Fous Alerts Review
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Chat Room
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Video Lessons
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Trading Courses
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Service Value
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Ease of Use
Summary
Cameron Fous is one of the original trading gurus who made a name for himself online. He initially offered his service through the profit.ly trading platform before venturing out on his own. Fous’ exotic lifestyle certainly makes his service seem appealing, but you may be wondering if he is a legit trader. Read this full review to see if the Fous 4 Trading system is right for you.
If you’re in the market for a day trading training program, or just an alerts service, you might have come across Fous Alerts. But what is this service? Is it worth the cost of admission? We’ll cover everything you need to know to decide whether or not Fous Alerts might be right for you.
Review Navigation
Who Is Cameron Fous?
Cameron Fous is one of the first, and more well known, trading “gurus.” Like many other gurus, he gets some flack for making more on his service than he does on the market, but the man does know what he’s doing.
He started trading in college and dropped out of school to trade full-time. At that point, he started a website called The Technical Trader, but it took him a while (two and a half years, to be exact) to build up a reputation as a good stock picker and subsequently realize he could really monetize it by selling subscriptions. Once he did, it was more or less all gravy from there, nearest anyone can tell. He’ll be the first to tell you that you don’t need a degree to make money at this. And money is definitely something he has – and spends.
Something you’ll quickly notice about him is that, like Timothy Sykes, he markets the lifestyle of a successful trader to promote his service. In fact, he was, for a time, one of the gurus on Sykes’ profit.ly, which brought him even more notoriety. They had a falling out fairly early in the relationship, but rumor has it they’ve mostly patched things up as of now.
After leaving profit.ly, Cameron re-launched his services as Fous Alerts, and has been going great guns since then. He’s made, according to his website, at least $820,000 since that re-branding in 2011. Fous has also worked with traders like Kunal from Bulls on Wall Street.
Now let’s talk about what it is he can do for you.
Fous Alerts: Services Offered
Subscription Options
Fous Alerts offers two different membership plans: Alerts and Elite. Alerts gives you access to the trading chat room and email/SMS alerts, plus (though they don’t list this as a benefit) daily stock watch lists. With Elite, you also get access to the Fous Alerts Video Lesson Library, new videos as they come out (released 2-5 times a week), and access to the FOUStv Videocast – as well as all the features of the Alerts plan. Alerts is $147 per month while Elite is $197 per month. We definitely think Elite is the one to go with, but we’ll get into that a bit later.
First, let’s talk a little more about those features.
Chat Room
The live chat room is fairly easy to follow. You can see messages in the center and trade alerts to the left.
You can see messages from other users and from Fous and Big Mike – another resident guru trader and the other administrator for the room, working alongside Fous himself.
People in the chat room are respectful and most of the chatter is comprised of “heads ups” on different stock trends. Stocks show up in orange next to a dollar sign (ex. $ABC), the moderators appear in green, and subscribers in red. Alerts – buy, sell, short, or add – show up on the left side of your screen, all users online appear on the right (and through that list you can start direct message/private messages with those users, if so desired).
The only downside of this is, if you have a smaller laptop like your humble reviewer, it can be hard to see everything at once, and important information may be crowded or cut off.
Fous can also be a little cryptic if you’re just following the chat room. Members tend to use a lot of jargon as they discuss “F1, F2, and F3” patterns and other things of that nature. You may find yourself confused at first if you haven’t gone through the training courses.
You’ll get a lot more out of the chat room if you’re also listening in on FOUStv. Which bring us to…
FOUStv
FOUStv is where Cameron Fous screen shares and gives live lessons as he trades. He usually broadcasts during open and close (it’s not constant throughout the day). If you’re just getting started with day trading, this is incredibly helpful and probably one of – if not the – advantage Fous has over other similar services: instead of offering a post-mortem, you can see him make moves and listen to him explain them in real time.
During FOUStv sessions, you can see Fous’ screen, hear is commentary on stocks, and ask questions during market lulls.
Here’s an example:
Trade Alerts
If you can’t be in the chat room and FOUStv all day, Fous Alerts still has something to offer – they send out live trade alerts every day the markets are open, alerting you of trades Fous has made. Usually you’ll get about 5 messages a day, but sometimes they’ll send as many as 15. They’re straightforward and can be handy, though just following Fous’ moves is by no means a guaranteed way to turn a profit. By the time you can move on them, it may be too late.
