I've been a member since September of 2020 and in this review of Insider Newsletter, I'll be going over what I like and don't like about the service, and whether or not I think it's worth joining.
That said, it's probably pretty obvious that I recommend this investment advisory service. After all, I am still a member.
But, it isn't for everyone, and in this review, I'll go over what you get, how it all works, who it's best for, and performance.. including some investments that they're targeting.
Why you need to read this:
I'm Anders, the person who created stocksEXPOSED.org in order to help people find good investment opportunities and avoid bad ones.
What we mostly do is review investment teasers to provide the picks being teased for free as well as review entire investment advisory services.
You can take a look at recent stocks we've exposed here.
We're just regular folk looking to make a buck ourselves investing and want to help out others along the way. With the amount of research we do, we know a thing or two about investment newsletter services and so I hope reading this review will be of value to you.
What is Insider Newsletter?
Simply put, it's an investment newsletter service that you can join to get off-the-radar investment ideas that you aren't going to be hearing about from CNBC and the likes.
More specifically, Insider Newsletter is generally contrarian investment newsletter service that was started in 2016 by the guys at Capitalist Exploits (Chris Macintosh and Brad Mcfadden) which takes a macro approach to global investing and targets 3-10x returns from ‘out of favor' stocks that are still ‘vital for the functioning of society' over the long-term.
It's not a very popular advisory service and this might seem like a warning sign at first, but the reason for this is simple…
Chris and Brad don't spend a bunch of money marketing their service like you see with most investment newsletters out there. Instead, their focus is on the service itself, i.e. providing the best service possible.
These guys are money managers, not writers and not talking heads in the media.
When I joined Insider Newsletter back in 2020 (was called Insider Weekly back then) I had pretty much stumbled upon it by chance.
I had started exposing stock teasers online earlier that year and was also busy reviewing other investment newsletter services to try to find the best of the best.
After reviewing hundreds of investment newsletters from Stansberry Research, InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool and many more, Insider Newsletter was an unexpected breath of fresh air for me.
Their Investment Strategy
If you're looking for quick profits then, sorry, but this newsletter isn't for you.
Chris and Brad take a long-term approach to investing, generally looking at a 5-year timeframe for their investments to play out.
Out-of-favor stocks most money managers wouldn't touch with a 20-ft pole
They look for deep value where most won't.
Take uranium for example… which is a particular sector that I've made 3x+ gains from the stocks recommended by Chris and Brad.
Uranium example:
When I joined back in 2020 they were recommending uranium stocks when nuclear power was very, very ‘uncool' and shunned by the mainstream media, considering it UNgreen and not to be touched.
In fact, most fund managers would have likely been fired if they tried touching these stocks.
Since then, we've seen a big pivot from the MSM and politicians. France, after realizing they need to get energy from somewhere and solar and wind certainly weren't going to cut it, made the political move of adding nuclear power to their ‘green' energy plan.
Just one example of how an out-of-favor sector became ‘cool' again… in this case due to political events.
Here's a chart of Cameco's stock, which is the largest publicly traded uranium company and tracks the overall uranium sector pretty well. You can see its decade+ bear market where it was being shunned and then look at it now… back to old highs.
Nvidia:
Nvidia, the multinational tech behemoth that's hit new highs with all its popularity around computer chips for AI.
This is a great example of what Insider Newsletter will NOT touch.
Remember, they're looking for unpopular sectors that are extremely undervalued. Nvidia is the opposite of this, which is obvious when you take a look at how the founder Jensen Huang is now signing autographs like a rockstar…
In general, when an investment opportunity is featured on the front cover of Forbes or we see situations like that shown above, these stocks have become too popular and because of this are much overvalued.
A price/earnings ratio of about 55! No thank you, Nvidia.
Vital for the functioning of society
Being out of favor, unpopular and undervalued isn't enough.
To meet their criteria, these stocks also have to be vital for society to continue functioning as it is.
The uranium example above fits this too.
Let's talk about France again. They, like the rest of the world, need energy. The politicians finally woke up and realized that their solar and wind energy wasn't going to cut it.
That gives two options:
- Cut back on energy consumption and decrease the standard of living in the country
- Increase the use of energy from another source and keep or increase the standard of living
No politician (elected politician) is going to decrease their people's standard of living in an obvious way and on purpose. They want to get re-elected, after all.
