Description
Uses proprietary charting and analytics to give rankings and recommendations on every stock, every day. Both online and downloadable version of their software are available.
Overall Rating
Rating: 3.1/5. From 43 votes.
Please wait...
3.1
Rating from 178 votes
If you’ve subscribed to VectorVest, 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 53 votes
Rating: 3.3/5. From 53 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote
- 5 Stars 14 Votes
- 4 Stars 18 Votes
- 3 Stars 1 Votes
- 2 Stars 11 Votes
- 1 Stars 9 Votes
Quality Of Writing/Analysis
Rating from 40 votes
Rating: 3.3/5. From 40 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote
- 5 Stars 9 Votes
- 4 Stars 12 Votes
- 3 Stars 7 Votes
- 2 Stars 5 Votes
- 1 Stars 7 Votes
Value For Price
Rating from 42 votes
Rating: 2.8/5. From 42 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote
- 5 Stars 6 Votes
- 4 Stars 8 Votes
- 3 Stars 9 Votes
- 2 Stars 9 Votes
- 1 Stars 10 Votes
Customer Service
Rating from 43 votes
Rating: 3.1/5. From 43 votes.
Please wait...
Your vote
- 5 Stars 13 Votes
- 4 Stars 4 Votes
- 3 Stars 11 Votes
- 2 Stars 6 Votes
- 1 Stars 9 Votes
I have been a subscriber for about 2 months now, so I am really still in the evaluation phase. I started an evaluation after reading a number of positive comments about it in the stockgumshoe forums. It performed the best of the systems I track during the recent March-April rally, and it appeared to perform decently in 2008.
VectorVest is mostly a market timing system using mostly trailing indicators. It is going to get you in and out of the market about 1-2 weeks after each major market inflection point. It’s not going to get you in/out right at the bottom or top. Combined with stops though, you will keep most of your profits on the way down. It determines market movement by price action of its combined database of stocks, 8,300 or thereabouts that it tracks.
Along with tracking price action to determine a market direction, it assigns a value to each stock. The value is based somewhat on fundamentals. (I’m not sure how much to believe the VectorVest ‘value’ for a stock, but it is a rough gauge of what the fundamentals of the stock say it should be worth, run through a fancy formula)
The basic strategy is to pick undervalued stocks when the market goes up, reverse when it goes down. They provide a bunch of variations on that theme with different stock scans and a simple simulator. They will test a number of strategies for current market conditions and advise subscribers of half a dozen filters that will probably work. Each subscriber picks which exact strategy and list of stocks to go with when the market trend say ‘buy’.
They found early on that when they tried to make it very simple and say exactly what to buy when, it didn’t work, too many people would pile on to the same stock at the same time. Each subscribor now takes more responsibility for their choices. I like it that way, but not everyone does.
This system appears to have gotten all of the major market moves that have lasted over a month. It is mostly based on measuring recent moves and doesn’t get caught up with pre-conceieved notions of what the market OUGHT to be doing. All of the recommendations are kept on line, so you can go back and check for yourself whether what they were advising at key dates would have worked for you. However, going through that exercise is quite a bit of work, and I haven’t done it completely yet.
I suspect that if we get into a protracted volatile/sideways/range bound market, this system isn’t going to do quite as well, it can get whipsawed with its trailing indicators. It’s not a good day trading system and relies on trends that will last a month or two so you can get a decent bite out of the middle. Also, it doesn’t have any way of assigning value to ETFs, so it’s ability to predict ETF movement appears a bit simplistic; it was designed more for individual stocks.
at about 600/year it’s not cheap. I don’t like that they sell so many add-on packages. The base package charts their proprietary indicators. If you want a more standard charting capability, with MACD and all the ‘normal’ technical indicators, you have to pay an extra $400-$500 fee. If you want canadian markets, asian markets, extra fee, options analysis, extra fee. It tracks the foreign stocks that are listed through our normal exchanges though.
Since this system did the best in our 2009 spring rally, which many gurus missed or didn’t believe was possible, I’m going to stick with it for a year.
BTW, they also keep a watchlist of stocks that appear in the popular newsletters, similar CarrotTrader, so you can run the filters against them as well.
