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Australian Shareholder Centre

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steve85

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I was wondering whether anyone has used "Australian Shareholder Centre" and their experiences and thoughts?

Essentially I am currently using margin lending and my own investments. While this year has been good, overall I have not gone too well as I just dont have enough time looking at the market. I was looking around and came across Australian Shareholder Centre (I believe based out of gold coast).

They trade in CFDz which I am aware are higher risk but they rely heavily on trailing stock losses to mitigate risks. I got the sales pitch which, if believed, would yield close to 50% (which obviously rang some alarm bells). They provided me access for a limited period to their members area and I went through all of their trade recommendations for the year so far. In essence, this year they have achieved losses on 56% of their trades (from my own calculations). However, on the plus side, after brokerage etc, it would have yielded approximately $2000 profit thus far. This isn't far off other years they claim. This is in their A and B categories (essentially trading CFDs on ASX, NYSE and London).

My concerns:
-obviously the extremely high return is of concern
- i can not find any reviews of them on the net. Some further searching identified they are a legitimte business IAW ASIC and australian business register and used to trade as Trumarket a number of years ago which hasn't got a good wrap on this forum.
- There is an extremely high set up cost of between $5000 and $7000

Reasons I am contemplating it:
- my own analysis of their trade recommendations year to date does demonstrate a high rate of return in line with what they are claiming.
- I want to get out of self managed investments as I don't have time and look at a medium to high risk place to park some of my savings that is fully managed.

Any thoughts, experiences and advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Hi Steve,

The following is my assessment of Australian Shareholder Centre:

Red flags
  • Domain privacy is enabled to hide ownership details on the domain name.
  • You cannot view the website without entering your name and mobile phone number. Well, you can, but I'll get to that in a minute.
  • Company registered and run out of the Gold Coast
  • No upfront information about the cost of services. It looks like you register your interest and then get a phone call with the hard sell.

But let's look a little deeper. Australian Shareholder Centre Pty Ltd was previously known as TruMarkets Pty Ltd, an advisory firm that closed its doors and sold its customers to another business by the name of Iron Claw Investments Pty Ltd, trading as Active Traders. You can read about Active Traders here and here. At the second link you will see a user named "Chris Harris" offering a positive review of Active Traders, who then mysteriously disappears after promising more updates. More than likely this is someone associated with the company who is posting to try and make it seem that the company is generating good returns. Then the victims start showing up.

Australian Shareholder Centre Pty Ltd and Iron Claw Investments Pty Ltd (Active Traders) have the same director and are both authorised representatives of AFSL holder Conquest Markets Pty Ltd. Conquest Markets has the same address as Australian Shareholder Centre Pty Ltd, just different suite numbers. Can you see a pattern emerging?

My opinion: Stay far away from Australian Shareholder Centre, Active Traders, and Conquest Markets. There is something very shady going on here. My guess is that Active Traders received a lot of complaints and they have set up a new company and website (Australian Shareholder Centre) to shift the business to. It looks like the exact same offering, just a new company name, website and phone number. My guess is that it's only a matter of time until the victims of Australian Shareholder Centre start showing up on forums telling their stories. Don't be one of them!

P.S. To view the Australian Shareholder Centre website without surrendering your name and mobile phone number, just disable JavaScript in your browser. In Firefox you do this by going to Tools -> Options -> Content, then uncheck the "Enable JavaScript" box.
 
Thank very much for your very useful thread. I had investigated a couple of the items you brought up but not nearly in as much detail as you have. In the links you provided, the background story as to how people got roped in sounds very much (read almost exactly) as it appeared I was being brought in. After writing my first post, it started to make me think harder and I could see that I was being lured by the high returns on investment even while being cognisant of it.

I do have to note here that my calculations did indicate financial success overall for trades placed this year however, there was a low success rate (i.e. "winning" trades).

Again, thanks for your time and your detailed response.

