Please note: GorillaTrades is a registered trademark of GorillaTrades, Inc. Neither WealthJunkie.com, its publisher, nor the authors of these articles have any affiliation with the GorillaTrades service.
As an engineer, I have a thirst for information. I always want to know why. I do not accept answers until I understand the reasoning behind them. I need to know.
That is precisely why I do not like GorillaTrades. Their motto is, “Why trade like a monkey when you can invest like a gorilla?” But they never explain their picks. It is not really investing.
Trading with GorillaTrades is like betting on a horse race based on what you overhear on the subway. Yes, you might win. But there is little logic to it.
If I were to pay for a stock picking service, I would want them to perform the research that I would have done. I want them to look at growth potential, participate in conference calls, and read SEC filings. I would want them to read press releases and look at fundamentals. Unfortunately, GorillaTrades does none of this.
After reading through a week of GorillaTrade e-mails, I have not seen one reference to a company’s earnings growth or P/E ratio. They have not mentioned the balance sheet, return on equity, or long-term debt. In short, they have avoided what I believe to be the basic principles of investing. And that bothers me.
Many readers have pointed out that they are making money from this service. Clearly, GorillaTrades is doing something right. I am just not certain it is for me.
I want to find a small company with huge long-term potential. It could be the next Taco Bell or the next Microsoft. With what I have seen so far, though, GorillaTrades is not the way to find it.
May 9th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
I agree with your expectations regarding wanting to know the reasoning behind any stock recommendations, especially when you are paying for the service.
Heck, it sounds like my stock analysis surpasses these subscription newsletters, like GorillaTrades. Hmmm… Maybe I’m on to something here.
May 11th, 2005 at 1:44 pm
I’ve subscribed to the Motley Fool newsletter (its free) and they offer tons of advice that is based exactly on these things…rather than just a technical analysis. They are extremely informative and a very fun read. You might want to consider signing up.
Also, you might want to check out http://www.vectorvest.com/. They offer a free stock analysis that “is the only system that analyzes and ranks over 8,000 stocks for Value, Safety, and Timing, gives a Buy, Sell, Hold recommendation on every stock every day and a whole lot more.” It also looks like a company’s valuation more so than the technical analysis. I’m tending to take the GorillaTrade picks, get the free VectorVest analysis and only buying if the two agree. Most of the time they do…the GorillaTrade picks tend to be undervalued and have regular earnings growth. The picks, though based on a technical analysis, appear to be good picks overall. I do agree with you that more details of GorillaTrades’ analysis would be beneficial.
Scott
September 20th, 2005 at 11:45 pm
Summary: GorillaTrades uses technical analyses, I prefer fundamental.
November 19th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
It seems to me the reported “success” of the GorillaTrades phenomenon is partly due to the inevitably growing economy itself (with a little commonsense technical filtering), and partly to a self-fulfilling prophesy. I mean let’s say I decide to offer a service to advise on stock picks for $1,000 annually. What an elite membership! At that significant cost, only fairly serious (and therefore relatively heavyweight) day traders will consider subscribing and artificially sense they will be getting credible advice worth their expense (see: principle of cognitive dissonance). However, subsequent investments based on my “advice” could lead to just enough buying pressure to of course increase overall demand, and what do you think this does to market price, kids?? Raise prices, as “predicted.”
I think some GorillaTraders (and the like) folk sign up not because they are naive, but because they suspect this.
November 20th, 2005 at 1:25 am
Much better free option alert
MSFT CALL UP 1000 %
December 25th, 2005 at 5:51 pm
Can both fundemental and historic stockchart price prediction software make returens higher if both techniques work together equally, than either of the two seperated?
January 5th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
The gorilla states daily how many stocks are up at any given time on their grid. What they don’t mention in percentage terms or in numbers are the stocks that were stopped out of the grid because of losses. Check it out, gentlemen and ladies. I asked them about that and theu didn’t answer my question.
January 11th, 2006 at 10:13 am
I have recently got a few stocks that Gorilla Trades recommended and ALL have made me money, one doubled it’s price in just over 30 days and another gained $10.00 a share in just over 45 days…I don’t know what their logic is BUT IT WORKS!
January 14th, 2006 at 11:37 am
I use The Prudent Speculator and Dow Theory Forecasts, both of which are highly rated with the Hulbert Financial Digest. VectorVest.com looks interesting. I might try that out just to correlate the other two advisors’ picks.
April 17th, 2006 at 10:09 am
i thought it was good in the beginning but then I figured out that they have two entry points. they recommend the second point but if it goes up they measure from the 1st. if it goes south they say i told u to wait!
May 19th, 2006 at 11:02 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.