Fat Prophets

Fat Prophets lost me tens of thousands!!

My single biggest regret of trying to build wealth is that I ever came across Fat Prophets. They are a disgraceful bunch of charlatans and following their advice has lost me tens of thousands of dollars.

1) Their listed funds have lost money and severely underperformed the market (FPC, FPP)

2) Following their share picks has been disastrous for my portfolio (TLS, MEA, QBE, BOQ, GXL)

3) Their signup fee is expensive, then they'll hassle you continually, trying to make you sign up to more expensive products.

Stay FAR, FAR AWAY!!!

Renewal of membership

Hi. I have been offered renewal of 5 year membership of Fat Propehts's whole suit of newsletters and recommendations across the globe for total price of USD400 (USD80 per year).
Do you think it is good price, anybody else found a better deal?

Happy with Fat Prophets

I have been prompted to make this review after reading some of the negative ones about Fat Prophets, which I don't recognise. I have been using Fat Prophets for about three years and am very satisfied. I had been trading on my own account, fairy succesfully for many years and although I have been relatively succesful I decided to pay for financial advice to tidy my portfolio up and get some expert input. About 60% of my shares were already in the Fat Prophets portfolio, but after a discussion they supplied me with a list of shares in a balanced portfolio and the percentage I should aim at holding, which included available cash. I receive regular calls from my account manager and over the years have gradually switched my holdings to their recomendations. I have mainly concentrated on UK shares, with a few European shares, but also have holdings in Baillie Gifford Japan Trust and JP Morgan Indian Investment Trust, which are well up on the original investment. I have always found Fat Prophets easy to deal with and helpful.

Incorrect benchmarking

I am currently reviewing a client portfolio.

Fat Profits have benchmarked their performance against the FTSE 350; I think it worth noting that they have chosen the index price rather than the total return of the FTSE 350 T, i.e. they have excluded the annual dividends, historically c3% per annum.

This is either a huge oversight or an attempt to deceive prospective customers!

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

Was persuaded by a pushy sales person to join their Platinum service in 2010. Now 30,000 out of pocket due to the fact that i was exclusively put into miners at the hight of the commodities rise with no advice to diversifyuntil it was too late. Allocated acc. manager was impossible at times to get on phone or email with excuse after excuse about loss of numbers or email addresses. Would not recomend their services to anyone.

These guys get very nasty when you try to leave. Even a written cancellation falls on deaf ears.

Joined Fat Profits in mid July 2014, requested refund and cancellation 3 weeks later. Could not log on, (That was my fault of course) was promised US reports but then they said you need to pay extra for that even though I had written confirmation that the US equities were included.
Still trying to get my money back. Problem is they do not have any qualms about taking your money and forgetting you exist. Its now up to the courts to determine. STAY WELL CLEAR

Fat Cats

I signed up for a 2 year subscripton, only to get medicore returns. With the expensive pricing, cut into my margins.

The Weekly reports are hardly current when recieved. Where fat prophets have already positioned themselves in the market well before you.

When I decided to leave, they acted rude and arrogant, saying I was an idiot for going at it alone.
I am pleased with my own independent research thus far.

Advice: Avoid

Good Results

Recently purchased a few stocks from there reports and the stocks have performed quite well, The London Stock Exchange, Wynns Casino, as well as Ryanair and Ran Group.
There International coverage is typically good as i find more opportunites through the Global reports which includes the USA and Asian Markets. Picked up Walt Disney as well from the US report
I was glad i took the global package but i have also done well with some UK listed companies.
find the service help and informative as i don;t have alot of time to do my own research, the daily email service/note that gets sent is also quite helpful.
i have used other providers in the past and still do, but find this site and research good.

Using every trick in the book

Building a database of 'users' for their own use in my opinion. Tried their 30 day trial process and I am now engaged with the financial ombudsman trying to get a refund. 17 contacts with Fat Prophets over an 11 week period and excuse after excuse after excuse. They certainly do not behave with financial integritry, so I would find it very hard to take their financial advice.

Global Managed Funds

Recently joined Fat Prophets and they seem to be postive on the Japanese stock market. Quite interesting as i have mainly focused on UK listed Equities.

Ballie Gifford Japan Trust, seems like an interesting idea and somehting outside the box, will see how this pans out and will add to my portfolio.
As a relatively new member i find the daily email i receive each day to be informative and timely, have not seen this with other services i currently use.

Part of my membership was a trial of their new Global Funds Report which covered Balle Gifford Japan Trust, which is also covering ETF's have not seen another service like this around and i will be following this one closely.

