Gorilla Trades Review

Welcome to our in-depth Gorilla Trades review. We will go though the ins and outs of this stock picking and investment advice service. Gorilla Trades is a stock picking system that has been around for over 21 years now. The longevity of the platform along with their successful track record has helped to bolster their claim as the “market tested approach to choosing stocks for today’s modern investor.”

The system removes uncertainty for its investors by doing more than just picking stocks with tremendous potential. It also tells its members precisely what point to take their profits and to set up their stop loss points. Gorilla Trades claims to offer benefits for every kind of investor regardless of their level of experience in trading the markets. Let’s get into an in-depth Gorilla Trades review.

WHO IS BEHIND GORILLA TRADES?

Gorilla Trades reviews often overlook who is the man behind this successful organization. Ken Berman, a graduate from the University of Michigan, is the man who calls himself “the Gorilla.” He founded Gorilla Trades Inc. back in 1999 and has been the company CEO ever since. In the last few years, this once-almost anonymous individual has become more outspoken on his trading service. And its track record in helping investors of all levels and experience to make better trades in the markets.

Berman’s love of the stock market dates back to when he was a teen. He assumed control over his dad’s investment accounts at this time. Later, Ken started to concentrate his efforts more on swing trading and day trading. In his early successes, he traded biotech up and comers Biogen (BIIB), Amgen (AMGN), Immunex that went on to be bought out by Amgen, and others. Before he started the trading service Gorilla Trades, Ken served as Vice President of Investments at national investment brokers Paine Webber and Smith Barney. During his stints there, he counted over $100 million under management.

Despite this success, Berman did not begin to think about putting his successful trading methods into an organized system as a service for the public until the end of the 1990’s. Over the 18 months before he started his Gorilla Trades program, he tested it out with his own money. During this time, Ken used the system to grow his $250,000 in savings into an incredible $5.5 million.

With the fantastic returns on the system that he had codified under his belt, Berman felt confident to launch Gorilla Trades. Since then, Berman has grown his little internet-based trading company that he ran from a laptop out of a family member’s dorm room in Boston University into among the best-loved and respected stock picking platforms and services on earth.

WHAT IS GORILLA TRADES? IS IT A SCAM?

In short: it is NOT a scam. Gorilla Trades has been delivering high quality investment advice from Ken Berman to literally thousands of individual investors based in more than 55 countries. The service has over 20 years of proven track record in attracting and keeping members. In the last several years, Berman has been invited to offer his financial advice and knowledge to top notch financial publications including Kiplinger and Forbes.

Another unique feature of Gorilla Trades that speaks volumes about its legitimacy and effectiveness is the 30 day free trial. Berman stands practically alone in the investment picking industry by letting you sign up with a name and email address to access all of his members-only areas and trading picks for a whole month. If you are not fully satisfied, then you can cancel and not pay anything. His refund policy also allows for money back cancellation (with a flat fee deducted) during your first month as a paid member. It means that you can try out the Gorilla Trades system with confidence and nothing to risk losing but your time spent following his advice.

WHAT GORILLA TRADES IS NOT

You should know that Gorilla Trades is not any kind of an automatic stock trading service. The system will provide trade recommendations, but you will have to sign up with your own discount broker to place trades. It will not place any trades on your behalf and does not involve any trading robots of any kind.

Gorilla Trades also is not a complete educational portal full of videos and eBooks as with some rival services. While it does offer tutorials and a video and print styled manual on how to use the system, it will not teach you all of the ins and outs of the stock market trading universe. Education is offered in the forms of daily emails and newsletters from Berman “the Gorilla.”

WHAT SETS GORILLA TRADES APART FROM OTHER PRODUCTS?

Gorilla Trades stands apart from its competitors with the claims that it makes and the track record it offers. It has an impressive more than 21 year history behind the service. In this time, it has been giving dependable market and trading advice out to thousands of stockbrokers, investors, and even fund managers.

Gorilla Trades also does not require that you time the market. The proprietary system finds the stocks with the greatest potential in any type of market trading environment. At time of publication, the system website revealed that 93 of their current 96 confirmed stocks were profitable. This is how they claim the mantle of the leading stock picking system on the planet.

WHO IS GORILLA TRADES SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR?