I have decided to stick with my current portfolio for now but to start making a conscious effort of trying to do more research and actually start selling rather than just buy and hold as well as signing up to a share investment advice service before the EOFY - I will definitely have a good look on these forums for recommendations.
 
Thankyou for this thread and comments. I have spent the last few days trying to decide whether to go with them. The returns sounded appealing but something didn't feel right and I struggled to find any info on them on www. This thread makes me very happy I decided not to go with them - thankyou!!
 
stockguru
The following is my assessment of Australian Shareholder Centre:


A timely assesment, someone just asked me about this mob so I appreciate your effort.

Cheers Classer
 

As a general rule I suggest you do not register with any website where they want your email and your mobile number before they will tell you what services they offer. Also be suspicious of anyone who is unwilling to be upfront about their upfront costs. Sound business don't resort to these sort of tactics.
 
It appears that this company is changing its name and URL to "Australian Share Centre".

The question needs to be asked, why? What are they hiding? What are they running from?

Another red flag and another reason to avoid this company like the plague.
 

Unfortunately, I decided to throw the dice and give the Australian Share Centre a try.

BIG WARNING ... the information they give you access to in 'The Sell' is fabricated. If you look underneath the Trade Performance there is the following disclaimer: "All results although based on live trades are hypothetical and do not reflect an actual trading account."

Hypothetical is 100% correct. In my experience, their success rate is closer to 10% so, if you chose to invest, be prepared to watch your funds steadily dwindle away. They take their share of brokerage for all trades so they win whether the trades win or lose, and more often than not - THEY LOSE.
 

RE Australian Shareholder Centre

Great feedback and thank you! I had the phone call recently from them and was quite attracted to what the company offers - especially the low brokerage.

I wonder - does anyone have any experience of trading through this company? I know the evidence quoted here is worrying but use of a stop/loss to mitigte losses is valid. Yes they do take brokerage - doesn't everyone - but at 0.1659%. Their fee for service was not up-front as has been said here already but it wasn't hidden either - it came up later in the phone conversation - a $5000 fee to secure their services. ON a decent perfromance you can make this back in time.

The arguement is sound - many of us including me do not have the time to do the reserch required on stocks across the US / London and Aussie markets. Also to buy and sell across days and weeks requires time for intensive research - and making trades in a timely manner - I just can't do it timewise.

If this mob is not trustworthy - who is? Do you know a firm/broker who will do the research and reccomend the trades for me on that research? I wonder??

I am really looking for some ideas here?

Does anyone know about Excela?? I have been using them for a while in conjunction with ANZ E-Trade. I find its hard to get much action out of them and the feel is that there is nothing happening until you ring and ask? I am down 3 grand on AMP through them. Anyone doing better than this?? Anyone who is also time-poor?

samy.
 



Steve - I posted on the Aust Shareholders Centre thread too - I wonder who are you with if not Aust. Shareholders Centre?

You mention " I want to get out of self managed investments as I don't have time and look at a medium to high risk place to park some of my savings that is fully managed."

This fits me exactly - I have been with Excela for some years but its all too pedestrian; do you know any other optins? (See my reply to your previous thread).

Thanks
 
What is it you are paying thousands of dollars for exactly? Where are the audited broker statements demonstrating that this business is recommending profitable trades?

I could register a Pty Ltd company tomorrow, rent an AFSL, charge $7,000 a year to people and start recommending trades. Does that mean that it is going to make anyone money? I have no track record and neither do the Australian Shareholder Centre, Australian Share Centre, Share Centre or whatever they are calling themselves now. This company has changed its trading name twice in a matter of months. How can anyone have faith in a business that keeps changing its name?

There are many cheaper, more reputable options, such as Nick Radge's The Chartist. I honestly find it astonishing that anyone would hand over thousands of dollars to a company with no track record, that won't let people view their website without handing over their mobile phone number and that cold calls.

Those considering handing over their money to this company should pay very close attention to Drew64's post in this thread.
 