So, with energy being absolutely vital for the functioning of society and solar & wind not satisfying this demand, uranium was where Chris and Brad looked to invest as it would likely be one of the main options.
With this ‘vital for the functioning of society‘ criterion, the risk is much less.
A global perspective
The goal is to find entire sectors that seem to have been left for dead. For one reason or another, usually political reasons, they lack funding.
When you invest globally you have a lot of options.
It doesn't matter where you live. Even if you're in a large country like me (the US), it's still a small portion of the globe.
In order to really see what's happening you have to look at other areas too.
Take a look at coal. The Western MSM has been telling us that dirty ol' coal “is dead” for ages, which has led to a lot of divestment and alienation from the majority. Yet, if we look at the big picture we can see that China, India, and much of the global east are increasing their coal consumption.
Here's a look at the US coal consumption… going down…
Yet here we have the global coal consumption… still on the rise…
And now we have the New York Times telling us that it's making a ‘comeback'.
Monitoring geopolitical events to profit
They've gotten a few complaints over the years from subscribers who don't like all the political talk in their newsletters.
The thing is… the political talk is important.
Politics have a huge impact on investing.
In fact, in one issue of Insider Newsletter, I remember Chris talking about the craziness of regulations in the EU and how with the strike of a pen the politicians banned the importation of bananas that weren't of the correct curvature.
This then led to a bunch of ‘bad' bananas with too much bend and whatnot being sold at lower than normal prices in other countries. A good thing I wasn't invested in EU banana companies.
This is a strange example, but it goes to show how much politics can affect investments.
The uranium example above that I gave is also a good one. France placed more emphasis on nuclear energy as part of their ‘green' plan with the stroke of a pen and it's events like these that really show in the stock market.
Picking a basket of stocks
After identifying entire sectors that offer deep value, they then move forward and pick a handful of stocks. Or, if there's a good ETF available, they sometimes choose this.
At this point, they look at company fundamentals and any metrics that show a company to be financially healthy.
They'll look at P/E, ROE, how much debt and the cash on hand a company has as well as the charts and what the price ranges tell us.
They want to get in at the bottom
Timing the market perfectly is an impossible task, but Chris and Brad have done a pretty good job with it over the years.
Here are two examples I can show where they were able to get in on the bottom when these stocks were really considered toxic waste..
If they're able to get into a stock when it's considered ‘toxic waste' and sell when you start seeing talk about how great the investment is in Time magazine… or when the founder starts signing women's breasts (Nvidia), then they've probably timed it pretty well.
Easier said than done, of course.
Who it's for
Insider Newsletter definitely isn't for the impatient.
Chris and Brad always look at investments with a long-term view. They're looking at a 5-year plan when they invest.
Of course, they monitor the markets and if they think it's time to exit a trade before that then so be it, but the long-term view is what they're looking at.
The days-to-day price movements are just noise.
It's also important to remember that these guys are investing in what 99% of money managers avoid like the plague.
‘Fortune favors the bold', right?
They look for entire sectors that lack funding yet still are needed for society to function.
By being unpopular and lacking funding these stocks are often very undervalued. And by still being vital for the way society functions these stocks are often low risk (if the investment thesis goes according to plan, of course).
And who it's not for:
I think it's worth stressing that this newsletter isn't some PC write-up where they're looking to invest in the next ‘hottest' sector.
Chris calls a spade a spade. Some of what he says is controversial and he often criticizes some of the more left-leaning ideas. The newsletters take a broad global geopolitical approach to investing and so rightly so there is a good amount of political talk, which is necessary considering the amount of influence politics have on the markets.
At the end of the day, these guys are money managers and that's it. They're looking to profit.
Good for beginners?
If you are a complete beginner to investing there might be a good bit of information that's over your head. That said, when I first joined in 2020 I didn't understand a lot of what Chris talked about, but through following along I've learned quite a bit.
I'll talk more about what you actually get when you join Insider Newsletter in a bit, but they don't hold your hand with this service – another reason it might be confusing for a complete beginner (they offer another, more complete service if you want hand-holding – more on this).
With this in mind, if you have a little investment knowledge and are eager to learn, then you'll be fine.
The guys behind it
You could call Chris Macintosh the main guy behind it all. He's the one who writes the majority of the Insider Newsletter, which is pretty much their advisory service for us regular folk.
