Frequently Asked Questions

What do all of the icons mean?
  • -Delete
  • -Edit
  • -Close
  • -Has Image
  • -Verified
  • -Has Comments
  • -Has Chart
  • Does Profit.ly accept payment for subscription plans via cash, check & PayPal?

    No, because we have built the extensive features on this new version of the site using outstanding software they only accepts credit cards. If you cannot pay via credit card, we will work with you to figure out a solution, but only for annual subscriptions because we are overwhelmed with new members thanks to the popularity of this new software. Please contact us.

    Does Profit.ly only accept stock trades?

    We are geared towards stock investors and traders, but we also accept option and forex traders and investors.

    I have a technical problem with importing my trades and/or payment questions, who do I contact?

    If you have any questions whatsoever, please contact us.

    Why does Profit.ly not require users to link their entire accounts for maximum accuracy?

    We have learned much from our first year of operations and many users do not want to share all trades, they seem to enjoy "dipping their toe" into the concept of Profit.ly so that's fine... for now.

    While we'd obviously prefer full account verification, we are new and we believe in baby steps since our goals are so crucial to the long-term future of this industry.

    There are many features we'd like to see, what new features are you working on?

    Rest assured, we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking up and creating new features. All will be revealed in time...

    Is it a conflict of interest for Timothy Sykes to both own the site and be on the leaderboards?

    No, he is the reason Profit.ly exists and he exemplifies the kind of brutal honesty and transparency to which all traders should aspire.

    More importantly, Timothy openly admits he is not that great trader of a trader and aside from his $2+ million in trading profits, if you look at his detailed trading statistics, others should be able to leapfrog past him on the leaderboards rather easily aka calling all successful traders, report to the Profit.ly membership office now!

    Will the detailed stats and sorting features be useful to me if I've only made a few dozen trades?

    The detailed stats charts will probably not help new traders very much, but the ability to sort your trades by broker, stock price, share price (and more coming soon...) are important to even the greenest of investors and traders. It's like eating your vegetables regularly to help you grow strong over time.

    More importantly, some of our premium plans at https://profit.ly/plans allow access to Other People's Stats (OPS) and by seeing what works vs. what doesn't, not just for yourself but for other investors and traders too, your education is heightened and your self-sufficiency is increased.

    Most successful traders realize this game is a marathon not a sprint and the sooner you begin analyzing your own and other people's profits and losses in detail, the more successful you will become.

    Do you allow paper trade tracking?

    Currently no, but in the future we are considering this feature. We cannot stress enough how much trading with real money differs from paper trading so we cater to actual traders first.

    Why do so many traders, investors and "gurus" lie about their performance?

    The financial industry will always have its share of weasels, degenerates and losers, but we prefer to focus our precious time and efforts on those who are not necessarily always successful, but who always want to learn from losses and mistakes instead of pretending they don't exist or covering them up with lies.

    EVERYONE, even legendary investors and traders, endures losses every now and then; we have already learned from the top investors and traders on Profit.ly that the key to successful long-term performance is by focusing on minimizing these losses.

    Do you offer auto-trading services?

    Not at this time, our focus is on investing and trading education rather than the more lucrative but ultimately misguided path of creating uneducated blind followers.

    We believe there is more to life than just money and there is much to be said for financial knowledge and self-sufficiency.

    Why did we create Profit.ly?

    Academic studies suggest 90-95% of traders lose and 70% of professional mutual fund managers fail to beat the S&P 500 each year and yet there remains thousands of "gurus", traders and investors who claim online to be consistently profitable.

    But who is ACTUALLY profitable?

    It's time to put up or shut up. Just like Investimonials does for financial products, Profit.ly aims to discover the best traders and investors and weed out the worst.

    Why should people share their profits and losses openly?

    Trillions of dollars are spent each year on management fees, subscriptions, DVDs, newsletters and coaching on people claiming to be consistently profitable, but academic studies and experience teaches us trusting anyone in this industry is very dangerous. You can help make this industry transparent and great. There are honest and consistently profitable traders and investors out there, we just need to find them.

    Why does Profit.ly have its share of critics?

    Our founder Timothy Sykes has made more than a few enemies exposing fraud and misinformation in the penny stock and online guru industries so people will rip on any and all of his projects.

    We've gotten used to that... and his attitude problems... and we remain focused on our goal of true trading transparency to improve not just individual investors and traders, but the entire malfunctioning industry called finance.

    Why has nobody thought of this before?

    It is not in ANYBODY's business interest for the online financial industry to be fully transparent...under performing and non-credible funds, advisors, newsletters, websites and "gurus" would go under faster than you can say Bernie Madoff.

    And that's what we're hoping to accomplish--to cut through all the BS and weed out the incompetents and liars... because that mission is just and right.

    How does Profit.ly weed out liars?

    We just added the Bernie Madoff feature so the community can weed out those who they think are lying and you can now post screenshots of your trades or even verify them via our broker import feature. We will not tolerate liars and frauds on our site, they can go post on websites like TheLion and EliteTrader that tolerate such behavior.

    If you don't believe a trade, click this Madoff icon and it will be noted... this makes the Profitly community self-policing.

    Profit.ly members can rise above such suspicion by using the broker connect tool to verify their trades, thus wiping away any doubt that their trades are real.

    I am neither a trader nor investor, but I love Profit.ly's goals, how can I help?

    Cool -- tell all your colleagues, friends and family about this site, and encourage them to tell everyone they know too... through this kind of word-of-mouth we hope to reach EVERY trader and investor and eventually you will help us pull this industry kicking and fighting into FULL transparency... and increased profitability.

    How can I delete a trade?

    View your individual trade by either clicking the amount or the time that it was posted. Once you are viewing the single trade, you can click the trash can icon to delete the trade. It looks like this:

    How can I trust Profit.ly's broker connect?

    While we do ask for your credentials we do not store them in any way. We use bank level security with SSL encryption. Our different Brokerage connections are used in order to download and verify your trades. All of these methods are read-only so you can't transfer money or place trades using our website.

    If you're not fully comfortable with this process, simply don't verify! We do not require verified trades and you can always post screenshots which are risk-free. That said, the analytic and sorting features work best with verified trades.

    Refund policy

    Because premium members immediately benefit from the knowledge of the stats, analytics and premium newsletter content they purchase, we do not give refunds. You should recognize that investing and trading is a marathon, not a sprint so every last piece of information that can help you learn along the way and give you "an edge" over your competitors is worth investing in, especially when that information costs less per month than a night out of dinner and drinks aka invest in your education!