Performance figures of their portfolios are Incorrect !!!

Had a membership for a while and they tried to convince me to extend as their portfolios is supposingly doing so well and customers too. When I challenged this we discussed some shares which were recommended some 2 years ago but never got a SELL recommendation. So these types of old BUYS have never be SOLD and still sit on HOLD are not included in their performance figures as they are "unrealised losses". When I challenged that view of publishing performance figures without this basket of shares potentially sitting on a big loss the guy told me that their services is bnot for me and hung up!!!

FatProfits tried in the past but found better one now a days.

I was there member during 2009-2011 and did make good money but after 2011 they just got bad. Now a days I am trying this trends2trade.com and its working way above my expectation.
Let me make it clear I am not affliated or paid by trends2trade.com Just mentioning them as I am really happy with service and if someone want to check them they areoffering some sort of free silver membership. One of their recent trade I took.

never subscribe to anything from anyone without due diligence.

what you have to understand is what they mean by fat prophets.
they mean fat profits for themselves from your subscriptions.
not that ive subscribed.and who on earth pays up for years in advance,you deservedley get screwed.welcome to the game and let it be your first lesson.

Who needs them anyway

Almost become a member 2004 or there abouts. They gave me 1 month free trial and even though we were in a huge bull market at the time their results were not good enough for me to sign up. Plus had a few mates sign up and all they did was loose money while I was creaming it...lol'

Watch SMN.au. Am long from .02.

Excellent

used since last summer - new to investing - love their service, account manager extremely useful. naturally reluctant to pay to start with having used Money week before (useless). This is exactly what i was after and they even sorted me out a discount on 2 years. Cant say i follow all advice but the stocks i've had have done really well - especially songbird estates, norcros and Daejan holdings!

What a disaster

FTSE 100 up nearly over 15% , FTSE 250 up nearly 40% since I joined their Platinum - personalised service - you cant get better ?- I lost money. how is that even possible. Promissed the world cost the Earth - now with the Ombudsman. To add insult to injury I paid upfront for three years - cant even get a refund for over two years unused subsription . Avoid at all costs

The Ombudsman has now agreed they mis sold their product and gave me bad avice - guess what - they havent abided by the binding agreement - are they in that much trouble ????

Not what is said on the tin

Their real mission is to make their own wallets as fat as possible.....and anyone wanting to exercise their right to a refund is in for a very, very long wait. IMO these people cannot be trusted.

over all very good

Yep some teething problems initially (mainly my fault).... but over all extremely useful service have made good returns over the last three years. Well-written reports long but well informed conservative in approach. Would recommend UK equities, aus equities report, and cfd report also good. Not having the time to do a lot of research this last few years so has saved me time. I had a good account manager, useful there when I needed him. Clearly these guys are on the ball and recommended good stock in these volatile times. Will definitely use them again.

Absolutely Terrible

I have been a member of the CFD Trading Report for a year, and the returns are shocking. I agree with the feedback of the majority of reviews here. They use market entry orders for commodities and FX mainly and have dropped and share equities ( last was around Nov / Dec 2012 ). SMS service is slow, you can never get in remotely close the recommended entry. They do no trade management except once the trade reach 1:1. Very poor!

Terrible Performance

I joined them in September 2012, since then I stopped live trading with them after 3 weeks as it became clear that there were more losers than winners, it is not safe to do anything other than paper trade. The recommendations have a very poor ratio, usually 1:1 but because they move their take profits in most cases, that ratio becomes null and void. They let the losing trades go to stop and close winners early. Some trades are little more than scalping, in 1 case a mere 22 pips. By the time the trade is signalled there is often little chance of getting in at the recommended price. They do not trade at all on Mondays but often send a trade late on a Friday meaning you have to hold it over the weekend increasing your chance of losing the trade due to gapping. They do not even trade with the company's real money, which to me says if the company doesn't trust their own traders why should you. The trades posted do not tell the real story, sure they look like winners but they are winners because they move the target, if they left the trades to run to TP there would be more losers. "Fat Prophets is unique for our dedication to transparency and accountability. Every closed trade recommendation that Fat Prophets has ever made is available for you to review. Whether we have won or lost, "

The reports on the website do not state the real picture, ie they do not state when the original take profit price was set therefore one cannot see the true picture of how many times trades were either cancelled or the take profit moved. If you ask for a refund you will be kept waiting for the statutory 8 weeks and get fobbed off time and time again, you will be extremely lucky to get a refund. My advice is save your money, start with Babypips and go learn how to trade yourself. Never follow blindly another person's recommendations