Most stock picking services like Gorilla Trades are intended for people who are relatively or completely new to trading the markets. Berman’s system is somewhat unique in making the claim that it is helpful to investors and traders of all skill levels. They count financial advisors and fund managers (as well as individual investors) among their membership.  That said, the platform is not especially strong on its portal of stock market education. This would tend to put it more in the category for investors who already have a basic knowledge of trading but want to be more successful at doing it.

WHAT YOU RECEIVE WITH GORILLA TRADES

A Gorilla Trades review wouldn’t be complete without a full list of services. And we like that Gorilla Trades is providing many different features when you try out the system under their free 30 day trial or join it for a year or two of the paid membership period. You receive each of the following core benefits of belonging to this well-known and highly respected service.

Gorilla Trades Benefits

• Access to  the Proprietary Member’s Only Website – including tutorials, training, and trade picks
• Daily Stock Picks – complete with all of the directions necessary to fully execute a trade, this includes specific points to buy and sell
• Small Cap Stock Picks – the service calls these Gorilla Picklets and Special Situation picks that focus on lower priced stocks
• Short Picks – as the system identifies stocks with technical difficulties. Gorilla Trades may recommend shorting certain stocks in the right market conditions
• Weekly Option Picks – Gorilla Trades delivers its Option Idea of the Week and clearly explains the exact scenario for trading the option recommended, including the right buying ad selling prices for the calls and the suggested quantities of contracts; the system also offers a bonus simple options strategy for all skill levels to use
• Afternoon Emailed Market Update – every day the stock market is working the service provides a summarizing Midday Market Update that makes sure you know what is moving the markets for the day
• Nightly Delivered Newsletter – the Gorilla is not shy in sharing his opinions and commentary as he reads the markets. This service delivers Ken Berman’s detailed analysis of the action in the stock market for that session and makes the concepts and examples fun and easy to understand
• Real Time Text Message Market Alerts – all subscribers have the option to receive text message notification as a given stock becomes a part of the portfolio, reaches a target sell price, or stops out. There is no charge for this service
• Android and iPhone Apps – relatively new to the service is the Gorilla iPhone app that allows you to stay on top of your trades and updates wherever you are at no additional charge

HOW GORILLA TRADES WORKS

Gorilla Trades uses what the company calls a proprietary Gorilla Trader Radar. This algorithm goes through fully 6,000 individual stocks every night seeking out the ones that meet all 14 of the system’s technical parameters necessary to be considered for a trade. Berman has determined that these criteria are evident in the majority of stocks before they begin to explode to the upside.

Every pick the program provides comes complete with a primary target, secondary target, and a stop loss point. Utilizing the three levels together allows the system to remove the frustrating guess work and strenuous efforts that you have with traditional investing. The Gorilla Trades primary target generally requires several weeks to be reached. At this point, members are recommended to sell out from 50 percent to 75 percent of their holdings when the level is achieved. The precise amount depends on the capital that the member has available as well as the total market environment at the time. Secondary targets typically need several months to be realized. This picture shows what a sample trade alert looks like with the system:

Trading Setup from Gorilla Trades

Typically, the very best single or two stocks that the Gorilla recommends will be sent out as potential buys every evening. Not all highlighted trade ideas will reach their buy levels and become a part of the portfolio in any case. These new Gorilla Picks have to reach their trigger point before the system considers buying them. A trigger involves a stock trading over its high of the previous day before it was listed in the nightly email. It can easily require more than a single day for a pick to be triggered. All listed picks have up to five days from their listing to trade over the trigger price and be an official buy. If the Gorilla Pick does not reach its trigger by the time five sessions have passed, it becomes expired and no longer considered at that point.

The same is true in the cases of Gorilla Trades Shorts. The opposite trigger rule would then apply. You would be looking for a stock to trade below its previous day’s session low for it to be officially triggered. Every new triggered Gorilla Short or Gorilla Pick is announced in the nightly Gorilla email.

The system also has a particular rule regarding Gorilla Picks that gap up over five percent over the trigger price. These picks are not to be purchased period. The program is concerned that despite the show of strength in the stock, there is not enough remaining upside potential to make it worth the risk of a pullback. Subscribers can buy immediately into a stock after it has been triggered. Others will wait for one Confirmation Day to pass to raise the likelihood of the trade being successful. Additional system rules are explained in the trading tutorial video and manual.

