Over the past few weeks I’ve received two different sales letters claiming to come from “Jim Hunt”.

The first letter came from Streetwise Publications Limited and was selling a £27 per month course called “The Five Secrets“. In this letter Jim Hunt is given the title of “Course Director”.

The second letter came from Lifetime Enterprises Limited and was also selling a £27 per month course. This one was called “Corporate Raider” and was described as a “compendium of secret banking loopholes”. Jim Hunt also signed this letter.

As you can imagine the sales copy from both was extremely compelling and tempting.

In the case of the Five Secrets course I was severely tempted but this one sentence put me off:

“No-one ever got anywhere by being sceptical”

The copy goes on to ask whether the reader has ever met a wealthy sceptic.

Perhaps the copywriter has never watched TV but there’s a programme called “Dragons’ Den” that is broadcast on BBC1. It features a collection of multi-millionaires who listen to pitches by members of the public and then decide whether to invest in their ideas or not.

The whole gimmick of the show is that the Dragons have to be won around – they are sceptical about all ideas until the pitcher puts forward a good reason for them to invest.

These Dragons are multi-millionaires and their wealth dwarfs that of any of the “information publishers” who send out these types of biz opp sales letters. Knowing this it is difficult to understand how a copywriter can claim that there are no wealthy sceptics.

It’s just a silly sentence that has been added to try and make the reader think that being sceptical prevents you from making money in the hope that they’ll sign up to the standing order.

Shortly after discounting the sales letter I eventually found a full second-hand course of the Five Secrets for sale and snapped it up.

The seller was kind enough to include the original sales letter they received – the one that persuaded them to sign up.

Surprise, surprise, it is exactly the same as the one Streetwise is currently mailing out.

And the course has a copyright date on it “Copyright CMS 2000”.

This original sales letter comes from James Edwards of CMS, Reading. According to thisismoney.co.uk James Edwards is an alias of James Sheridan.

Very interesting.

As for the Corporate Raider system the sales letter speaks of special “bank passwords” that you enter into your computer. Apparently when you do this you will receive money within 5 minutes.

It comes from Lifetime Enterprises Limited and certain websites suggest that James Sheridan is a director of this company.

Strange coincidence!

The Corporate Raider sales letter is very compelling and also quite baffling in that it doesn’t actually tell you what this particular opportunity is about.

It says that it’s not a pyramid scheme, not a home business, not currency or commodity trading, not gambling, not property etc

Very interesting that it specifically mentions it’s not currency or commodity trading but doesn’t say that it won’t involve financial trading of some variety.

Therefore, it’s specifically stating what kind of trading that it ISN’T so maybe, just maybe, it does involve some kind of trading.

So what kind of trading would have someone typing in a “password” and then receiving money minutes later?

You would obviously be taking money from somebody else in some kind of trade, that would explain why you receive money almost instantly.

So you would possibly be selling something to another trader. That trader would be paying you for some kind of service or insurance or maybe even to shoulder some risk for him.

Could it be that you would be selling options?

That would explain why someone would pay you money immediately, without you appearing to actually “do” anything.

Perhaps it’s something to do with writing options on shares?

If it were, the “money” you receive would actually come from premiums that other investors pay you to buy these options.

The “passwords” in this case would likely relate to the shares that you are selling options on – whether calls or puts.

Correct me if I’m wrong but when you BUY options you have a limited downside but a potentially unlimited upside.

On the other hand if you SELL options you have an unlimited downside but a limited upside.

Selling options, therefore, can result in massive financial losses if you make the wrong decision.

The pieces appear to fit – passwords, money appearing within minutes, “instant cash, anytime, anywhere”, start with a thousand pounds etc

Maybe I’ll send off and get the first month of “Corporate Raider” free just to see if I’m right.

However, if the “Corporate Raider” Jim Hunt is the same person as the “Five Secrets” Jim Hunt then it may well be that the first lesson doesn’t tell you very much – as is the case with part one of the Five Secrets course.

