Is Nomi Prins a Fraud? – Her Iffy Reputation as Journalist, Writer and Stock-Picker

Anybody interested in Investment Advisory Services will find pictures of Nomi Prins plastered all over the internet. The featured image above can give you an idea about how bad it is.

Very few people have been "Everything, everywhere, all at once" more than her. An exercise of self-promotion and hype that borders the bizarre. 

That’s probably one of the reasons why we find negative articles about her.

And adverse reactions from readers, followers, and clients who feel betrayed, mostly by unending and obsessive up-selling, lousy customer service, and problems with her guarantees.

All of these seem designed to confuse the customers, thus making them invest too much of their money in services that are not worth it.

Therefore, if you are curious on whether Nomi Prins is a fraud, you will find your answer in this Profile Review: Is Nomi Prins a Fraud? Her Iffy Reputation as Journalist, Writer and Stock-Picker.

For someone who jibber-jabbers 'til the cows come home, she has never published a comprehensive and chronological CV, and doesn't speak too much about her private life.  She said somewhere, she is a private person who does not write or speak about her parents, siblings, marital status, or children. 

How does she deliver or perform? It is entirely possible that she is legit and looks good as an economist and/or investigative journalist. What about Nomi as a writer and investment advisor? I back up all information with facts as far as possible. 

I will look at performance with eagle-eyes and in detail, and avoid subjectivities and personal bias.

At the end of this piece, you'll have a better view and more criteria to decide if:

• you want to follow her as an economic journalist/investigative reporter. 
• you want to read any of her books.
• you want to buy any of the Investment Advisory Services she offers.

Keep walking.

WHAT DOES NOMI PRINS OFFER ?

BOOKS 

Let's delve into Nomi's stint as a writer.

The ratings are very good (equivalent to four and a half stars).  This is why I provide some excerpts of favorable and unfavorable reviews:

2006. Rating 4.4/5 by Amazon

2009. Rating 4.6/5 by Amazon

“Those who made off with hundreds of billions of tax dollars were virtually all Democrats. Takes a solid left turn after a brief intro of objectivity." 

“Good on detail, bad in style. Grating quirkiness of a gossipy NY socialite who´s had a few too many drinks at a cocktail party. Flippancy of writing detracts from the seriousness of the subject. Poorly written.” 

2011. Rating 4.1/5 by Amazon

2014. Rating 4.5/5 by Amazon

Everybody knows that Presidents have always been chummy with the big bankers. So, nothing new in this side of the road.          

 2018. Rated 4,6/5 by Amazon

“Dull – boring – repetitive.”

“Too much detail, never brought back to a central point”  (the one mentioned below – my note) 

"Author-informed collusion without substantiating anything more than collaboration."

 2022 Rated 4,5/5 by Amazon           

What Nomi calls the "great"distortion is the disconnect between the bankers/financial markets/rich men’s economy,  and the "Real Economy" of the every-day citizen who only gets the spoils below the table.

Nothing disruptive here. The divide between rich and poor has been an issue for eons. 

Are the books best-selling?

Next, to the buzzword “bestseller”: I pulled up an “Amazon Book Sales Calculator”, which estimates monthly sales for all six books and claims accuracy. 

Drum rolls for…292 books per month! You must sell between 3500 to 5000 copies in order to be considered a best-seller. 

Here's the press, stroking her hair.

Formats and cost

Amazon offers the books as Audiobooks which come with the written text to download. 

So, you could immediately listen to or read the first book and the remaining five in the following months five times for $13,45. The books are thick, the listening long, so, cheers!

For those who are ready to learn about the intricacies, players and "powers that be" in the financial markets, these are instructive and informative readings and the public value them.

ADVISORY SERVICES

Early Beginnings

Dylan of Affiliate Doctor claims that Nomi worked for The Agora (Bill Bonner), infamous in the investment advisory space. The image above proves he is right about that.

I asked Google "Who owns Rogue Economics" and was taken to this webpage https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rogue-economics.

Under "about" at RogueEconomics, Crunchbase shows Rogue's website to be this one:  https://www.bonnerandpartners.com. Click that link and you will be taken straight to www.rogueconomics.com.

Hmm. You can't get more Bill Bonner/The Agora than that. 

Want to know more about the guy and his empire? Check what our editor has said here.  