One problem they allude to is that some subscribers have trouble pulling the trigger when the indicators say ‘buy’. They want an additional week of confirmation, but since these are already trailing indicators, those folks end up chasing the move and don’t do very well.
One final thing, I agreed to put the whole year on my AmEx so I would get the 5 CD training set for free, which is this 2-day seminar they normally put on for 150-200 bucks. If I hadn’t gone through the training, I don’t think I would have figured out enough of the ins and outs of all their strategies and filters to know what to do, but they don’t send you the training CDs until the end of your free 5 week evaluation period. So forget about the free period, it’s nice but you’re probably not going to figure it all out unless you bite the bullet and pay for a year. My opinion.
Very complicated, expensive, must buy additional classes etc. and I am not sure how well it really works. And in their advertising they don’t show one whipsaw their system created this (09) spring. They only show the profitable trades… this makes me think that if they are not honest with their results; what else they are not honest about?
I would liken VectorVest to a Ferrari. If you hand the keys to someone who doesn’t know how to successfully apply technical analysis, you’re going to hear the gears grind, and you might even see a crash. In the hands of someone who already knows what they’re doing, on the other hand, VectorVest is a godsend, an excellent source of data.
Investors looking for “stock picks” would be well advised to look elsewhere. Investors who are looking to pick their own, on the other hand, will find a plethora of fundamental and technical data here that make the job easier (notice I didn’t say easy). Customer service is excellent, and backed by a number of local workshops that assist you as you are getting to know the software.
I had an experience with VectorVest that has bothered me since it happened, and I’m glad to finally have a forum to warn others. (Actually, my comments somewhat parallel Max’s with respect to honestly and trustworthiness.)
I have received VV ads for some time, and even signed up for the 5-week trial, although I never got around to using it, so I express no opinion as to whether or not the stock picking and market timing elements of the system work.
My direct experience concerns their ads. I read their ads very carefully and found a glaring error in their claimed numbers. I don’t have the ads at hand, so the numbers I’m going to cite are approximations, but they are pretty close to what the real numbers are. In essence, VV claimed that over a 10 year period, following one of their strategies would have led to an account balance that grew over 1000%, giving the investor annual returns of about 100% per year. The problem is that multiplying an account balance 10 times over 10 years is NOT an annualized return of 100%; instead, it is an annual return of about 26%. (This is the difference between a geometric average and an arithmetic average; geometric averages must be used to compute and compare returns on investments, NOT arithmetic average. The differnce can become huge over time as this example illustrates–the fair number is 26% per year, not 100% per year.) I spent some time calling VV and talking to them, explaining that the 100% number they were claiming was erroneous and must be changed; they promised they would look into it and correct their advertising. They never changed anything can I continued to receive their advertising over many months and years with the misleading numbers. As far as I know, they are still using this phony methodology to compute their returns. I even filed a complaint with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), but they did nothing about it. (Aside: don’t ever rely on the Federal government to look out for investors or consumers–they rarely do anything.)
Moral to the story: VV uses phony numbers, and won’t change them even when it’s pointed out to them. If SOME of their numbers are phony, why would anyone buy their product, not being able to trust them to do the right thing? Like MAX above, when I find someone lying to me one time, I go elsewhere. Do YOU want to gamble on this company with YOUR money?
Hi! My dad happens to be the CEO of VectorVest, and I would like to please ask you to give me an updated report of any issues you have with VectorVest, as I think that if what you are saying is true, my Dad should change it. I will make sure to make any changes you might sugest. I will also point out that the FTC did in fact contact us 11 years ago, but due to issues with an employee, everyone assumed that it was said employee making an unfounded claim. After expressing this to the FTC, they made no further comment, leading my father to believe that he was right.
I hope this helps!
I LOVE VECTOR VEST AND WOULD NOT BE WITHOUT IT AS IT IS THE BEST WAY I HAVE EVER FOUND TO SELECT STOCKS OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS.
As csprings has covered the ins and outs of the system, I won’t repeat an explanation here. I have been a subscriber since late 2005, and have been very pleased with the service. In that period, I bought and held 3 stocks. ALL 3 were winners for me – 2 up well over 100%, and one up 35%. More important, VV signalled a general sell in time for me to preserve all gains. Since June, I sat in cash and watched as the market tanked.
