What do subscribers think about the Profit Radar Report? How about FORMER subscribers? This might be the most candid real life testimonial page you’ve ever seen. Here is a selection of comments ranging from complimentary to brutally honest.
The iSPYETF inbox has received quite some feedback in 2016. Most of it was complimentary, but we also received some downright angry criticism too.
Below is a selection of unedited comments. Prior permission to publish comments was not obtained. Therefore, the last name is abbreviated for privacy reasons.
About 1 out of 10 subscribers cancel within the 30-day money back guarantee period. In an effort to constantly improve the Profit Radar Report, we usually try to find out why. Some of the reasons are published below (see cancellation feedback).
Comments are sub-divided into four categories:
- Feedback of new subscribers
- Feedback after a missed trade
- Feedback of subscribers who wanted to cancel their service
- Feedback of subscribers whose credit card was declined at renewal
New Subscriber Feedback
Hi Simon, I am so glad that I subscribed to your family of subscribers! Went through your recent reports as well as recent ones. I must say they are simply brilliant!! I do subscribe to the Tom McClellan financial publications, but I think your analysis is far more comprehensive and insightful. Thanks for having such a brilliant piece of research. — Mohit T, India
You’re a genius Simon. Your website, its name, its logos, the annual fee, the colors in the website, the boat with the 4 engines and the timeliness of your hunches are all AWESOME. Man, that’s ONE SLEEK boat. It’s taken me 20 years to carve my way here, one lost dollar at a time 😦 You can post my comment on your website as a ‘testimonial of initial impression’ Simon. — Chris S, British Columbia
Simon, as a new subscriber, I must say that I am really enjoying your newsletter. I find it quite thorough and very informative. I would like to request that you please include more frequent updates for Crude oil. I did read that due to the volatility of the commodity, you don’t trade it as much. If possible though, please include it for those of us that trade it and would greatly benefit from your analysis. Thank you again and have a wonderful day! — Keena B, FL
Dear Mr. Maierhofer, just started reading your sight and may I complement you on some of the finest analysis I have ever read. My question and comment today is do you use the measured move technique in your analysis among your other tools. If you observe the last 3 big downturns, October 2014, Sept 2015, and Feb 2016, if you calculate the bottom of the SPY downturn in each case to the top of the rise up,each is a 25 point increase. I look forward to your response. Warmly. — Stuart S, PA
Hi I’m new to your newsletter and subscription. I need to clarify short ETF’s. 1) Are they traded after hours or before the market opens? 2) When you short a stock there is a time limit ( I think), is there a time limit on short ETFs? When I buy an ETF I always put a stop loss order on it between 3 and 5 %, allowing for fluctuation, is that about right? Your articles have really helped me focus my trading, before I was floundering. Thank-you! — Robert J, MT
Comments After Missed Trade
Simon, a wonderful intraday update. Thank you. Last night 5 minutes before market close, I passed up an opportunity to place $200,000 in SH at $19.77 because I listened to you. When I heard the surprising vote in the middle of the night, I haven’t even thought once to regret my missing out. Because I completely understood your reasoning. We do not gamble, this is not betting. We are trying to shift the odds ever so slightly to our favor, by insightful analysis hoping few out there do the same so that we can exploit. Please continue your disciplined approach, which is refreshing and although missed out on SH, the thought behind why we missed out gave me so much more confidence to play along with your advice going forward. Keep up the great work. I enjoy your commentaries, and always personal approach to respond. Warmly. — Gordon Y, Ohio
Hello Simon: I am a relatively experienced trader. I am very impressed with your detailed careful analysis and thoughtful money management. I did not take the spy short you recommended thinking the market was going to breakout to new high without a deep retracement. I was 50% long, 50% cash at the market close on Thursday June 24. I had to deal with the huge gap Friday morning. I bought with the 50% cash SSO at the open on Friday and sold SSO and my long holdings after the bounce and made money. I am now flat. But what I did was wrong and what you did by closing SH Thursday was right. Looking forward to learning from you and profiting from your recommendations, Sincerely. — Mazin K, North Carolina
Thank you so much for your honest evaluation and extensive market knowledge. We appreciate. Market is market, it is two way streets. When we are trying to make money, at the same time we should prepare to lose money. Thanks for your dedication and good work. — Matthew Cheng, TX
Don’t sweat it. You’ve had many more good calls than bad in the few years I’ve been following and your insight is more valuable (to me) than ever. Have a good weekend. — Mike M.
