In the past, I have said that danger lurks in the trading world. It exists in many forms, but one mentioned numerous times is the scam that promises high returns for your money. Sometimes, these scams are easy to see; other times, they are skillfully designed and hard to discern.
Over the weekend, I received the following email from a reader. I can’t tell if the reader is seriously slapping me, or if he is just poking fun at what I wrote about gold – “It is a bubble that will burst. I just don’t know when.” In either case, I am not the point of the email. The focus is an “investment” that seems too good to be true.
You know my doctor said the same thing. I was going to die, but he didn’t know when!!!!! Some trader you are. How about American Oil Pension Fund? [AOPF] Any bad things about 18.5% dividends paid quarterly and 10% gain on your investment in a year?
So, I did some research on the AOPF. Funny, but I couldn’t find anything later than 2010, and the information I did find was repetitive and non-satisfactory. In fact, I couldn’t find a single piece of direct information about the AOPF until I found the following information. Now, in this writing, I found several quotes I had seen on sites that referenced the quality of this investment.
But you won’t find this income opportunity through any government agency website… even though it owes its very existence to an act of Congress. Plus – and here’s the kicker – the A.O.P. has historically increased shareholder payouts every year no matter what’s going on in the markets. I’ve been following the financial markets professionally for quite some time now, and I’ve never come across anything like the A.O.P … You see, as I write this letter, the A.O.P. is preparing to distribute its biggest payouts in over 30 years … If you act quickly enough, you can get your name on the list in time to collect this massive distribution.
I am not prepared to claim this is actual fraud, but it sure seems as if it is. Not only could I not find recent information, but I couldn’t find any direct information about the fund. Granted, I only did a cursory search, but if this were such good an investment, why haven’t any of the analysts I follow ever mentioned it?
The other thing that points to fraud is the language in the excerpt above – “you won’t find this income opportunity through any government website … Plus – and here’s the kicker … I’ve never come across anything like the A.O.P. … it’s biggest payout in over 30 years … If you act quickly enough …”
As I said, I am not calling this a scam. Maybe someone out there could fill me in or direct me to a viable site that clearly defines the AOPF, a site owned and put up by the AOPF, for example. As to the statement, “Some trader you are.” All I can say is that AOPF is sold as an investment, number one, and number two, I will never know it all, nor will I ever make that claim.
Trade in the day – Invest in your life …