Born in South Africa, he's supposedly lived in and invested in 7 different countries and by the looks of things this number is counting.
In the newsletters, he always updates us on potential countries of interest to invest in. For example, it wasn't long ago he was updating us members on his quest to obtain citizenship in Turkey, which he thinks is an undervalued country that will have a strong role geopolitically due to its location between trade routes, among other things.
When he's not traveling around the world, meeting with industry insiders to get to know firsthand what's going on in the markets, he's probably triggering some ‘woke' individual somewhere with his sometimes rough language.
For example, Chris often refers to the Saudis as ‘headchoppers' (since beheading is still a common capital punishment there).
Take it how you like, but his investment advice is golden.
Chris' background includes working at large investment banks like JPM, Lehman, Robert Flemmings, and Investco, but luckily for us, he left all that behind to start his own money management businesses.
Besides this newsletter service, he's also the founder of a private money management firm for high-net clients called Glenorchy Capital, which follows the same investment strategies as Insider Newsletter.
Brad is the other guy. He's more of the behind-the-scenes guy and when he's not taking care of his farm in Australia (more than once they've shown photos of his farm in the newsletters), he's probably digging around trying to figure out the best stocks to invest in are in within their targeted ‘toxic waste' sectors.
Before working at Capitalist Exploits, Brad worked as a money manager at Henry Ansbacher as well as managing a trading book for Rand Merchant Bank (he's also from South Africa).
He's also part of the high-net-worth client money management firm Glenorchy Capital.
How it works
This newsletter used to be called Insider ‘Weekly' because it was sent out every week, but now it's been re-named just the Insider Newsletter and you can expect a new issue every 2 weeks, more or less.
I guess putting together an informative report on the geopolitical state of the world and the markets isn't realistically possible every week… if Chris wants to have time for his family, which he does.
I've just looked at the last 4 newsletters at the moment of writing this and they range from 44 - 69 pages! That's an average of 56!
But don't worry. Chris' writing style is pretty entertaining and there will be lots of pictures and charts for you to look at.
As has become a custom, each issue starts out with some good sunset views, usually sent in from subscribers.
In the meat of the newsletter, you can expect talk about current events in the geopolitical landscape and their effects on the markets, capital flows in and out of various sectors and what they mean for us investors, original market analysis that you certainly won't hear about from CNBC and more.
Some of the content you'll find here will be a bit glum, but there's not too much doom & gloom because Chris always provides practical solutions to profit.
Each issue ends with some practical investment ideas from ‘the big 5'.
Here you can expect to see charts, metrics and how these picks fit in with their theses… basically all the reasons why Chris and Brad think these are good investment opportunities.
Sometimes you'll get 5 fresh new opportunities ripe for the picking and other times there will be some repeats from the past that they highlight if they're just that good.
What you get
Here I need to explain something.
Those ‘big 5' picks that are mentioned at the end of each newsletter aren't ‘recommendations' per se.
Instead, they're “interesting long-term setups – unloved and totally off the radar of the average fund manager”… as they say.
Remember how I said that you aren't going to get your hand held with the Insider Newsletter?
That's because Insider Newsletter is the newsletter portion of their full Insider service, which provides everything… including hand-holding (not literally, of course).
Insider Newsletter vs Insider
Insider Newsletter is still great as a standalone product, but I want to make it clear that you're not going to be able to see exactly what Chris and Brad are investing in themselves.
What exactly is ‘the big 5″?
As mentioned, these are “interesting long-term setups – unloved and totally off the radar of the average fund manager”.
They are stocks that Chris and Brad are interested in, but this doesn't mean that they have invested in them.
Sometimes they do provide picks that they are actually recommending in their Insider service and that they're invested in themselves, but this is often not the case.
Think about it. If they were providing 5 picks every 2 weeks, this would be a lot to keep up with. Too much.
These are just interesting setups that may or may not be included in their Insider portfolio. They are ones they have their eyes on.
The Insider portfolio
If you want the handholding then you'd have to join the full Insider membership.
With this you'll get access to their portfolio of stock picks that they invest in. This way, there's no guessing… you know what they're investing in.
I am a full member of Insider, but don't think that you have to go this route.
I'd highly suggest just subscribing to their Insider Newsletter and seeing if you like it, then you can always upgrade IF you think you want to.
