Is Ian King a scam king? Or is he a true-blue tech futurist, investor, and trader?
The editor is one of the two remaining editors at Banyan Hill. At the moment, he is still aggressively pushing his services. Recently, he also brands himself as a crypto expert.
Due to the risk profiles of the investments he focuses on, many ask if he is indeed legit. It's a natural question, given the kinds of feedback he receives for his thoughts, predictions, and claims.
Honestly, he does seem like a credible trader. Looking at his experience, you get a sense that he knows what the industry is about. He has worked as a trader and investor, and he also has a course with Investopedia.
But he also tends to make wild claims. You often see thousand-percent returns. There are hundreds of percentages of growth in some companies he recommends. He even has a $100,000 guarantee, which we'll discuss later.
If you want an honest resource on Ian King, continue reading. This is a comprehensive article on the editor.
Background
Ian King's profile touts him as an editor, writer, and instructor.
The last role pertains to his work with Investopedia Academy. In this collaboration, King teaches an online course called Crypto Trading. Obviously, the subject here is cryptocurrency.
According to Investopedia, through the course, King's target is the everyday investor. As regular people enroll in his course, they will know how to navigate its volatility.
As we always say, Green Bull Research welcomes all kinds of educational resources. If these are from reputable sources, these will help more people be more circumspect in their investments.
There are just too many dark forces out there exploiting people. Without proper knowledge of what the risks are, people will get scammed.
Of course, the crypto instructor is still best known for his newsletters.
At the moment, King is with Banyan Hill, where he has four services. These are Strategic Fortunes, Next Wave Crypto Fortunes, True Momentum, and Extreme Fortunes.
His profile brands him as "an accomplished trader and entrepreneur." The editor apparently has spent more than twenty years already in the finance industry.
In fact, King started as a clerk on the Salomon Brothers Mortgage Trading Desk. This, after graduating from Lafayette College with a degree in psychology.
Eventually, he made his way to becoming a long/short equity hedge fund manager. Later on, the trader moved to Citigroup, working on Credit Derivative trading.
King also spent a decade with Peahi Capital. According to him, it's an equity fund based in New York.
Also, his profile mentions him founding a company called Intellicoins. We did our due diligence and researched this.
King says that through the company, he "helps educate everyday investors to navigate the crypto markets." However, we found no relevant literature about the firm he supposedly started.
As with most editors, King says he has credibility since many listen to his opinions. The investor says outfits like Seeking Alpha, Fox Business News, and Zero Hedge, among others feature him on their platforms.
Services
Banyan Hill
Banyan Hill lists King's services as Strategic Fortunes, Next Wave Crypto Fortunes, True Momentum, and Extreme Fortunes.
Strategic Fortunes is King's entry-level service. The annual price has been reduced from $79 to $49. However, a better deal would be to get the 5-year access for $199.
The newsletter focuses on large-cap tech stocks. It tells you "specific tipping point trends" and a stock recommendation every month.
As for Next Wave Crypto Fortunes, it is obviously the editor's advisory on digital currencies. To get his crypto recommendations and insights, prepare to pay $995 for the first year.
This is supposed to be the promo price, as the regular price is $5,000 per year. King even has a novel guarantee. He says the model portfolio will reflect the potential to make $100,000 in the next year.
If this is not the case, you'll get the second-year subscription for free. Does this sound enticing to you?
Meanwhile, True Momentum has a different target. According to the website, it focuses "on mid-cap stocks with market caps of $3 billion to $10 billion that are set to disrupt the tech sector in a big way."
Extreme Fortunes, based on the website, uses a four-phase strategy. This reveals small companies that could potentially grow by over 500%. Some promos price this at $3,000 and some sell the first year for $1,495.
Investopedia
Aside from his newsletters with Banyan Hill, King also has an online course. He collaborated with Investopedia Academy for an online crypto course. Here is the blurb on its website:
Capitalize on the exciting and volatile crypto market by learning expert trading strategies that apply to cryptocurrencies, tokens, and commodities.
Lifetime access to the course costs $199. Enrolling will give you access to more than 70 lessons. According to King, you'll maximize learning as these have videos, exercises, and interactive content.
There are key lessons in practical skills like opening a wallet, transferring assets, and choosing a trading platform. You'll learn all these on top of King's strategies.
The editor also promises "detailed steps on how to capitalize on crypto’s volatility." As for the website, it has what it calls an "Investopedia Guarantee."
Take note that the team labels the course as suitable for intermediate crypto traders. If you have zero idea about the topic, it might be best to pass on this one.
According to the description, it's for those who want to "move beyond the basics." As per the website, enrollees will "develop real crypto trading strategies" as King will guide you every step of the way.
The instructor says you'll know more about the big players like Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple, and the like. More than that, though, the course will cover altcoins. These are over 1500 small coins that could give you great yield for your investment.
