Strategic Intelligence Review – Jim Rickards’ Scam?

Strategic Intelligence is an investing newsletter from Jim Rickards.

He believes there's a crash coming that you can prepare for if you buy his service.

Is this true or all one big scam?

We'll get to the bottom of this question in this review.

Additionally, we'll look at the stock picking performance of Jim, look at any red flags I could find and more.

You'll know if Strategic Intelligence is worth it by the time you're done reading.

Let's get started!

Massive Red Flag About Strategic Intelligence

Here's a little secret about the stock newsletter world..

Most are owned by a few big conglomerates.

While many newsletters seem to be independent and operated by independent stock picking experts, that's not the case.

Strategic Intelligence is published by Paradigm Press which is owned by Agora.

Agora is the biggest distributor of investing newsletters and they're also the most predatory.

This company is known for stepping over the line of ethical behavior all the time.

For example, just last year they were fined millions of dollars for defrauding senior citizens with health and financial scams:

You might think a fine this big would change the way Agora operates.. or maybe the shame of scamming elderly people would make them rethink things.

But that hasn't been the case.

Agora makes HUNDREDS of millions per year so a two million dollar fine is nothing to them.

They'll gladly pay that fine if they can continue to market in the same way.

As Truth In Advertising has proven they're still up to their old ways:

All Agora owned publishers run in the exact same manner.

They put out fear mongering stock presentations to scare people into buying a cheap newsletter.

That's Strategic Intelligence.

However, once you sign up you'll be bombarded with promotions to get you to buy the more expensive services that costs thousands per year.

Agora doesn't make hundreds of millions by selling $79 newsletters.

They'll use every trick to get you to spend thousands which includes trying to scare you, manipulate you, confuse you and more.

This is why I rarely recommend an Agora newsletter unless it's really good.

Strategic Intelligence isn't really good.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get Winning Stock Picks

Jim Rickards Stock Picking Performance

There's only one thing that matters when it comes to being a stock picker.. and that's whether you can pick a good stock or not.

So what Jim says about himself doesn't matter unless he can pick winning stocks.

Here's a look at some of his biggest stock picks from the past years and how they've performed:

Gold In October 2019

In October 2019 Jim ran a really whacky stock presentation with the headline "Trump to finish what Reagan started?"

Further he claimed "Trump could reboot the US dollar in a new Mar-a-Lago Monetary Accord."

At the end of the day Jim was just recommending you buy up gold.

He claimed that some sort of agreement Trump made "mathematically requires a $10,000 gold price."

That hasn't come to fruition but gold is up a good amount since this presentation went live.

It was around $1400 per ounce in 2019 and now is over $1800.

Pershing Gold And Midas Gold In November 2016

Much of Jim's audience is older, conservative types - that's really the audience for much of Agora.

There's not too many people that older conservatives love more than Ronald Reagan and jim appealed to Regan back in 2016 to pitch Pershing Gold and Midas Gold.

He claimed these investments were Reagan Gold plays.

The first company teased is Pershing Gold.

Pershing Gold's stock performed very poorly after being recommended:

Pershing was bought in 2019 by Americas Silver and the stock has sunk even lower since then to $0.60.

So overall this was a poor recommendation.

Next up we have Midas Gold:

Midas Gold was eventually bought by Perpetua Resources which is why it's labelled as Perpetua Resources.

This stock could have paid off if you were really patient  - it went from $7.03 to $12 briefly.

But that was 4 years later and that stock struggled for a number of years.

Sandstorm Gold In September 2016

Sandstorm Gold is a popular pick you see from a lot of stock pickers.

This company can be volatile but stock pickers believe it has a lot of potential.

Back in 2016 Jim Rickards teased a "gold based alternative currency" to tease this company.

Here's how the stock has performed:

Overall Sandstorm has been up and down.

The good news is this company pays royalties so a breakeven stock price isn't the worst thing on earth.

Stellar Lumens In January 2018

A lot of stock pickers made the mistake of getting involved in crypto.

There was a lot of money being made and some foolishly thought they could just jump into crypto and profit.

Crypto is very volatile and if you started investing in the last couple of years you've likely lost money.

Jim predicted Stellar Lumens could "make you a fortune in 2018."

However, the crypto has crashed:

Jim recommended this crypto at $0.70 and now it sits at $0.12.

That's a major loss and there's no real signs of recovery happening.