Back to Nomi.

In her beginnings as an investment advisor, she ran an expensive service under the name of the publisher Paradigm Press called 25 Cent Trader, with options trade alerts. It underperformed and was  under-reviewed (2,6/6 star rating) by Stock Gumshoe (263 votes): 

“When you receive the email/text advice, even with lightning reaction time, your probability to buy at the directed price point is slim – if any. At times, the price has already skyrocketed above the sale price point. You’re participating in a high risk environment with little up side. Oh, no refunds either. My recommendation – Don’t subscribe “.

The first entry about this was in 2018.

Hmmm. First bell and losing. Already?

Rogue Economic’s Distortion Report (monthly) Newsletter

In late 2021, she became editor at Rogue Economics. Having flunked with 25 Cents, what made Nomi think she was prepared to give it another go?

Beats me.

Affiliate Doctor’s owner and editor Dylan recently published two articles:

• Rogue Economics Review: Scam or legit Products? of Jan. 9, 2023, updated in March 2023.
• Distortion Report Review of March 2023.

They are excellent and complement each other and I will talk about his most interesting findings below. I have followed Dylan for some time now, and he is a diligent and serious guy. In short, he already did great research on Nomi, much of which I have been able to confirm with my own sleuthing. I owe him for that. 

Some of Nomi's brilliant recommendations

Number One: “The # 1 stock for America´s Great Distortion” is Charge Point (CHP), one of the largest US companies manufacturing Charge Stations for EVs.

Boooooh!

Number Two: “A Fintech company, the bank of the future, which could become one of America´s first government-accepted stable coin networks. The virtually unknown firm transforming the 11 TR financial industry in the next 12 months”. 

Well, this is Silvergate Capital (SI). A bank founded in 2013, with Coinbase as an important shareholder. Nomi promoted it at the same time she pitched Charge Point. 

You all know what happened with that bank. 

Booh, Booh and Booh. That was awful. And to make matters worse, Nomi advised to sell when  the stock had lost most of its value. 

The Portfolio and its Performance

This is from Dylan’s Jan. 9. 2023 review. There are  four different categories.

• Transformative Tech: Three stocks. All down (-12,4 to – 47,5 percent). 
• Infrastructure: Five stocks.Two losing (- 9,3 to  - 34,3 percent). Three gainers, biggest + 11 percent). 
• New Energy: Eight stocks. Two are Charge Point and ESS Tech, already de-teased. Four winners (+ 6,9 to + 17,5 percent) far outweighed by the four losers (- 16,3 to -53,8 percent). 
• New Money: 3 stocks. One is Block/Square, up 11,7 percent. Two down (- 1,8 and – 56,8 percent).  

Oh, bummer.

Tim McKinlay from Affiliate UNguru holds that the date of the launch has not helped Nomi, and in the longer term, things might look better.

On the contrary, Dylan feels that we should not give Nomi that benefit of the doubt. I rather agree with him. Nomi swears she wants to help the small, everyday investors. But, they cannot wait for the trades to play out in the long term. They need results pronto. She simply doesn't deliver.

Subscription Process

Dylan, and Tim McKinlay of Affiliate UNguru, both subscribed to Distortion Report. This is what they say:

Signing up was horrible

You are sent through a series of upsells (some under $100 and others several thousand dollars) that are extremely aggressive and confusing and make you wish you had never signed up in the first place (7 in total).

An infuriating process. They try to convince you to become a lifetime member of Distortion Report ($ 299, renewal “maintenance fees” $ 24). If you upgrade later, you will not get a refund for the first order and will not get another 60 days money-back guarantee!

Confusing on purpose. The people running the show appear only to want to squeeze every penny they can out of you. The sign-up process proves this.

The refund policy is bad, and there is a continuous history of complaints. 

Ratings and complaints

Dylan believes that Eoin Treacy, who runs the Rogue Portfolio, does not have the best reputation. He previously worked for a newsletter called Frontier Tech Investor for the publisher Southbank Investment Research, which did not do well. All his stocks lost 50 percent. 

So, are Nomi and her buddies legit? For Dylan and myself: The only thing that matters is if they pick good stocks and if they're serious honoring refunds and such.

Read on. I have the juice to claim that she is, at best, devious.