Performance
The big question..
How well are their picks actually performing?
By now you know that their picks included in ‘the big 5' aren't necessarily investments they've made. So, in order to see how good their investments are, we have to look at their Insider portfolio.
Even if you don't want to buy into their full Insider service, this will still give you a good idea of how good these guys are. It will show you the results of their investment strategy, which the stocks in ‘the big 5' still follow.
Here's a visual of how their Insider picks are doing compared to the S&P500…
You can see that their picks are doing a fair amount better than the S&P.
However, their performance isn't anything amazing.
I mean, if we take a look at The Motley Fool's Stock Advisor performance this is what we see..
It appears that Stock Advisor has absolutely dominated the S&P500.
So then, why am I recommending Insider Newsletter and not Stock Advisor? And why am I not a Stock Advisor member myself?
After all, the goal here is to make money, right?
The reason is simple.
First off, Motley Fool's Stock Advisor performance has been incredibly good over the years. However, this is mainly due to a few stocks that have performed very well and this has made its performance misleading.
For example, Motley Fool made their Amazon recommendation back in September 1997 when the company went public, which has gone up around 140,000% since then.
Another one of their best performers has been Nvidia, which they recommended in April 2005. This has gone up some 46,300% since then.
Sounds amazing, right?
According to a recent article, their average return is about 630%.
However, when you look at Amazon at 140,000% and Nvidia at 46,300%, there must have been quite a few bad picks in there to bring the average down to 630%.
What I'm saying is that the chart shown above for Stock Advisor's performance is misleading because of how much the returns of a few of their picks have greatly inflated the average.
A reddit post I found goes into more detail on their misleading returns, and sums it up nicely:
If r/wallstreetbets and r/stocks can agree on one thing, it’s that Motley Fool is utter trash
Insider is different..
Unlike Motley Fool's Stock Advisor and most other investment newsletter services that chase the ‘hottest' stocks, Insider, as we know, looks for those that have been long forgotten but are still absolutely needed.
If you were to join Stock Advisor, or many of the others out there, the hope would be that they somehow manage to get it right and pick ‘the next Amazon'.
But what are the chances, really?
While Insider isn't going to be finding picks that go up 140,000% (1,400x) like Amazon, they do target 3-10x and a 20-bagger isn't of the impossible either with the ‘toxic waste' undervalued sectors they invest in.
What's going on with Insider's performance?
It may sound like I'm just trying to defend Insider's ‘decent' performance, but the truth is that the service is still very new compared to most, having just started in 2016.
Many of their investment theses haven't fully played out yet. Not even close.
We're still very early in many of these market cycles that they're targeting with their investments.
Here's a visual I managed to find of the growth vs value stock trend (Insider Newsletter targets value stocks).
The orange line is Growth vs Value and the blue line is Value vs Growth.
In a nutshell, this chart shows us how wildly overvalued growth stocks have become and how undervalued and forgotten value stocks are.
During COVID, we saw the largest gap between these stocks open up that we've ever seen, and this is what's swinging the other way at the moment.
The chart's a bit outdated, but what we're seeing is that gap closing.
Chris and Brad believe the climb of value stocks will likely surprise all of us in duration and magnitude.
This is one big reason I'm such a fan of what Chris and Brad are doing with their Insider Newsletter service.
We're seeing the turning of the market cycle where value stocks (in general) are starting to climb upwards whereas growth stocks (in general) are starting to fall back to more realistic valuations.
This is one reason we're seeing charts like that of Cathie Woods' famous ARK Innovation ETF, which focuses specifically on the hottest tech stocks for the most part..
Imagine having invested in that at the peak.
And let's not forget. That peak is around the same time we had Forbes putting her on their cover and calling her “Wall Street's Wizard”.
The point I'm making is that markets go through cycles.. and Chris and Brad believe we are still very early here.
So, while the performance of Insider doesn't look like anything special at the moment, I'm still confident they have a sound investment strategy and that 3-10x is possible with what they're targeting.
The best-performing picks that they've provided so far for me have been in the uranium sector, some of which I'm up 3x+ on.
But still, they believe this has a long way to run.
The good, the bad, and the ugly
The good
- Original market/geopolitical commentary you won't find elsewhere
- Low-risk setups (necessary for functioning of society) with large payoff potential (hugely undervalued)
- Investment strategy historically shown to beat S&P 500
- Still early in market cycles (good time to get in)
- Easy to follow with lots of visuals (images, charts, etc.)