For us, if it truly delivers, King's course looks promising. There are already too many overhyped schemes out there. All of them promise groundbreaking information to get the moon, stars, and the sun.
But Investopedia Academy says its focus is on developing actual skills for everyday traders. This is what's supposed to make you actual money.
Through the collaboration, the experts will teach you how to:
Decipher varied applications of the blockchain within the retail and financial sector
Leverage technical analysis to spot short- and long-term crypto trends, and mitigate market volatility and risk
Develop entry and exit strategies and plans to stick with them, despite large intraday swings
Trade on various crypto exchanges, with real-time charting
Investopedia is a credible resource, as far as we know. So we hope the service indeed delivers. If any of you have tried King's crypto class, let us know what you think below.
Feedback
As King, his services, and teasers are popular, we have featured many of these already.
Newsletters
We have written a review of his banner service, Strategic Fortunes. Supposedly, the newsletter will tell you which tech companies to invest in before they experience a breakthrough.
One of the first things we noticed then was an editing issue with the publicity materials used. The visual artists must have forgotten to double-check their visuals.
Despite advertising the service as Strategic Fortunes, you could still see what the previous name was. Some may say this is a small editing issue. We agree that it is.
If the service indeed delivers on its promises, who would care about confusing visuals, right?
However, it can also reflect badly on the newsletter. If the people behind it cannot be bothered to proofread, what does that say about King and his team?
There's a saying that those who can be trusted with the small things can be trusted with the big things. So does that apply to this confusing editing error? What do you think?
Moving on, we said in our review then that it was affordable. We also commended how frequent the alerts are once you subscribe.
However, we also noted how there was little effort to explain King's process at that time. It would have been better if we knew how he looks at the tech companies he recommends.
It looks like the recent description of the service has more juice.
Stock Gumshoe's review page indicates the service may not be that good. Or at least this is the case from the 19 votes by the time we publish this article. Strategic Fortunes only has 2.9/5 stars.
There's only one comment there as of this writing. "Rick" said this about the newsletter:
Ian King's picks have been horrible!
I have followed his picks for 3 years. His performance was so bad, that he has had to take down his trade history except for his top ten winners.
He used to post all results until recently after having many, many 50- 90 % losers.
Aside from Strategic Fortunes, we also reviewed New Era Fortunes. Looking at the current lineup, King does not seem to offer this anymore.
Still, it's worth looking at. The service was an expensive one. At $1,995 per year, it focuses on small-cap companies. Most people define these as those that have capitalization between $300 million to $2 billion.
In his service, King will let you know which companies will be the next Apple or Netflix. In fact, he says he has a five-step process for this.
According to the editor, he uses a system to know which opportunities are legit:
- Identify tipping-point trends that are on the verge of a big breakthrough.
- Invest in small-cap tech stocks that will be the next giant superstars like Waze, Twitter, and Uber.
- Look for companies that have the “X-factor”. These are the ones underpriced by investors.
- Identify companies that have momentum. Their sales must be increasing by 20% every year.
- Know when the right timing is.
What we appreciate about this newsletter is that it shows you his system. Unlike Strategic Fortunes, you know why King would suggest what he does.
What don't we appreciate about New Era Fortunes? How it overpromises. King says he guarantees a 1,000% gain on your investments.
Even if this promise has pages of fine-print disclaimers, it's still outrageous. For those who do not know better, it's a path to disappointment, for sure.
Another red flag is the supposed money-back guarantee. We've gotten feedback that the service did not honor what it promised subscribers.
As for Extreme Fortunes, around 380 readers of Stock Gumshoe merely gave it 2.7 out of 5 stars.
According to user "David Murphy," the newsletter is a "total pump and dump operation." The commenter said the supposed winners are only there to "attract fee-paying clients."
However, they do not deliver the results. Moreover, the disappointed subscriber adds this important note:
I honestly don’t know how they avoided regulatory scrutiny, given some of the representations they make.
Here are the other comments from subscribers:
I have used his recommendations along with his newest Pumper Ian and I am losing significant money on his Pot Picks. - "EF BetrayedMe"
I have access to all subscriptions from Banyan Hill and honestly, the majority of them are just garbage. - "EF Trader"
Extreme Fortunes is worthless. The advertising is completely fraudulent. There have been no 1000% stocks, There never will be any 1000% stocks. Banyan Hill is only good at advertising. - "ljlindsey"
This is the risk King and Banyan Hill make when they make wild claims on returns. Since they tend to promise the sun, moon, and stars, subscribers have high expectations.
This is true most especially when they paid thousands for a service.
But again, as we always say, the comments and reviews are merely a portion of the big picture. Some do not express what they think about King and his newsletters.
In fact, most people generally leave comments when they are upset over something. So we cannot say 100% that this is what you'll experience as well.
But we do tell you these so you can temper your expectations. In these cases, it's always best to get more information. So we encourage you to do your own research as well.