Hi Samy;
Sorry it took so long to reply to your post. I must admit, I ended up doing a bunch of research into technical analysis on the markets and paying closer attention to my shares.... for a while. Until I again ran out of time when work picked up and I had to head away for a while. I must admit, I had a lot of success in that brief period but then again, how can you not when we have had a great market of late.

As far as other companies, I havent looked into them as I was pretty disappointed with the general lack of transparency and some other things I read. I am not saying that there arent good analysts out there that will significantly improve my trading base, but reading a number of resources, only the absolute best have any real difference in results to the average home trader. And the absolute best arent going to worry about someone like me who is investing relatively little amounts of money. i.e. you can read this as (in my opinion) if you have a fund worth managing, you probably can get the best of it, if not, you are spinning the dice a bit.

I am considering pulling out soon as I feel the market has been bullish for quite some time and I am finally almost square with my losses from 2008. That and I am about to move oversees and the chances of me monitoring my shares from Europe are even less. Good luck and if you do have success, let me know as this might be an option for me when I head away.

Also, thanks everyone else for the responses and I hope it helped other people out as well. I think the fact they changed their name shortly afterwards is an indication that this could be a lucky miss. I know that I am personally very happy with my decision to not go with them (p.s. from what was explained to me, the "low" commission is actually based on the full amount ie if you buy $1,000 of CFDs for shares worth $40k, you pay that % on the 40k..... that is a much larger commission on trades!)
 
Apparently my first post in this thread has caused some controversy and the Australian Shareholder Centre, or Share Centre, or whatever name they are currently calling themselves, has claimed that it is defamatory and has been threatening to sue Aussie Stock Forums.

I would like to go through my previous post and demonstrate that every statement of fact that I posted is true.

stockGURU said:
Domain privacy is enabled to hide ownership details on the domain name.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, there are now five domain names pointing to the Australian Shareholder Centre website. Three .com.au domain names and two .com domain names. Both of the .com domain names have domain privacy enabled. This is a fact. The three .com.au domain names do not have domain privacy enabled because there is no such thing as domain privacy for .com.au domain names. At the time of my first post in this thread, there were only two domain names pointing to the Australian Shareholder Centre website, one com.au and one .com. The .com domain name had domain name privacy enabled then and still does now.

stockGURU said:
You cannot view the website without entering your name and mobile phone number.
Click to expand...

This is a fact. Please visit the Australian Shareholder Centre website to confirm or simply take a look at this screenshot.

View attachment 55373

stockGURU said:
Company registered and run out of the Gold Coast
Click to expand...

The address of Australian Shareholder Centre is Suite 204, 237 Scottsdale Drive, Robina, 4226. Robina is on the Gold Coast, so this statement is factual. I consider it a red flag because of the Gold Coast's reputation as the fraud capital of Australia. Anyone dealing with any financial or investment company based on the Gold Coast should be especially careful for that reason.

stockGURU said:
No upfront information about the cost of services. It looks like you register your interest and then get a phone call with the hard sell.
Click to expand...

As of the date of my first post in this thread, and after checking again today, there is no information on the Australian Shareholder Centre website that outlines the cost of their services. As for the hard sell, that's what these companies do. You don't try and soft sell a service with no track record that costs several thousands of dollars. It doesn't qualify as an impulse purchase.

stockGURU said:
Australian Shareholder Centre Pty Ltd was previously known as TruMarkets Pty Ltd, an advisory firm that closed its doors and sold its customers to another business by the name of Iron Claw Investments Pty Ltd, trading as Active Traders.
Click to expand...

From 06/08/09 to 10/12/12, the company was known as TRUMarkets Pty Ltd. From 10/12/12 until the present, the company was known as Australian Shareholder Centre Pty Ltd. The last message on the TruMarkets website before it closed its doors was "TRU Markets is delighted to announce that they are moving all clients over to Active Traders, please call 1300 365 839 to receive your new log in details." So did TruMarkets just hand over their customers to Active Traders as a gift, or was there some kind of monetary exchange involved? I'm guessing the latter. Companies usually don't give away their clients when they close their doors, they sell them to other companies.