Cancellation Reasons/Feedback
Please cancel. Not what I am looking for. — Robert H, TX
Robert H. re-subscribed and sent the following e-mail (following a login trouble shoot) four months later:
Sorry. You are right. I am using my I phone and the main computer is on auto for login. Thanks for you insight into the market. I am impressed. Have a good evening. — Robert H, TX
Please cancel my subscription. — Doug F, MA
Doug re-subscribed three months later and sent the following e-mail:
Simon, you do meticulous work, thanks for all your insight! — Doug F, MA
Hi Simon, I love your service and your work; in fact in the time following you have taught me a lot. I have used this knowledge to home my own investing model based on the IBD’s CAN SLIM approach. I have been back testing my model through the up/down bull cycle that started late in 2008. It is simply now time to use this model on my own without help from others. I am reducing out all of my investment expenses (advisory publications) so that this money is going to my capital. Thanks for wonderful service and I wish you the best. At this time, I do want to cancel my subscription when the current period ends. Kind regards. — David F, IN
Dear Simon, The analysis just seems spot on. I like the way you can tie together different disciplines, such as Elliot Wave, classical charting, sentiment measures and the like. I find your accuracy almost startling. I believe if I were retired and had the time to trade profitably, I’d love to take your trades and the slight commitment they involve. At this stage however I mostly auto-trade, but I see that you have a number of asset classes in play, and also variable trade sizing and the like, which I think would probably require a little more attention to implement than I can give at this stage. What I am wondering is have you ever considered offering your work on Collective2 so that subscribers can follow simply by allocating the service a portion of their portfolio, and that way they’d have all the ‘hard work’ done for them. Your trade record speaks for itself and I certainly would not hesitate to subscribe if you listed on Collective. With sincere apologies again for the inconvenience, I’d be grateful for a cancellation of my account. — Gregory S, Australia
Simon, my need to cancel is motivated by a personal “issue” that will take some time to resolve. Your service appears to be well worth the $199 per year. I’m afraid I must remain within the 10% that cancel. — Stephen W, WA
Dear Sir/Madam I would like to withdraw my 30-day trial subscription begun on 7 March. The research is very good, but I would like more trade set ups. However, I think the time difference from New Zealand to New York may deter me from trading at all on the NYSE. Thank you for the opportunity to view your site and please credit my credit card account. Kind regards. — Bruce R, New Zealand
Hi Simon, thanks for the refund. It’s pity I’m not in the position to use your profit radar report. However, I will continue to be one of your reader and to follow your e-Newsletter and your articles. Thanks again for your time. Best Regards. — Domenico B, Italy
Thank you Simon, I appreciate how you’ve handled things from the start and with very fast, timely service. All the best to you too, take care. — Steve B, OR
Simon: Thanks, but please cancel my subscription. I may reconsider in the future as my needs change, though I understand it would probably be at the full price. — Daniel Talheim, MI
I canceled my subscription a year ago, received confirmation and now you took it off my credit card again. Unbelievable. I request immediately to pay my money back plus interest (I’m paying 19.9% on my credit card). I hope you understand that I will make this now public. To me this is almost criminal how you screw your customers! Thats probably why there is no real contact on your website as well. — Rolf H, British Columbia
Ralf was right, we accidentially charged his credit card even though he cancelled. We appologized and issued a full refund … and he continued to throw insults. BTW, the ‘Contact Us’ section is right here.
