Joe Citarrella

INVESTools: Swim And Sink

Ed, thanks for sharing your own story. Congratulations on your success.

I have already responded to a number of your arguments on my own site, where the comments section is engaged in intense discussion. A few things I did want to add here, though:

1) The impact on the market from 250K grads would be minor. But the impact if big money were to catch on to what INVESTools calls its "proven strategy" to beat the market would be substantial. Of course, that's assuming there actually was some special formula that actually worked to begin with...
2) The BBB comment was actually in response to someone who used the lack of BBB complaints to demonstrate consumer satisfaction. That was NOT intended to be a proof of my thesis -- it was simply to point out that it should not be used on the other side of the argument. In reality it was not and is not a turning point of my argument.
3) The "false statements" you accuse me of were in the company's own words on their infomercials. So my main take home point should still be the following: Either the company's education is a ripoff or it's marketed in a questionable manner. Whatever the case, the company is doing something wrong. If, as you're saying, reality differs from my statements, then blame the company for falsifications or misrepresentations -- not me.

Anyway, I'd encourage you to check out the comments and discussion on joecit.com. I'm sure the other readers would be happy to hear from you.

Best,
Joe

INVESTools: Swim And Sink

darsdesigns, how much did you spend on the program. Also, could you share your performance statistics? Finally, would you say that the outrageous claims of not needing money to start, making hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, and not needing to do much work other than following the red and green arrows on the infomercial are fair and reasonable?

Frank, I've read a number of customer accounts on the product and company. Naturally, some are positive and glowing, but many more than should be are harsh and scathing. Some customers claim that the company promises your money back if you do not recoup your investment in the program, but that the company refuses to pay up when customers come forward. Others claim that investools students average 30%+ per year, but there's no indication of a scientifically performed survey or methodology to verify this.

Finally, here are just a few links for product reviews (with good and bad mixed in):
www.forexbastards.com/...
www.bgry.com/
www.xomreviews.com/inv...
www.corporate-review.c...

-Joe

Whole Foods, Whole Portfolio?

Thanks for the feedback guys. The main reason I'm not in is because the stock still doesn't jump at me as a no-brainer given its pricetag. The 33% Margin is just the result of one DCF scenario, which I'm not entirely convinced is highly probable. That said, again, I'll be keeping a close eye on WFMI