The Peter Leeds Penny Stocks Project – an update

by Roland Hulme

In January, I began the Peter Leeds project – an impartial, in-depth analysis of the Penny Stocks service offered by much touted guru Peter Leeds. I had a comment the other day demanding to know where my latest report was – so here’s an update.

Is Peter Leeds worth the money?

It’s been just over four months since I paid the $195 subscription to Peter Leeds' penny stock services and the fact that I’m writing my Peter Leeds review from a desk in New York City and not a beach in the Caribbean is a good indication of just how successful I’ve been on it. 

I haven’t made my fortune thanks to Peter. In fact, I haven’t made a penny.

But first off, I should preface that by admitting my own financial participation in his stock recommendations has been limited. I picked one or two stocks he recommended and, as of this writing, have lost a little on both of them. Then again, he recommends one stock every week, so you’re kind of spinning a roulette wheel when you decide which one to go with.

On the whole, though, I haven’t come across thinking that there’s some kind of Peter Leeds scam going on. Peter Leeds does come across like a genuine, honest guy. He doesn’t make any wild or outlandish promises about becoming rich from penny stocks, and it seems his much touted “method” for picking solid stocks in cemented in cold, objective analysis.

The being said, the stocks he recommends are not all consistent performers.  

I analyzed his most recent stock picks and gave them a VERY generous assessment, looking at their performance to see if there was any point in which investors would have been able to make money. 

According to my figures, out of the past seven stocks he recommended, only three would have offered the opportunity to take a profit – and only one (at 40%) offered any significant increase.

The rest flunked – losing at their best between 7% and 17% from my calculations.

In his defense, these figures are based on a mere three months; and the economy has not been great for stocks no matter how low they’re priced. Yet when somebody invests money in a stock subscription service, they’re not paying for excuses – they’re paying for results.

No matter which way you cut the mustard, my impression so far from Peter Leeds Penny Stocks is that you’re NOT going to get an easy, convenient source of quickly performing penny stocks by subscribing; just some rational, ethical recommendations that would, theoretically, at least protect you against loses.

And if you’re in it for the long haul – who knows? One of Peter’s recommendations recently spiked by 75%; which is a nice little payday for those who bought into it.

But the issue is – with so many recommendations being made, how do you know which one is going to be “the one” that hits the big time? And, more importantly, when do you know when to sell?

And that’s really the big issue. In my admittedly unscientific calculations, I rated Peter Leeds’ stock picks on how much money you COULD have made if you’d sold at the right time. The fact is, you could have made less – or even a loss – at other points.

To Peter Leeds’ credit, the one recent stock pick that spiked at more than 40% from when he recommended it hit exactly on his short term sell recommendation. His others haven’t met that point yet – so while I argue about profits and loss, if you’d been listening to his recommendations you’d still be holding onto those stocks.

Ultimately, my verdict on Peter Leeds’ penny stocks service in the short term is that you will NOT make significant amounts of money on it, but it’s certainly not a scam, either.

Peter Leeds presents himself as an ethical guy, and he obviously does fulfill the research and analysis he promises before recommending stocks.

As a result, none of his picks have vanished, been frozen by the SEC or crashed to a fraction of their former worth – and anybody who’s been dabbling in penny stocks for a while will know that these misadventures are more commonly the rule than the exception.

Yet does this deliver sufficient value for the nearly $200 annual subscription? Given that his stock picks have had inconsistent performance in the time I’ve been looking at them, I’d be cautious about saying that it does. People invest in stock subscriptions to MAKE money; not simply fail to lose too much of it.

As of this point – nearly four months into my subscription – I would say don’t bother investing in the Peter Leeds Penny Stocks service. There’s no Peter Leeds scam, but I don’t think it genuinely offers sufficient value for money given what most penny stock investor’s expectations and investment budgets are.

But I will admit that of all the penny stock services out there, Peter Leeds’ is definitely the most transparent, and he comes across as the most ethical and genuine of the investment gurus people follow. I’d take him over Jim Kramer any day of the week.

And the final verdict isn’t in. I can’t claim a refund for my subscription, so I will be sending (nonspecific) updates on the performance of the stocks he recommends throughout the year* – plus all the other things you get for signing up.

If I change my mind about Peter Leed’s Penny Stocks, I’ll let you know.


* Because Peter Leeds created his penny stock site to make money, I will not be giving away any of the recommendations we subscribers have to pay for - just report on the general performance of his stock tips.

You Are Why You’re Poor

by Roland Hulme

Today gave me a beautiful illustration of what’s wrong with modern America.

As I emerged from Penn Station this morning, a group of people in red t-shirts were eagerly handing out dollar bills – all part of something called Fortune 500 Day (which I’d never heard of before.)

Some people, like myself, eagerly took the free money and then carried on to work.

Most people, however, stepped out of the path of the people handing out the cash, or raised their hand to dismiss them, or simply uttered a short, sharp bark of “No!”

And that, my friends, is about as perfect a metaphor for American life as you could possibly ask for.

What I’ve come to realize and love about this incredible country is that it really is “the land of opportunity” – and that there’s as much wealth and as many riches as you could possibly want, depending on how hard you’re willing to work to get them (or what you’re willing to sacrifice.)

I’m new to this attitude towards life, but it’s paid very rich dividends in the short amount of time  I've been living by it.

But a vast number of people don’t realize that this is how America works, and they’re miserable and bitter as a result. They see other people in this country with riches, wealth, comfort and security and then blame anybody but themselves for this inequality.

It’s a mentality best summed up by the Occupy movement – which lacks a clearly defined manifesto, but certainly seems to be based around the mindset of “you have more than me, so give me some.”

But that’s the conceit, and what people with the Occupy mindset don’t get: America is giving you “some.” In fact, it’s giving you as much as you’d fancy taking. Everything you want from this country – wealth, property, prosperity, fame and fortune – is waiting for you like ripe, juicy fruit ready to be picked.

But you still have to pick it.

That ripe fruit doesn’t get picked for you. You don’t have people taking your hands gently, turning them palm-upward and then placing the fruit in them for you. You actually have to reach, and stretch, and grip and pull and then pluck that reward from where it hangs.

Everything you want from America is being offered to you; but most people don’t bother taking it. And then they complain about other people having more than they do.

They blame anybody else for it – social injustice, economic privation, capitalism or socialism or whatever flawed economic model they believe America runs under – but they never take responsibility for it themselves – and they should.

Because in truth, the people represented by the Occupy movement are often like the people outside Penn Station today – the ones who turned their nose up at the free money being waved in their faces.

They live in the most incredible country in the world – where more people have more chances to become wealthy than in any other place on earth – and yet they still starve themselves in the midst of all this abundance.

It's time to stop making excuses for why you haven't got what you want out of life, and start taking action. The opportunities are there - you just need to seize them.

Need proof of how this works? Just look at the figures. In Occupy Wall Street language, 80% of the 1% started life as the 99% - and became this nation's richest none the less.

There's nothing - literally nothing - standing between you and those same incredible results.

Except yourself.