As for the details of the business names, this is all public information and can be easily verified by simple web searches.


I am not responsible for content posted on other websites. As for my opinion regarding the motivations of "Chris Harris", it is common practice for individuals associated with companies to register at forums and talk up those companies. It happens here and at many other forums. The posts of "Chris Harris" do not sound like those of a genuine customer and I stand by my assessment of those posts.


The address of Australian Shareholder Centre Pty Ltd is Suite 204, 237 Scottsdale Drive, Robina, 4226. The address of Conquest Markets Pty Ltd is Suite 105, 237 Scottsdale Drive, Robina, QLD, 4226. The sole director of both of these companies is Rhys Edward Jones. So both of those statements are factual, and a matter of public record.

The remainder of my post is my honestly held opinion, and according to the Defamation Act 2005 that is protected speech, as long as it is based upon "proper material". "Proper material" is defined by the Defamation Act 2005 as being material that "is substantially true". As I have demonstrated above, what I posted earlier in this forum thread is both true and accurate. I stand by what I posted back then and I stand by it today. I would not recommend anyone hand over a cent to Australian Shareholder Centre. The company has no audited performance history available for public inspection and we have at least one person in this thread claiming to have lost money by using their services, just as I predicted would happen in my first post.

While I'm posting again, I might as well point out a couple of other facts that people seeking information about this company should be aware of:

  • According to their Financial Services Guide, there is no cooling off period. The following is a direct quote from their Financial Services Guide:
  • "Information relating to the price paid for products and services offered" is considered to be "confidential information" according to section 4.4. of the their Terms and Conditions. So is "information that relates to the marketing and selling techniques used by us", and "information regarding recommendations including outcomes and results." Why is this company so anxious to keep almost everything about the way it conducts business confidential? According to section 4.5 of the Terms and Conditions, if you divulge any of this "confidential information" Australian Shareholder Centre is entitled to seek compensation of a minimum of $2,500 per breach. Why is this company so secretive about how it conducts business?
 
Australian share holder centre

Has anyone invested with this company?
 
All I can say is.......... do not do it!

I joined earlier this year and have lost about $6000. They have a win rate of approx 25 %.

My gut told me not to go with them but they kept ringing me up and eventually offered membership at $4900. I think they seriously misrepresent themselves and am currently looking at legal avenues to recoup my membership cost.

stay away
 
Seriously, why do you guys trust people with your money like that?
I don't think anyone should even trust a proper, established, big institutional, global banking powerhouse and all that - backed fund manager let alone these clowns.

Is it because it's the stock market or financial product mumble jumble that separate your normal sense of caution?

If you are not dealing with the stock market, would you give any business your money just to then give them money so they will make you rich? [if you would, contact me for my bank details please].

I feel silly telling you this but you don't seriously think there are people out there wanting to do nothing but make you rich right?

Making money is supposed to be hard, making money in a field you don't know is almost impossible... so either do something that you do know to make money, or study and get to know the field you want to make money in to then make money- by yourself.

Unless you control the guy, control his paycheck, that without your paycheck he won't be able to catch a train or turn on the lights in his parent's garrage... unless you have that kind of influence on the guy, you cannot hope to be served by him. This applies to fund managers who take your 1-2% no matter how they perform, applies equally to subscriptions' "analysts" who have nothing to lose, really not much more to gain from you, to motivate him to work harder to make you rich.
 

My experience with a similar outfit [may be the same one after multiple ?bankruptcy?name changes] is that their so-called members area provided information that was wholly misleading compared to their results once I spent my money. I would go so far as to suspect fraud [not necessarily in this case, of course] in order to suck people in. Have you any way of going back to verify with other members whether their recommendations were as described? Anyone can post recommendations after the event that look impressive!!

Stay away is my advice.
 
Australian Shareholders Centre

has anyone had dealings with the above
 
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