Jason Bond is a day trader and a co-founder of RagingBull.com, an education business that “teaches” people how to profit from trading. Real name Jason Kowalik, he previously worked as a public school teacher in New York City for ten years. Riddled with debt, he quit his low-paying job to trade full-time and set up an alert service alongside Jeff Bishop. Over years as his business expanded, he’s paid off a $250,000 debt and has an estimated net worth of $10 million as of 2021.
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FTC Lawsuit
In December 2020, the FTC filed a lawsuit against RagingBull.com, accusing them of defrauding customers out of $137 million over the last three years! You have to admit, selling $137 million worth of tutorials, chat rooms and trade alerts is impressive. People joked about their annoying YouTube ads but clearly they worked. Never underestimate how people are impressed by private jets.
On top of that, it is alleged the company used the coronavirus pandemic as a ploy to sell stock picks to potential customers. The lawsuit raises claims that Jason Bond and Jeff Bishop advertised misleading earnings claims and violated the “Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act”.
The FTC also stated they both incurred “substantial and persistent losses” from their own trading activity and their income is largely from subscription fees not stock trading.
JasonBondPicks.com
JasonBondPicks.com, a subscription-based alert service, was one of his first successful ventures. The website is very promotional and appears to be a slick marketing operation. On the sidebar, he used to show recent big winners to entice new members to join – Under the heading “Recent Results” on the sidebar you could see – $6,100 on China Gerui (CHOP) and $7,510 on PlasmaTech Bio (PTBI). Rarely ever showed losses, only the gains so subscribers joined thinking these profits were possible.
Jason Bond Picks offers a variety of paid services mainly targeted towards beginners:
- Chat room with 10-20 day trade alerts and up to 10 weekly swing trade ideas.
- Long-term trading newsletter – two swing trade ideas per week and up to 3 long-term trades, more targeted at those with full-time jobs.
- The Millionaire Roadmap is a mentorship program for students willing to pay an annual fee of $9,999 – absolutely mind boggling people have paid this amount! The Millionaire Roadmap combines all paid programs into one service. You also get access to a “VIP” chat room, Jason’s live brokerage platforms, webinars and access to Top Stock Picks ETF services run by Jeff Williams.
- Allegedly Kyle Dennis, Nathan Bear and Taylor Conway are all former students and now mentors within the program. Also, fun fact MMA fighter Frank Mir is a student.
Jason Bond Reviews
Trying to find an honest review of Jason Bond online is quite challenging. A key reason behind this normally alert services monitor their reviews on websites such as TrustPilot and Investimonials.
The positive reviews on TrustPilot can be vague and short at times with not much detail provided to give a proper assessment of the service.
Positive Reviews
Two recent reviews have the word ‘Invited” next to them, meaning they were sent an email invitation to leave a review by the company. Managing their online reputation is key to selling more subscriptions. Nothing wrong with asking for testimonials but would prefer more detail on why they like the service. A one line review isn’t helpful for anyone.
It’s also difficult to find honest reviews because of Raging Bulls affiliate program. They offer affiliates lucrative commissions to refer new members. Affiliates will write positive reviews on their own websites without having properly tried the program. I joined the affiliate program during the early days but later quit as I felt uncomfortable promoting the service.
Negative Reviews
Every trade alert service gets negative reviews but in recent times they are starting to pile up. A large part of this is because of the recent FTC lawsuit launched against Raging Bull.
Profit.ly
Apparently, Jason was kicked off Profit.ly as a guru by Timothy Sykes. Rumour has it he was caught deleting trades and lost a significant amount of money which he attempted to hide. Tim Sykes has never 100% confirmed what really happened. I don’t think Jason was too fussed about being let go as he was giving Profit.ly a 30% cut from subscription sales. Sykes helped Jason build his teaching business and took customers back to his own website when he moved.
Ties to Penny Stock Promotion
In the past, Jason had a business relationship with BlueWave Advisors Group, a well-known penny stock promoter. His newsletter picks are unbiased but does send out free emails for which Jason is sometimes compensated. Promoting stocks might be unethical but it is still legal as long as the disclaimers reveal everything. If you’re stupid enough to buy a pump and dump then it’s your fault.
Is Jason Bond a Scam?
I think Jason Bond started out with honest intentions to teach others and at the same time pay off his debt. Gradually over time his marketing became more aggressive and appeared to be more interested in selling memberships. There’s nothing wrong with monetising your knowledge but I feel the education is extremely overpriced. Now with the FTC case shutting down the business, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Most likely Jason will have to payout a large fine or even serve prison time!
James Kelly is my name and penny stocks are my game! Former day trader turned long-term investor with a decade of experience in the market. Over the years, I’ve joined dozens of trading services and I aim to provide honest reviews to help traders make better decisions!
Lisa Stanley says
Thanks for the critique. Your views seem unbiased and honest- well noted.
Brian says
I don’t know This Jason Bond, but I do know Tim Sykes and I’m actually one of his challenge students. These gains that he claims are very reasonable. Providing you study patterns hard and focus on the correct news that acts as a catalyst for the penny stocks to rise exponentially in price. It is relatively easy to make 10% daily. If you have an account of £10k. It doesn’t take a genius to work out your accumulated gains over the course of a year. It does, however, PISS ME OFF, because people don’t highlight enough that if you go into the small cap and penny stock market (very volatile) without having the correct education prior to trading, you WILL LOSE A SHIT LOAD of money.
Kimberly Barkdoll says
Thank you. Most people get shitty because they want to ride off the success and hard work of someone else, or buy their way into it and expect the same. Unfortunately, they never listen to what Tim preaches and that is LEARNING. Even his “millionaire students” will show you massive gains and massive losses and hopefully you can see that they average out.(I.E.- I saw Grittani gain $49k on a stock and then lose $16k on the same stock the same week. You have money to play like that?) Do I pay for the service, Hell No. Am I learning slowly and learning on the cheap side. Yep. Learning as much as I can, from many sources and then picking a plan and sticking to it.
Dave says
Nice review! I’m a very small trader who tries to catch a good IPO every once in a while after review. Need to take more time to review rather than be a fence sitter! Boring job with big family, little time. Penny stocks are intriguing.
Donald Huettl says
It appears to be impossible to unsubscribe from Jason Bond Picks. I locked the credit card to ensure that the auto-renewal fails.
Gregg Humphries says
I paid $750 for the yearly access back in 2017 and wished I hadn’t. The vast majority of JB’s picks were geared towards day traders as opposed to swing traders and I didn’t have a large enough account to avoid pattern day trader restrictions. Consequently I lost a ton of money which I could have done on my own without JB’s help. I emailed him once and was pretty negative. He replied back commenting about how “ungrateful” I was. Ungrateful! I paid your salary, JB. You should have been grateful to me!
Tacotaco says
All these vendors who sell courses and mentorships and signals/picks are the same type of scam. If they were remotely as good as they claim to be they would be working as professional traders at a hedge fund or at a bank, earning boatloads of money. Instead they peddle their products with flashy lies and big words.