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Taking Profits

Our mission is to provide our subscribers with timely stock and options recommendations to help them meet their financial objectives.
 
 
 
79 Total Reviews
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Well Satisfied
I researched Taking Profits and Lou Russo for over a month before subscribing to several programs offered in July of 2011. The staff and...
hossien1983
 
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The math just doesn't work - but neither do the trades
I signed up for Power Options when TP was having a sale for 3 months. Things were grand. I quickly made up the cost of the service and then some. The thing I liked most was that Lou seem to have real skill in his ability to get out of bad trades. Lou usually trades vertical credit spreads on the SPY. When the trade goes against him, often he would place a hedge (buying a put). If the hedge was needed, it would cover much or more of the loss. If it was not needed, it was turned into another vertical. Pretty cool, right. Every week wasn't a winner, but the losses were contained.

I wanted something a little more conservative, so I signed up for Spread Trader. Lou says his #1 objective was 'capital preservation'. Me too! Turns out that Spread Trader and Power Options shared a lot of the same trades (this should have been my first warning). As others pointed out, things were going great until Jun. Then a very narrow Iron Condor trade was placed on the VXX. If he was right, well, he would be paraded around since the credits were for 0.50. But it didn't work out. Neither did the hedge that followed. Two trades wiped out all the profit I made since starting the service.

Note that Lou tried to hedge and make up the loss, but in doing so, he placed 60% of a portfolio (3 positions) at risk on a single trade. I can't remember the exact trade, but it banked on the SPY not dropping to something like 130 in 3 weeks which would have been a drop of 60 points or so. I was not willing to make that bet. It was way too f**king risky.

Then I hit pause, watched some trades work out, and decided to hop back in to recover some of these losses. Lou placed a vertical on the SPY that expired today that was nearly a 80% loss. Fortunately I got out much earlier with only a 50% loss. And I am finished with this service.

All this time, Lou does not communicate. You don't know what he is doing or why. Lou also does not try to cut his losses when its obvious he's in a bad trade. "Hope" is not a system I like.

But here's the real kicker. As one reviewer just pointed out, you can get 10% weekly profits when things are going well. But if you follow Lou's advice, you have 5 open positions, and he normally only plays one position (unless something has gone wrong).

10 % per week

divided by 5 open positions

--------------

2% per week

So you are really looking at a service that aims for 8-10% per month. And folks - there are other services that give you that same goal but with much much much less risk and a heck of a lot more trust.

Finally, I suspect many of the positive reviews below are artificial. I'm on the borderline of calling this service and outright scam. But it is possible that Lou is going through a bad patch. I don't know. But I know it is far far far more risky than advertised.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials member and not of Investimonials LLC
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Cannot Recommend Taking Profits any Longer
This is my review of Taking Profits - Spread Trader and Power Options. I see that there are many glowing reviews of Taking Profits here at Investimonials, but I believe these were reviews made when Lou is on a winning streak. The trades Lou uses are mostly credit spreads on the SPY and VXX. A lot of times Lou makes the right call - and i do give him credit for that, but unfortunately Lou just makes some real bad trades that result in extremely hefty losses (and i mean nearly MAX losses). I was up 25K in a certain period using the services but as of now i am down 7k. June was horrible - I lost almost all my profits due to several bad trades. I gave Lou a second chance to recoup, but Lou closed out another bad trade today on the SPY with nearly a maximum loss.

I trusted this service and it really, really let me down. How these trades work is that if you are right, you can get a decent return of 10-15% on average, but if you are wrong, you will lose almost all of the money you allocated for the trade!! Thinking about it more, in order to make it a viable strategy, Lou must make 8-10 good trades compared to 1 bad trade just to break even. Lou charges a hefty fee of $2500 for the spread trader service, but i do not consider it a premium service any longer simply due to the fact that there are several MAX losses in such a short period of time; and even after nearly half a year i'm not up but down by a significant amount.

IMO spread trading is almost like a gambling game: you are making a bet that say the SPY will close below/above 'X' amount by the end of next week; and in order to make it a viable long term strategy you must be right 80-90% of the time. Anything lower will result in losses. All in all, i can't recommend Lou's services.

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+ $4,487.00 Profit Since Starting In April
I started spreads in April and my account is + $4,487.00 including the brokers commissions. Very happy thus far with these trades and looking forward to more. I'm using auto trade so the trading process is automatic. I'm going to increase allocations when the portfolio goes flat. I would easily recommend this to anyone and as Lou is doing a very good job of making me money. I'm a conservative sort of person so don't buy options long and like using the spreads because it gives an automatic hedge. I would lie to see more positions but why argue with success. We should see a new position fairly soon as there is enough capital to warrant new picks. I don't even look at or follow the market anymore since using auto trade. Lou does all the work for me and I just set allocations. I'm going to be adding about $8,000.00 to my account as Lou has my confidence. Recommend this to everyone. 5 stars for sure.

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Very Happy with Taking Profits
I use the spreads and auto trade through e-Option and my account is up exactly $16,947.48 since starting. Needless to say I'm very much pleased to see profits like this and my input for those who are skeptical is that this service works real well over time.

