Please note: GorillaTrades is a registered trademark of GorillaTrades, Inc. Neither WealthJunkies.com, its publisher, nor the authors of these articles have any affiliation with the GorillaTrades service.
I signed up for the GorillaTrades service yesterday. I have quite a bit to read right now. But first, I would like to comment on their terms of service.
Although they sell it as a mindless service - i.e. do what they say, and you will get rich - GorillaTrades has the same obligatory legal disclaimers that every web site (including this one) features. We are a bunch of amateur investors, and you are not paying a cent to read this web site. But GorillaTrades, on the other hand, charges $599 per year. Certainly they would stand by it - a money-back guarantee, perhaps?
Not at all.
The material provided on our Site is for general informational purposes only. No information on the Site is intended as investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security, or fund. The information on the Site should not be relied upon for purposes of transacting securities or other investments. We cannot and do not assess or guarantee the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. You bear responsibility for your own investment research and decisions, and should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment.
–from Terms of Service, GorillaTrades.com
While you can try the service for 30 days, you should be careful. Because if you are late, they will charge you the full $599 and you will have no chance of getting it back. No pro-rated refunds.
Cancellation. You may cancel your subscription to GorillaTrades by notifying our Billing Department via electronic mail at billing@gorillatrades.com. Cancellation will take effect no later than 3 business days after we receive your notification. There are no refunds on subscriptions. Any delinquent or unpaid amounts must be paid in full before you may re-subscribe.
–from Terms of Service, GorillaTrades.com
But wait, there is more. My favorite part of their terms and conditions discusses how many copies of their materials you may print. The answer: just one.
You may only access and use the materials on the Site, and download and/or print out only one copy of any materials on the Site, solely for your personal use.
–from Terms of Service, GorillaTrades.com
I realize they are trying to prevent people from bringing copies to their whole office, but I think they got a bit carried away. What about a copy at my home and one at my office? What if I just want to save it as a PDF on my computer?
The regular GorillaTrades site is loaded with unnecessary flash that, while “flashy”, does not make me money. Some pages, such as the web version (as opposed to the Excel version) of the Current Gorilla Trades Portfolio did not display properly in my browser window (Mozilla Firefox). It did, however, display properly in Internet Explorer.
There’s more to come on this topic.
May 4th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
I have been using gorillatrades.com on the 30 day trial period for about 10 days now and have made $1800 on a $50000 investment, so I’m happy and will probably cough up the $600 if it continues to go well.
May 8th, 2005 at 12:58 am
I agree with you on the unnecessary Flash. When I login I always choose the dialup no-flash version…much better.
Scott
May 11th, 2005 at 1:27 am
For those of you that want to try GorillaTrades, I have an OpenOffice spreadsheet that I’ve made that makes it very easy to keep track of your GorillaTrades portfolio. The download is available near the bottom of my page. There is also a short explanation on how to use it.
Scott
http://www.illiteratewithdrawal.com/stock-market/
September 20th, 2005 at 11:52 pm
Summary: GorillaTrades doesn’t want to get sued by our victim-minded society.
November 26th, 2005 at 11:12 am
I have been using the Gorilla Trades site for about a month. I am impressed and enthusiastic about what they are doing. They give you plenty of stocks to consider, the trigger point to consider purchase, and the confirmation point in price and volume that is a good indicator that the stock will perform as planned. Also, they give you a firm stop loss to protect your assets. I don’t think this is mindless as I have all the choices, they just give me a smorgasboard of stocks to pick. This helps me focus on the task at hand, making a profit, and protecting your assets. As far as a guarantee, I have not seen a guarantee from anyone, and I have seen plenty out there. I am just trying to find the best service, and act effectively on their recommendations. In my mind, Gorilla Trades does that. Maybe you could do without the bananas, but I like the greenbacks they give me.
November 26th, 2005 at 12:00 pm
I am a Gorilla subscriber, while i understand that investing in the markets takes alot of homework, sometimes it is easier to have a smaller pool of stocks to research. Thats what I get from it, a few good ideas to start from.
December 5th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
The Gorilla rules the jungle. Gorilla Trades certainly has been doing well this fall. Their recommended portfolio now is up to 58 stocks, and all but 4 are in the black, and a good portion are up over 10% in the last 2 months. They have figured out the numerous indicators they use, as they are batting a very high average.
December 19th, 2005 at 9:01 pm
As a new subscriber, I, too, am somewhat skeptical, however, the Gorilla does provide trade results for the past three years. The results do look fairly impressive.
