Is Marc Chaikin Legit? We Have All The Details

Background

Marc Chaikin is most famous for developing technical tools and models. Among them are Chaikin Money Flow, Chaikin Oscillator, and the Power Gauge.

The man also set up a company called Bomar Securities LP. Eventually though, this was sold to Instinet Corporation. Later on, he became Instinet's Senior Vice President and Director. 

I am legend

His website also touts him as a "legendary investor" and a "living legend of the markets." In fact, his inventions appear in Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters.

The investor's career spans almost half a decade, implying that he has seen it all. According to the company website, such longevity is proof that he knows what he is talking about.

This makes sense since we could assume that his advice carries wisdom from years of successes and failures. What we need to watch out for is if the titles are accurate and measured or overblown.

Previously, Chaikin was also affiliated with Tucker Anthony & RL Day, a brokerage firm. He served the company as Head of the Options Department during the 1970s.

It's the climb

This was a quick climb of the corporate ladder since he only started as a stockbroker a few years prior.

In 1966, he was not an analyst yet at Shearson, Hammill. The day he finally got his license, it was also the day the bear market ended.

So life was well and good for him at 23 years old. He had a lot of clients and they made money through him.

However, this all changed in 1969 when he experienced a brutal bear market that lasted two years. According to Chaikin, S&P 500 plunged around 35% during the period.

So he learned very valuable lessons because of the ordeal. But we will discuss this later.

After his engagement there, his Wikipedia page says that he traded futures contracts with the New York Board of Trade.

Tools of the trade

Chaikin further claims that his interest in stock indicators became formal in the 1980s. He was already developing stock market indicators to help investors during that time.

The year that he joined Drexel Burnham Lambert, the investor also started hosting a program at the Financial News Network.

In fintech circles, people know him as the creator of the "first real-time analytics workstation." Now part of Thomson Reuters desk, portfolio managers and stock traders use it for guidance.

The comeback

What's particularly interesting about the man is that he already retired in 2000. This, after 35 years on Wall Street. At the time, he believed it was already time for him to rest with his family.

However, something critical happened in 2008. Apparently, due to the inefficiency of a financial consultant, his wife lost a significant amount of money.

This was a big blow to him. If this could happen to his family, it could happen to a lot more people. Since he is a staunch advocate of financial independence, he wondered how others were coping.

So he set up Chaikin Analytics. His goal was not to go back to Wall Street and help the big players earn more money. He wanted to help everyday investors get the best gains possible this time.

Using his knowledge of the trade, he claims his tools are the best way for people to get the best deal out of stocks.

Among the most significant highlights in Chaikin's career is when his firm rang the Nasdaq opening bell in 2018.

It happened because of the success of the IQ Chaikin U.S. Small Cap ETF (CSML) and the IQ Chaikin U.S. Large Cap ETF (CLRG). 

Chaikin's Power Gauge

Marc Chaikin's press releases firmly brand The Power Gauge as the most outstanding secret sauce for regular investors.

It's a technological tool and methodology that claims to understand precisely what the hot money on Wall Street is seeing. It's a hybrid model that weighs 20 factors alongside a top-secret formula.

It will provide you with information that is straightforward to comprehend. It will also display a bullish stock rating in green and a bearish stock rating in red.

Because most people don't have enough time, the system takes care of everything. As a result, you're left with a basic rating based on complicated mathematical methods.

The Power Gauge, according to Chaikin, is a fantastic instrument because it refreshes every night. This implies it takes the latest news and market developments into account.

It can also take into account the thoughts and responses of specialists to current events. According to Chaikin, this will provide you with up-to-date intelligence so you can respond fast.

Furthermore, the Power Gauge contains a weighting system for the 20 criteria that will provide more financial insight to its investors.

Even Stansberry Research, the company's partner, makes a big claim. According to the investing research organization, the Power Gauge is "the most successful stock predictor" in the company's history.

Under the hood

What is the mechanism behind it?

The answer is straightforward. All you have to do is enter the stock symbol into a search engine. The rating will show after one click and will be either bearish, bullish, or neutral.

The Power Gauge takes a more comprehensive approach to stock evaluation than other tools.

There are people who are more concerned with current events. Meanwhile, other firms pay greater attention to their incomes. For others, the most important thing is to keep up with industry trends.

Chaikin Analytics examines all of these factors and more. Its algorithm can predict what Wall Street's smart money considers before investing.

The system looks at 20 factors before arriving at a stock rating. These are divided into four categories: financials, earnings, technicals, and experts.

Under financials, Chaikin examines the debt to equity ratio, price to book value ratio, return on equity, price to sales ratio, and free cash flow analysis.

In earnings, the factors are growth, earnings surprise, trends, projected price/earnings ratio, and earnings consistency.

Meanwhile, the bases for technicals are the strength of an individual stock vs. S&P500, Chaikin Money Flow, Chaikin Trend, the price trend rate of change, and volume trend.

When it comes to experts, the factors are the earnings estimate revision, short interest, insider activity, analyst opinions, and strength of industry group vs. the market.