As we decided to invest in Real Estate this fall, I have not gone back into the market, so can’t comment on VV performance since July.
This tool is powerful.
The downside – one must invest a lot of time learning the system, and take frequent (free) tutorials in order to use the strategy which they deem most suitable for the week. For people looking for a stock picking system — sorry, folks, this one is not for you. On the other hand, if you are willing to do your homework, you will be handsomely rewarded. Pricy it is – but with the real potential of a very quick payback.
BTW, what drew me to this system was a student’s study of several systems – concluding that VV was the “best of breed”.
I have used Vectorvest for three years. The timing advice for getting in and out of the market has made me a winner in both my 401K at work as well as on a roll over IRA. As I was a loser after the tech bubble popped (letting someone else manage my funds for me) Vectorvest has allowed me to successfully watch my $$$ grow! I would never be without my friends at Vectorvest!
As a ten year subscriber to VectorVest I have tested its price-driven machinations and features exhaustively. While
its market timing follows rather than anticipates, it doesn’t lag by much, and has a tendency to lure one into a direction without much confirmation; hence, in a volatile market it will
tend to move in and out of the market frequently, but also recommends very tight trailing stops to minimize damage.
I do not take its buy/sell ratings seriously, nor, for that matter, most of its proprietary and opaque fundamental rating
metrics. Indeed, most of its “Strategies of the Week” are
based on price momentum, volume, market cap, sector, combined with bottom fishing, combined with top down ranking and
screening. During protracted bull markets VectorVest reverses
strategy and fishes from the top, rather than the bottom of
the barrel, with a tendency to buy into overbought stocks.
VectorVest, as I see it, thumbs its nose at serious and
thorough, number crunching fundamental analysis, and takes
a casino approach to trading, but has a way of tipping the
scales in your favor to a remarkable extent if you have the
courage to (1) fully load the boat when its market timer is
positive, and (2) use tight trailing stops.
Much of VectorVest’s success in 2008 and 2009 derived from
its liberal use of leveraged, contra ETFs in place of taking
individual short positiions. It also flourished during that
time by investing long in small cap, low priced, “sell rated”
stocks during market rallies.
VV offers a “Model Portfolio” to illustrate deployment of its
various formulas. It admonishes subscribers not to attempt
to imitate this portfolio, since they do not choose their
strategy until the morning of the same day that they use it.
Their choice and results are shown after market close. However, one can attempt to follow it, because they list up to six strategies that they “might” use under certain market
conditions the evening before. Running all of these strategies through their screeners in advance produces a list of up to 60 stock selections, many of which are duplicates.
By studying that list one can pretty much surmise what types of stocks they are focusing on and try to narrow it down.
VectorVest asserts that using the Model Portfolio in this manner is an affront to their intention to teach subscribers how to intelligently follow the trend momentum on their own,
using the many VV tools. These tools include a long list of screening and ranking methods, a historical price data base
going back ten years for every listed stock day by day, a
portfolio tracker and back tester, and the ability for
subscribers to create their own search and screening filters.
VectorVest is entirely unique, and can provide record shattering returns to those who have the guts to be fully
invested, and to reinvest most profits along the way However,
horrifying collapses can occur from gap downs which bypass
stop orders, so along with astounding gains of 80 to 100
percent annually, one must be prepared for stunning reversals
as well. VectorVest is only for the brave of heart, and most professional investors who I know feel that the analytic
tools it provides are incomplete and not to their liking.
Personally, I find it stimulating and highly rewarding to use.
I first subscribed about 5 years ago. The almost free trial($10) trial came with a full set of info, books, CD etc. They didn’t bug me after the trial expired.
I use it as a great source of info on a large array of investments. It is true that it follows and the buy-sell advise is always after the change but it is the fastest easist way to get all the real info.
I often disagree with their rcomended stocks but have found them to be a gold mine in several cases. I use VV to screen their recomendations.