Simon, thank you for the offer, but I would like a full refund. I think you do good work, but I’m not in a position to take full advantage of it at this time. Thanks. — Roger P, IL
Please cancel my account and process my refund, I will stay on any newsletters you publish and when we start trading stocks and ETFs I will reactivate, thanks for the service! — Thomas D, IL
Hello Simon, I would like you to process a Full Refund right away. I appreciate your analysis and I think your Service is for sure one of the better ones around but the main reason for me to quit your service is that my trading approach differs too much from your approach. Again, thanks for the trouble. Have a good Time, Greetings from Hamburg, Germany. — Tobias B, Germany
Since I am not going to be trading in the future, this information will not be useful to me. Please cancel the subscription and give me the credit to my credit card. — Kasi R, CA
Hello Simon, Due to some unexpected developments I will not be able to extend my subscription past the trial period at this time. I very much appreciate the opportunity & will continue to follow your website & posts. All the best. — Alan S, FL
Hi, Simon, Great to hear from you. Please just cancel my account and refund me for now. I am extremely busy with career now. Will take up on investing and trading later on. Thanks so much for all valuable insight all the way. Li W.
I would like to cancel my subscription. No specific reason. I found another service that I would like to try. So, I may be back. — Arthur G, NM
Simon: I was really hoping to use your service to help time/trade my 401 k by telling me when, and when not to be, in the S&P 500. I can only make two trades a month in my account. Perhaps if your service included a simple long/short the S&P 500 signal that was sufficiently backtested and produced better than a buy and hold return…that would be something I’m very interested in. Thank you for issuing a full refund. I wish you all the best. You have a good service, but one that is not yet quite right for me and my needs. Have a great and blessed day/weekend! 🙂 — Kevin F, FL
Simon, I trade at Rydex and your advisory isn’t helping me. Please cancel my subscription. Thanks. Please send cancellation confirmation. — Donald M, IL
Please cancel and refund the full amount. I am sure I will return at a future date. Would like to see your Wednesday report if within the 30 day period. — Richard A, FL
Please cancel my subscription to ispyetf. I find that it is very similar to another publication that I receive. Thanks in advance for crediting my credit card and thanks also for the ability to look at your good work. — Paul H, C
Please discontinue my trial subscription, and do not charge my credit card. I admire the effort that goes into you site and messages, but it’s not the service I am looking for. Thank you. — Howard H, NH
Honestly, your site is very poor and results are ‘snipits’ from past reports. Your site is borderline fraudulent. Please, I demand an immediately refund of my money. This is a terrible site and potentially fraudulent operation. Please reconsider what you are doing here. — Tim B, TX
After credit card was declined:
I really appreciate the loyalty discount. Most of all I appreciate what you do. While often your analysis is over my head technically, I am still able to glean the clearest picture of likely outcomes from your work. I always expected that when I retried, I would invest in bonds, live a relatively stress-free life and maybe have something left to pass on to my children. Instead, investing has become an incredibly treacherous and anxiety-inducing undertaking, and without your newsletter I would truly be adrift at sea without aid of navigation. — Frank O.
Simon, First of all, I hope you had a good weekend. I am sure you work long hours, and deserve a break. Secondly, I want to thank you for your patience during my SCREW UP, last week. It does my heart good to know there are caring people out there, in this upside down world. I sent you my credit card information this morning on your website under: “update payment information”. I hope it came through. Rather you agree with me or not, I would appreciate it if, when you send the charge to my account, you add a prorated amount back to my original enrollment date. I wasted a lot of your time, and really was not off line very long during my confusion. It would help my comfort zone a lot. I like your site for several reasons. I am an ETF timer, and have had some success using RS movement off of a site, for a several months. — John S, SC
Simon Maierhofer is the founder of iSPYETF and the publisher of the Profit Radar Report. Barron’s rated iSPYETF as a “trader with a good track record” (click here for Barron’s profile of the Profit Radar Report). The Profit Radar Report presents complex market analysis (S&P 500, Dow Jones, gold, silver, euro and bonds) in an easy format. Technical analysis, sentiment indicators, seasonal patterns and common sense are all wrapped up into two or more easy-to-read weekly updates. All Profit Radar Report recommendations resulted in a 59.51% net gain in 2013, 17.59% in 2014, and 24.52% in 2015.
Follow Simon on Twitter @ iSPYETF or sign up for the FREE iSPYETF Newsletter to get actionable ETF trade ideas delivered for free.
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