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What is Profit.ly – Legitimate Social Platform for Traders or a Scam?

By December 29, 2016June 29th, 202118 Comments

What is Profit.ly? Become a Better Trader:

Profit.ly is a platform for traders to optimize their trading results through statistical measurements and data. The idea came from multi-millionaire stock trader and teacher, Timothy Sykes, who wanted his students to be able to pinpoint what works best for them, and as a result of that analysis, make them more profitable in the stock market.

What-is-Profitly

Members have the ability to upload verified trades directly from their brokerage accounts, track profits and other statistics, leave pre-trade & post-trade comments, get on leaderboards, follow other traders, interact with members, and analyze everyone else’s results. So not only can you evaluate your own trading results to focus on what’s working best for you, but potentially develop new skills and approaches from other successful traders within the community as well.

Is Profit.ly a Scam?

Of course nothing in the financial world comes without controversy –  and Profit.ly is no exception. Supporters see it as an extremely valuable platform for analyzing trades and staying transparent, but critics claim that the trade verification process is flawed and the platform as a whole is merely a sales funnel for Tim Sykes and other newsletter operators to sell their educational products and services.  In my personal opinion,  it’s an overall valiant attempt at bringing transparency and accountability into the trading world, even if a small group of traders attempt to “game” the system. For the most part, people have 1 of the 2 viewpoints listed below:

Option 1: Profit.ly is a Trading Community Focused on Transparency and Results.

Are you tired of the self-proclaimed gurus on Twitter touting their massive trading profits without any substantial proof to back it up? These types of questionable track records are exactly what the Profit.ly platform seeks to eliminate. If you’re confident in your abilities and brave enough to show your trades, Profit.ly allows you to verify them through direct brokerage imports. And when you’re seeing great results, there’s nothing better than being able to analyze how exactly you’re achieving that success so that the trend can continue in a favorable direction.

Profitly-Dashboard

Option 2: Profit.ly is a Marketing Funnel For Tim Sykes and Other Newsletter Operators.

Yes, there are educational stock trading products and services being offered by Tim Sykes and other traders within the community for individuals looking for some guidance. But is it so bad to share a proven track record with potential clients? Profit.ly is a platform where members can go back and see every trade a particular trader has made, review their thoughts before and after placing those trades, and truly see if someone else’s approach lines up with what they aspire to achieve in the market themselves. In the end, educational services are available for those interested in expert support, but not required.

Profitly Guru Content

Timothy shows ALL of his trades, has uploaded past audits and tax returns. He is the reason Profit.ly exists and he exemplifies the kind of brutal honesty and transparency to which all traders should aspire.

Advantages (Pros) of Profit.ly:

  • Houses my #1 rated premium day trading course created by legendary day trader, Tim Grittani – Trading Tickers 2
  • Analyze your own trades through detailed performance data (total trades, winning %, average gain/loss, and much more)
  • See how your personal trading results compare to others within the community and potentially rank on various leaderboards
  • Follow other successful traders, pinpoint what works best for them, and try to implement effective strategies from it
  • Research traders who are selling some sort of product or service and audit their trading history in order to validate their claims
  • Weed out the liars and fraudsters in order to find the real, legitimate traders and investors within an industry full of scams

Disadvantages (Cons) of Profit.ly:

  • Trading performance data cannot be 100% trusted – a handful of users have been caught gaming the verification system
  • Skeptics view it solely as a marketing funnel for Tim Sykes and other stock trading educators to sell products and services
  • While the ultimate goal is full transparency, there are still traders within the platform lying about their performance history
  • Tim Sykes is the owner and has a lot of critics for one reason or another, which makes it difficult to sort out fact and fiction
  • Might be better off if it required every member to use the Broker Connect feature, but at the moment it’s optional

Top 2 Featured Profit.ly Gurus Providing Educational Products and Services:

Timothy Sykes:

Profitly Tim Sykes

  • Educational Newsletters: Tim Alerts, Penny Stocking Silver, and Tim’s Challenge
  • Turned $12,000 into millions
  • Featured on CNN, CNBC, FOX, CBS, etc.
  • Creator of Investimonials & StocksToTrade
  • Multiple millionaire students, including Tim Grittani & Michael Goode
  • Follow on Twitter: @TimothySykes

Paul Scolardi (aka Superman):

Profitly Paul Scolardi

  • Educational Newsletters: Superman Alerts and Superman Pro
  • Widely known as the “Superman of Stocks” on Twitter
  • Former Certified Public Accountant with over 15 years of experience on Wall Street
  • CEO of Super Trades LLC: Super-Trades.com
  • Focus on small and mid cap swing trading
  • Follow on Twitter: @Super_Trades

My Personal Take – Profit.ly is Not a Scam, But the Platform Has a Few Flaws:

If traders were simply honest about their performance in the stock market, then Profit.ly wouldn’t exist. And for that simple reason, I fully support the idea of cleaning up an unreliable industry. The objective of Profit.ly as a whole is respectable, even if a few bad eggs still try to game the system. Fortunately, those who use the Broker Connect feature to import their trades into the Profit.ly database receive a “check mark” icon as verification. Questionable trades can also be voted down by members, so the community is self-policing in that way. So while anyone can post a trade manually and claim that it’s real, only the ones with check marks are truly verified.

MeasurementAnalysisTransparencyAccountability = Become a Better Trader at Profit.ly

In all honesty, it’s irresponsible for traders to hide their own losses or try to cover them up because it’s no secret that every single trader on earth loses from time to time – it’s just the reality of trading. And most importantly, there’s usually valuable lessons to be learned from losing trades that can help you avoid similar situations in the future – you’re doing yourself a disservice by sweeping them under the rug . Overall, Profit.ly isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean there’s no value being provided within the platform. If more traders were honest with themselves and others, it’d be even more effective and educational as it already is. Hopefully others will do their part in demanding full transparency in the financial industry as well.

Written by Matt Thomas (@MattThomasTP)

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18 Comments

  • Kevin Ameral says:

    Your Full of “Super Shite”…….and probably a paid “Co-Conspirator” of Scolardi or Sykes. In my opinion they will eventually be in deep doo doo with the SEC on manipulation of securities. I put in massive hours with these two rats. Their videos, by-gone “Gurus” packages, “challenges”, etc, etc…believing in them and throwing away 6-7k plus the money I invested… I/we {past victims), are currently establishing a class action and are in the process of multiple complaints filed with the SEC, especially in “Super-Idiots” manipulation of low float stocks. Skrelli is longing for cell mates!! Anyone who feels victimized my e-mail below is available. Let us hear your complaint!……………. kdameral@aol.com

    • Matt Thomas says:

      Hi Kevin – I have no ties to those guys, but thanks for sharing your thoughts on their services. I can’t personally speak on the programs they offer since I haven’t used them, but what I can say is that I like the concept of Profit.ly at least as a personal trading journal, if nothing else. You can track your own trades and see which ones work best (long vs. short), winning percentage, average gain/loss, etc. This is extremely valuable information for analyzing individual performance. You can even post notes on each individual trade you make for reference in the future. In addition to that, you can interact with other traders, see their results, view their watch lists, read blog posts, view uploaded videos, etc. This can all be beneficial information (assuming users are genuine about their trading knowledge and results). Overall, I think it has great potential as a social trading platform, but unfortunately there have been complaints of some users trying to “game” the system for their own personal gain. Just how prevalent that is, I don’t know for sure.

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