- Entertaining read with some good wry humor
- Actionable investment ideas (no matter what the problems in the world)
The bad
- Long-term set-ups, not for the impatient
- Not a hold-your-hand investment newsletter
- Not giving ‘recommendations' per se, but rather interesting setups that you should look into further before investing
The Ugly
- Controversial, sometimes offensive language
- Can be a bit glum at times
Conclusion: Is it worth joining?
It depends.
Are you okay with holding onto stocks for a few years and riding the ups and downs of the market?
Would you be alright with investing in ‘toxic waste' stocks that the MSM makes out for dead?
Can you withstand the criticism when you mention investing in dirty old coal at a dinner party?
If so, then yes I'd recommend that you give Insider Newsletter a try and see for yourself how you like it.
At the moment, Chris and Brad are running a special offer where you can become a member for just $1 for the first month. After that, it goes up to $35/month.
That's a heck of a deal and can easily pay for itself many times over. And I think you'll realize the value provided when you get the first issue, which you'll have access to immediately upon joining.
Just don't get overwhelmed. There's some doom and gloom, but in the end, Chris and Brad always find ways to invest and profit.
They look for what's profitable, practical, most resilient to the chaos in the world, and… all-in-all, what has the most upside with the least downside.
If this sounds good to you, you can join here:
Join Insider Newsletter for $1And, if you want their full Insider service where you get access to their model portfolio to see exactly what they're investing in as well as access to a members chat forum, webinars and more, then you can join here.
I would really recommend that you just join Insider Newsletter first. It's only $1 for that first month and you can get a feel for how much value they're providing.
FAQ's
Do you need a lot of money to invest?
No, you don't. I always think it's a good idea to invest your money.
Even if I had just $100 on the side I would invest it.
You have to keep your money in something, whether that be cash, stocks, gold, etc., and with the heaps of debt we see many governments in, I wouldn't be too confident in fiat.
As Chris often says, he likes to invest in ‘stuff', i.e. companies that provide real value and have a lot of ‘stuff'.
If you have $500 or $500,000 isn't so important. You'll just make less or lose less from your investments.
What types of stocks do they target?
As mentioned already above, value stocks are what they're targeting. Think commodities and things like this.
This said, they aren't married to these. It's just that there are much more deep value opportunities in value vs growth at the moment because of where we find ourselves in the market cycle.
Can you really trust these guys?
I've been a member for 4 years and I can tell you that their investment theses are as solid as I've ever read.
But if you want to hear from others, they also have a nearly unheard-of 4.8/5 star rating on Trustpilot..
Compare this to Motley Fool's 3.7 or InvestorPlace's 3.2 and it gives you an idea of how good this really is.
How much can you expect to make?
The big question… and unfortunately there's no good way to answer it. As mentioned, they target 3-10x gains from their investments, but these are just targets.
I mentioned making over 3x on some picks (uranium) and many haven't even fully played out yet. I can also tell you that I've lost money on some. Obviously, I've made more than I've lost or I wouldn't be recommending it.
But really, there's no good way to answer this.
The best way to look at it is like this: we have 2 money managers that have their Glenorchy Capital private money management firm for high-net clients.. and as a subscriber, you get access to that knowledge (as an Insider member you get access to the exact picks).
Does this require a lot of time and effort?
Nope.
While patience is a must, the one big upside to a long-term investment strategy is that you don't have to be monitoring your portfolio day and night.
Chris and Brad's strategy requires minimal work.
What's the worst part of Insider Newsletter?
This isn't a FAQ, but I've added it because I think it's helpful.
In my opinion, the worst part of the service is what I've just gone over – the patience required for this type of long-term investment strategy to play out.
I'm confident in that their investment theses are sound, but things rarely happen in the time frames expected.
That said, I certainly don't have any trouble sleeping at night following their strategy.
I hope this review has been helpful. I've tried to make it as unbiased as possible, showing the goods and bads, but obviously, it's a bit hard since I'm a member myself and enjoy the service.
Join Insider Newsletter yourself and you'll see why it's the only newsletter service I recommend for stock investing.
As always, leave your comments and questions below. I'll do my best to answer them asap.