Some Thoughts on HYIP Investing

I usually read as much as I can on the HYIP forums that I frequent, and I follow people's links to their blogs and home pages, reading their "rules" or "lessons" or whatever.

I dont have a set of rules that I follow, or a list of generalizations about lessons learned, mistakes made, and such. I think there are exceptions to every rule.

For example, I belong to a yahoo group where the owner adamantly refuses to invest in any program that "matches" the first 3 parts of an IP address of known HYIP scams. This eliminates a couple of very good programs that happen to be hosted by the same hosting company that does tend to host a lot of scams. Does that mean that everything hosted by that company is a scam? No, it means that it's a popular hosting company.

And the rule about not getting into a program that is either a) younger than xx months or b) older than xx months - take your pick. LOL. While I would not ordinarily join something that was brand-new, I have recently because guess what? I know both the admin and the trader, have known them for a good length of time, and know them to be reliable and honest people.

There are not too many programs that are older than a year. Many of them CLAIM to be older than a year, but you just suddenly heard about them? Highly unlikely in my opinion. I'd steer clear especially of the ones that are email only and claim to be running for more than a year (in most cases they claim 2-3 years of existence).

Programs I have been with for a year - or close to it:

GF
MaximumSurf
StudioTraffic
FXVision (yes, I know they are having trouble at the moment but I know 3 of the partners and
fully believe they will make things right
Oanda (Simple Strategy)
3 private programs that are closed to new investors

More than 6 months:

ITS
GoldClaim
4X-Club


Find people on the forums who make intelligent remarks and dont post all over the place with their referral IDs. If you find someone who says something that hits you (like, WOW, that makes a lot of sense!) then backtrack and see what that person has posted in the past. See what has happened to the programs they liked and disliked.

There are a lot of big "list-owners" who publish a weekly (or daily, or whenever they feel like it) newsletter. Many of them do not have a great reputation for picking winners. They try to pick programs that will last a while, but you have to understand that a lot of their picks pay referral fees. Next time you see one of those newsletters, count how many programs they recommend that DON'T offer a referral fee. Then think about that for a minute or so. :)

I am trying to balance my portfolio out better. In the past Ive had one or two high-paying programs where I am compounding, that tends to compound out of control and throws me out of balance. Then it stops paying, (of course) and I'm bumming.... so I pulled my balance out of FXIG ( nothing has happened with the rumors about them, I am happy for everyone who stayed invested) and I re-allocated it among 5 or 6 other programs. Now I want to compound each of those until they get to the point where I can withdraw $1000 from each. So I will try to keep more in balance now and not let one or two outweigh the rest.

There's a really funny blog I found - netmoney blog. Check it out.