OnlyCritiques.com Review:

Jake Bernstein, like so many other self-proclaimed market gurus, makes it seem almost effortless to make a fortune in the markets. These guys are all the same as far as I am concerned. They make it seem like the risk is minimal when in fact, especially in commodities, it is high risk. If you are going to invest your money in high risk make sure, like going to Las Vegas, you are willing to lose every penny.

If you cannot afford to lose any money then risk investing is not for you. Don’t let greed and the desire for alleged easy money cloud your judgment.

The following is an article by William Green... Forbes Magazine:

"I'm TEACHING YOU SOMETHING that I know works," says Jake Bernstein. "It's real simple." Bernstein, 51, is in a Washington, D.C. hotel meeting room mesmerizing an audience of aspiring futures traders.

Want to make a killing trading futures? All you need to know, says Bernstein, is that many seasonal price patterns occur year after year. Buy live hog futures on Oct. 30 and sell on Nov. 27. That's a trade that would have made you money almost every year in recent decades, he claims. Bet on the S&P 500 March contract to rise from Jan. 12 through Jan. 18. For 15 years, he says, this trade was a winner 93% of the time.

Does anyone believe his nonsense? Unfortunately, yes. Intoxicated by the promise of easy money, audience members line up to buy Bernstein's products, among them his books, with titles like The Seasonal Trader's Bible and The Best of Bernstein: A Treasure Chest of Jake Bernstein's Market Wisdom. His monthly newsletter costs $400 annually; his weekly newsletter costs $895 a year. He sells three other newsletters, plus video courses and a CD-ROM ($695) that lists 60,000 seasonal trades. He offers telephone hot lines and charges up to $2,500 per person for his two-day seminars.

Yes, you can fool some of the people all of the time. Commodity Traders Consumer Report, a respected futures publication, tracks the trades Bernstein recommends in his $895 flagship newsletter. If you had acted on these weekly tips from 1988 through 1992, you would have lost money for five consecutive years (assuming typical transaction costs).

Let's say you set up a $20,000 trading account in 1992 and executed the newsletter's recommended trades for that year. Your account would have been wiped out. In 1996 you would have lost 95% of a $20,000 account. Bernstein's response: "There are always losing periods."

Jake Bernstein professes to be an expert on the psychology of trading. His qualifications? In registering with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Montreal-raised Bernstein wrote that he held a master's degree in psychology from Chicago's Roosevelt University. In fact, he never completed his master's studies.

In the 1980's Bernstein hooked up with an outfit called Robbins Trading and helped to manage futures accounts for investors. James Roemer, who co-managed money with Bernstein, says: "Jake is brilliant, but he can't manage money to save his life.

He'd get scared, buy at highs and sell at lows. . . . Bernstein kept losing money." Jake Bernstein found an easier way to get rich. Instead of just trading futures he would trade on investor gullibility.

In 1996 he starred in an infomercial that has aired on nearly 400 TV stations. It hypes a video course ($180) called Trade Your Way to Riches. In it a farmer named Harold Henkel tells viewers how well Bernstein's approach has worked for him. Henkel, however, now admits that he lost money trading in 1996 and 1997 while using Bernstein's products.

On his Web site Jake Bernstein offers to set up customers with his personal brokers at Fox Investments, a division of the Chicago brokerage firm Rosenthal Collins Group.

Suppose you take Bernstein's recommendation and set up an account at Fox with $5,000, the minimum that Bernstein says you need to become a trader. Your commissions would be $60 to $80 per trade, about three times more than savvy retail customers pay. Bernstein's weekly newsletter offered 195 recommended trades last year. At that rate, a small trader's commissions alone might amount to more than double his or her original investment. Needless to say, Jake Bernstein receives a slice of the brokerage's commissions. A Fox broker appeared in Bernstein's infomercial, touting his seasonal trading approach.

Says Bernstein: "There's no arguing with history." Say we: Where are the regulators when you need them? W.G.�

One final interesting note about Mr. Bernstein is he finally got burned! On May 11 an NFA hearing panel expelled Bernstein and his company MBH. The decision found that Jake the snake and his company MBH used misleading promotional material, made crazy profit claims, at the same time downplaying the risk involved with trading, and represented that futures trading is appropriate for everyone. He also gave results using hypothetical trading without any disclaimers. He was fined $200,000.00 (not enough) What a pity!

I give Mr. Bernstein two thumbs down and highly do not recommend him. If you are going to use his methods and recommendations then paper trade until you are convinced that you will succeed.

Considering that I endlessly review and read customer reviews on various business opportunites, you can be sure that I know where best to invest my hard earned dollars. CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW I MAKE A MID SIX-FIGURE INCOME AND HOW YOU CAN TOO!

Considering that I endlessly review and read customer reviews on various business opportunites, you can be sure that I know where best to invest my hard earned dollars. CLICK HERE TO LEARN HOW I MAKE A MID SIX-FIGURE INCOME AND HOW YOU CAN TOO!