Minervini Private Access Review (Mark’s Premium MPA Membership)

Mark banned me from his twitter account because I made sarcastic remark. I did not expect his ego to be so frail. I apologized, but it made no difference. Mark has assembled a great team, identified in the one and two star reviews above.

Mark’s books are excellent, and contain everything he knows about trading the market, as long as it is a bull market. His course is a waste of money if you can read. I’m sure the course is a handsome supplement to his income.

I recommend reading his book, “Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard” and following his instructions on entries and exits. The other books are redundant, just as his “Master Class” is redundant. Mark discloses in his master class that he has not taken a vacation or left his desk for more than a few days in the last forty years. If you measure success by $ alone, he is successful. I kind of pity him.

I was a member of Minervini Private Access for several years and attended his Master Trader Program. Minervini is very knowledgeable, and at times, Minervini posted sound stocks and excellent trades, and I would recommend his books. However, it seemed to me that he also used his knowledge and skill to exploit the hope and greed of his clients.

First, I think his service is overpriced at $6,000 a year, and his Master Trader Program is overpriced at $5,000. Also, I think Minervini is a terrible teacher. In the question-and-answer session, Minervini would commonly get irritated at his client’s questions and criticize their questions. I think that you can find better services and programs at a lower cost with more effective teachers.

Second, Minervini focuses on volatility contraction in stocks because when the stock moves to either the upside or downside, it can be explosive especially if the stock is thinly traded. However, the stock can also be manipulated especially if the stock has weak fundamentals. Each week, Minervini would post the stocks he was watching at the market open, so you did not have time to research them, and the stocks would commonly change from week to week. Thus, it would be a challenge to get a strong understanding of the stock’s fundamentals.

During market hours, Minervini would put out a “breakout alert” or “buy now” alerts on the stocks he was watching as the stocks were breaking out. At times, the breakout was a legitimate market induced breakout because the stock was heavily traded. However, commonly the stock was thinly traded with weak fundamentals, and the stock would surge in value, and then come crashing down. At times, I saw the service would put out a breakout or buy now alert on a stock. I looked at the stock on Market Smith, and it was not breaking out, but moments later, it broke out. It could have been a lag in my internet, but it happened several times, so it seemed as if Minervini or the service was creating the breakout, pumping it to their clients, and then selling into the manipulated demand. Also, Minervini would add stocks to the watch list during the trading session. At times, just after adding the stock, the stock would breakout and at times, eventually crash down. Minervini even admitted to “popping” stocks at times because his account size was so large.

Minervini said one of his tactics was to enter the trade with large size, sell a portion into strength, and then free roll the rest, which is a sound strategy, if the stock is breakout on fundamental reasons and not manipulation. Thus, it seemed his service was alerting their clients to a combination of both legitimate and manipulated stock breakouts.

Minervini also talked a lot about the compounding effect of small profits turned over frequently enough to accomplish your goal. This is a sound strategy, but the hard part is consistently doing it. Unless, let’s say you hypothetically pumped up a thinly traded stocks with weak fundamentals to your clients after you purchased large amount of the stock to create a breakout. Then, you sold your shares after your clients drove up the price. If you do that frequently enough, you might be able to win something like the US Investment Championship.

I lost a lot of respect for IBD because they give this guy a lot of airtime.

The following is my own experience and personal opinion.

Mark’s service is overinflated bloatware marketed by a highly persuasive highly successful salesman; being Mark and his ego-driven Twitter account. Their new selling point is their analytical trade tracking software (built into the site). Investing in hiring a programmer to give you your own trade analytics so you’re not married to Mark’s $6,000.00 a year trade tracker. Bob reminds me of a used car salesman and his sole purpose is to extract your hard-earned money from your pocket… He’s trash.

Mark Ritchie is garbage as well and is riding off the coattails of Minervini. Ask Mark Ritchie about his RTM Capital firm… Their performance sucks and does not have super-performance gains. Furthermore, it’s interesting to see Mark R increase his Twitter exposure. His tweets sound exactly like Minervini and what he spews he’s just trying to sound smart.

I’ve read Minervini’s books, gone to the seminar, and done multiple years of MPA service and It’s not worth the time or money. There are far better options out there for far cheaper. I am more consistent and more profitable now than I ever was blindly following Mark and his methods.

So in a nutshell Mark’s books are great, his service and MPA regurgitate the books and are way too expensive. The value isn’t there and most importantly….. THEY DO NOT TEACH YOU HOW TO THINK FOR YOURSELF.

I believe he was front running the overwhelming majority of the stocks he put on buy alert in 2021 because he was in the USIC. Almost every low volume stock he put on buy alert would jump 5-10% followed by crashing minutes after. Come to find out he had triple digit gains yet most of his buy alerts all crashed the same day. I can understand 20% of buy alerts squatting same day, but it was more like 90%. He either was front running or has a significant flaw in his buying criteria.

Minervini Private Access – MPA is basically a complete rip-off. Avoid!

For $1000 per month, or $6000 (seriously overpriced!) for an annual subscription you get a few lamer stock recommendations each week and so-called “training classes” each Monday. These classes are nothing but Mark Minervini, along with his deputy dog Mark Ritchie Jr. holding court and answering written questions with a snarky, egotistical and condescending attitude.

You can also subcribe to Minervini’s Twitter feed where he hawks his books and courses like carnival barker. He has thousand of adoring boot-lickers who tell him how great he is. Yuck.

