On logging in to www.Illluminati-Trader.com for the first time the impression is just a little confusing. However, a few minutes spent assimilating what is presented sorts things out sufficient to start exploring.
There is the basic site menu down the left hand side broken into different area with a central window including a promo video, rolling testimonials, a couple of charts plus the icons we are really interested in.
The promo video and testimonials are superfluous to our requirements right now as we are already customers and are looking for the meat of the product. Though I can forgive Guy and his website designers because it is always necessary to keep your customers motivated and I understand that the space is planned for more productive use in the future.
A quick scan of the page tells me that there is another Video Guide icon in the top right corner. Now, I have to say that I am rather old school and not an enthusiast of videos – except when they convey the information you need exactly when you need it.
The consequence of this is that I ignored the Video Guide icon and spent some time blundering around before I decided I needed some more help. Hitting the Video Guide brought up exactly what I needed right at the beginning, i.e. another video from Guy that holds your hand with an introductory walk through the navigation.
My conclusion from that experience is that the video intro is great – but I think it should deal better with first time visitors like me by making the Video Guide far more prominent; as in "Watch this first!." It would have saved me some time.
As is normal these days, the pretty icons in the main screen replicate the boring choices in the menu toolbar so I wont repeat myself by describing the toolbar.
The 9 icon choices are basically entry points into 3 areas of information. Here's a quick overview:
Navigation
More help with the navigation from the User Guide. It is clear from a cursory look around the screenshots shown in the Users Guide that the presentation of information on the website is immaculate. Coloured graphics are used wherever a picture can communicate better and the text is clear, concise and to the point.
A starters guide icon provides an introductory, downloadable ebook for beginners to help those who are completely new to trading.
Education
The Options University icon gives an all round trading education in Options and from a quick look it seems in even more depth than on the CDs. Again, beautifully presented. From my trading education I have received from others I always came to the conclusion that Options was just too complex for me. Perhaps by focussing on just this one single trading techniqe, Guy Cohen succeeds in making it eminently understandable.
The Strategy Guides icon deals with the two specific and most effective strategies that Guy proposes for Illuminati Traders. This is the meat and drink of the product.
A FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) icon to answer – guess what?.
A Glossary to make sure you are never left short of a definition to aid your understanding.
A blog where Guy tells me he is planning to provide regular continuing education with videos for his group of Illuminati Traders.
Software
The bones of the product for those who are immediately familiar with trading are in Guy Cohen's specific Tradefinder software that will scan for potential trades meeting the Illuminati rules as well as the users specific criteria.
Thereafter, the Strategy Analyzer will analyze your trades to make sure that they conform to the rules.
In summary, all of the training and content provided during the Illuminati-Trader CD training is made available again online at the point of need as the trader moves on to using the Illuminati online tools.
I'll be going into more detail of each aspect in subsequent posts. Stay tuned – in fact, subscribe to the RSS feed to have new reports delivered right to your desktop just as soon as I post them.
My login for access to the Tradefinder software used for finding candidate option trades with Illuminati-Trader has just come through so I will be giving the software element of the package a going over in the next few days in order to add to the review.
My understanding from the training is that the TradeFinder sofware will find and filter possible trades according to customisable filters of my choice as well as give access to the various sources of online information in one convenient location. I'll let you know how I get on.
Making money, big money, by trading the financial markets is an alluring prospect. Discovering how to trade with minimum risk is even more attractive for newcomers to trading and something of a Holy Grail for those who are already struggling or in the red!
There are any number of trading methods, strategies, products, software, and systems out there which claim to be able to make you a trading superstar. Whether it is by spotting turning points, by interpreting chart patterns, by using a unique mix of indicators or whatever. So it is a breath of fresh air to find someone with a track record who says that none of it works. Absolutely none of it.
Yet at the same time that Guy Cohen, already an established author in his specialist field, is claiming that nothing works, in the next breath he claims to have a method that will make you money with absolute minimum risk. So let's take a look at what is on offer and whether his claim stands up. The product is named 'Illuminati-Trader' – a nice play on words as you will see if you look up 'Illuminati' in Wikipedia where you will find that among other things 'the Illuminati refers to an elite set of enlightened individuals …. uniquely empowered by their enlightenment'. Yes, I would definitely like to be enlightened on the subject!
To become enlightened buyers receive two elements. The first is a 10 CD set of instruction in Guy's trading method amounting to some 10 hours of instruction. The second is access to the supporting software running on the Illuminati-Trader website and delivering answers to the critical questions that arise during the trading analysis.