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Lou Russo is Still One of the Best
Professional Trader and long-term subscriber. I had a license in the Pit years ago and made a fortune, left to trade online to spend more time with my family. I seldom have time for chats, groups, or venues like this but I received an email from a fellow trader who I have helped and he brought this venue to my attention. As a faithful member of Taking Profits and Lou russo for years I felt compelled to submit my opinion. Let me say this so everyone get's it. There will be losses, some big, some small, and those who become euphoric when profits are rolling in are novices and rookies with pie in the sky expectations (I'm not insulting anyone just laying out real facts). I'm a Player with my total holdings over $11,750,000.00. Yes my friends, that's $11.75 mil and I trade up to 3000 contracts per position in Lou's Spread Trader. I have traded every position in 2012 and my Spread Trader Account is plus $550,000.00 to date for 2012. Lou Russo is true to his profession and his commitment to provide profitable trading programs. Here are some real facts. I've been with Lou Russo for over 10 years, met with him personally many times and I respect him for what he does by laying it out there and for his commitment to help people make money. I subscribe to each one of his programs including the emini at 20k a year and each are all exceptionally successful. Don't run for the hills because you got burnt. Now is the time to stay commited. When the novices run, I get in, just as in the 2009 crash. Rookies get scared out of their mind and pulled their money. I invested $1.5 mil over 6 months in 2008 / 2009 and have nearly doubled my account since with his stock programs. My friends. Don't get scared and don't bail out. Look to the complete year. I've been there many many times and when your stomach is churning and you lie awake at night stressed out, look forward to what's ahead and not dwell on the past. I have absolute faith in Lou Russo and as I have experienced before with his programs he will chip away and recover the trades. Now is the time to commit. Now is the time to become involved. If you have more capital, put it in now. Right now. The odds of the program's success is now very high.

Good luck to all and much success.

Rich Dowling

richarddowling1985@hotmail.com

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Not What I Expected
Curious as to what the long-time subscribers are thinking about this service after a disastrous June? I joined Spread Trader on April 20th and bottomline, I have not only not made the cost of the service back, I've lost some of my initial investment as well. I'm a little nervous about how much money has been lost this month. They are saying "stay the course" and I'm know enough about options to know loses will be there. I just didn't know the losses would be this large!! It will be a long time before I could recommend this service. Overall - disappointed.

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not safe at all
I recently joined spread trader hoping it is conservative as Lou states.

Guess what? Last week he took a VXX bull put spread trade and with VXX plunging this week it realized a 50% loss. Another SPY trade he entered last week is also in danger.

This service totally does not worth its price tag.

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Best Kept Secret on Wall Street
My Friends, I don't know how he does it but Lou Russo and the Taking Profits Spread Trader is simply great. My Spread Trader auto trade account continues to make money every week. Yep, every week with his credit spread trades. When I say this is the best kept secret I truly mean it. I just don't know why anyone would use anything else. Period. Getting profits every week is unreal. I will be more than happy to hand out my email address for direct response to anyone.

tradetester007@hotmail.com Phil L.

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21.49% per month in my auto trade account
LOU RUSSO AND TAKING PROFITS I SAY "THANK YOU" .

My Power Options has made 139.70% profit since January. I started with $5,000.00 in my account and now it is $11,985.00 making $6,985.00 profits. I have never been this successful trading options or even stocks for that matter. Trades are credit spreads and to see profits every week in my account is tremendously exciting. I am going to start compounding by changing allocation in my account because I have been trading a flat 10 contracts so compounding by setting 20% of capital per position would raised my account much more. This is the BEST trading program I have ever had. Where in the world can you get these type of profits and this is low risk trades.

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Spread Trader is good, if not great
Lou's Spread Trader service can make you money, but you have to be patient, and allocate quite a bit per trade. I autotraded it for awhile, but didn't allocate enough, so I didn't make a ton.

Lou certainly knows what he's doing.

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Lost Faith
I was a big fan of Taking Profits 2 years ago, (Spread trader) but my opinion has changed. I signed-up for Power Options in May of this year, and June was BAD. However, I hung in there, thinking things would turn around. (even a little) But they didn't....more losses followed. I really don't understand why they kept trading SPY when all they could do is lose. Every now and again, they'd send-out an email stating: "........the model didn't work.........." This is really puzzling, since they made money for me from 2010-2011. I realize no system is perfect, but COME ON!!

Also, they have been harder to contact. In the past I have spoken directly to Lou. He seemed like a nice guy. Now, they won't return calls or emails. I merely want to ask them a question about my subscription.

To top things off, when you call the number, the voice says "Equity Research Services", NOT "Taking Profits". Very weird.. Here's the link: http://er-llc.com/

I called my autotrade broker to tell them about this, just so they were aware, but they just brushed it off and claimed ignorance.

Needless to say, I can't trust these guys anymore, so I have stopped trading their service. If any of you subscribers are reading this, you may want to alert your broker about this name change. Hopefully they'll be more curious about it than mine was.

It's really too bad, I thought they were a great service at one time.

This review is the subjective opinion of an Investimonials.com member and not of Investimonials LLC.

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