I often disagree with their top rated stocks but I find that thoes are a gold mine of interesting stocks and use their information to select from them. The results
have beenI have used the back testing ability to quickly screen ideas. Most of the time I have found my and their ideas work well on the dates selected but don’t do well on other dates. For example, I have found low P/E alone doesn’t seem to give a better chance of future profit than higher P/E.
Good advice and a powerful screener is well worth it to me.
I tried to edit my comments above but the system inserted my edits at random in my previous review, and made it worse.
VV will not answer all q’s about what is best and when to buy/sell but will provide the numbers that you can use to make your own decisions.
I subscribed to VV for the market timing feature. Twice in 2008 and 2009 VV would have whipsawed you in and then out for a loss. Their lag time is about 10 days, which is just about long enough to to get you in at the higher high, rather than the higher low…meaning you’ll get stopped out unless you wait a week or so before following their advice. Their advertising is VERY misleading. They currently completely ignore the January 2009 “market up” call, which one day later deteriorated into a triple red…something than had never happened in 5 years. They say, sorry, but we follow lagging indicators. we don’t predict the market. Oh. They automatically renew you without warning, so beware. When I called two days after the unexpected renewal, they did give me my money back but literally berated me as a stupid person (maybe winning through intimidation works on some people). I found them to be arrogant, and always ready to tell you of some tiny little footnote you missed when their “signal” turns out to be perfectly wrong. I don’t think you’d go as wrong with VV as you would with pure hypesters like Navellier who claimed victory with his picks down 68% from when he said buy (and never said sell), but your own simple technical analysis will work just as well as VV. I feel the same money is much better spent on a hotel at one of the Money or Traders Expo shows.
I tried the VV trial and was automatically rolled into a subscription. I called to cancel early in the month so I wouldn’t forget. They informed me that I could only cancel immediately, not a date forward. What BS, I didn’t bother to tell them I only wanted to wait for a more opportune time to get invested in the service and now wasn’t a good time. If that is what passes for customer service count me out. I think the service has merit but it is pretty expensive if you are a small or casual investor. They are way over hyping and everything is a cost add on. Some interesting stuff though.
Don’t waste your money; more importantly, even if you have money to burn, don’t waste your time.
When we first purchased VectorVest six months ago and began a thorough and systematic evaluation of the product, we initially believed that we could profit by taking the opposite side of the VectorVest recommendation, as our tests indicated that VectorVest’s marketing timing calls and stock ratings were wrong about 87% of the time. In other words, it appeared that VectorVest was just a parrot for what Wall Street recommends, and anyone that has traded for awhile knows that when Wall Street says buy, that means sell, and when they say sell, that means buy. Unfortunately, after a thorough analysis, we realized that all testing using the VectorVest system is invalid because the system contains bad math and bad data. Specifically, VectorVest does not properly account for stock splits, includes numerous bad prints in its data. In addition, the mathematical calculations used in the system have numerous errors.
In terms of product quality, VectorVest is severely lacking. In addition to the bad data and mathematical errors mentioned above, the program frequently crashes, has frequent “divide by zero” errors, and sometimes will simply not retrieve results. As programmers, we were able to definitively determine that all of these problems were due to poor programming practices, poor quality assurance testing, and most importantly, an arrogant attitude on the part of the support staff and a refusal by them to fix the problems. We are confident the reason for this is they sell so many copies of this flawed product that frankly, they don’t care. Moreover, they DO NOT offer refunds, so if you purchase anything other than the basic monthly data, which you can cancel but not receive a pro-rated refund on, you get no refund. In other words, they know the software has problems, therefore, they do not offer refunds.
The bottom line is after over six months of thorough and careful analysis, we conclude that regardless of whether you follow the system or take the opposite side of the trade, your results cannot be reliably predicted simply because the data the VectorVest system relies on is inaccurate. At the end of the day, any serious analysis using their product is analogous to throwing darts at the Wall Street Journal stock tables. Between failure to account for stock splits, bad prints, and a multitude of programming errors within the system, most simulations you run are statistically unreliable because the data in the VectorVest system is inaccurate. Moreover, locating and/or attempting to filter out the bad data in the VectorVest system is excruciatingly painful because the program frequently encounters “divide by zero” errors or simply crashes. You have to have a tremendous amount of patience and a cabinet full of pain killers to use the VectorVest system for more than a few days.
