Author/Editor
Mike DiBiase
Publisher
Stansberry Research
Description
Monthly service that suggests discounted corporate bonds. Listed as one of their “Very Conservative” offerings.
Overall Rating
Rating: 2.9/5. From 21 votes.
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2.4
Rating from 90 votes
If you’ve subscribed to Stansberry's Credit Opportunities, please click the stars below to indicate your rating for this newsletter, and please share any other feedback about your experience using the comment box below.
Investment Performance
Rating from 24 votes
Rating: 2.0/5. From 24 votes.
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Quality Of Writing/Analysis
Rating from 21 votes
Rating: 2.8/5. From 21 votes.
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Value For Price
Rating from 24 votes
Rating: 1.8/5. From 24 votes.
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Customer Service
Rating from 21 votes
Rating: 2.9/5. From 21 votes.
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I only recently subscribed. So, I can’t say anything about actual results. But I can say I am very disappointed that I sent 2 emails (using the link they provide in the material) and have not received any reply – after 3 weeks.
Hi! I am seriously thinking about subscribing to Credit Opportunities, but the comments make me hesitate. Can you provide an update on your situation? Did you finally get a satisfactory response to your emails? Are you happy with any investments so far?
deanbob, like marty, I’m interested in what happened to your requests after this long a time. Any comment would help. Thanks!
Deanbob, Did you ever subscribe to Stansberry’s Credit Opportunities?
Once you sign on to this expensive letter and buy their recommendation you almost have to keep renewing in order to know what to do with the bonds you hold, unless of course you’re well versed in bonds and can navigate on your own. The recommendations are usually not for investment grade bonds and sell for pretty good discounts to par so there are negatives often having to do with the issuers ability to redeem the bond at maturity or successfully borrow to keep it afloat. If you’re not receiving the letter and something changes in a negative way with the issuer or with that particular bond, there’s no way of knowing what the Stansberry “experts” are telling their subscribers what action to take. I’ve been burned on enough of their recommendations that in 3 years, including the $3000 subscription , I’ve lost approximately 15%. I dropped the subscription and am facing losses in most of their recommended bonds I hold. One company went bankrupt, another changed the interest payment to PIK (payment in kind) and the market value of that bond is less than $10. It’s not a publicly held company so details are scant. I’ve had as many as 5 or 6 Stansberry subscriptions going at the same time over the past 10 years and my advice would be: ( I’m 80 now so I’m allowed to give it;) put most of your risk money in an index 500 fund, or similar funds with good track records, you’ll be far happier 10 or 20 years from now.
Mirrors my experience very closely. You’re never paid up. And good luck dumping a bond for near the rec stop price.
Regarding the Stansberry Research inhouse coterie, phone calls are much more productive than emails, at least for me. I do not have any experience with their Credit Opportunities newsletter so cannot comment on it.
I like this newsletter, it’s unique and it’s longer term oriented. I made some money on the prior bond newsletter True Income. With the current March 2020 corona correction there will probably be more opportunities coming.
I personally have gotten good value from subscribing to Stansberry’s Credit Opportunities but frankly bond investing is not as easy as they make it out to be. The newsletter recommends trades in discounted corporate Junk bonds. Of course, they aren’t as safe as investment-grade bonds but safe enough for me when backed by research, purchased at a sufficient discount, and in a large diversified portfolio with a couple year holding period. I do my own research, I have a few brokerage accounts and an my own financial advisor so that helps. I use the newsletter only for leads on bonds to consider and advice about unusual situations. Companies rarely go bankrupt, but it is a real possibility so your principal is at risk. It is easy to spot the worst high risk bonds when no companies are stressed, but now in 2020 many companies will be stressed as they have never been before. Somebody that knows more about this than me can give you advice about whether it makes sense for you. Just be aware that resale bond trading is not centralized and bonds can be very thinly traded so the bonds you want might not be available at a given brokerage or even at a specific time of day. Sometimes you have to talk on the phone with a bond specialist/trader. You have to be disciplined and wait (maybe for weeks) to buy at the right price and you may have to sell for a lot less if you are in a hurry. I’ve gotten some good ideas from the newsletter but at times the trades they recommended had too little profit built in to be worth the risk, or the bond price moved too quickly out of the target price range. Like any newsletter, it is no substitute for your own due diligence. You will do better if you know more than they tell you.
Generally, Stansberry research newsletters are very informative. That is why I subscribed to a few. The problem is that the company is too much in the business of selling the idea that investing is easy. Just a few clicks, you trade, make $1500, and can easily pay for one or more of their newsletters. Anybody could do it. They mention the risk but drive home the idea that this one idea can make you rich. All the newsletters do this. There is no substitute for proper allocations, some market timing and an exit strategy. One thing to watch out for is that the newsletters with “trader” in the name, suggest trades with a very large risk/reward ratio. That’s fine when there was a 98% chance of success during the perpetual bull market of the last 10 years. But big losses are likely now that the chances of success are more like 60/40. Keep in mind also, if you buy anything from Stansberry your junk mail will increase 10-fold.