Teasers
Aside from these two services, we also tackled some teasers.
One of these is the supposed AI boosters pitch. Based on King, Silicon Valley has come up with a new form of energy. Called AI energy, the editor claims it can create $40 trillion in wealth in the next ten years.
What a claim, right?
King, a self-proclaimed futurist, says the development could even be bigger than the industrial revolution. In fact, he says AI energy could even replace oil, coal, natural gas, and other sources.
Not backing down, the editor says it "will be the greatest wealth generator in the history of mankind."
Big, big claims, indeed.
Of course, this is a pitch for his new report. Apparently, everything he knows is in "AI Energy — The $40 Trillion Disruptor Bringing Star Power to Earth!"
But to access it, you have to subscribe to his Strategic Fortunes newsletter. Of course.
So to which company is King pertaining? Based on our research, it's most likely Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER). We figured this out based on the clues he gave.
Is there actual merit to the investor's claims? Is 100,000% growth really in play here?
Here is what we said in our AI energy article:
Fusion energy is still years or perhaps decades away from powering our homes. Stocks like Xperi, Chevron, and GE, among others, do have exposure to the industry but don't expect huge gains to materialize anytime soon.
Stock Gumshoe also talked about this specific teaser. Based on its Thinkolator, the company is Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD).
However, the website also admits not all the clues match this company. Regardless, what is its perception of King's claims?
Gumshoe's Johnson admits there is potential in nuclear fusion. However, it appears like it will develop in the distant future, say 10 to 20 years from now.
These differences in "guesses" are normal. Obviously, the editor gives very broad clues, and there are millions of ways to read them.
Aside from the AI booster, we also wrote about his “Fourth Divergence” Microchip Stock. In his usual style, King says there you could get 1,000% gains with this one.
The report where he talks about the development is called "The Fourth Convergence: America’s Next 1,000% Wave."
If you want to access it, prepare to pay almost $3k. This is the annual fee for his Extreme Fortunes service. Pretty expensive. But if it is worth it, it's not a bad deal, right? Imagine the ROI, if true.
So what did we find out?
The microchip stock leading the fourth convergence revolution seems to be Axcelis Technologies (Nasdaq: ACLS). Based on our assessment, there's potential here.
The company he is highlighting is legit and seems poised for success. But should you believe the thousand-percent gains? We think the futurist is too optimistic here.
In this case, Stock Gumshoe's Johnson thinks it's the same company. Also, the article looked at the numbers:
In so many words, Stock Gumshoe also sees a great future for Axcelis Technologies.
User "trendzz" gave this comment on the article:
ACLS may well be the stock mentioned. I get one of Ian’s publications (not at $2,995 per year!!), and he is also very bullish on MCHP (Microchip Technology), another semiconductor play. They both look pretty good and MCHP more affordable.
You see, King does have interesting things to say. He has been around long enough to have a working knowledge of the investing industry.
However, we caution readers not to buy into his hyperbolic claims easily. Do your own research, examine your risk strategy, and think hard before diving into anything.
To help our readers keep track, we have a running list of King's teasers. Read our compilation, bookmark it, and share the article. This way, you're always updated on the editor's stock picks.
Pros v Cons
Pros
- King has decades of experience, and it shows in the quality of the companies he recommends.
- You can choose a service based on your purchasing power. He has entry-level newsletters as well as expensive services.
- The collaboration with Investopedia adds to his credibility.
Cons
- The editor tends to use exaggerated claims of returns. This style may be effective in getting him clicks. But it may turn off potential subscribers as some may appear as scams.
- Many subscribers passionately hated King's services, especially the expensive Extreme Fortunes.
Conclusion -- Investing or Scam King?
At the beginning of the article, we asked if Ian King is indeed a scam or a legit guru.
In assessing what the answer is, we looked at many aspects of the man. Our article looked at his background, from working at the Salomon Brothers Mortgage Trading Desk to Banyan Hill.
We also checked what he did in between. Based on his years of experience, King appears like a finance veteran. He has indeed been around, with no major career controversy.
As for his services, we talked about Strategic Fortunes, Next Wave Crypto Fortunes, True Momentum, and Extreme Fortunes. Aside from these, we also gave you important details about his Investopedia Academy course.
More importantly, we shared with you what actual people think about his services. The comments and reviews have mostly been negative. However, these only tell part of the whole story.
In the end, you can assess what you think about these comments and his services. We write about them so you can get as much information about him as you can. We tell you the good and the bad, to be fair.
In fact, the teasers we mentioned here seem promising. But King tends to inflate their growth prospects. This can be misleading and can lead to disappointments.
Still, the decision is yours to make. Based on everything we discussed, what do you think? Is Ian King a scam or is he the real deal?
I heard Ian partnered with some Chinese Singapore firm called “Bitoptiver” and along with his assistant SJYLAR BEAN , he is doing scams by not allowing people to withdraw money and asking for additional money.