I have been a subscriber of Chris Vermeulen's newsletters since March 2021. Like many people, I have subscribed to many different guru's newsletters. Some gurus (especially those in the precious metals space) are perpetual bulls about the precious market space. Even when gold and silver prices started dropping in 2011 and continued dropping for many years, those gurus continued to be bullish on the precious metals space. I had followed their advice and lost a lot of time. Other gurus pride themselves in calling tops and bottoms. I had spent a lot of money on those newsletters, followed their advice, and lost a lot of money. The truth is that no guru can predict the future. As much as I value Chris Vermeulen's insights, he can't predict the future either. What's different about Chris's approach is that his trading strategies do not depend on his ability to accurately predict the future. His CGS strategy takes into account many different sources of data (such as price, volume, cycles, sentiment, how different asset classes move relative to each other) and determines whether a trend is strong enough. If the trend has legs behind it, we jump onboard. When the trend ends, we hop off. In other words, we will never get in at the very bottom, nor will we get out at the very top. We will always be late getting in (once the trend has proven itself to be strong), and we will always be late getting out (once the trend has proven itself to be over). This is how the pros do it. We are not gambling trying to guess where the bottom or the top is. We let the trend prove itself, then jump onboard. Once the trend has proven itself to end, then we hop off. While we don’t make as much money as someone who happens to guess correctly where the absolute bottom and absolute top are, what we gain is consistency. It’s not about trying to hit home runs all the time; if you do, you will strike out a lot. I used to take the home run approach to trading and lost a large portion of my portfolio. Instead, Chris advocates for hitting lots of consistent base runs. We don’t have to make a ton of money on each trade. If we keep our losses minimal (since not every trade works out) and consistently have profits that exceed our losses, our accounts will grow in a consistent, steady manner over time. When I subscribed to Chris’s newsletter in March 2021, I was feeling super bearish on the stock market and I remembered Chris saying "Don’t fight a raging bull market. If prices are going up, we’ve got to be long." I did not follow Chris’s advice. I would make discretionary trades, get in and out based on my gut, and not put in stops or keep moving stops lower as the share price came close to my stop (because I didn’t want to take the loss). I was a very emotional trader and ended up losing a lot of money. Sometimes, it’s the pain of the loss that forces me to be disciplined. I stopped trying to hit home runs. I started follow Chris’s trading strategies that were very rule-bound. There is a set of criteria to get in, and a set of criteria to get out. Whenever we get into a position, we put in the stop price and target price. We sell a predetermined percentage of the position at each target price level, and move our stop up. When the trend changes, we get out. For the first time, I stopped guessing. My portfolio started experiencing steady, consistent growth over time. Not every trade is a winner, but the CGS strategy keeps our losses minimal. Sometimes it’s a 1% loss, and sometimes it’s a 2% loss. The maximum loss throughout its entire history was 5.96%. Being able to consistently grow my portfolio by an average of 14.20% per year is very attractive. Today, I no longer stress out about the market movements. I still get nervous sometimes when there are big market movements, but Chris is there with DAILY videos explaining what is happening in the markets. I find his daily advice to be very calming. When there is massive panic, Chris helps me keep my emotions in check. Chris also offers live mentoring sessions twice a month where subscribers can ask any questions they want, and these mentoring sessions are gold. I watch every one of these sessions and take detailed notes, because Chris explains why each trade is issued, how we should think about the market, and helps everyone become better traders. I am very happy to report that since committing to following Chris’s trading strategies in November 2022, my portfolio has consistently grown by 15.3% without any crazy drawdowns along the way. Today, I no longer try to guess when the stock market is going to crash and try to position myself accordingly based on my guess. If prices keep moving up, Chris’s CGS strategy will be bullish, and I will ride the market up. If prices start to come down, the CGS strategy will allow us to profit on the way down. I hate to say it because it sounds corny, but Chris is the real deal. He has done very well for himself financially and he genuinely cares about helping others. I look forward to subscribing to his service for many more years to come.