Whenever I say I invest in stocks, I hear the same question: What do you think of Empiricus? Is it worth signing the reports?

Well then. All reports (or at least most of them) that aim at the long term, such as the strategist's word, real estate funds, investment funds, the best stocks on the stock market, cash cows and empiricus portfolio, are very good.

I'm even a subscriber to one of these. Others I only had the opportunity to read one or two monthly reports.

The most intriguing thing is that even though Empiricus seems to have this long-term vision in most reports, it insists on catching some beginning investors with somewhat aggressive marketing.

The last case was practically the title of this text. On this page they say they have an options strategy capable of transforming R$1,500 into more than R$227,000 in just one month — 32 business days to be exact.

Doing a simple calculation, the result is more than 15,000% profit. It is almost absurd to say that this can be replicated in the long term.

To give you an idea, if the “strategy” were continued next month, starting from R$227,000, we would have more than R$34,000,000.

That’s right, 34 MILLION REALS in just “64 business days”. At the end of a year, the investor would have practically ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD.

An unsuspecting person here would certainly think they had found a way to get rich quick. This is very common when it comes to bags, but it's not quite like that.

The strategy of playing with dry options is very dangerous and should not be advised for those who are just starting out in investing.

The stock market is a tool for remunerating capital in the long term. Unless you have a lot of emotional control, have free time all day and know very well how to take care of risk, you won't live on the stock market.

What do I recommend? Read about modern portfolio theory and asset allocation. Invest in direct treasury and ETFs. Your allocation will be primarily responsible for your results.

If you want to go deeper and learn more about the stock market, read about fundamental analysis. Once you understand the concepts well and have the capital to diversify, invest in individual stocks. But never think you know everything.

Still, I always advise Empiricus reports that aim for the long term. But these others who try to show a miraculous way of making money do not seem at all consistent with this vision. That doesn't exist.

Originally published on MEDIUM