Investors Underground Review: Is It Worth the High Cost?
By: Bob Haegele | March 31, 2020 |
In a nutshell: Investors Underground is an online community and education platform for day traders.
Founded in 2008, it has become one of the most active day trading communities anywhere online.
Fees | Service Type | Promotion |
---|---|---|
From $297/mo. | Day trading community | Free lessons & tips |
Investors Underground is an online day trading community where day traders can discuss day trading strategy and the latest market trends. Members partake in both day trading and swing tading.
Pros & Cons
PROS
- Transparent approach to trading
- Great value for the price
- Extensive video library
- Free lessons & tips
CONS
- Despite the value, cost can be high for beginners
- Some chat rooms can be inactive at times
Compare to Other Trading Services
LEARN MORE |
Service TypeDay trading community |
FeesFrom $297/month |
PromoFree lessons & tips |
LEARN MORE |
Service TypeSwing trade alerts |
Fees$47/month |
PromoNone |
LEARN MORE |
Service TypeOptions trade alerts |
FeesFree - $167/month |
Promo$7 trial ultra membership |
Full Investors Underground Review
Day trading isn’t exactly easy – especially for newbies just getting started. Fortunately, Investors Underground can help with that very problem.
Having real-time support, extensive training materials, and a nightly stock watch list at your disposal helps ensure you won’t find yourself lost amidst the market noise.
At Investors Underground, you’ll find some of the most well-known and successful stock traders in the world.
They all have a common goal of making better decisions and formulating a better investing strategy.
Is this day trading service right for you? We’ll attempt to answer that question in this Investors Underground review.
What is Investors Underground?
Investors Underground is an online day trading community. It also offers trading chat rooms based on trading style and online courses.
It was first established in 2004 under the name Investors Live by Nathan Michaud. He has been day trading since 2003 and became a full-time day trader in 2007.
In 2008, the site was rebranded as Investors Underground – the start of the site we know today. For a while, the Investors Underground service was available on Profit.ly before later leaving the platform.
Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest and most active day trading communities online. Michaud remains active in the community and continues to give stock trading tips on a daily basis.
As mentioned, Investors Underground primarily focuses on day trading.
What is Day Trading?
Day trading is a short-term trading strategy where traders buys and then sells stocks and other assets, usually all in the same day. These active traders take advantage of price swings in order to turn a profit. |
Michaud is still the owner of IU, but the idea is not for members to simply attempt to emulate his strategy.
Rather, there are a wide variety of investing strategies represented in the group and each member must determine what works best for them.
Most of the daily activity takes place in the Investors Underground trading chat rooms.
There are three main rooms, corresponding to trading strategies: momentum, swing, and crypto/OTC.
Nathan prefers momentum trading, which makes it the centerpiece of Investors Underground.
That said, there are hundreds of active, experienced traders all with their own unique trading styles.
Investors Underground Community & Education
Some day trading communities, such as Timothy Sykes, focus on copying the strategy of a single trader.
That isn’t the case for Investors Underground, which is more of a communal effort with many successful traders helping out. The IU team sends out a nightly stock watch list that helps prepare for market open the next day.
The watch list includes key information, such as ticker and the game plan for the next day of trading.
Beyond that, the site features thousands of training videos to help you get up to speed on how to day trade. Plus, Investors Underground has two in-depth training courses – Textbook Trading and Tandem Trader.
The former is more of an introductory course (although it contains some advanced concepts). Tandem Trader is geared toward those who already understand the basics and want to take their day trading to the next level.
Trading Concepts
There is a fair bit of lingo you’ll have to learn in order to fully understand everything that’s going on at IU. Once you become accustomed to it, everything starts to make a lot more sense.
One of the central concepts is the volume-weighted average price (VWAP). Luckily, the VWAP sounds like it could be complicated, but it really isn’t:
The goal of this formula is to reveal the “true” share price for any given stock.
The ultimate goal is to determine whether traders are overpaying or underpaying, which helps inform trading decisions.
Nathan and the team use technical analyses to inform trading decisions. These may include ABCD charts and short selling parabolic runners.
Other concepts and indicators include relative strength index (RSI), moving average converse divergence (MACD), and Bollinger bands.
As you can see, many different indicators can be used to help determine if a stock is worth buying. The main indicator used is generally VWAP.
Investors Underground Pricing
Let’s get this out of the way: Investors Underground isn’t cheap.
However, given everything you get with your membership, the cost is much more reasonable than it may seem at first glance.
Plus, your monthly cost will be quite a bit lower if you opt for quarterly or yearly billing. The monthly cost is almost 50% lower if you are billed annually.
There was previously a basic membership that did not include access to the video lessons, but that doesn’t appear to be an option anymore.
But with 1,000+ video lessons, it goes without saying that you’re getting a massive amount of information.
We’ll cover some of these features more in-depth later; for now, there is another set of membership options we want to mention.
Again, these prices may seem high at first glance, but if you opt to buy the courses separately, Textbook Trading will cost you $997, while Tandem Trader is $1497.
That means you’re getting $2,500 worth of courses for a fraction of the cost.
We’ll cover more of what you get in each of these courses later in the review.
Investors Underground Features
When you become an Investors Underground member, you gain access to a number of exclusive benefits you won’t find anywhere else.
These features will help you make better trading decisions which is ultimately what makes the membership cost worthwhile.
Let’s go over what some of those features are.
Investors Underground Chat Rooms
Most members, especially those who have been around for a while, will spend most of their time in the chat rooms. This is where you will find your real-time updates tailored to your style of trading.
Each chat room has its own moderators and members. You’ll find many different traders – some experienced, some not so much. And that is the beauty of it.
Each member is learning at their own pace and formulating their own strategies. There is no “right” or “wrong” way; only what works best for you.
Note that no off-topic chatting is allowed during market hours. Doing so repeatedly could get you muted for one hour.
This is done because many traders are monitoring the live trading alerts. If you have off-topic questions during intraday trading, it’s best to wait to ask them during the webinars.
Momentum Trade Chat
The momentum chat room is the most active chat on Investors Underground. Here, you’ll find a huge number of active traders at any given time.
Momentum trading is exactly what it sounds like. The idea is to take advantage of price trends in order to sell stocks that are on the rise.
When those stocks appear to have peaked, traders will sell them.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. That’s why traders are active in the chat all day long to discuss market activity and give trade alerts.
But at you can see in the snippet above, it’s not as simple as “buy X; sell Y.” Instead, traders discuss stock market activity, jargon abound.
That can certainly make it seem intimidating for the newcomer, but it all eventually starts to make sense.
Still, that’s one of the reasons Investors Underground’s courses exist: to help new traders get a head start.
To that end, it helps to do your homework before participating in the chat or asking questions of moderators.
As most of us figure out at some point in our years of schooling, a teacher isn’t much good if the student has no interest in learning.
That said, provided you hold up your end of the bargain, the moderators are very willing to help with any questions you may have.
Swing Trade Chat
Swing trading bears some similarities to momentum trading, but these shares are typically held longer. Instead of buying and selling all within the same day, traders might hold these shares for days or even weeks.
It also has its own head moderator, Michele Koenig. Michele does both swing trading and day trading, but her main specialty is swing trading.
OTC Trade Chat
In the OTC trade chat, you’ll find all kinds of assets being traded that aren’t found on a major exchange. These might be penny stocks, but the room now includes cryptocurrency as well.
This chat tends to be less popular due to the sporadic popularity of some of the OTC market, but it can be active at times.
Trader’s Lounge
The trader’s lounge is another chat room that is more general and not geared toward a specific trading style. As the name implies, you’ll also find some chatting here not related to trading at all.
That is nice to have as it helps build a sense of community.
The other rooms have fairly strict rules about staying on topic. So, if you have general questions throughout the day, this is the place to ask them.
People share their trade ideas in this chat room as well.
You may even see Nathan have a live session where he answers people’s questions. Outside of regular business hours, you’ll find webinars during which you can ask questions (more on that in a bit).
Morning Calls
Another feature members gain access to is morning calls. On these calls, you’ll see Nate go over some of his trading methodology.
You can learn a ton by observing the best in the business. And when it comes to day trading, Nate is certainly one of the best.
During these sessions, Nate will give you his take on the latest trading trades and go through his strategy.
Although everyone trades a little bit differently, there is much to be gained from understanding Nathan trading style.
Trade Recaps
Another feature of Investors Underground are daily trade recaps. These come in video form and can help you understand the trade decisions made throughout the day.
This is especially helpful for new day traders who are still learning. As it can be a lot to track when you’re first starting, going back and watching the daily trade recaps is a great idea.
Members-Only Webinars
Another feature of Investors Underground is its members-only webinars. These webinars happen a few times per month and give traders a chance to have their questions answered.
As the above heading implies, these webinars are only for members. In general, members receive a lot more guidance than those trying to navigate the market on their own.
In addition to Q&A, recent trading activity is also covered on the webinars. There are a few different admins who run the webinars, including Nate, Emil, Alex, and Dante.
Mentorship
Mentorship can be one of the most valuable ways for anyone who is learning a new skill or trade to get started. Day trading is no different.
Because IU has so many traders readily available, there is almost always someone around to help guide you.
The great thing is that you can ask questions of any of the admins throughout the day. That includes Nathan as well as the others.
Investors Underground Courses
One of the best features of Investors Underground is its courses. While there is an additional fee for them, these are not your run-of-the mill courses.
They do some unique things you won’t find anywhere else which makes them a worthwhile investment.
Textbook Trading
Textbook Trading is the foundation for your day trading knowledge. This day trading course is eight hours long and serves as something of an intro to active trading.
However, it also goes beyond just the fundamentals. In addition to the just the basics, you’ll find some more advanced topics covered in the course as well.
As a result, you’ll come out of it not just knowing “day trading 101.” That will prove invaluable due to the fast-paced nature of the chat rooms.
Tandem Trader
Tandem Trader is considered to be the more advanced of the two courses.
Textbook Trading builds the foundation for becoming a day trader, while Tandem Trader uses that knowledge to execute real trades.
More specifically, you’ll find 12 hours of content in this course during which Nathan and Cam walks you their actual day trading processes.
You’ll see their screen as they provide commentary to help guide you through.
The benefit of this course is that it helps you understand how trading actually works. You aren’t just learning concepts and theories anymore; this is where the real magic happens.
It does help to have at least a bit of trading experience before signing up for this course. You may find yourself a bit lost if you are brand new and trying to get through it.
For those who do have some experience, this course is a great way to take your trading to the next level.
Is Investors Underground Right for You?
Investors Underground is undoubtedly one of the premiere services to help you learn the art and the science of day trading.
It certainly isn’t easy; in fact, it can be overwhelming at times. However, IU’s members and admins are there to help demystify the process.
If you are new to trading and aren’t sure if it will be worth it, then it might be best to do some research on your own first and perhaps even place a few trades.
Then, you can dip your toes in by trying it for a month and see how you like it.
Most traders who have tried Investors Underground have found it well worth the cost and it has the community to show it.
After all, why go it alone when you can have a huge community backing you up? At the end of the day, that is the biggest benefit of Investors Underground.