Mauldin Economics Review – Scam Or Legit Newsletters?

Mauldin Economics is an investing publisher and they sell a bunch of newsletters.

Some of their most popular are:

• Strategic Portfolio
• Healthy Returns 
• Street Freak 
• Biotech Millionaire 
• High Conviction Investor
• Over My Shoulder

Some of these products are affordable and some cost thousands a year.

Before spending this kind of money on them I'm sure you want to know if they're a scam or not.

This review will answer that question.

You'll get additional insights including background information, a look into the authors and more.

Let's get into things!

Meet The Team Behind Mauldin Economics

Before we jump into what Mauldin Economics offers, let's take a look at who's running the show there.

Here's some info on the people behind Mauldin Economics.

It's Run By John Mauldin

John Mauldin is the founder of Mauldin Economics.

He's been in the game for a long time and has 30 years experience in the investing world.

I would say he's definitely an entertainer of sorts as well.

You can find him on TV often and he's constantly being referenced in the finance world.

One Forbes writer wrote in 2013 that he was tired of having his clients constantly ask questions about things John said. 

Besides running Mauldin Economics, John also writes books and is considered a NYT's Bestseller.

Jared Dillian Is Senior Editor

Jared Dillian is head editor at Maudlin Economics and he runs the newsletter Street Freaks as well.

Jared makes a bunch of claims about his past but I couldn't really verify them.

For instance, he said he worked at Lehman Brothers as an ETF trader but when I looked him up on FINRA nothing came up.

So he's either lying about his background experience or his real name isn't Jared Dillian.

A lot of people will use an alias when they start writing online.

It could be just for privacy reasons or he could be trying to hide a red flag in his past.

On his Linkedin it does say he worked for a company called Botta Capital Management and they were hit with millions in fines for illegally charging customers.

However, this was years after Jared supposedly left. 

Chris Wood Is Chief Investment Officer

Chris Wood seems to have come up in the financial newsletter world.

He bounced around from Casey Research, Palm Beach Group and RiskHedge.

I haven't reviewed anything from RiskHedge yet but have reviewed products from Casey Research and Palm Beach Group.

Casey Research and Palm Beach Group are both owned by the loathsome financial newsletter company Agora.

I'm constantly coming across Agora products and I'm not never impressed with them.

In fact, many of these products are scams that are run by people thrown out of Wall Street.

Recently Agora was fined millions of dollars for selling fraudulent diabetes cures and financial products to senior citizens.

So not really the best look to have spent a decade with this company. 

Patrick Watson Is Senior Economics Analyst

There's not a ton of information out there about Patrick.

There's a bio on the Mauldin Economics website but that's not really reliable.

According to Patrick he's written for Forbes, Business Insider, IBD, Seeking Alpha and more.

He also runs the newsletter Over My Shoulder at Mauldin.

Thompson Clark Also Worked For Agora

Thompson Clark is an editor at Maudlin and runs Smart Money Monday.

According to him he's an expert in small cap companies.

These are also known as penny stocks and this is where you'll find a lot of financial scammers.

Thompson also spent 6 years at Agora which isn't a good thing.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

Mauldin Economics Stock Picks Have Been Bad

Mauldin Economics likes to run teaser campaigns to sell their newsletters.

These teaser campaigns are marketing ploys where they tease a stock.

They don't reveal the stock in the teaser and instead promise to give you the stock if you buy a newsletter.

It's a like a sweetener to get you to buy.

These picks are supposed to be the best and I've tracked a bunch of them from previous years.

Here's how they're turned out:

Schrodinger In February 2021

Chris Wood's ran a teaser campaign for his newsletter Healthy Returns in February 2021 with the title "Bill Gates Favorite IPO."

This stock was supposedly Wood's favorite healthcare and technology stock for 2021.

The stock turned out to be Schrodinger, which is a drug discovery and software company.

In the year since Chris recommended this stock things haven't turned out well:

It's basically lost 2/3rds of its value and Chris recommended it right before it crashed.

Not good.

Esperion Therapeutics In May 2020

About 10 months before Chris swung and missed on Schrodinger,  he ran a campaign called "The #1 Ten-Bagger Biotech Play For 2020."

This was a company he claimed was going to make you rich because it was about to get FDA approval for its products.

The company was called Esperion Therapeutics.

It did turn out to be a 10 bagger.. just in the opposite direction:

This stock has lost 90% since Chris recommended it!

That's a lot of money and why you should never fall for the marketing with these teasers.

Often times they aren't good stock picks.

Provention Bio In March 2021

Here we have another Chris Wood's teaser expect this one is from his newsletter Biotech Millionaire.

The campaign was titles "Epidemic Ending Diabetes Breakthrough."

Chris predicted this stock would make 500% to 1000% returns.

That's pretty amazing!

Did the stock live up to the hype?

Womp womp.

Another loser and this one lost more than 50% of its value since it started getting recommended.

0/3 so far for Chris Wood.

Athersys In July 2020

This is the last Chris Wood teaser and it came in July 2020.

The stock being teased was Athersys and it was marketed as "The #1 Stock To Profit From The Big Biotech Boom."

Here's how it's done in the 20 months since the campaign started:

Another one that lost most of its value after Chris recommended it.

You can honestly make a lot money just shorting these stock teasers!

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

What Does Mauldin Economics Offer?

There's many different newsletters at Mauldin Economics and a couple courses as well.

Here's a breakdown of each:

Jared Dillian's Strategic Position ($199 Per Year)

The first newsletter we're going to cover is Jared Dillian's Strategic Portfolio.

This newsletter teaches you how to invest in ETF's.

An ETF is a collection of securities that typically involves a specific sector or market.

