Browsing Category: "Matt Shaw"
Am I making Money Part II…
Well it’s half way through the year so time to step back and see how things have progressed over the last three months. The first quarter report can be found here and as you’ve probably realised by now I’m increasing the use of video to provide information so if you don’t want to read this post in full then you can hear my thoughts on this video.
As I recently posted I’ve decided not to continue with any more recommendations from Matt Shaw’s Fixed Odds Trading advisory service at Betonmarkets as the results have shown greater losses than gains. I’ve given this service a fair run for it’s money but I just don’t see it being consistent enough in it’s predictions. I know the markets have behaved somewhat awry over the last few months but for me Matt hasn’t been accurate enough in his forecasts. In somewhat of a similar fashion I’m not trading using recommendations from Martin Cornish of Market Excellence as whilst his advisories have been more reliable than Matt’s the returns on each trade has been small and consequently you are risking quite a high stake for a small return. I’m in the Steve Hoven FOREX trading pool at Market Excellence and will let this run on auto pilot.
The one bright light in the Fixed Odds trading arena is with City Beaters as I’m currently part way through my 28 day free trial period and already have 3 successful trades under my belt. The recommendations are made on FOREX pairs with returns of around 12% to 15% over a 7 day period. Also, the Nash brothers who run it provide useful updates on trades in-running and monthly advisories on currency trading in general. Well worth checking out in my opinion.
The most recent hiatus for me has been the problems associated with Colon End Parenthesis and GHPI which I reported on. It’s extremely frustrating to see what have been reliable paying opportunities suddenly stumble. The ensuing hue and cry and ill advised speculation creates a highly unstable atmosphere which in turn becomes a deepening crisis. In the case of Colon End Parenthesis the company is being informally investigated by the SEC and there is no clear indication of when a resolution will be reached. Rather more encouragingly GHPI seems to be slowly getting back on track mainly due to the efforts of the admin who seems to go the extra mile for his clients. That’s not to say that I think he handled everything in a wholly professional manner when things first started to go wrong but reading between the lines he does seem to have been reacting to negative elements from some members.
On a more positive note my recent post about CEP Coast does show that there is still opportunity to earn whilst some of these issues are being resolved.
Still waiting for the first bonus cheque from Shop Right (first promised for October 2006).
Still very much medium to long term both Sharndor and Divinius Opulentis are moving forward slowly.
On the gold front I was encouraged to see a recent press report from Goldman Sachs that predicted the price of gold rising to $1,000 an ounce (currently sits around $615 an ounce). So my regular contributions to Bullion Vault may well prove a sound move. All the reports I see about precious metals are bullish so it’s probably a good idea to hold a small portion on funds invested here.
Another program that is taking some time to re-establish itself is Fantastic Pay as they transition to Pot of Gold Real estate. Reading the forums you again get a mix of optimism and pessimism and whilst I can understand people’s needs to hear news both good (preferably) or bad there’s little that can be done until the admin decides otherwise. Another one where patience is very much a virtue.
In the last review I noticed that Global Pension Plan was approaching 50,000 out of its 100,000 target for membership. So, in the last three months over 20,000 members have joined, encouraging news to say the least. One small personal disappointment for me was that when I ran a competition with a prize of a full Global Pension Plan membership I didn’t receive any entries so I still have two memberships available (hint, hint). Recently I wrote a post about Imperia Invest which is a Traded Endowment Policy (TEP). For an investment of $50 you have the potential to earn $134,000. Thanks to Don Mills for spotting this one.
Overall I think you could say that my results have been relatively disappointing and I am now waiting for others to resolve various issues before I can see any real positive movement. However I should repeat that I am in this for the long term so onward and upward!
It’s clear from the above that relying on others to provide a steady passive income has its drawbacks and whilst I’ve always known this to be a risk I had never found a business that I wanted to get involved with so that I could have some influence over my own destiny.
Recently that has changed with my joining the MyVideoTalk business as I truly believe that there is a huge market potential for their products. Starting at just $5.95 a month you can send full colour video emails to family, friends, business associates, clients and prospects. Couple this with user friendly web based video conferencing starting at $69.95 per month for 5 users and you really have a strong stable of products. More exciting developments are in the pipeline so the future is really bright. I’m looking for a select number of people to join the business as my associate. If this sounds of interest please send an email to me here
Making Money with Fixed Odds…or not
It’s been some time since I’ve mentioned how things are going with the various advisory services I’ve been using with my BetonMarkets account and I’m afraid the news is not that encouraging although I’m hoping for things to improve.
The first advisory service I started to use was from Matt Shaw and the performance has been very patchy. I reported at the end of last year that his recommendations were continually failing and whilst he acknowledged this he hoped that things would improve in 2007. And, for a time things did seem to get better but lately the successes have been few and far between. This is doubly frustrating as I’d decided to be more conservative on each of his recommendations anyway so where he might recommend a trade giving a potential 30% profit say I would actually use a more conservative level of 15% perhaps and even this strategy has not been that successful. So, for the time being I’ve decided not to trade any more of Matt’s recommendations.
The next service I went for was from Market Excellence and I chose the advisories by Martin Cornish. Now Martin plays a very conservative strategy with the vast majority of recommendations providing in the region of a 3% profit if successful. Whilst this can provide some comfort it does mean that if the trade fails you are likely to use quite a big chunk of money as you have to risk a relatively high amount as your stake, so for example if you were looking to achieve £100 then with a 3% profit margin you would be risking around £97 so if this fails it can be significant.
Unfortunately for Martin he has had trades move against him and this seems to have triggered an even more conservative approach (not that I’m saying that’s wrong) to the extent that recommendations are now few and far between. As the markets settle down (if they ever do) then I’m sure Martin will feel more confident about trading more actively but for the moment this is a fairly quiet area.
As well as Martin’s advisories I’ve also subscribed to those from Steve Hoven at Market Excellence although I don’t trade personally as I use the pool trading that is available. Steve trades specific currency pairs on the FOREX market and advises his recommendations on Monday through Wednesday. As luck would have it immediately after I joined there were a string of poor results that meant my account took something of a nosedive (is it me?). Since then there has been something of a revival although June is proving quite a challenge. I’m happy to stick with this for the time being as it may well turn out okay in the longer term.
Finally I should mention CityBeaters as they recently re-started their FOREX advisory service and I’ve just started the 28 day free trial. So far there have been two recommendations which are for 7 days each and which seem to be behaving as expected for the moment. Hopefully this service will be the light at the end of my Fixed Odds tunnel, we shall just have to wait and see.
Am I making Money?…
In my post The Ups and Downs of 2006 I reviewed where I was in relation to the investments that I was actively trading at that time. Now, at the end of the first quarter of 2007 I thought I’d do another quick review to see what progress, if any, has been made in the past three months.
I’ve not really done any more with my Sports Arbitrage trading at Risk Free Profit as I’ve maintained my focus for active trading on Fixed Odds Trading using the recommendations from Matt Shaw and more recently the Market Excellence service from Martin Corkish. Overall results have been mixed as many of Matt’s recommendations took a dive in the early part of the year. Things have started to improve but I am still using a fairly conservative approach where his recommendations are concerned so that I limit the risk even more. I’ve explained previously that Martin uses a very conservative trading strategy so whilst his recommendations have traded well the returns are fairly modest.
As a way to increase the returns from Market Excellence I also joined the trading club where Steve Hoven makes trades on FOREX. Unfortunately as soon as I joined the results dived and March has been a fairly disastrous month. The one good thing is that I am guaranteed to make a profit before any more fees are paid so I am hopeful that April will start to turn things round.
My account at FXIG has now been moved to Sharndor and it has taken some considerable time for funds to migrate across. The trader has resolved to expend all his efforts on bringing the trading back to profit as soon as possible but there is always a threat that impatient investors may scupper his plans. Luckily I was able to recoup more than my original investment so I’m now using profits when and if trading resumes. Again time has been somewhat unkind to Divinius Opulentis as progress was expected before now but fortunately some good news right at the end of March should see things accelerate in the very near future.
One of the shining lights in the last quarter has been CEP Coast and the whole CEP family of programs. CEP Coast continues to pay out at 2%+ a day and as I reported in mid-February they are now in a position where the returns are guaranteed. If I was starting out in online investment I would make sure that CEP Coast was the first program I joined.
Whilst I’ve been happy with Fantastic Pay as an investment they have encountered problems and are currently working through the resolution of these. This is not a major area of concern as I’m positive that they will come through and be stronger for it. Investors are still waiting for the first bonus cheques to arrive from Shop Right so performance here is somewhat below expectations. Having said that the organisation is still marketing strongly and provides a very positive outlook.
