Investors Underground Review 2024: Pros, Cons and How It Compares (2024)

By: Alexander Voigt | We may receive a commission if you click on links in this article.

We may receive a commission if you click on links in this article.

In our Investors Underground review, we will cover everything you need to decide whether the service can prove helpful for your goals. Let’s start with the basics, then discuss the main features of their trading courses and finish with the best alternatives.

Investors Underground (IU) is among the biggest and most popular stock chat rooms. It is an excellent source of information, inspiration, and know-how for investment professionals and newbies.

The service is home to many respected day traders who discuss interesting topics on a daily basis. The project was started by Nathan Michaud in 2008. Michaud continues to be active in the chat room, posting daily watch lists, trade alerts, trading courses, and other educational material.

What Is Investors Underground?

Simply put, one of the most popular chat rooms on the web. Think of it as a virtual networking meeting with online chats and vide lessons. You get to listen to discussions between widely renowned industry leaders and experts. You can even take part and seek advice from seasoned professionals that are otherwise almost impossible to reach out to.

Aside from a chat room, IU is best described as a day trading community and an education service. Why an education service? The platform offers two trading courses targeted at beginner traders to familiarize them with the market mechanics. The first one, Textbook Trading, is a day trading course with video lessons focused on the basics. Tandem Trader, on the other hand, expands on the matter and deep dives in advanced trading strategies and real-time trade analysis.

The service is operated by Nathan Michaud. He is a widely-renowned industry figure with proven credibility and expertise. His Twitter profile (@InvestorsLive) has over 104k active followers.

About Nathan Michaud

Before founding IU, Nathan Michaud had been day trading for five years. In 2004 he founded Investors Live, which later on became Investors Underground. Once Nathan Michaud graduated from college in 2007, he started trading full time.

In terms of trading style, Nathan Michaud is quite flexible. He trades a variety of different stocks by taking both short and long positions. To get a closer understanding of his trading philosophy, just make sure to follow him on Twitter. You will find more about his philosophy, as well as updates about his latest market moves.

Day Trader Community

You may think that a trading chat room of hundreds of people equals chaos. Different trading styles, different opinions, different ideologies – all this may make you wonder whether it is worth paying for. The IU team has solved this problem by creating different chat rooms based on trading style. You can find OTC, momentum trading, and swing trading chat rooms. Similar to Warrior Trading and Bulls on Wall Street, the majority of the Investors Underground audience is centred around the momentum trading style. Or, in other words – finding stocks with trading volume and volatility above average.

The philosophy of Investors Underground is based predominantly on technical analysis. The team is focused on exploring low risk/high reward potential opportunities. To do that, they often rely on short-selling parabolic moves, red/green reversals, ascending triangles, and more. However, the most widely discussed indicator in the chat rooms usually is the VWAP. VWAP is short for the volume-weighted moving average and helps traders smooth price action.

The team trades everything from penny stocks to large-caps. The trading process is pretty fast-paced, which helps the community learn new things quickly and become more efficient in a highly dynamic environment.

To get a clearer understanding of the trading style of Investors Underground, make sure to check the following video:

IU has several moderators, all of whom are active traders. Most of them had learned to trade the hard way and are willing to share their experience. They have different styles of trading, which is what makes the platform a great place to gain exposure to professionals from all fields of trading. It is worth noting that Investors Underground is a very diverse environment with an active community. This is exactly what helped it rise on top and overcome some of its main competitors.

Investors Underground Chat Rooms

Now let’s get to the core of our review – the Investors Underground chat rooms. As we mentioned, there are three different chat rooms dedicated to momentum, swing, and OTC trading. Based on the interests of the community and their prevailing trading styles, the most developed one is the momentum chat room. The other two, however, are also worth checking out – there is enough information for everyone interested in swing and OTC trading to up his game.

So, let’s take a closer look at each of the Investors Underground trading chat rooms and help you find your place:

Momentum Chat Room

Being the biggest and most active one, it is natural that the momentum chat room is diverse. Although every trader in the room is focused on momentum trading strategies, you can expect to see many alternative trading ideas and unexplored opportunities.

Chat Room Rules

If you decide to join the room, you must know that the moderators have some rules that they follow strictly. For example, they don’t allow any off-topic chats. This is understandable as it empowers the harnessing of a goal-driven community. It helps stay on track, maintains your focus, and avoids unnecessary distractions. The chat room is all about business. If you start chatting off-topic or bother members continuously during market hours, you will be muted for 1 day according to their official chat rules (https://www.investorsunderground.com/chat-rules/).