Inside Rogue Economics 

Better Business Bureau had this on its website.

Distortion Money Matrix,  A lot like the options alert service 25 Cent Trader. The complaints in BBB shows you why you might not want to knock on that door. They all smack you in the face as scam. Keep going.

Rogue Strategic Trader has John Pangere as the guru: he dropped the following:

Buy warrants in Lion Electric! go here just in case you've forgotten how that went.

Another pick already de-teased by Stock Gumshoe's Travis Johnson a few days back: “The next Exxon” - Small Modular Reactors: NuScale Power Corporation. I love his sub-headline: 

Prinz sez: "The Tiny ‘Pebble’ Inside My Briefcase Can... Deliver Permanent Energy Independence to America."

Travis’s reaction to this proposal is lukewarm because it's a very long-term bet in the best scenario.

Here is what a Stock Gumshoe's reader has to say on this:

This is how they feel:

The only service with a 60-day money-back guarantee (no questions asked) is the cheapest, —$49 for the first year.  

WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW?

Again I channel Dylan:

There is zero proof of her resumé being real.

Rogue Economics is another MarketWise Publisher, and "successor" of Agora, with its unsavory reputations. You can read more in Dylan's publication to which you can link at the end of this article.

He likes Nomi’s work outside of stock picks and says that some of her books are very good.

But stock picking does not seem to work out for her and he says this about her services:

Therefore, nothing to like here. Do not buy any of Rogue Economic’s products.

Boom!

Just in case you want to go deeper into Nomi Prins' and her "distortion revolution," here are the links to the above mentioned reports:

From Dylan/Affiliate Doctor. And another one

Our own research at Green Bull, here.

Stock Gumshoes, here

And finally from Affliliate UNguru, here

SUMMING UP

Regarding Nomi’s CV, academic and professional background, there is no doubt she's a public person, a speaker, an author of well liked books that have done reasonably well. Readers like her content.

She has a Wikipedia page and is on LinkedIn and other social networks with many followers; Therefore, we do not have reason to doubt her credentials. As I said in the intro, she is everywhere.

Now,  her expensive upgrade services: Why should you subscribe to any of them, if her flagship entry-level service is not performing well?

What counts is the quality of the recommendations and stock picks, meaning results. There's a consensus about their crappy quality.

Nomi has made a name for herself, at least in the media, advocating for the less rich. Watch this video for a peek into her world. 

She lectures on a regular basis about what the bankers at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and now Credit Suisse, screwed up.

But, all that talk about corruption in the banking world just doesn't add up when you read what her clients think about her advisory services. 

Nomi is:

Arrogant and suffers from lack of empathy. One that she calls out Wall Street et al for. What happened to all the folks that lost their shirts after 2008 and last year? Does she think she helps with, let's say, her Distortion Money Report?

Nope. 

She was "there"when it was all happening. She had the means to call the system out. Warn everybody. She had the platform at the snap of her fingers.

Why did she pitch for Silvergate and, months after it went belly-up, just kept mum about such a blunder? Do you think she didn't see it coming?

At the time of this writing (March 28, 2023) she rants against the banking system. Just after throwing (March 23, 2023) an I told-you-so with her post on Inside Wall Street "How the Federal Reserve broke the banks".

Sweet!

To use her favorite word, I find a distortion between her background as a banker, her work as an investigative journalist, and her public and political opinions, all on one side –and her advice to her investor-clients on the other side. 

A king-sized distortion.

Because, has she done anything to correct The divide? Nope. At least I didn't find anything to substantiate that her actions were making a difference.

Her solution is to have her clients do as her usual suspects do. In the end, she's just like one of them. Her usual suspects get richer. Her clients don't and will never do, if they follow her pitches.

It doesn't look like she is a bit concerned. 

Defending people and then not honoring refunds from the same people she claims to defend is an act of sheer folly. 

Again, not concerned.

She doesn't walk the talk and one should never trust someone who doesn't lead by example.

And, last but not least, why, oh why, if she is so pristine, does she associate with an entity that by all means, isn't? 

I rest my case.

You can draw your own conclusions now. I would love to read your take on this, so feel free to leave any comments below.

And here ends my Profile review on "Is Nomi Prins a Fraud? Her Iffy Reputation as Journalist, Public Speaker and Stock-Picker"