Since the New Year I’ve also started to invest in gold by way of Bullion Vault and GoldClaim although the offerings from both are different. With Bullion Vault you can purchase gold directly and it will be held in the vault of your choice in London, Zurich or New York. I make a monthly payment so that over time I hope to have a reasonable portion of my investment here. On the other hand GoldClaim use the money you invest for projects that they are involved with. At the the end of a defined period the aim is to return your funds and profit so that you can then buy gold coins. Recently the Admin advised that payments were being suspended for 120 days due to problems with banks so I would caution anyone thinking about investing in GoldClaim to hold fire for the time being.
Another worth an honourable mention is Global Pension Plan as is it fast approaching 50,000 members and the forecast is that the 100,000 target will be reached in September this year.
So, what’s the verdict for the past three months? Well whilst some programs have performed well others have under-performed so I would say that I haven’t advanced as much as I’d hoped. This doesn’t mean to say that all is lost, mine is a long term strategy and I can see very positive signs in many areas. Let’s see what the next three months brings.
High Risk…High Reward?
Of the many ways for making money online that I have dabbled with or investigated Fixed Odds Trading has featured as one of my favourites. It is easy to do if you have the right information and depending on your risk profile it can be very rewarding. If you’ve been following my blog for some time you will know that currently I am subscribed to two fixed odds advisory services.
The first is headed up by Matt Shaw whose track record has taken something of a beating over the last few months especially in the run up to the end of 2006. I’m sticking with it for the time being but putting some other boundaries around the recommendations as posted until I see a definite improvement in results.
The other service is from Market Excellence and the service I am currently subscribed to is from Martin Cornish. Given the rather bullish moods of the markets at the moment on both sides of the Atlantic Martin has been sparing in his recommendations so it is still too early to really comment on the success rate, however the approach is very conservative so I am confident that an overall profit can be made.
Still in the Market Excellence stable but with a higher element of risk attached are the recommendations from Steve Hoven where the approach is to trade on the FOREX markets in a fairly aggressive manner. Steve’s trading style means that you have to be able to react quickly on his recommendations so unless you are able to devote a lot of time to the venture it might not be for you. However, there is a way to get involved without needing to do anything yourself. You can join the Auto Trading group where all you have to is to purchase units and the trades will be executed on your behalf. 
There is a potential drawback however as the membership is being restricted to a maximum of 250 and as at the end of January there are less than 100 places left.
With an average profit of 16% per month there is a good opportunity to leverage the expertise of someone else to make good gains. Just remember memberships are limited. One thing you should know is that you are offered a guarantee that if you do not make a profit over the period of your membership then it will be extended for free until a profit is made.
So, for a monthly fee starting at just over £20 you have the potential to make a handsome return on your investment.
Fixed odds flips…
Regular visitors will know that I am a fan of Fixed Odds Trading at BetonMarkets which is the prime mover in this market. As an individual investor you can place trades on various Market Indices and the Foreign Exchange (FOREX) markets. Now, you can learn to identify potential trades yourself or use someone else to do the hard work for you.
Recently I joined Citybeaters as they were offering a good service on FOREX. Having joined I received two trade recommendations which were successful. Unfortunately the two people running the service have decided to suspend their offering as they are both very busy in other areas. This is a shame as it did appear that their approach would yield some good profits.
Rather than leave things I decided to see what other services are on offer. On the BetonMarkets website they have a webring service where you can advertise a service for site visitors. One that I found was Market Excellence which is run by David Evans. Having had a good look at the site I’ve joined the Martin Corkish advisory service that costs just £99 for 12 months. Martin’s strategy is to select trades on both the European and US markets. The aim is to recommend some 10 trades per month that give returns in the region of 5% of your investment. By using sensible compounding you will be able to build up a sizeable bank in the medium to long term.
The Market Excellence site is well laid out and easy to navigate. There are resources available for the newcomer and you can also purchase a ebook that will guide you into the world of fixed odds trading. You will need a starting bank, the recommendation is £2000 or equivalent (you could use less it would just take longer to build up your bank).
If you don’t want to do any trading yourself you can join their investor pool (you have to subscribe to one of the main services as a pre-requisite).