Don’t waste your money or your time.
Having used VectorVest for over 5 years, I know I would not be without the service. I don’t always buy their top picks because I might not agree with the quality of the company or whatever. However, I have made money consistently with the the strategy I selected. VV offers many strategies so not everyone has to pile up on just one. Learning the strategies that fit your investing style helps and you need to work at that part. At first, I wasn’t making as much money and then found you must play the downside as well to make the returns. Now that I use negative ETFs versus having to write shorts I have a much more profitable portfolio. Another approach I used was to apply different different strategies and investment patterns to different accounts one is conservative, one plays both up and downside and one is value etc .
I have subscribed to VV for about 6 months and have been very happy with the results. There is so much information available and it really depends on much time and effort you want to put into the system to get the most out of it. In its basic form it gives excellent information to make educated investing decisions to a novice investor and other information is available to the more experienced investor. I would recommend VV to anyone.
watch these guys like a hawk they only show their good calls; delete the bad ones…ditto on stock picks…they are a pin the tail on the donkey game and move around the room to make themselves look good. they do not live in the reality of trading; rather that of writing compelling ads.
For me VectorVest is the Best program to pick stocks even for Day Trading. I really like it and hece I do not like those posts that talk very bad about this excellent product.
I like the simplicity of the Unisearch Tool. Thanks to it, anyone can easily make their own queries by introducing few changes on the queries already provided. There is no comparison with the complexity of languages like Mql4 or EasyLanguage found at MetaTrader and TradeStation.
As a veteran investor, i found Vectorvest to be a very valuable tool for reference, market trend & discovering interesting stocks/companies to research, both here in Canada & in the USA. I saved a small fortune last summer by following their advice & divesting myself of my Potash & mining stocks before the nasty, ugly downturn! Some of their special programs seem a bit complicated to grasp & understand, but the front page big picture is clear & concise, “reactive” simplicity being a very desired feature in the Stock Market. The staff is friendly & helpful..These people are winners & they know it!! I like many newsletters for various reasons, but overall,i find VV is tops! Thank You Stock Gumshoe!
I just signed up for there trail which is very misleading. I thought I was getting a trail of their whole system but it turns out it is only for their system that gives you info on end of close from the previous day. When I called I was told to get their up to date info I had to sign up for that trial at $29.95. Funny that trial isn’t even listed on their page which tells me they get you for that $9.95 and then want an additional $29.95. I would have gladly paid the $29.95 to begin with but after feeling screwed by them there is no way. I hate it when companies aren’t up front. If you have a great product to sell you shouldn’t have to resort to this type of stuff.
I have used VV for maybe 10 years. This is not a “hand it to you on a platter” service. Be prepared to spend some time, thought, and energy to receive value from the service. It is not really a service for novices, in my opinion. The more you know about trading stocks, and the more experience you have, the more value this service offers.
This is not primarily a newsletter. It is software to create, test, and share trading systems and methodologies. I have found VV to be an incredibly useful tool. However, this is where market smarts come in. For example, trading strategies or systems built with VV suffer from “survivors bias” when back testing. When a company goes belly up, gets acquired, etc. – it is no longer in the data base. All of your back testing will be limited to survivor companies, which tends to give you exaggerated positive results. Then there is some silly stuff, like suggested parameters for not owning more than x% of a company’s stock, which are usually set waaay too high to be realistic. But you can control these things yourself with some common sense.
Of real value, if you live near them, are monthly user group meetings. These can be very helpful in learning the system, sharing ideas, etc. Also, VV offers weekly online tips and classes (not interactive) to help with understanding the system, how to build and use strategies, etc.
If you are the type of person who becomes married to a company, or in love with a stock, steer clear. This is a trading system. It is for buying and selling portfolios of stocks based upon various selection criteria and timing systems. For the most part, you should not even care what the companies do.
Lastly, the founder and his staff provide daily and weekly commentary about the market and strategies they are using. This part of the service can be very useful, particularly for new subscribers. Is the advertising a little biased? Probably. Is the service perfect? No. But, it is the real deal, and you can make money with it if you have the right temperament and work ethic. I would not be in the market without it.