (an unfortunately consistent pattern), I bought at a lower strike price. That was working well until the Lowes PV alert. Anyone remember when Lowes went down about 10% after hitting Peak Velocity? I kept buying lower Strikes until they all expired worthless. I called for a refund and took the credit for other services.
Do you have a point shipless!
My point is, if you choose to buy Mike Carr’s Peak Velocity, you should plan to buy at lower strike prices. However, I suggest you don’t buy PV, especially since they have raised the price to 5k.
The Peak Velocity system is not doing too good right now.
OK, I fell for it.
literally suggested 1,200% in two months by eliminating losses and adding individual gains together as if they were 1) all-in with your portfolio, and 2) sequential. Neither is true, most trades you cannot make, and then more than half lost, and the guarantee is, “if is doesn’t work we’ll give you another year that doesn’t work.”
Go to your credit card and get the money back, this is blatant fraud.
I agree. Although I don’t think you can get your money back.
Ronald, I fell for it too. Were you successful in getting your money back through your credit card? Thanks.
bought into but after 4 weeks and executing 2 call options, one expired worthless in 3 weeks and the other, which expires late July, is teetering on a repeat
Because the market seems to be plateauing, Calls seem to be too high a risk. Likewise, because there’s no downward trend either, Puts will not be advantageous either. So, yes … maybe over the past 8 years (during the climb), it was easy money, but not now.
When I cancelled, they refunded my original lifetime $2,995 subscription but would not refund the additional $2,995 subscription. That additional amount was applied to one of Paul Mamphilly’s subscriptions — one that is not based on options.
STAY AWAY STAY AWAY I was here from the begining.I was told to put 20% of your money in each trade.I did it exactly as told.I did the trades at the prices he stated.All losers (lows,hpq,wdc, V ) all losers.Down 77 % on my trading account as of this morning.I am retired trying to make some extra money to make ends meet.I had 5 amid figure account now in the teens.I am new at this I sure learned the hard way.
I share your pain from within the same boat!
Yep, Michael Carr’s picks were abysmal and he is awful at recommending exit points when one is clearly failing to at least save some money. I lost a ton of money here experimenting with options. Went back to making my own picks and up 50% again on my accounts. MM’s will manipulate stock options based on how many call/puts are made against a stock. I believe the only way to win with options is to find your own picks and not follow the crowd. MM’s will always rip off dumb money. E-mail Michael Carr and tell him what a dreadful POS his system is,
I sent several emails to him but they screen them so I doubt he ever seen them. Bottom line, they are all scammers and Mike is a dumb ass, indeed!
Here is the portfolio and note all the losing positions, you have been warned. There have been a couple of winners but the vast majority are losers.
ePortfolio
Centene September 2017 $72.50 Calls CNC170915C00072500 06/15/2017 $8.45 $11.55 36.69% Buy up to $8.60
Centene September 2017 $72.50 Calls CNC170915C00072500 06/15/2017 $8.45 $0.00 $12.70 50.3% Sold half position on 6/23/17
Coach August 2017 $43 Calls COH170818C00043000 06/27/2017 $4.86 $5.40 11.11% Buy up to $5.20
Eaton Corporation October 2017 $77.50 Calls ETN171020C00077500 07/06/2017 $3.75 $5.01 33.6% Buy up to $4
Fortive May 2017 $60 Calls FTV170519C00060000 04/03/2017 $2.40 $0.00 $1.84 -23.33% Closed position on 5/19/17
HP Inc June 2017 $18 Calls HPQ170616C00018000 04/13/2017 $1.05 $0.00 $0.00 -100% Expired on 6/16/17
Lowe’s June 2017 $87.50 Calls LOW170616C00087500 05/08/2017 $1.87 $0.00 $0.00 -100% Expired on 6/16/17
Pinnacle West May 2017 $85 Calls PNW170519C00085000 03/27/2017 $1.60 $0.00 $0.91 -43.13% Closed position on 5/2/17
Visa July 2017 $95 Calls V170721C00095000 05/15/2017 $1.93 $0.00 $2.48 28.5% Closed position on 7/14/17
Western Digital July 2017 $95 Calls WDC170721C00095000 05/31/2017 $2.38 $1.54 -35.29% Buy up to $2.50
Yum Brands August 2017 $75 Calls YUM170818C00075000 06/21/2017 $2.03 $1.29 -36.45% Buy up to $1.95
I knew Michael Carr and his system was a piece of sh*t, just from the fact they were SO desperate for membership. I think Chad Shoop’s Earnings Drift is probably horse sh*t too. They have the audacity to try charge $4000 with no refund when he has not even proof himself yet! His Automatic Profits service is awful. He picks the worse stocks and his timing for entry is even worse. Even stock that he picks drop like 5%-10% within a week! Out of the last 12 stocks that he recommended, only 2 came out on top!
Does anybody know how Paul Mampilly’s True Momentum is working out so far? I know NRG went up like 27% in 1 day, but some of the others have not been doing well such as USG. I had the option to join for $900 only, but decided not to because so far a lot of the services are just crap….
When you hear the name Banyonhill………run!!!!!
OK, here’s my 2 cents:
I am a professional financial advisor with over 45 years experience in seniro bank management and investment advisory. I never bothered to learn to trade options during my career, so I joined up with Carr’s Peak Velocity program along with another one with Jim Rickards. Once you get the hang of it (it is a learning experience), you definitely can make big profits in a short amount of time. That’s what my goal is with my at-risk money. Of course you can lose them too.