As with any service like this, the best thing to do is to watch how these top traders do it and learn the why and the how of the moves they make, then apply their technique yourself. Of course, once you understand the system, you can use their watch lists and trade alerts to make a dollar or two, especially if you can move before they do or very close to when they do, but don’t go in expecting to get rich just by copycatting Fous and friends.
Video Lesson Library
Speaking of learning how to trade rather than just trying to copy moves, with the Elite plan, you’ll get access to Fous’ video library of lessons, which – we have to say – is surprisingly helpful and well put together. Sometimes, it feels like Fous and company play fast and loose with the English language, so it’s easy to start to feel that less care is taken with this service than some others, but when it comes to the actual content on how to trade, what they have to offer is clear and informative.
If you’re still learning, going through the video library is highly recommended. Teach a man to fish and all that.
And on that note-
Trading Courses
As well as the video library, Cameron Fous also has two training DVDs available for purchase. They sell for a whopping $597 on his website ($997 for both) or… um… $100 or less on eBay. Not that we’re recommending that.
That said, whatever you pay, the videos are pretty good!
Fous4: This is the original DVD and focuses on the basics of day trading. Fous shows you how to identify a trade, teaches you about the market more broadly, talks about risk management, and even covers a bit of relevant psychology, plus giving lots of example trades. He focuses on technical analysis with only limited fundamental analysis in this one. Fous4 gives you all the elements you need to get started as a trader – very informative if you need the basics (or a refresher, which is never a bad thing).
Fous 4×2: The second release, it’s clear that Fous’ strategy has evolved a bit over time; the relevant updates and more nuanced techniques are taught here. He teaches you how to day-trade in a more practical sense, covering what he’s doing day-to-day to find trades, scanning, and software implementation. Fous4x2 is also a good resource – these DVDs are nothing to sniff at, and coupled with the Elite service will launch you pretty well into day trading, if you’re willing to drop the bucks.
In theory, Fous’ service – as all similar services do – can justify the rather high price tags with the promise that, if you follow what they teach, you’ll be making that money back and then some.
Is the Fous 4 Trading System Right For You?
So, should you buy into Fous Alerts? Ultimately, that depends on you – do you connect to his style? Does it cover what you need? Unless you’re an experienced day trader, the Alerts-level plan won’t get you very far, but the Elite plan and DVDs are as good as any for those looking to hop into the work of day trading. Fous also covers a bit of swing trading, but not has much as Jason Bond Picks or Super Trades. Ultimately this service is very much focused on day trading. If that’s what you’re looking for, this could very well be the one.
Relative to other services, the price tag for Fous Alerts sits around the middle of your options. Fous Alerts might be a little pricier than some, but the watch lists are good and FOUStv is a unique and particularly helpful feature. It’s also nice that Fous Alerts doesn’t have a higher level plan they’re trying to sell you to take Cameron away to a private chat room you can’t see into – it makes it feel like you’re not missing out on the good stuff, so to speak.
In terms of subscription options, again, we’d recommend going for the Elite plan. It just offers so much extra bang for that additional fifty bucks, in terms of education and content. And the DVDs are great for beginners, featuring plenty of legitimately actionable content.
In summary, Fous Alerts is a worthwhile service. Pros are:
- Fous is active, involved, and present in the main chat room – he doesn’t have another, higher subscription level to worry about to eat up his time
- FOUStv offer real-time lessons on trading
- Video library is handy and well put-together, as are the DVDs
- Not overwhelmingly expensive for a lot of features
- Watch lists and alerts are very helpful and Fous usually makes great picks
- Especially good for new day traders
Cons would be:
- Chat room could be improved and FOUStv is somewhat necessary for context
- Lack of proof-reading and Fous’ personal over-the-top lifestyle marketing can be off-putting
- Alerts plan isn’t particularly useful
- Somewhat limited: doesn’t cover much outside of day trading – not good for those interested in long-term investing and not ideal for those interested in swing trading or pennystocking
With all that in mind, ultimately, you know what you’re looking for, and if this is it, Fous knows what he’s doing and can give great pointers and help you build a solid foundation in day trading. Happy stock hunting!