EP Global Communications And Aerojet Rocketdyne In October 2017

In 2017 Jim recommended two stocks for the "biggest defense boom in American history."

The two companies were EP Global Communications and Aerojet Rocketdyne.

At the time EP Global Communications was just a penny stock and didn't have SEC filings or any sort of audited financials.

They were being recommended for their contact lens technology patents.

It's extremely risky to invest in a company when you can't see their financials.

The company seems to no longer exist so this was a completely failed recommendation.

Aerojet Rocketdyne is more well known and they're a defense contractor that makes missile defense vehicles.

Here's how the stock has done:

The stock has done decently well.

It peaked at just over $50 and is now currently at $40.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get Winning Stock Picks

What Is Strategic Intelligence Offering?

Strategic Intelligence is a standard investing newsletter offer and similar to other Agora newsletters.

Here's what you get:

Monthly Issue Of Strategic Intelligence

This is the main part of the offer and what you're paying for.

Every month you'll get a new newsletter from Jim that covers the market and the Biden Presidency - he calls this Biden Bucks.

You'll get new investment ideas in these newsletters as well.

Group Calls

Once a month you'll get access to a call with other members of this newsletter.

On these calls Jim will be covering the markets and giving you updates on stock picks he made.

Model Portfolio

This is the other main part of the offer.

Once you sign up you'll get all the open positions in the Strategic Intelligence portfolio.

This comes with additional information like what price to buy.

Various Daily Letters

Along with everything else you get a bunch of daily newsletters as well.

This includes:

• The Daily Reckoning
• The Daily Proof
• Daily Crypto Hunter
• The Rude Awakening
• 5 Minute Forecast

Strategic Intelligence FAQ's

Still have some questions about this newsletter?

Here's answers to any questions you might have:

1) How Much Does Strategic Intelligence Cost?

There's four different prices you can buy this newsletter for if you find a promotional offer.

The first is $49 per year and this gives you everything I mentioned up top.

The second option is for $79 per year and this gives you some extra bonus reports.

The last option is for $129 per year and this comes with digital and print issues of the newsletter.

If you try to buy Strategic Intelligence through Paradigm Press and not a promotional offer, it'll cost you $299 per year.

This is standard for an introductory investing newsletter.

Remember the main goal is to get you to upgrade to a more expensive newsletter, though.

2) Is There A Refund Policy?

Yes, there's a good refund policy and you get 180 days to get your money back.

There's a catch, though.

Paradigm Press doesn't offer money back refunds on their more expensive services.

So if you fall for one of the promotions here there won't be a 180 day money back guarantee.

The best you'll get is a credit refund that you can use to buy one of Jim's other products.

3) Who Is Jim Rickards?

Jim Rickards is pretty well known and attended Ivy League University Of Pennsylvania Law School and NYU Law.

He's worked with the Pentagon and testified before the House.

So in this regard he's pretty impressive.

However, we're in the stock game.

And the stocks we looked at were decent in some cases and really bad in others.

His best picks are ones that many other stock pickers make like Sandstorm Gold.

I've seen that recommended a bunch of times before.

4) What Does Strategic Intelligence Recommend? 

Most of the stock and assets Strategic Intelligence recommends seem to revolve around gold and natural resources.

He does have other newsletters where he focuses on things like crypto and defense stocks.

But for the most part you'll get different gold play recommendations, mining stocks and things like that.

5) Are There Any Similar Newsletters?

There's no shortage of Agora newsletters and newsletters that focus on natural resources.

Here's some I've reviewed in the past:

• Strategic Investor
• Forecasts And Strategies
• Jeff Clark Trader
• Utility Forecaster
• True Wealth
• Katusa Research
• Money Map Report

There's plenty more too.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get Winning Stock Picks

Strategic Intelligence Conclusion

Strategic Intelligence is just another Agora newsletter.. that's the best way I could describe it.

Agora has hundreds of these newsletters out there and they're really just bait.

They want you in their sales funnel because they've perfected marketing.

They know how to get people to buy more expensive newsletters once they take the bait.

At the end of the day that's all that's going on here.

Strategic Intelligence has below average customer reviews and the picks we looked at earlier weren't that impressive.

There's plenty of alternatives that recommend better stock picks and aren't owned by Agora.

Here's A Better Opportunity

I'd pass on Strategic Intelligence.

The stock picks aren't anything special and I personally don't like recommending Agora products.

The good news is there's still a lot of good places to get stock picks.

I've reviewed all the best places to get good stock ideas.

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