Stansberry Credit Opportunities . I’m a recent former subscriber having been lured in by all the hype they published a year or two ago. I purchased 4 bonds in December 2019 recommended at the time as safe with good prospects. Now, a year later, three of the 4 have defaulted on an interest payment. One, CBL is now bankrupt (I was fortunate and decided to sell that right away when the default was announced and got away with only a 30% loss. Another, Forum Energy, went bankrupt and created a new bond with a higher interest rate and a later maturity. I’m still holding that (down about 40%). Now a third, Gulfport Energy, is bankrupt and we’ll see what happens. Will be down 40 or 50 percent and will have to decide weather or not to bail out. My US Steel bond is hanging in there but I’m down about 7%. This service is anything but conservative. The philosophy seems to be buy and hold until you loose nearly your entire investment – and there is a very good chance that will happen with a lot of the recos. The picks I mentioned were apparently thought to be fairly safe and there was no exit strategy in case things went south. Oil and gas prices have stayed low and the bonds, recommended at far too high a price, have been a disaster. If you want to play the high yield bond market do yourself a big favor and just use the mutual fund HYG. Study a chart and devise a trading strategy and you will do far better than following some newsletter writer. You’ll have an exit strategy and will be able to keep the large majority of your money safe regardless of what happens.
Thanks so much for sharing this story, Fred. The sales pitch sounds quite compelling and even “safe” given the likely crisis forthcoming. But yeah, the issue of the companies being legally obligated to make the bond interest payments is far from a guarantee, and according to many of you, far from even profitable.
I did look up HYG, and both they and JNK have similar historical performance: 2008 was a major loss year of minus 24 and 30%, and in 2009 they made a killing with gains of 41 and 50% respectively. There must be a great play here somewhere if one could judge the timing of the impending crisis and match it with the 2008-9 timeframe. Cheers.
Wish I had read this before subscribing this week. Confirmed the negative comments below are all true and the marketing is extremely misleading. This is NOT a low maintenance style of investing. 2 of the 12 portfolio holdings look like they will be total losses (down over 90%), despite the marketing material saying their research protects you from this and is very rare. You can’t put in limit orders to buy bonds unless the strike is within about 1% of today’s price. It’s clear that the ‘distressed bond’ opportunity is infrequent and difficult for retail investors to take advantage of. I’m requesting a refund after only 2 days. It better be a cash refund rather than Stansberry credit. I’ll post back here if they refuse to refund my credit card.
I did not wait for a response from Stansberry (gave them only 24 hours) and contacted my credit card company right away to dispute the charge. In this way I was able to get a full refund rather than the Stansberry credit they try and force you into. Besides the two losing bond positions, about 4 of the 12 portoflio holdings are convertible preferred bond purchases – which is simply another way of speculating in stocks to try and get outsize returns. Again – not as advertised.
I was about to buy into this news letter with “glitzy” promises of safety and their due diligence protecting us . I am very glad for this community and transparent sharing of what really going on!
How are the other 10 recommendations doing? Well enough to make up for the 2 bad ones? Thanks for the insight.
Thanks to all of you for your input. I was about to subscribe to this marvelous way of earning money but decided to check out my favorite trading site. Sure glad I did. I will take the advice and not waste my money.
As usual I Get carried way too far into the marketing schpeel. This service is the best money I’ve ever spent for advice. Thanks to like minded investors sharing their experiences, once again I’ll save some money by not buying into this service. Kudos to All.
I subscribed and 7 months into it, I took a credit and got a different Stansberry product. I was disappointed in the choice of bonds. For the volatile market conditions, the terms of the bonds are too long and their quality is too low, i.e. retail stores either filing or about to file bankruptcy. There are much better shorter term bonds of better quality. The portfolio did not live up to the hype. I’m glad the marketer was able to retire at 52 or whatever, but this is probably not going to happen for others.
Stansberry Credit Opportunities seems VERY risky- why take the chance? A case in point: one of their recommendations was a bond floated by Community Choice Financial. This company reverted to “Payment In Kind”, during a reorganization (quasi-bankruptcy?), after which the position plunged 99.99999% and has remained that way for years within a holding company listed as CCFLU. Not long afterward, Stansberry Credit Opportunites dropped listing this as a portfolio holding. Can you imagine that? Got a losing position in a portfolio? Hell, just drop it —the oldest scam in the business. As far as I can determine, the PIK conversion was slated to occur a few days ago, on 12.31.2023. I have waited patiently for years for this to occur, but nothing has changed —the position remains essentially worthless and untradeable. My Schwab brokerage was not able to shed any daylight on this. Does anyone have any info on this? much appreciated