Perspectives

Beyond fundamentals

Chaikin gives an interesting backstory about how he became interested in using data in his stock market strategies.

According to him, when he started his career in 1966, everything looked great for investors. The bear market has just ended.

So for a few years, everything he touched gave him and his clients profits. He seemed like a competent analyst back then. This was like living the dream for a young finance guy. 

However, he started experiencing a long, extended nightmare by 1969.

Chaikin experienced how terrible a bear market could be. Every day seemed to be a down day, and things did not seem to be going up again soon.

During the two years it lasted, even the S&P 500 plunged by almost 35 percent. It was that bad. In a way, he was traumatized by the experience. Instead of giving up, though, he thought of ways to innovate.

He realized that looking at the fundamentals was not enough. Sure, it's critical to examine what the details of companies are. We need to factor in earnings, prospects, expansions.

However, his experience taught Chaikin that there should be "something else." He says this term would set his services apart from others.

Technical analysis turned out to be that "something else." He says that it's amazing how much you can learn just by studying charts and keeping track of market movements.

The founder adds that some people still consider technical analysis to be like "voodoo." But thorough number analysis has influenced his financial philosophy over the years.

This awakening began my lifelong journey toward creating the Power Gauge. From that point forward, I focused on analyzing the best data I could get my hands on.

In the following years, I built proprietary models using that data. Those models led to a darn fruitful career on Wall Street.

And ultimately, in the wake of the financial crisis, I left retirement with the mission of sharing my quantitative work with “mom and pop” investors.

Do you have one?

In a PowerFeed article, Chaikin declares a point with this title: Pro Investors Do This… Amateurs Don’t.

According to him, what he wants you to get is that investing is not easy. You should be skeptical of people who tell you otherwise. What goes behind financial decisions are complex matters.

But what can give you an edge is having a process. Sure, having the Power Gauge in your arsenal of weapons is advantageous. But you still need to have your own thought process when investing.

Services

Marc Chaikin takes pride in his tools and instruments. For him and his publishing team, these set them apart from other investment research firms.

There are five primary services from Chaikin Analytics. Eventually, the one you would choose to subscribe to would depend on several factors.

What types of investments are you interested in? What is your budget? What's your attitude towards risk? How much is your budget? 

Before providing your email address and subscription fee, make sure you weigh the pros and cons.

Newsletters

The most basic among its services is actually free. All that you need to do is sign up to Power Feed via your email address. Then, you will receive earnings updates and stocks ideas and trends.

Aside from that, you will also know about trending gainers and losers, as well as in-depth industry analysis. The team will also provide sector tracking to give you more information.

Although it is free, we know you are aware of what the implication is here. Expect a steady stream of promotional emails and upsells.

Meanwhile, you may avail yourself of The Power Gauge Report for $49. Central to this newsletter is the Power Gauge, which the publisher is heavily promoting.

The features vary from time to time, but here is a list of what to expect based on the website.

• One free year of access to the Power Pulse system
  

• Four Power Picks for Retirement
  

• Mystery gift ($1,000 value)
  

• The Power Gauge: How to Double Your Money on the Best Stocks
  

• Access to the Power Gauge Report that will be emailed to you monthly
  

• Special updates as needed
  

• Warnings and predictions from Marc Chaikin
  

If you want to know more about the third advisory, you have to call the company. Chaikin provides very little information about it, not even the subscription fee.

When you subscribe to The Power Gauge Investor, the claim is you will receive immediately actionable ideas. One is a particular stock pick that can give you the most profitable gains.

Chaikin will also share a particular portfolio where you can double or triple your money.

Based on the promises alone, it would seem like the publisher is confident of his newsletters. We would note, however, that you should take wild claims with a healthy degree of suspicion.

Copywriters in the investment research field are notorious for occasionally misleading language. To entice subscribers, they promise the moon and the stars.

Unfortunately, it is only when you read the fine print will you learn about the disclaimers. Often, it is already too late, and you would need to engage other parties to get refunds if the publisher doesn't offer any.

We extensively talk about these matters in a previous article on this website. In "Raging Bull Fraud – Are They Outright Scammers?", we examined critical details of the issue. 

Read the article to be better informed about the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations. It's a good primer on what's legal and illegal and what advisory firms can be liable for.

Application

Going back to Chaikin's services, he also offers the use of the app called Power Pulse Premium. Upon typing a stock name, you will see a Bullish, Neutral, or Bearish rating.

The company says it uses 20 factors as bases for rating more than 4,000 stocks in the market. Here is a list of what you can do when you pay $120 per year:

• Personalize the system

• Create your own dashboards within the Power Pulse system where you can monitor your entire portfolio

• Get email alerts on any Power Gauge rating changes

• Create your own lists of stocks and see earnings surprises, changes in Wall Street analyst opinions, and price-performance

• Tweak the system to follow any list of stocks you want

• Get alerts when it’s time to buy or sell

The Ultimate

The most expensive service (unless The Power Gauge Investor is more pricy) that the firm offers is a comprehensive membership program. You may avail of The Chaikin Analytics System for $2,195 per year.