And to be fair maybe the Corporate Raider course has nothing to do with options trading at all and there is a valid method of receiving hundreds of pounds just by typing in some letters to a website…

In any case it’ll all be revealed soon enough once people receive their first months’ newsletter. The review sites will no doubt spill the beans…

Update 19th February 2013:

If you want the 5 Secrets course but don’t want to wait for 10 months to get it I’ve put my own personal (100% official) copy of the course up for sale here:

Business Opportunity Manuals, DVDs and Videos For Sale

These updates were previously provided on the main website under the Vince Stanzione review page but I’ve decided to move them onto the blog as it is easier to post them here.

A load of trades expired on the 14th June 2011 and caused a large move in the balance of the account.

Here are the important numbers:

Trades opened: 42
Winning trades: 28
Losing trades: 13
Break-even trades: 1

This leaves my spread betting account up 24.1% from the balance at the close of play on the 15th March 2011 (the time of the last update).

28 trades rolled-over – can you guess why? These will all expire on the 20th September 2011.

As this account approaches its first anniversary, the overall return on closed positions is a very healthy 27.08%.

Speaking to a business associate over the weekend it occurred to me that not everybody has a vast understanding of spreadbetting and that, compared to some, I’ve got plenty of experience! My account with Finspreads was opened way back in 2004 and has had many ups and downs.

In fact, I discovered some old trading statement emails from back in April 2004. These showed just how undisciplined my trading was in the early days.

For example, I lost almost 50% of my bank in just 10 positions over a week (!) and then made 20% from 9 positions over the next two weeks when I was on holiday and away from a computer.

The style of trading I adopt now – where I often don’t check my positions for days, and only open new trades once a week – is far less stressful and appears to be performing quite well at present.

With the low amount of funds I have I am limited in the markets I can trade. All of my trades over the last year have been on UK shares that are under £7 whereas back in the days where I was losing a lot of money I would trade Gold, GBP/USD, US shares and stock indices.

My main aim for the first 12 months of this new, cautious approach to spreadbetting was to simply not lose money and providing that I don’t suddenly make a huge mistake or get caught on the wrong side of all of my trades, I could end up doing better than I imagined.

With stop losses in place on all my trades, I know that I am covered to an extent against a sudden crash (or boom) in the markets. Providing we don’t see massive gapping occurring in UK FTSE 350 shares I should survive.

What was missing in my trades back in 2004 was a solid money management plan. Everything I traded was at, say, £1 a point or £2 a point. It was always rounded up to the nearest pound.

Today it is different. One trade I opened this morning is for 72p a point, another for £1.05 a point. A few weeks ago I opened a trade for £5.23 per point but this has the same risk as all of the others.

Is this money management plan helping me to make successful trades? Maybe. What it definitely is doing is allowing me to relax. I know the worst case scenario for any trade I make and that makes it far less stressful.

No margin calls, no anxiously watching the screen hoping for a turnaround.

Risking only 2% per trade means I’d have to have 50 losers in a row to go bust. Although this can happen, the likelihood is low.

At the moment, it is quite enjoyable to be a “spreadbettor”.

To make a change from writing blog posts about dodgy opportunities, here’s an update that is similar to the newsletters I used to send out and focuses on some good opps.

I realise that these appear to be few and far between recently.

Further down you’ll find links to some great free information from a well-known expert information publisher who has been quiet for quite some time. Evidently he’s still beavering away in the background.

But first…

The One A Day System

This opp is currently being tested and the results updated regularly on the main site:

The “One a Day” System from Clive Keeling of Canonbury Publications

Sometimes it seems that as soon as I start to test a system it goes through a big losing streak.

Remember the Lazy Lay system from a couple of years ago?

The Lazy Lay Quick Profits System by Bill Stratford

Not long after I started to use that system it began to lose money consistently.

Eventually it seems everyone gave up on it, apart from the publishers that is, who still have it up for sale online.

Clive’s system started quite badly for me, the second bet was a painful loser, as was the 5th bet but then it got interesting.