Production quality of the CDs is excellent. The content is clear and very well presented. Guy Cohen is an established author in his specialist field and it quickly becomes evident that he knows his subject back to front as he identifies the things you need to know to make this work. He moves on to explain, even for absolute beginners, the elements of stock trading that you need to know and frankly, there are not many required for this. Having identified what it is you need to know he goes on to show you where and how to find it.
The third CD covers the actual mechanism required as he demonstrates why his method is minimum risk. For those, like me, who have been constantly exasperated in our trading efforts by watching the stock price inevitably wander off in the opposite direction we are willing upon it, this is fascinating. To trade and not to care which direction a stock moves in really has to be a great trading method.
CD4 is all about the trading mechanism he uses to achieve this minimum risk objective including details of the two specific strategies together with illustrations, both written and in graphical form, produced by his software. Comparisons are provided of the two strategies when applied to the same trading prospects and an explanation of why you might choose to use one or the other, or even both.
There then follows 4 CDs worth, 27 examples by my count, of worked examples. The candidate trade selection produced by the software, application of the standard human evaluation method and the most useful part; Guy's running commentary of why he would or would not trade this particular prospect. He even includes those that he did trade and turned out to be losers in order to show firstly the indicators that tell you to get out (pretty simple, that part) but also to demonstrate that even a failing trade has a predictable and low level of loss – which is, after all, the premise on which his offer is based.
As with many trading products that invite novice traders into the trading environment, CD9 covers the issue of your trading psychology. How to understand your behaviour when under the stress that always arises when trading and, more importantly, how to control it. In addition, he adds some absolute do's and don'ts to be applied when using his Illuminati-Trader method.
As you come towards the end of the 10 CDs there is a tendency to feel that you have absorbed all you need. But there are two further elements to this package. One is essential and the other is a matter for your own judgement.
The essential element is the access available to Guy's proprietary software. Although he provided the sources of information that a trader can use early on in the course, the fact is that sifting through the thousands of candidate stocks, commodities, indexes out there is a job requiring number crunching software.
This is where Guy Cohen has applied 10 years of his professional life as a trader and hundreds of software models to develop an application that delivers just a handfull of candidate trades that conform to the required profile on any given day. It also sources all the information required from the various online sources and drags them into a single page for the user. The PC and internet have been great empowerment mechanisms over the last decade. They enable us to achieve in moments what would have taken hours or even days of effort previously. This is another example where the automation available makes it possible to cherry pick the very best candidates in just a few moments.
The further element of the package to which you may choose to apply your personal judgement is Guy's inclusion of relaxation and mental focus recordings at each stage of the course. I happen to know that he has events in his personal life which lead him to believe in the usefulness of this approach. I can also believe that it is necessary to stay cool, calm and collected when making trading decisions. However, you will have to make your own mind up about it's usefulness for you, personally.
Standing back from the detail of the content and quality of the training package the question remains; can Illuminati-Trader actually deliver big profits with minimum risk? It delivers a method to trade profitably whether the stock price goes up or down. That's not just good, it's fantastic. As with all trading, if you get it right you can ride with the profit as far as you choose resulting in potential big profits. Your entry price is known and fixed, as is your maximum risk and loss. So you can judge exactly how much you might trade within a trading plan and ensure that the odds for wins/losses stack up on your side.
All of the tools and information are provided leaving just your own judgement to apply to choose which of the candidates to trade and how. So there are no hidden 'black box' processes and you remain in control.
Against, there is a larger spread between the breakeven points for rising and falling prices due to covering the trade in both directions. However, structuring your trade to deal with this issue is one of the fundamental elements of the training and if applied correctly this should not be an issue. So, if you manage your trades as instructed then I can't see any reason why this should not work for anyone.
I've had the opportunity to talk to Guy personally and he is at pains to emphasise his commitment to customer service. So there is a 100% money back guarantee if a buyer decides it is not for them. Though as he put it; 'I know this works. It works consistently for me and there is no doubt that if customers follow my instructions then it will work for them. I am not expecting many returns from disappointed customers.'
I've dabbled with trading before, done the seminars and the masterclasses and when I tried to apply it I got it wrong, meaning that I lost money. So I decided that if I couldn't read the markets properly then I should not trade at all.
Despite that history, I've now signed up for Illuminati-Trader and intend to get back into the fray. I know I can't trust myself to interpret the likely direction of market prices and I'm not convinced that there is any reliable way of doing so, which is exactly the point that Guy makes during the training. But I know I can trust myself to carry out a methodical, analytical process with proven tools such as those provided by Illuminati-Trader, especially when Guy Cohen promises such positive and ongoing support. I will be asking him some questions on that subject as part of this review in the near future.
So the prospect of being able to cover the trade in both directions, making a profit whichever way it goes and leaving the process of making trade judgments myself according to a methodical process is what swings it for me.