December 19th, 2005 at 10:23 pm
I read extensively as much as I could about Gorilla Trades and decided at the very least it was worth the “Free 30 Day Trial”. The website that is provided to subscribers is full of information, but in the end, you have to rely upon the recommended picks of the Gorilla based upon a proprietary technical analysis system. Of the 5 stocks that I have invested in so far, two have fallen low enough to trigger a “stop loss” sell for a loss of approx $500.00, two are slightly ahead, and one is up 5%. Right now, I am leaning towards cancelling my subsription prior to the end of my free 30 day trial period. If you are interested, I would recommend at least trying out the free 30 day trial, but if you don’t like it, be sure and cancel before you are billed for your entire subscription cost at the end of your 30 days.
January 9th, 2006 at 10:47 am
Been using since October. Overall pleased. Have been cautious — selling out after profit but before reaching 1st target. Will now be more patient, see what happens.
January 9th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Has anyone determined the minimum number of trades required to achieve typical results? Wihout having had the experience of subscribing to the system it seems to me that the number of trades (and the attendant commissions) might be on the high side. Therefore, in addition to the subscription price,might one have to also factor in the net annual commissions as a cost of the service?
January 17th, 2006 at 9:52 am
I first came across the ad in Kiplinger’s so I came to the web for some research. It does seem like a good service, but I only have a couple thousand to invest. With the commission fees and high costs of the stocks, I don’t know if it is worth it. For example, if they have a $40 stock and they recommend the first target at $45, say I only put $500 in. For $500, I buy 12 shares plus a commission fee. Then I sell at $45 and pay another comission fee. Assuming a $10 trade fee, it seems like it was alot just to make $40. In addition, I will be heavily taxed (25%???) because I didn’t hold the stock for at least 2 years?
Is my reasoning incorrect?
January 17th, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Mike,
With a few thousand dollars you need a cheaper commission. I use Tradestation and would recommend it because it is $1 for 100 shares. So even if you can only afford 40 shares you are only in for a $2 turnaround on commissions. You will have to figure in the $99 a month platform fee but that is where your inital money needs to go instead of a stock picking service anyway. Once you are ‘green’ in two ticks your decision making becomes more objective on the technicals because getting in or out isn’t so painful. Taxes are a fact no matter how you make your money and for now capital gains tax isn’t too high. You need at least $5K-$10K to start trading. Most would say even more. $25k minimum.
I will try Gorilla trades for 30 days and will post what I think.
Good luck!
February 12th, 2006 at 7:00 pm
I too have been using Gorilla Trades.
Easy to use and has made me 2100 dollars on a 18000 dollar investment.
The results are a joke though. You can’t possibly buyin at the trigger prices without doing your own homework. Furthermore, confirmation will normally carry you far above the trigger price too. You can still make money, but not what they claim.
If you like to gamble a little and have fun I would recommend it. If you don’t - use Morningstar.com and invest for the long term. You’ll avoid short term tax rates and trader fees.
May 19th, 2006 at 10:59 am
I’ve been using Gorilla Trades for about 18 months. My biggest issue is that the Gorilla reports a buy at the “trigger” price and a sale at either a trailing stop or the “target”. This looks good in the stats but doesn’t square with my experience. I buy at the “confirmation” price which means that I typically pay 2-3% more than “trigger”. That’s my cost for a little more security. If a sale occurs because the stock stops out my return is usually less because by the time the brokerage responds the price has dropped even further. A sale is usually triggered by a spike and by the time the system or I can respond the price has settled back. The net result is if the Gorilla reports a gain of, say 15%, on a transaction my experience is more like 5-10%. That’s not bad but I can do as well making my own picks using Ameritrade’s free tools. Given the market results of the past few days I’m taking my trading account $ out of play for awhile and when I get back in I will not be following the Gorilla. Too much work for not enough return. And yes the newsletter might as well be computer generated. I have never gotten anything out of it that I could really use.
June 18th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
I have signed up for the free 30-day look. So far, I have analyzed the results posted for the last several years, using the GorillaTrade Excel spreadsheets.
I assumed a $5,000 opening position taken for each and every recommendation. Then I calculated that the net result of their closed positions for 2006 was a profit of $6,025, or 0.60% (that’s six-tenths of one percent), on a total of 186 investments. This means at least 372 transactions - at $7.99 per trade (E-Trade), the transaction cost is $2975. Therefore the net-net result was about 0.3%. The number of new positions was about about 8 per week.
On the other hand, for calendar year 2005, there were 492 positions taken (nearly 10 per week). The net result, assuming $5,000 per opening position, was a profit of about $133,000, less commissions of about $7,900 = $125,000 net-net.