According to Jared this investing strategy has as medium risk and there's 10 positions in the portfolio.

With this newsletter you get the following:

• An entire guide breaking down how Jared invests and what the goals for the newsletter is
• Access to the portfolio so you can invest right away
• 12 monthly issues of Strategic Portfolio that contain market information and ETF picks.
• Access to Jared's weekly newsletter called The 10th Man

Healthy Returns ($199 Per Year)

Healthy Returns is run by Chris Wood and this is the newsletter that had a lot of the losing stock teasers we covered in the last section.

The focus of this newsletters is on healthcare stocks and biotech stocks.

With this newsletter you get:

• Once a month issue of Healthy Returns that come with a stock pick
• Buy and sell alerts if something needs to happen before the monthly issue goes out
• Special Release which are reports Chris sends out at least once a month. These detail what Chris believes are the big breakthroughs in the industry
• A complete portfolio so you have stocks to invest in right away
• Special reports which are the teaser picks we covered before

Street Freak ($1,795 Per Year)

Next up we have a considerably more expensive newsletter called Street Freak.

This one is run by Jared Dillian.

Again, the website claims Jared Dillian headed ETF trading at Lehman Brothers but I couldn't find anything to verify this.

According to Mauldin Economics risk meter Street Freak is a medium investment risk.

It also has around 15 open positions. 

There's no real focus on what investment advice you'll get here - it's mainly stocks Jared thinks will perform well in the long term.

Biotech Millionaire ($3,495 Per Year)

Biotech Millionaire is another Chris Wood and Jake Weber newsletter that has produced some really bad stock picks in the past.

This product focuses on the biotech industry which is drug and diagnostic companies.

Here's what you can expect from Biotech Millionaire:

• Monthly newsletter with stock picks
• Trade alerts that tell you when to buy or sell
• Full access to portfolio

You also get access to the past special reports and all future ones. 

Remember, though, the special reports I covered from this newsletter weren't good. 

Over My Shoulder ($14.95)

Over My Shoulder is run by John Mauldin and Patrick Watson.

This isn't really a stock picking service and is more like news.

A couple times of week you'll get an issue that goes over different economic and political issues in America.

Think of it more like a subscription to Forbes. 

ETF Masterclass ($199)

The ETF Masterclass is for anyone that wants to learn how to trade ETF's.

This course won't give you monthly stock picks but it will teach you how to find them on your own.

It's broken down into 4 modules and comes with some bonuses.

Here's what you get:

• Module 1 - Introduction To Index Based Investing: Module 1 covers how ETF's work, what an index is and the pros and cons of using an index.
• Module 2 - The ETF Revolution: Module 2 teaches you about the three kinds of indexes, how they're created and the dangers of investing in ETF's.
• Module 3 - The Nets And Bolts Of ETF's: Module 3 covers how the ETF market works.
• Module 4 - Advanced Concept - This section covers topics like derivatives, swaps and short selling. 

There also bonuses which include:

• Recording of a live call with Jared
• Red flags when picking an ETF
• 5 ETF strategies

Bond Masterclass ($199)

The last product at Mauldin Economics is The Bond Masterclass.

This is broken up into 3 modules which includes:

• A look at how bonds work
• A look at the different types of bonds
• Different ways to build your bond portfolio

Mauldin Economics FAQ's

Here's answers to some questions you might have:

1) Are The Prices At Mauldin Economics?

It depends what product you're talking about.

I think the following products are fair:

• Jared Dillian's Strategic Position
• Both courses

The rest of the newsletters are either overpriced or you should avoid because they're not good services.

2) Is There Refunds?

Yes!

There's actually a good refund for each product and it's usually 30 to 90 days.

One thing I like is the more expensive newsletters have refund policies as well.

A lot of companies will just give a refund for the cheap products and not for the more expensive ones.

3) How Much Do I Need To Invest?

It depends how many open positions are in the newsletter but most of the time it seems like 10 to 15 positions.

You probably want $1000 minimum for each one so you'll want $10,000 to $15,000 before buying.

Additionally, you'll want $1000 a month for new stock picks as well.

4) Is Mauldin Economics Legit?

It depends what you're comparing it to.

If I'm comparing it to other newsletters I'd say it's typical of what else you find.

There's literally thousands of newsletters that are exactly like this.. the same marketing.. the same offer.. the same topics.

There's definitely worst newsletters out there too.

But the financial newsletter industry is terrible. The worst kind of scams imaginable can be found in this industry.

So being an average newsletter in the financial newsletter industry isn't that big of a compliment.

5) Will I Make Money From These Newsletter?

Results are not guaranteed.. you'll find that right on Mauldin's website:

To be completely honest I don't think highly of most of the people at Mauldin Economics.

Many of these people have only existed in the financial newsletter world and don't have proof they're good investors.

Even worst a couple worked for Agora which sell scams all the time.

The 4 stock picks were absolutely awful and you would have lost thousands if you invested in them.

Those were just 4 picks I looked at randomly too. I wasn't trying to look for their worst losses.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

Mauldin Economics Conclusion

Thanks for reading my review of Mauldin Economics.

If I had to sum up with this service it would be this:

Mauldin Economics sells typical investing newsletters.

I've looked at hundreds of these programs and they're all pretty much the same.

Some are worst than others and Mauldin certainly isn't the worst I've come across but it's all the same.

At the end of the day the stock picks I looked at were FAR from impressive and there wasn't a winner in the group.

So I'd stay away from anything from Mauldin Economics.

Here's A Better Opportunity

I wouldn't suggest buying Mauldin Economics' products.

The good news is there's plenty of investing newsletters that are worth your time.

I've reviewed all the best..

To see my favorite (which is very affordable), click below: