Thread: Review - John Piper Trade Maker (Intra)

TRADE MAKER (JOHN PIPER) - (Intra)

WHAT IT SAYS ON THE WEBSITE

Website : Trade Maker Website
Publisher : John Piper
Cost : 30 Day Free Trial - Then ?496 - ?595 per year
Review Date : August/September 2009

This service headlines with "I've got ?14,315.90 with YOUR name on it", this is "what you'd have made if you'd followed my simple, foolproof tips during 2008".

There is a "100% Cast Iron Guarantee" where one can cancel at any time during the "30 day 'no obligation' trial" and "no money will ever leave your account".

John has "spent 20 years learning the skills and strategies that make around ?200,000 each and every year" and "this is second nature to me". As a side note, we also know that John has written many books on the subject of Binary betting and based on those we have read we can confirm he is very knowledgeable on the subject, to say the least.

The service is "so easy to follow", "a ten year old could do it", "you just receive a simple text message and follow a few basic instructions".

The performance statistics (as we started using this service) showed an average gain of over ?1,000 a month since it started, in May 2007, with just three drawdown (losing) months.

Rather than having to be around 24/7 like a lot of other services, messages are typically sent between 10:00 and 16:00 (UK local time). A text message is sent out "the moment a trade is on", telling you "which trades you’re going to make and when to make them". There is also a subsequent text message to tell you "when to close the trade".

The "catches" as John calls them. You need to have a mobile phone and have it switched on. You also "have to be ready to do exactly as I say" (timing of the bets is key) and finally, you will have to "follow my instructions to the letter". John later recommends that you also need "a minimum of ?1,000 spare cash to get started".

Support wise, there is a brief but useful FAQ section on the website where John states that he provides his "personal email address so that you can drop him a line anytime".

John also states "I make these bets anyway whether you're with me or not", comforting to know he trades his own signals.

There are then a few testimonials before the sign up links at the very bottom of the one pager website.

THE SERVICE

We had access to this service throughout August and September.

Signals typically arrived during the time window specified, 10:00 – 16:00 (UK local time) although there was one trade outside of this window.

The signals are very clear and placement is very quick and simple, although there is a key point to be made here, timing is critical. A lot of the signals are for bets that are quite extended. By extended, in reference to Binary betting, we mean they are typically at one end of their trading spectrum, e.g. they are priced 6/9 or 90/93 or similar. This means they can be fairly volatile and move around fairly rapidly.

Signals contain two price levels, for example, sell bet between 85 - 90. A lot of the time, by the time we received the signal (by SMS) and went to place our bets we could not get the better price recommended, e.g. we would have to take 85 and not 90, or somewhere in between. Now, we are no slouches, one of us can pretty much get access to a pc immediately at most times of the day, actually, one of us is usually at a pc ready for these kind of things. However, this did not seem to make much difference or be of much benefit in regard to us getting the better price. But, to be fair, the results published on the website are based on the worst case, in this case, worst price scenario.

Note: Sometimes an early exit alert is issued. Again, if this is say buy back at 55-60 we found that again we were nearer the 55 than the 60 price, worse off on exit as well as entry.

As we mentioned previously, when we started using this service it was showing an average gain of just over ?1,000 a month since inception, with three drawdown (losing) months up until July 2009. However, the two months we had access to the service, August and September, were also losing months, September the largest one ever. By our calculations, including the recent performance, the service has now returned just under ?900 a month since inception.

We risked 2% of our account on each trade.

During this two month period we had 9 losing trades and 1 small winning trade (4/1 in August and 5/0 in September.) We ended up down just over 10% of our (small) trading account.

CAN IT WORK

Well, the service is no longer making +?1,000 a month for its members (since inception), more like just less than ?900, based on our quick sums.

However, to put this into context, these returns are based on an account size of ?5,000. That is still an average return of over 15% a month over an almost 3 year period. OK, recent performance, in fact, performance in 2009 has not been anywhere close to this average but nonetheless it’s a statistic worth pointing out.

So, why point out the above statistic and not just walk away. Well, we have a number of very good reasons:

• The performance over a period of time (3 years) is exceptional.
• We can verify that the performance reported on the website is a true reflection of the (worst case entry/exit) signals issued.
• John Piper is not here today, gone tomorrow, John has great respect on the subject of Binary betting and anyone who has read any of his books will acknowledge that.

This service is based on and allows for, more losers than winners. The average winning trade seems to return on average around 6 - 8 times more in profit than the average losing trade (loses). However, these winning trades have not been coming in of late and thus performance has been impacted, quite significantly.

In summary the service has suffered the last few months, indeed throughout most of 2009. It needs to return back to those performance levels seen in 2007/2008 to ensure this service provides the value for money that it did in the past.

For those that are around to trade the signals, this is a service that may well be worth the time, effort and money if performance levels return to anything like they used to be. In anticipation the 30 day free trial may be of interest to some.

SUPPORT

Support is first filtered through Agora (Customer services), John’s publishers. Responses are usually swift and within 24 hours. If they do not respond, John will usually respond in person and within 24 hours. All responses we received were to the point and typically satisfied our enquiry.

CONCLUSION

PRO's
• Excellent (and honestly reported) long term results and returns.
• Signals are crystal clear, concise and take less than a minute to enter (not so sure a 10 year old could manage it though!).
• A personal service run by, arguably, the most well known and respected individual in the market (of Binary trading).

CON's
• Recent performance much below par.
• One does have to be around between 10:00 and 16:00 (UK local time), near a pc and ready to re-act, asap.
• Rare to get the “better” price level, on entry and exit (if an early exit alert is issued). Performance statistics on the website are based on the “worst” case entry/exit levels.

Note: John has recently made public (to members only) one of his strategies to help alleviate the problem not getting the “better” price. This does mean one has to be intuitive and watch the markets as opposed to re-acting to a signal. Helpful in one way to get around the pricing issue mentioned previously but it will not improve the performance of the signal service being paid for. This aspect still requires addressing.


Do remember, your comments are important, if you decide to use this service, please support us by using our link and by reporting back your findings, both are valuable to us and the service.

ReviewTeam - www.systemsfortraders.com