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I'm looking for a trading service(s) -- a service that recommends stocks and ETFs for shorter term trades, from "day trades" to several month trades -- that has a good track record, and ideally even shows their trade history (success / losses).

If there is one you know of / use, can you indicate how long you've used them and what your experience has been or any other helpful thoughts?

Thanks, much appreciated.

Please note I'm U.S. based, in case that makes a difference.

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    Just to be clear: What do you mean by "trading service"? A service that recommends specific trades?
    – Chris W. Rea
    Dec 31, 2011 at 2:34
  • Not sure I understand the meaning of "trading service". Can you give an example of what you mean by that?
    – littleadv
    Dec 31, 2011 at 3:06
  • Hopefully clarified. One example service is topgunstrading.com. They haven't given me recent results of their dividend trade service.
    – Ray K
    Dec 31, 2011 at 9:29

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I wouldn't call these services "fraud" per se, but I wouldn't use them myself. Basically, the example you gave (TopGuns) is a subscription service, where you pay money to get notified when some trader makes a trade.

Theoretically, if you make the same trade at the same time, you'll get the same results as the traders publish they've gotten. Practically, it is impossible. You will always be one step behind, even if you click "buy" or "sell" the minute the email arrives. So you'll be trailing someone else, with a bunch of other suckers like you, and for short term - I'm almost certain that you will never reach the same results as they advertise for themselves, even if their advertisements are true. Because once they made a move, the market is no longer the same, bunch of suckers is driving it up/down, and you're in the middle of the herd, not ahead of it.

If you're talking about long-term investments, then you have various analysts and traders (like Buffet) worth looking at, but for short term - its really all speculations, and the short term effect on the market made by flock movements is unpredictable and significant.

So you're putting $900 a year to get information that will put you somewhere behind someone else's speculative trade... Are you feeling that lucky?

I think investing in a mutual fund with the investment goals you desire will be much cheaper, and more effective. Basically, you'll be with the same traders, except that with a fund - they'll be trading with your money.

Take it as a helpful thought :-)

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  • Ouch, I couldn't even read your whole post, it is so negative. Perhaps a interesting thought: at any point in time, when one buys a security, the odds are in the next minutes to hours, it's going to be both at a higher price and lower price than at this present moment (e.g. when they sent the alert). It's seldom at any given time, that someone is catching something exactly at a low or a high. BTW, this is a valuable trading notion -- to buy/sell things at limit, or even buy things via a cash secured put. So, hopefully you see what I'm saying ... it doesn't match the broad picture of this.
    – Ray K
    Dec 31, 2011 at 23:25
  • @RayK well, you can continue sitting and waiting for more positive posts, if you wish. Good luck with that. Maybe if you make the effort of reading through, you'll learn something.
    – littleadv
    Jan 1, 2012 at 3:51
  • I'd only call front-running "fraud" with penny stocks. But you're correct: if you believe in a trader's skill, you should invest money with that person, not because of that person.
    – kdgregory
    Jan 1, 2012 at 13:26
  • I haven't looked recently. Do you know what percentage of mutual funds, out-perform the S&P500 index? When I had looked about 10 years ago, 75% did worse than the S&P500 index.
    – Ray K
    Jan 4, 2012 at 2:14

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