The Tycoon Report
Top Investment Newsletter Blunders...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 | Jason Jovine

Happy Tuesday everyone!  In case you were wondering, I usually write on Mondays, but I have been officially switched to Tuesdays.  So if you love or hate me or what I write, you can get your fix on Tuesdays from now on.

Every single day, I notice investment newsletter subscribers making mistakes that are often costly, so I wanted to briefly discuss these mistakes so that you either don't make them or no longer make them so as to save you money and a lot of aggravation.

Let me first put forward a definition of what an investment newsletter is:

news·let·ter = A printed report giving news or information of interest to a special group.

We here at Tycoon, as you know, publish investment newsletters.  We provide insight and suggestions about issues relating to the stock market and business in general.

Mistakes....

1. Expecting to receive personal financial advice

Investment newsletters (like ours) are prohibited from giving you all personal financial advice.  In other words, if you sent us an e-mail asking if you should sell the 1,000 shares of XYZ company that your grandmother left you, we cannot answer this type of question for you.

If you sign up to an investment newsletter, you can expect general advice but not specific advice directed to your unique situation.  Every person's individual needs and situations are unique.  In order for us to give you personal financial advice, we would need to ascertain a lot of information from you such as your net worth, age, risk tolerance, etc.  We are legally prohibited from doing this.

We can and do e-mail out what to buy and what to sell, as well as when to buy and sell it, but it can't be "customized" (for lack of a better word) to you.

2. Not understanding how the refund policy works

I cannot begin to tell you how often this one comes up.  MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND THE REFUND POLICY WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO A NEWSLETTER!  Each company has its own refund policy, and each product within the company may come with its own refund policy, as well.  Buyer, beware.

It is incumbent on YOU to know what you are buying; take some accountability.

3. Manage your expectations

You may read some very strong marketing material that makes you want to mortgage your home and invest all of your money into a certain idea and/or with a certain "guru", but don't. Remember, I have been in this business a very long time (perhaps too long,) and NO ONE will be right 100% of the time.

I used to tell every wide-eyed, eager youngster who worked for me on their first day on Wall Street to divide everything everyone tells you by four.  In other words, most people talk a big game but are really just full of hot air.

4. The chronic canceler syndrome

I have coined a term here at Tycoon called the "chronic canceler".   A chronic canceler is a person who knows every investment newsletter's refund policy backward and forward and tries to take advantage of it (i.e. take advantage of the system.)

For example, they may know that the product has a 30-day full money-back guarantee.  They may wait until about two minutes before the 30 days are up and then request cancellation of their product.  Then they will subscribe to another product and do the same thing again and again.  These are generally the same kind of people who will go to a department store and buy, say, a nice dress, wear it to an event (sweat in it and get it all dirty,) and then return it to the store for a refund.

You can call these people what you want.  I call them lowlifes, and they are in every business.  Can you relate?  If you happen to be this type of person, you are wasting everyone's time, especially your own.  You may think that you are "beating the system" by doing this, but in reality, you are hurting yourself.  Remember the kid in school who cheated and who thought that he was outsmarting the teacher only to fail the more advanced classes later on?

5. Lack of a desire to learn

I remember speaking with a subscriber to our newsletter called www.thetrendrider.com (this service is run by Chris Rowe) a few months ago, and he told me that he absolutely loved the service but that he didn't want to renew his subscription.  I was taken aback for a moment and asked him, "If you love the service so much, why don't you want to renew?"

He told me that he had listened and read everything that Chris had put out and learned so much that he was now able to do it all on his own, so there was no point in paying for the service any longer.

This gentleman had the service for just over a year and really put in a lot of effort.  His hard work paid off.  In my opinion, he was the perfect subscriber, and he used the newsletter to his advantage.  He stuck with it.  He learned everything and finally had that "Aha" moment.  He has subsequently quit his job and trades for a living.  His income is now in the high six figure a year range.  This is much more than he made at his previous job that was on the verge of getting out-sourced to Asia in this "Capitalism Gone Wild" culture that we live in.

This gentleman learned to fish and is feeding himself now.  How about you?

Until the next time, folks, spend your hard-earned money wisely,

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Jason Jovine
Chief Investment Officer
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