Since March, I think Carr has just had the markets against him – yes, more losers than winners. So you have to be selective and not necessarily go along with all of the recommendations. The average person may find this a little difficult to do.
Right now I am at a slight loss in Peak’s program and have a fair gain in the Rickard’s gold and other option trading programs.
I also elected to pay the one-time fee in both so I didn’t have to worry about renewals. This is almost a must if you are going to follow the options market because you will always have expirations to deal with. A one year trial might be fine, but you will be left hanging at the end and have to pay another renewal.
It’s still early in the game for me. These are sensible strategies that I can see from listening to the weekly updates.
I will say that we are definitely ripe for a 5-10-20% pullback in stocks very soon. You can make money in those down markets by buying the Put options. I do have some working at the moment.
Hang in there, good luck.
Sorry, I should have also mentioned that I tweeked my buys to open and sells to close to take profits earlier and to cut losses sooner, plus also added to positions during weakness in prices. I know Carr started recommending to sell half of the position when +50% to lock in profits and guard on the downside. I do believe he needs to be more on top of it to exit sooner if it looks like the trade will expire worthless. Yep, the program has gotten off to a rocky start so far. This is strictly for risk money – high risk, high return. I have learned a lot. May we all have the luck on our side going forward.
Sorry, I should have also mentioned that I tweaked my buys to open and sells to close to take profits earlier and to cut losses sooner, plus also added to positions during weakness in prices. I know Carr started recommending to sell half of the position when +50% to lock in profits and guard on the downside. I do believe he needs to be more on top of it to exit sooner if it looks like the trade will expire worthless. Yep, the program has gotten off to a rocky start so far. This is strictly for risk money – high risk, high return. I have learned a lot. May we all have the luck on our side going forward.
Your strategy Ron to get out when you “feel it” is the only way you can make money with Peak Atrocity, peak velocity losses. I never traded options before and, yes, it has been a learning experience. I have been hurt bad by this service. Carr’s market analysis is of no interest to me. Charts and graphs have their place but results is the name of the game. By my count there has only been one winner and about a dozen losers following his trade instructions. One of the research outfits claims buying and selling calls by themselves lose 70% of the time. Carr’s record is even worse. Unless a miracle happens get ready for the 2nd year free. I’ll be adopting your strategy of taking profits while they are there. One heckuva lot lower than his test results and one heckuva lot higher than his guidance record thus far.
Yep, you are right in your observations. If strictly following Carr’s advice (which I have to believe many are), you are getting clobbered. Fortunately for me, I have my own gut feeling, ideas, other research to use to make some adjustments to my trades or even pass on the recommendations. I am fortunate to be able to use the subscription expense as a non-reimbursed business expense as it relates to my profession. The Peak V program at least made me take the leap to learn how option strategies work without putting up large sums of money. This surely is not for everyone. Crossing my fingers for miracles to start happening!
Does anybody subscribe to Chad Shoop’s Pure Income or Earning Drifts? Just wondering what they are like. I subscribe to his Automatic Profits and it is really garbage material. Like the last 14 stocks that he picked, only like 2 or 3 actually came out on the + side. He picks the worse trade and he enters at the worse time….. Hope he does better with his other services. I don’t think it can get worse than what he is doing right now with Automatic Profits.
I did OK with Pure Income. I kept the number of options sold low as you’re on the hook if you get put the stock. Ended up being put the stock on 3 of 19 transactions, but was able to sell each stock in a short period at a gain or break even.
I’ve made a few posts that mention the additional worth of subscribing to a newsletter. Traders can learn from the newsletters. Each writer has their own perspective on the Market. Many subscribers fail to do
their own research, and they foolishly rely entirely on the information that’s given in the newsletter. I find
each newsletter to be well written, informative, and can be profitable with “due diligence”. It also helps
an investor to decide which sectors he’s interested in trading in. Option trading sound interesting, but I
don’t think it’s for me, and probably isn’t for many others.
Ron H you were right when you mentioned in your initial post that the Market was due for a pull back. Do volatile markets benefit the
option traders ?
This article was obviously written by an intelligent man, who knows what he’s talking about. I am not shy of taking risks, but at the age of 84, I don’t think it would be wise for me to take any further risks. I didn’t realize that Carr’s newsletter was strictly for “option trading”. If I was a wealthy man, I might be
tempted to give it a go. Good luck with your new endeavor.
Better idea. Buy a cork bulletin board. Cover it with mini Post-it-Notes each having the Symbol for a different stock on it. Walk 15 paces away. Throw a dart at the board. Buy the stock it lands on.
threw that dart this morning (8/14/17) on Nvidia. Up 61.5% in a day. My kind of peak velocity. Will be watching very closely for the trend to continue or…….
I once read that this was done with monkeys throwing the darts. The monkeys did better than the human traders. You need to take risks to have any chance of making a big gain, but you can also experience a big loss. After
my wife passed away, I got interested in stock trading. I lost a few thousand dollars each year, but I enjoyed the exciting activity of searching for good companies, and speculation that they will have continued success. I believe
that a stock trader is a gambler. Warren Buffett, and some others don’t buy
a stock if they expect to lose money. They are experienced traders who have years of experience. Even they pick a bad stock, once in awhile. They are able
to minimize the odds, which most of us can not, even if they have subscribed to expensive newsletters, that make the writers, and their publishers rich.