The average number of positions taken per month was about 32 (using Jan-March). For the whole year, the average number of days each position was held was 53. Therefore, if I am correct, on the average there were, say, 60 positions open, which means an average cash investment (at $5,000 per position) of $300,000. The net return on $300,000 for the year, after commissions, was about $125,000 or about 40%. Not bad.
Then I ran a trial investing in every 5th triggered position. There were 107 positions taken for the year. About 54% of these resulted in a profit. The average profit per trade was $729, the average loss $279.
My initial reaction is that I never will have the time to sift through over close to 500 stock ideas per year. It appears that,, overall, there is about a 50-50 chance of making a winning trade, and since the winners on the average returned about 250% of the average losses, using a simple random selection (like every 5th recommendation) should result in an overall profit.
I will experiment during the 30-day free trial.
July 11th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
I have just started using gorilla trades for the 30 day period. i found the advise from the others very helpfull.My fist 4 choices are very near stopping out….I am not happy…but we shall see
September 19th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
here is an address for the elusive GORILLATRADES
http://www.townofjupiter.com/cgi-bin/yellowmaker/org.pl?list=advanced2&listno=6035&begin=1&end=1
December 13th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
I think Gorilla Trades, Like BreakoutWatch Tradewatch will do better in a rising market.
I’m experimenting with BreakoutWatch (http://www.breakoutwatch.com/newUser) which, unlike Gorilla Trades, charges $9.95 for the one month trial. But at least you don’t get stuck with paying anything else. Unlike Gorilla Trades, your membership just expires if you don’t do anything - they don’t charge you like GT.
BreakoutWatch has a lot more to it and they explain their methodologies. Their method is half technical and half fundamental and they give you lots of tools to do your due dilligence.
If you sign up through http://www.breakoutwatch.com/newUser you’ll get a the TradeWatch email alerts which allow you to set up everything the night before a potential breakout by researching and then putting in a stop-limit order for the morning.
I just started Monday so I am 2 stocks still rising and 1 stock dipping but without a sell alert yet…so we’ll see.
January 31st, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Gorilla Trades is good, LooseChangeOnline.com is better and well worth the price. They also have a 30 day Free trial.
May 8th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
I agree with the comment about LooseChangeOnline.com . I think it’s still a little known secret. They don’t advertise like Gorilla Trades, but their stock picks are better…I heard about it from a friend, and I noticed that someone on this board recommended it also. It’s worth checking out.
May 28th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
I am of the following opinion.No definitive overall performance criteria provided. Appears to manipulate data to his benefit. Fails to answer tough subscriber questions. Don’t waste your money
July 24th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
they took my money but have failed to show me how to log into there site, after several months of sending messages they totally refuse to answer and have no phone that any one will answer, total scam job, save your money, enuf said.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:58 am
Wow, reading that last post…hey dave…..remember when you signed up for the trail and entered your credit card? Yeah, well…do you remember making up a username and password? yeah, ok….well…..maybey the next time you try to log in….you should give that a try. You must have tator tots for brains, because it’s so simple, I trained my pet guniea pig to log in and check out the trades for me each day. Yeah….if he can do it, maybey you can too. Wow, you should win the darwin award.
October 9th, 2007 at 5:45 am
If you go to gorillatrades.com and read the FAQ ,the question about how many subscribers. Their answer is very unprofessional. Their anwswer says”…he has no time to count….” Ok here is my question, who is HE ? and who says he has to COUNT it ? Cant the computer just tell him how many people are subscribing?
If the system works so great, wouldn’t he be a zillionaire by now? and if yes, then why is he still working ?
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
I want to cancel my subscripcion
March 7th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Gorilla Trades are very unprofessional when it comes to cancelling a subscription. I have not used their service in 3 years, so am trying to cancel the yearly $499 fee they automatically charge to my card every year. Don’t EVER give them your card number!!!! Send a check every year if you want to give them your money. They promise to get up with you by phone or via email within 24 hrs. IT NEVER HAPPENS! I don’t have time for this monkeying around, but will have to call my card and make sure the Gorilla is not able to bill me again next year when I will again forget to check my card statement. Now watch one of the Gorilla’s paid orphans try to shoot down this email:
April 21st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
On March 2007 I subscribed to Gorilla Trades. I received the last e-mail Feb 27th 2008. I belived that my subscrition was over. Than I found that they charged my card for a new subscription. I tryed to contact them via e-mail: no answer! Please can somebody help me in canceling my subscription and possibly to be refund? How can I sue them?
Thank you
May 5th, 2008 at 11:00 am
for those who are trying to retrieve CC payments, call your card issuer.
i know Amex has gotten money back for me in the past on disputed items.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Boy, am I glad that I found this site. Thanks to all for the insite on Gorilla. You made up my mind to STAY AWAY. 10/15/08.