Remember, you are trading to make money, not to give star power. If you are not trading to make money, then you should find something else to do with your money and time and just buy index funds.

If I could give this garbage a -10 stars, I would. It’s really that bad. Save your money. Learn to trade by reading William O’Neil’s books, and taking reasonably priced classes if you need to.

Mark deserves credit. He overcame a great deal to be where he is today and no one can take that away from him. The thing to remember about his service and results is he is front-running. By the time the typical member is able to respond to a buy/sell alert, Mark has already made the trade. And, due to the # followers, and some low liquidity plays, his followers pump up a stock rapidly then he takes his profits. The investing competition would be more fair if they didn’t allow traders with troves of followers to compete. Just to repeat, Mark is very good and very wise. But don’t go into his service thinking you can just follow his trades and make money. That won’t happen.

I have been a member of MPA for about a year. The information given by Mark Minervini and Mark Ritchie are invaluable. I have learned a lot this last year, and have improved my trading considerably. However, YOU HAVE TO PUT IN the work. I now spend around 4-6 hours during the weekends, preparing for the trading week. Discipline is a must.

Most of the people complaining don’t want do do the work. They just want a signal service.

I Google these reviews a lot and on this one I feel I have enough experience to say something. I have been a subscriber now for 18 months, I did the MTP last year, and I have read his books twice.

Those who say you get what you put in are correct. Those who say it’s a huge amount of money for little guarantee of profits are also correct.

The difference is in how you look at trading. Successful trading is not a bunch of buy and sell alerts. Successful trading is a process of education and self development. You are paying for a semester with the two Marks, both proven traders. They are professors and class is in session. That’s how you need to think of it. You are not paying for anything more than education.

As a part of my personal path, I paid for a host of services. Ivan, Sam, Stewie, Leif, Florida, Gilmo, Al, if these names ring a bell than you get it – and a dozen others. In 2020 I spent $25k in services and programs. And made several times that in returns.

There are many ways to make money in the market. All of those paths require discipline, risk control, and development. This is not a game. The market can be all things to all people. If folks want to treat it like Vegas than it will be a casino for them. But there is also a very different path that leads to consistent “super-performance.”

Mark’s method is best understood as a development of the IBD base-breakout system, popularized by William O’Neil and practiced by many different traders with their own take on it. The IBD system also has the CANSLIM element which Mark desires but does not emphasize as much. The IBD “family” of methods is well-represented on the USIC leaderboard every year. It requires practice, development, and discretion – but there is substantial evidence of alpha when properly applied.

Be honest with yourself. If you are looking for buy and sell alerts with virtually guaranteed alpha, look elsewhere. Buy some MGK and play VIX games. If you are serious about developing the skill that is trading – and reaping a lifetime of success – and you have enough money to work with that this sort of investment makes sense, Mark’s service is worth consideration.

Be careful if you sign up for these services. I signed up for 3 months for a number of thousand dollars. I was shocked that they took the money from my account again for another 3 months and another few thousand dollars without telling me. Apparently unless you opt out, you are opted in for auto renewal. I hate that. I ended up having a massive row with his administrator, Bob and did get my money back.

The whole thing is really strange – if you are worth millions, why go to all this bother unless it is to get people to help you move thin stocks?

Ever see Jim Rogers selling subscriptions or Dalio or other big hedge fund names?

And his ego on twitter is something to behold. Yes maybe he is good but he has no modesty.

Mark is definitely not what he appears to be. He needs the money, that’s why he runs a service. This is what a good friend of told me.

Can’t agree. His “buy now” alerts on many of the thinly traded names are aimed to using members’ money to benefit himself. That’s how he is winning the USIC – not much competition in the 1M class also.

I think people are using this service the wrong way. This isn’t a model portfolio where you would take every alert.

95% All ideas come off the buy alert list, you should be putting this in to a watchlist on Monday when it comes out and then screening them yourself, look for the set up, set your own alerts and then place the trade yourself. If there was 40 names on the WL there may only be 4 you feel comfortable with, then you wait for these to BO and know the risk prior to placing the trade.

Opposed to waiting for Mark to post it and then scrambling to get the trade on, not knowing the risk you’re taking and if it fits in with your risk. You then find you’ve bought a few % extended and messing up your risk reward on the trade.

Mark says every week do not buy extended, so if you’re buying a stock extended. That’s a you issue.

If there’s is 50% chance of losing as stated in one of the comments, meaning 50% work, that’s a 50% batting average. Thats a great batting average so congrats on that. Also Mark rarely uses an 8% stop loss, his average is much smaller.

He’s currently doing 3 training sessions a week. Two are just Mark Minervini, One on the market and one is on the stock WL for the week and open positions. Then there is over an hour long Q&A with Mark Ritchie and Bob Weissman, Mark Minervini sometimes comes in. Mark Ritchie is a great trader and capable of answering all the questions.

It’s also beneficial to get access to another great trader in my opinion.

If you go in to this service knowing you have to put the work in and you are responsible for your trading you will benefit from it. If you go in just buying every “buy now” on the feed you probably won’t make money, and be over exposed.

I’m only writing this review in case there’s someone on the fence, who’s struggling to decide. If you’re ready to put the work in, I wouldn’t pass up on the opportunity to learn from one of the greatest traders of our time.

For recent results, he’s number one in the USIC 1 million dollar + category, and many of the USIC 20K division are MPA candidates. Results speak for themselves.

P.S I Wouldn’t sign up just for a month, you wouldn’t go to the gym for a month and expect to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger LOL

Good luck!