Gorilla Trades Review: Recent Performance

As of August 12, 2022, 23 out of 24 Gorilla Trades picks for the trading day finished higher. Of those, four stocks had increases between 2% and 3%, while  the only negative performing stock lost $0.04. And their best performing pick, Mercer Intl. (MERC), jumped 6.3%

Overal, the Gorilla Trades portfolio now holds 23 confirmed picks, of which 20 have unrealized gains. Eight of these stocks have unrealized gains in double digits. With the leading stock, Hershey (HSY), has unrealized gain of 45%.

GORILLA TRADES OFFERINGS

Gorilla Trades offers a number of different features and services to its members. These range from a member’s-only website to a number of alerts and newsletters. We look at these in more detail here next.

Gorilla Trades Members Only Website

The Gorilla Trades website for members offers complete access to all of Ken “the Gorilla” Berman’s trading ideas and materials. This includes tutorials on how to use the system (in video and PDF formats), educational materials. And of course all of the portfolio stocks and trade ideas. We really like that if you sign up for a free 30 day trial. You also receive full access to this section and all of his services just like a regular paying member.

Daily Stock Picks

Most services like this one will offer some form of daily stock picks. With Gorilla Trades, each of these includes detailed instructions on how to open and manage the trade. Every recommended stock pick will provide the precise buy in and sell points in the form of targets and stop losses. You also receive a chart that shows the recent activity of the stock. This is the core of the system in which the Gorilla lets you know exactly what to buy and when to buy and sell.

Options Picks and Strategy

The system also includes a weekly option pick that Gorilla Trades calls their Option Idea of the Week. They provide you with the precise parameters for entering the trade according to the recommendation. This includes the best price to buy and close each call as well as the recommended numbers of option contracts. We especially like that the program comes with a bonus options strategy. It’s simple to use, yet sophisticated enough for advanced traders to admire.

Gorilla Picklets, Special Situations, and Short Picks

Berman’s system is also providing a bonus in the form of Gorilla Picklets and Special Situation Picks. These are small cap stock picks that adhere to the identical criteria of the main Gorilla Picks. The only difference is that they are stocks trading for a lower share price.

Besides these bonus picks, Gorilla Trades gives out what they call Gorilla Shorts. When the market conditions are right or if the system finds a stock with weakness and technical issues. These particular picks will have a significant probability of dropping in share price compared to the risk of shorting them.

Nightly Newsletters and Market Updates

Every night after the close of the markets, Berman delivers his detailed analysis of the daily action in the stock market. He offers it in easy to understand concepts with examples that help you to understand what is really happening. This is not offered in a live video presentation though, but through a nightly email format.

The Gorilla also emails out a short Midday Market Update every afternoon that the stock market is operating. This is intended to update you on the most recent currents impacting the stock market for the day to that point. Both of these emails come with Ken Berman’s famous cutting-edged commentary that does not pull any punches. Members receive real value form his years of experience in interpreting the markets.

Market Alert Text Messages

Members have the choice of receiving stock alerts via text messages whenever a stock becomes a part of the portfolio. You’ll receive stops, or attained target price, and other messages. There’s no extra charge for this valuable service that helps you to stay on top of the recommended trade picks.

Gorilla Trades for Andriod and iPhone Apps

A newer feature of Gorilla Trades is their iPhone and Android phone app. Now not only can you receive text messages on your phone. But you can have complete access via your smartphone to the full members-only site while you’re out or at work. This is also a free feature to members of the service.

GORILLA TRADES EMAIL AND CUSTOMER SUPPORT

All trading systems include some level of customer support. Gorilla Trades provides help via live chat and email primarily. This ensures that you can get technical support or assistance with your membership whether the markets are open or not.

GORILLA TRADES FREE TRIAL, COST, AND REFUND POLICIES

One of the most impressive features of Gorilla Trades for prospective members is their willingness to let you try the service out for 30 full days without having to pay a membership fee. With your name and email address, you get immediate access to all the stock and options recommendations, newsletters, and other members features. And without having to give them a credit card. Proof of the confidence the Gorilla has in his service that he is willing to offer this unique feature. Something that is not often see in the industry.

After the free trial membership, the cost for a single year subscription is $499.95. Two years subscription costs $795, a savings of more than 20 percent by committing to two years upfront. In either case, you pay the entire membership cost for the year upfront.

The cancellation policy allows you to cancel at any point in your first 30 days of paid annual subscription. Gorilla Trades will then refund you the full cost minus a fee of $69.95. In other words, if you pay the $599.95 annual membership cost then you would receive a refund of $530. Multiple year memberships have the full first year to cancel in order to receive a refund. Less 10 percent of the amount that you paid.