I'm amazed at the range of 'advisory' services out there. I've used a couple and had 'reasonable' success on the stock side. I'm curious as to if anyone has or is using an advisor /site that has had a reasonable success rate. We all know that no-one is going to bat 1000 but even 50% winners w/ a max loss of 30% on the losers is better than throwing darts at names and strike lists... Curious .... J
It would be far more profitable for anyone with a consistent win rate to trade rather than try to sell newsletters. Now what does that tell you about the plethora of advisory services out there ???
The problem with options newsletters is that its very difficult to communicate your trades to people effectively and timely so that they actually make money. You could give away good free picks, and the majority will give up after one or two failed trades. I'm thinking of one where you have a discretionary bias or edge that is not generating 100% winners, but maybe 30% big winners... Like telling someone to roll into a trade... buying more as the volatility falls in anticipation of some discretionary or macro event... And sometimes you can get rich this way.. buying cheap volatility... But for the retail punter, you can't often do this because you'd have to have a dynamically adjusted sheet with values about current positions...Anyone operating something this specific and ordered required you do this for a living with the objective of scalability and profitability that is much better suited to running their OWN business... There is no point in trolling for people to discuss what might have been and catering to their half-baked whims after the Markets are closed.... This isn't meant to criticize those who have newsletters or subscribe its just a warning to retail people out there thinking there is a perfect options service that just because you might like to have the coke recipe, you don't have the coke business model....
I tried several options advisory services many years ago and quickly found them to be pretty useless because I could make or lose the same amount of money on my own as the services. They just didn't seem to offer anything useful that I couldn't get on my own by picking up a basic options book. There is one service that I do still use for a portion of my trading account which I can refer you to. I've used it for about 4 years or so and have been happy with the results. I won't post it here since it is a paid service and we are not supposed to post those from what I understand, and it is a FOTM credit spread selling service i.e. picking up nickels in front of the steamroller. So risk can be pretty high because one bad move can kill you. However, the service avoided getting pummeled by the Sep/Oct 06 rally that killed several nickel collectors, avoided losses from the Subprime mess the past few years, and avoided losses from the massive rally from this year. Not sure how long the streak will last but I'm a very happy customer thus far. I can send the link if anybody is interested in checking it out. They do suggest starting capital of 10K so people should make sure they understand exactly what the risks are.
Yet again, the following common sense is posted regarding this issue... If gurus and advisors were so successful, they would be long-since retired and out of the race to sell anything. If gurus and advisors are unsuccessful, I borrow a line from another profession... Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach (advise). Before you donate a few hundred bucks a month to a salesman behind a fancy website, ask to see their AUDITED record. It costs them money to do so, and I have yet to see a guru or advisor of ANY trading instrument put up when challenged. They can make pretty spreadsheet projections, but I have not seen an AUDITED guru/advisor do better than 50% per year. And I do that in most months. If you are so emotionally bent on finding a guru to trade your money for you or sell you signals, may I suggest you start blowing your nose with $100 bills. Or handing $100 bills to every homeless person you see, especially the ones holding "Vietnam Vet" signs who don't look a day over 35. You will get the same result. But don't listen to experience. Go find out yourself.
Often carried to the incorrect conclusion. Are you so foolish to bet your life every trading day? Didn't think so.