If the system is as good as advertised, it may be worth it. Especially if you consider what features you will get for the price. That's a big if, though, and requires scrutiny.

Based on the website, here are the inclusions:

• Chaikin Analytics Research & Analysis Platform

• Access to the Power Gauge Rating on over 5,000 stocks & ETFs

• Marc Chaikin's Market Insights Newsletter

• Pete Carmasino's Afternoon Insights Newsletter

• Access to the Discovery Engine, Chaikin Stock Screener, Buy/Sell Signals, Customizable Email Alerts, Earnings Insights, Portfolio Health Check, and Power Gauge Reports

• OptionsPlay Functionality

• Members-Only Content & Videos

On refunds

Note that while the other services offer refunds, this one does not. The most that you will get when you choose to unsubscribe are credits for the publisher's other services. 

This arrangement sucks, though, right? Imagine not getting satisfied with the most comprehensive banner service. But what they will do is offer you the other newsletters.

What are the chances of finding them valuable when you were already not impressed with the main offering?

Besides, imagine how many years of subscription you will get since the others only cost $49 and $120. It is a bit absurd. For us, the best deal for the consumer would have to be a cash-back policy.

If the service is that good, what is Chaikin Analytics afraid of? For sure, subscribers would continue subscribing because the service will pay for itself. Wise readers will not let go of something valuable.

Unless...

Oh well, it would not be fair to assume the price isn't worth it that's why they can't just allow subscribers to opt-out. But one can't help but think that because of the policy.

Feedback

Chaikin's press releases cite a plethora of success stories that appear to go on forever. They're supposed to show that the business has a solid track record.

You would know that this is standard with almost all advisory services. Chaikin perfectly follows the same mold and punctuates every point with a claim of success and proof of competence.

However, we won't mention them all because this isn't an advertisement for the company. They would just take up too much space!

However, we will provide you with some so-called evidence of Chaikin's trustworthiness.

Pieces of evidence

When the stock market crashed in March 2020, Power Gauge advised investors to buy Riot Blockchain. Chaikin maintains that at the time, he had little knowledge about cryptocurrency.

However, his algorithm anticipated that it would do well in the coming weeks and months. This, he claims, proved to be correct. He states that the value of Riot Blockchain has increased by 10,090 percent in a year.

The famed investor's system also recommended Nvidia in 2014. According to its website, it's already up as high as 3,200 percent since then.

Chaikin further asserts that in 2020, it referred to electric vehicle maker NIO as proof. It had risen by 884 percent in less than a year.

Meanwhile, two months after the Power Gauge recommended it, Novovax grew by 335 percent.

Apart from the assertions on his website, we couldn't uncover any third-party evidence that this is correct.

Of course, looking back on "success" stories would be easy now. Anyone can just make up data and graphs.

We're not claiming Chaikin tampered with his evidence in this way. However, it would be easy to come to that conclusion without proof indicating that they did, in fact, make those early calls.

We've all seen how competitive investment research firms have gotten. A brief search of third-party review sites reveals that there are scams to be found.

For this reason, we hope the firm would offer strong proof so that more consumers can make informed and intelligent decisions before subscribing.

To be fair to the investor, the company head has indeed created technical tools that have been used by many in the business over the years. That is unquestionably a testament to his abilities.

However, this does not necessarily indicate that his Chaikin Analytics solutions are of high quality.

Comments and reviews

On Stock Gumshoe, the Chaikin review page has a 3.3/5 rating from roughly 70 voters. The comments area, as always, supplies us with helpful information.

Certain commenters praised the Power Gauge as a software product. It is useful in that it is a tool that allows you to double-check your own judgments.

Some users appreciate the way the fundamental and technical analyses are presented.

According to one subscriber, the ideal way to apply the technique is to incorporate it into your entire study.

However, only individuals who can afford several investing research subscriptions will be able to do so. So it's still necessary to do your homework so that if you do decide to pay for a service, it'll be worthwhile.

Here's an example of a complimentary remark:

Moreover, Ernest Fred's remark appears to bolster the founder's reputation as a technician. The primary characteristics of Chaikin's services impressed the commenter.

However, there are some negative remarks as well.

On the critical technological features, Jerry Hardvall is deferring his decision. However, the quality of the newsletter he received did not satisfy his standards.

Another user argued for a fair dose of skepticism. Take a look at the following comment. The final questions he presents make a lot of sense.

These comments are only here to guide you. People would always have varying degrees of satisfaction or dissatisfaction since everyone has different goals. We base our expectations on various factors.

We have put together deeply researched articles on Chaikin as well. Read our take on Chaikin Analytics as a company and The Power Gauge so you can have a better idea of the founder's products and services.

Conclusion - Can He Deliver On His Promises?

So what do you think about the investor and investment research company founder?

Are you impressed with his career and the things that he has accomplished? Do you find his technical tools reliable and credible? Would you say that the rates for his services are reasonable?

With all our discussion, we hope that you already have a solid opinion if Marc Chaikin is legit. Whether you subscribe or not, the important thing is that you can stand by your decision because you know the facts.