Ten winning bets over ten consecutive days brought the bank back into profit and suggested that this system has potential.

Of course, 3 losing days in a row straight after that threw a spanner in the works and even Clive admitted on the 3rd day that he should’ve declared it a “no bet” day.

19 bets so far probably isn’t a valid statistical test so I will be continuing with this one.

If you’re interested in the One A Day system, keep an eye on the results using the link above.

A 100 day test would seem to be reasonable as that would equate to 100 bets so that’s what I’ll aim for.

Making Money From Financial Spread Trading

If you’ve read through BizOppsUK.com then you’re probably aware that Vince Stanzione’s spread betting course was the first biz opp I bought back in 2004.

Since then I’ve jumped in and out of spread betting and fixed odds betting. My BetOnMarkets accounts never did very well and I can’t say I’ve ever really warmed to that site.

Spread betting, however, is a completely different story.

At the beginning I lost some money – mainly through making some silly day trades on a whim – but recently I have been quite successful trading UK shares long and short.

I’ve a load of trades open at the moment, all expiring on the 14th December and overall I am doing pretty well. Of course, this could all change by the expiry date so we will have to wait and see.

However, I am very happy with the latest version of Vince’s course which has gone through a re-vamp.

More details are available on the site, including results:

Vince Stanzione, Spread Betting and First Information

Stuart Goldsmith

Over the weekend I was looking through the manuals and folders sat on my bookshelf and found a course I hadn’t read in some time – Escape the Matrix by Stuart Goldsmith.

In the past Stuart always seemed to retire, then return, then retire again. He has been quiet for a long time now with no new products.

His site shows that he is still writing from time to time and you can read several of Stuart’s reports for free – completely free, he doesn’t even ask for an email address – on his site:

Stuart Goldsmith – Free Downloads

Have a good read through his reports, it’s well worth your time and you may well just pick up some ideas that you can use to make more money.

Random Bits

Have you used Vince Stanzione’s methods? How have you fared?

What about the One A Day System? What kind of results have you got?

Are there any other betting systems that you like the sound of but haven’t bought yet? I’m looking for other systems to test, hopefully ones from credible sources, not the junk that one Barnsley internet marketer keeps releasing under fake names!

If you’ve anything to add, feel free to add a comment to this post.

Almost three years ago I bought my first Apple product – a Macbook (the Apple equivalent of a laptop). Unfortunately the hard disk failed just last week which meant a couple of hours inserting a new hard drive and reloading the operating system.

All in all though, it’s a superb piece of kit. Well built, stylish and reliable – traits that Apple are becoming known for.

Perhaps this is why their stock is doing well at the moment.

Since October of last year the Apple share price has been in a trading range but just recently it has started to move up.

Stock market traders will now be wondering if Apple is ready for a upwards move.

And the traders over at INO have pre-empted this question by doing one of their famous free trading videos.

http://www.ino.com/info/333/CD34/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=3

According to Adam Hewison, the President of INO:

“The world has changed, it is not a buy and hold market anymore. You need to be nimble, trade with a game plan and be disciplined. Those are the key mantras of a successful trader.”

With that in mind, check out what he currently thinks about Apple.

As always, there is no need to register or supply an email address or anything like that.

It’s just what it says, a free trading video discussing the likely direction Apple stock is going to take:

http://www.ino.com/info/333/CD34/&dp=0&l=0&campaignid=3

Enjoy!

Sometime ago I read an article which I really wish I could find now.

If I remember correctly it was written when the FTSE was riding high at well above 6,000.

It basically said that the FTSE fell as low as 3287 in March 2003 and that, according to the writer, we were “unlikely to ever see the FTSE at those sorts of levels again” (or words to that effect).

The quote stuck in my mind as I often read stock market related books and many say the same thing – markets are never too low to go lower.

And I guess what we are seeing now is severe fear in the markets and a lot of selling.

What do you think – will the FTSE fall further than that famous March 2003 low?

I wouldn’t bet against it.

In fact, I would imagine that certain people are making a lot of money from this falling market.