The James Altucher Cryptocurrency Experience: What I Got When I Signed Up

Original Quora Question: Who has tried James Altucher’s method for investing in cryptocurrencies? The following post was originally written as a single post about James Altucher’s class, but turned into a review of the whole ‘experience’ over the course of a couple of weeks. For more trending tech answers from Quora, visit HackerNoon.com/quora. Here are my thoughts:

First Post: 12/14/2017

There was a whole experience I had before I even got a chance to see the videos, one that seriously influenced my ability to recommend this course. If you want to see my thoughts here, check out the link in the footnotes[1].

Before answering the question, I have to address what I actually bought. You’ve likely seen James’ Masterclass advertised online. Here’s a common ad shown in the last few months:

The reason it’s being advertised as ‘free’ is because it’s an add-on to The Altucher Report, a newsletter service provided by James. As part of this purchase, I got access to “Choose Yourself Guide to Wealth” (I actually enjoyed this one), as well as a general investing advice pamphlet, two materials on cryptocurrency investing and the Masterclass. In addition, I got access to James’ newsletter subscription on the cryptocurrency industry (Crypto Corner).

So, what does James Altucher talk about in his course/books/etc when it comes to cryptocurrency investing?

Based on what I’m reading in these books/materials, there doesn’t seem to be any “method” outside of the basics. I was expecting something like the wiretapping technique[2], which is one single, discernible strategy for buying investments. His advice on cryptocurrency is more informational and getting people excited as opposed to ‘buy this based on these signals’ or something similar.

Reading through the two cryptocurrency ‘materials’, I was underwhelmed. Honestly… I want to be respectful to James’ proprietary information, but after reading through one of the books I was sent, the way I would summarize his words is ‘buy cryptocurrency early’ or maybe ‘buy altcoins’. I mean, I’m reading through this again just to make sure I’m not being dis-ingenuous, but that’s really a fair summary. There’s a lot of supporting detail for this, with information about previous market rises and charts, but that’s the conclusion.

Another one of the materials talked about alternatives for investing in cryptocurrency. I won’t give away his answer here, but within the last few days, I wrote about the exact same topic on one of my quora posts, without knowing this exists. Again, nothing ground breaking here, just information I could find elsewhere.

The masterclass is about a few hours worth of material and… I would hesitate to call it a masterclass. The course is designed for people who know nothing about cryptocurrency and takes you through the process of getting involved with cryptocurrency. Without giving away too many details, a lot of the course is about the history of currency, technical explanations and how-to guides on different parts of the investment process. Not once did I see anything that looked like a hot tip (outside of buying BTC/ETH/LTC and holding). You could get almost the same information being an avid reader of Quora, Medium or any other social media site.

When I started writing this article, I was really worried I was going to spoil some secret from the materials. To be fair, I still haven’t received his newsletter, and opted out of the special ‘glitch’ offer (see first footnote), but based on just this information… I don’t really know if there are any secrets to spoil. Most of the information here has been written about a lot (by myself included), and the only thing that constitutes a ‘method’ is so common you see it written in the comments of every cryptocurrency sub-reddit.

In conclusion, yes, I have used James Altucher’s method. I’ve been very successful, because I bought ETH last year, didn’t sell it, and now have made a >5,000% return on my investment. But this method is so trivial, it’s hard to even attribute it to James.

I suppose if you know nothing about cryptocurrency and really trust James’ work, this might be a good for you. Other than that, there’s nothing really special here.

Update: 12/16/2017

I’m still apart of the ‘Altucher Report’ and I just received an email for a seminar. Among being told how much James is being stopped in his street for his cryptocurrency advice, he’s offering a strategy for cryptocurrency trading:

In 5 days, you will find out about a NEW way to make money you’ve never seen before.

So maybe, finally, this is the strategy we’ve been waiting for. More from the sales page to sign up for the course:

And it’s those skills that give him the confidence to make this personal guarantee…

“I guarantee you’ll see how to make 10 times your money in the next 12 months.”

- James Altucher

That’s a pretty bold claim, one that I would have expected from the original course I signed up for.

Here are the details of what is going to be discussed at this seminar:

Join him for this hour long event and you’ll discover…

Why cryptocurrencies are so popular today… and why James believes the incredible gains we’re seeing are just the beginning…

The radically simple strategy behind how James made 8,000% returns in just 18 months…

Why investing in Bitcoin could be a big mistake…

How to make “Crypto Arbitrage Plays” for the chance at 10,545% gains in only 8 months…

The four-word secret that’ll lead to the precise cryptocurrencies with the potential to explode in value to as much as 100,000% the next few years, and by as much as 1,000% in the next year…

I could easily sell out this webinar for $525 per person. But today you can attend in the comfort of your own home, online, for free.

