Larry Benedict says we can make 22x more money from Bitcoin than regular investors…without buying any Bitcoin at all!?
It's only possible thanks to an innovative three-step strategy Larry calls “Bitcoin Skimming,” and we're revealing if it's legit.
The Teaser
No matter what the market, the Fed, or the dollar does, this strategy pays!
This is how ‘interviewer' Kim Moening sets up Larry's introduction.
According to the Opportunistic Trader website, Larry used to run a hedge fund that went 20 years without a single losing year bet between 1990-2010.
However, there is some conflicting info online about the dates and performance of the fund.
We have a taste of what Larry's all about from some of his previous newsletter teasers that we have reviewed here, including his Trump Trigger Stocks and “One-Ticker Retirement Plan.”
Larry's first foray into the wild world of crypto came in 2017 when he turned down a shot to buy Bitcoin when it was trading for only $800.
He's been regretting it for the last eight years, but now, he's found a way to trade the most famous cryptocurrency in the world within a regulated investment account, and make more money than buying and holding the real thing.
This is only possible thanks to a landmark Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) decision, Bitcoin's growing trading volume, and some financial creativity.
Paving the Way for Profits
In a rare win, the SEC approved spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) for listing in January 2024.
This in turn has taken Bitcoin trading volume to new heights.
A boon for short term traders and speculators, as volume spurs more rallies and pull-backs, which are generally the best times to put on trades. This is what originated the term “the trend is your friend.”
The financial creativity part is where Larry's “Bitcoin Skimming” strategy comes in.
He's developed an easy-to-follow, three-step strategy that he claims has notched an 80% win-rate during it's 18 months of backtesting, and he's letting us in on it.
The Pitch
The full details of Larry's “Bitcoin Skimming” strategy and trade ideas have been assembled in a report called The Bitcoin Skimming Blueprint.
It's exclusively available to subscribers of the One Ticker Trader service, which picks a single stock or trading theme each month.
A one-year membership usually costs $499, but this has been lowered to $99 for a limited time, with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
The Three-step “Bitcoin Skimming” Strategy
Bitcoin Skimming is the evolution of Larry's trading strategy.
Midway through the nearly hour-long video presentation, Larry admits:
The bulk of my success has come from trading ETFs
Now, he's combining what he knows best with the power of Bitcoin by following a simple three-step strategy.
It starts with confirming the trend.
The best way to know whether the price of Bitcoin is headed up or down is with one of Larry's 19 “Skim Signals,” the confirmation cross.
It's called a confirmation cross because once the blue line that tracks Bitcoin's current price crosses with the red line that is Bitcoin's price trend, it confirms an overall direction, and more importantly, a trading opportunity.
The second step is buying options on a listed Bitcoin ETF or other Bitcoin adjacent asset like Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR) to maximize our gains (or losses).
This has the effect of turning a 1%, 5% or 10% move in the price of Bitcoin into a 25%, 50% or 100% swing, in either direction.
If the price of Bitcoin is going up, then a call option is purchased. If Bitcoin is trending down, a put option is used.
It's a bold move that requires ice water in the veins to execute.
The last step is selling your options and taking your skim.
Everything takes a few minutes to execute and a trade is typically opened and closed the same day.
Larry's One Ticker Trader service will even send out trade alerts that include the option ticker and buy/sell prices, basically automating the process.
It all sounds simple enough, but the truth is always in the D&D, the disclosures and details page.
Make 22x Your Money?
Larry first went live with the details on a new trading strategy he’d been developing in late 2023.
This is what we have come to know as “Bitcoin Skimming.”
The goal, to find a way to profit from Bitcoin without the risk of fraud or crypto volatility.
If the 80% backtest win-rate claim made in the presentation is true, then Larry may have hit pay-dirt.
However, the online reviews I was able to find are a mixed bag and Opportunistic Trader's own disclosures page has some discrepancies.
For example, some gains, like this one:
$4,898 – 97.96% gain on $5,000, MARA Put. Strike 50. Expiration 12/17/2021. Open Date 11/1/2021. Close Date 12/3/2023
Show that trades were held much longer than a day. In fact, most seem to be dated longer than a week.
This may increase your chances to profit, letting your winners run and cutting losses short, and all, but the overnight gap risks are also greater.
Another telling sign is that Larry has aggressively been promoting Bitcoin Skimming through various investment newsletter publishers over the past few years, the most recent being this presentation.
If the live win-rate was anything like the backtest rate, word would travel fast and less promotion would be needed.
The 22x number refers to the compounded rate of all winning trades made during the backtest period.
In light of the lack of hard, verifiable facts, we always refrain back to the median. According to the most recent statistics from FINRA, 72% of day traders ended 2024 with financial losses.
But it's not all negative.
Day traders account for about 12% of the market's daily trading activity. So, if nothing else, they are providing liquidity for the rest of us.
In all seriousness, without full transparency, like publishing a live win-rate since the strategy's inception, I would be hesitant to be a guinea pig for Larry's Bitcoin Skimming system.
Instead, if you are really passionate about watching squiggly lines on a computer screen, I would start with studying the basics of how the market works and how the most successful investors made their money.
If you do that, you probably won't want to day trade anymore.
Quick Recap & Conclusion
- Long-time trader Larry Benedict is teasing an innovative three-step strategy he calls “Bitcoin Skimming,” and we're revealing if its legit.
- We learn that “Bitcoin Skimming” is a three-step strategy consisting of confirming the Bitcoin price trend, buying options on a listed Bitcoin ETF or other Bitcoin adjacent asset, and selling your options and taking your skim.
- If we subscribe to the Opportunistic Trader's One Ticker Trader service, we will get access to a report called The Bitcoin Skimming Blueprint and live trade alerts. This costs $99 upfront for the first year and comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
- Larry claims a 80% win-rate over the strategy's 18-month backtest, but no live trading results have been published yet for 2024.
- Without full transparency, like publishing a live win-rate since the strategy's inception and the median trade gain/loss, we cannot recommend Larry's Bitcoin Skimming system.
Have you tried Bitcoin Skimming? Tell us about your experience in the comments.