Given how disappointing everything else has been here, maybe this is finally something of substance.

I signed up. We shall see.

Update: 12/19/17

I signed up for the course about three days ago now, and since then I have gotten no less than 6 additional emails (about 2 a day), reminding me of this FREE seminar.

The one today was from James forwarding me an email to make sure I didn’t forget to see his webinar.

How much do you want to bet that this free webinar has an expensive upsell?

Update 12/23/17

So, I actually _misse_d James’ seminar on how to get a 100,000% return on your cryptocurrency investments. I was at Epcot and could have either:

a) spent an hour listening to James talk about his methods for getting a high return in cryptocurrency, or

b) go on Test Track for the third time this trip

Naturally, I chose the roller coaster. Fortunately for me, James posted not only the full video, but a full transcript of the event online, which I had a chance to view.

So, here’s the first thing you should know about this hour long webinar: it is not designed to teach you how to trade cryptocurrency, or share a method. It is designed to sell you a $3,000 cryptocurrency trading service.

James does share some ‘methods’ on how he gets positive returns, but it’s so high level and/or basic that it’s not useful as a strategy. It’s like if you asked for strategy on how my football team won the championship, and I told you lots of practice and a strong running game. Technically true, but not enough detail to actually help you win a championship.

This would be forgivable if it weren’t for the fact that this webinar was marketed with claims like:

I plan to guarantee you will see how to make 1,000% returns on your money from cryptocurrencies in the next 12 months.

or

I’m not holding ANYTHING back on this webinar…

And that is because I’m convinced it’s the only opportunity in our lifetimes to make 100,000% on your money.

In 5 days, you will find out about a NEW way to make money you’ve never seen before.

This seminar is basically an hour long infomercial. It’s legitimately the type of thing you’d expect to see on late-night television. The whole point of this webinar is to sell Jame’s new newsletter service that includes advice on which cryptocurrencies to invest in.

This event was hosted by Monica, who was portraying the event like an interview, but was really just another salesperson. Here’s an excerpt from this webinar:

MONICA:

OK, James, I can’t wait anymore…

How is it possible to know which cryptos to buy to take advantage of this massive shift?

Can you tell us your secret?

Another choice line from Monica:

Still, what he’s charging for access to his service is a bargain in the whole scheme of things.

Keep in mind, this is an information product: you’re paying $3,000 annually to get told which cryptocurrencies to purchase on a bi-monthly basis.

Oh, something else about this whole event is the ‘1,000% Guarantee”. The gist is that James guarantees that if you don’t make 1,000%, he’ll right the wrong. And how does he do this? Here’s the direct quote:

So, if this service flops and fails to give you a 1,000% return… you’ll get another year free. If the information fails you, it’s unlikely you’ll want another year free of the same bad advice.

I want to interject here with a graphic a friend recently shared with me. This is a funnel for how Tony Robbins (who also sells information products) sells his services:

It’s very likely James is working off of this same framework for his company. This funnel works by getting people’s attention through a free service (like a webinar or PPC Ad). Then when they’re in, users get worked through the funnel to higher and higher priced services. Notice the price points:

• $15 — $300
• $1,000 — $20,000
• $60,000 +

Up until this point, I had purchased James’ Report for $50 and have been bombarded with additional emails, up-sells and free webinars. I signed up on December 15th and received 17 emails, 80% of which were not information or news, but pure marketing for additional services.

Purchasing the Altucher Report didn’t make me a customer, it made me a qualified lead. And it’s very likely that purchasing James’ crypto trader report won’t be the end of selling. There’s likely an even more expensive service waiting after I purchased that, something in the $20,000+ range.

Here’s my ultimate conclusion after two week of this: Most of the information I received was marketing fluff or hype. The few details that weren’t specifically designed to up-sell me were basic. Outside of a few news highlights and the basic details from his masterclass, there was nothing else of substance.

I could never recommend James Altucher for Cryptocurrency, even to a complete newbie. I wouldn’t want to subject them to the constant barrage of marketing and almost no useful information on the cryptocurrency industry. Having gone through James’ ‘methods’ (up to the $50 price point, that is), I can confidently say that you’d get both a better experience and better information just reading ‘Cryptoassets’ by Chris Burniske.

Footnotes

[1] I Bought James Altucher’s Master Class on Cryptocurrency and I Immediately Regretted it

[2] What is your review of James Altucher’s “Wiretapping Technique”?

Originally published at www.quora.com.

For more trending tech answers from Quora, visit HackerNoon.com/quora.