It is worth noting that the momentum chat room is very different from the ones of IU’s competitors. For example, there are many more moderators and key traders. Unlike other chat rooms where there is one key trader that every member follows, here there are dozens of moderators and investors who share alerts and provide insights. All posts from moderators are highlighted in a specific font to make sure they don’t get lost in the queue. The abundance of multiple experienced traders in the chat room has it’s pros and cons.

No Trade Alerts in Investors Underground Chat Rooms

We should also make it clear that those who are looking for alerts may end up disappointed. IU’s chat rooms are more about education and trading principles, rather than direct recommendations and instructions. If you are said to buy ten AAPL stocks, you won’t learn much why exactly this company and why at this particular moment. If you are looking for a stock picking service, then you should read my article Best Stock Picking Services before making your final decision.

Swing Chat Room

The swing trading chat room is managed by Michele Koenig. Aside from Investors Underground, Michele also runs her own service called Tradeonthefly.

The swing trading chat room is still focused on the technical side of things but also often advises on holding stocks for a longer period.

If you want to learn more about technical analysis, then the swing trading chat room is the perfect place to be. Michele Koenig often shares annotated charts, as well as trade ideas. This is very helpful for investors who aren’t able to keep track of the market all day.

OTC Chat Room

The OTC trading chat room isn’t as active as the other chat rooms. This is because it is dependent on the OTC market activity. If it is low, then the chat room is a bit slow. However, when the OTC market picks up, then the activity in the room also grows and you can always switch over to the other chat rooms if you like.

In the OTC chat room, you can find exciting and valuable commentaries from leading traders. The insights will help you navigate the wild environment of OTC markets and will educate you on how to pick and trade penny stocks.

Investors Underground Market Recap Videos

In this section of our Investors Underground review, we will focus on some ideas that can benefit beginner traders. If you are making your first steps, don’t hesitate to explore the trade recaps video lessons. The concept of the trading video guides is to help you keep up with the IU trading style and understand the philosophy behind the trade alerts.

The platform has a rich library with hundredths of video lessons with new ones coming up weekly. You can watch the lessons whenever you have the time. It is advisable to keep notes and try to remember the rationale behind the trade ideas.

If you want an example of what the video lessons are about, check the video below:

Investors Underground Webinars

Aside from the video lessons, the Investor Underground’s members can also take advantage of webinars. The team records several webinars per month. Users are free to ask questions which the hosts address in the show. Aside from members’ questions, experienced traders also comment on recent trading activity, online trading ideas including short selling, and the logic behind particular trades.

At first, it was only Nathan Michaud who recorded the webinars. However, over time, other moderators started to get involved. Today, the webinars are hosted by a variety of professionals with different trading styles, which brings a unique perspective to the discussed ideas.

If you want to find out more about the webinars, check YouTube and the following video:

Alternatively use Google search and type in “Investors Underground webinar” to see some older recordings.

Mentorship

Investors Underground has managed to find a way to capitalize on its abundance of trading talent. Unlike other services where the community follows one trading “guru”, IU promotes education and self-sufficiency. Users can learn from lots of traders, and there even are opportunities for mentorship with Nathan Michaud.

The mentorship in IU comes in the form of personalized support. If you have an issue or a specific trading-related question, you can simply drop a line to Nathan or some of the moderators.

The Traders Lounge.

For traders who need additional support, there is a chat room called “The Trader’s Lounge”. It is dedicated to off-topic discussions and general support. It is an excellent place to ask about things aside trading styles or market events. Nathan Michaud often tunes in and addresses questions by voice messages, videos, or screen sharing.

Before getting in touch with the moderators, make sure to remember a few things. They are very busy and don’t want to be distracted during trading hours. That is why if you don’t receive an immediate response, you should just wait. Also, don’t ask general questions. Be specific and ask the right things. Structure your information well and keep it as short as possible. Bear in mind that the moderators don’t have the time to read page-long explanations and questions.

Investors Underground Beginners

Now let’s see if the service is suitable for you and your trading needs. Although Investors Underground is suitable for complete beginners, it is better if you already have some basic knowledge, especially about day trading. If you aren’t a quick learner, some terms and the jargon may sound like rocket science at first.

That is why it is better to start by learning some free stuff or taking a non-paid course to get familiar with the basics. For example, a good starting point is the Investors Underground free trading course. After you spend some time getting familiar with the field, you can proceed to invest in Investors Underground for more trade ideas.

The day trading service is a good choice for traders who can keep an eye on the market during the trading session. Or, in other words – day traders. Investors Underground should be considered only from traders who are willing to educate themselves and learn new things daily. The platform won’t serve you day trading alerts and trade ideas you can copy on a silver platter. It will teach you how to become self-sufficient, create watch lists, and be able to recognize potentially-profitable opportunities on your own.

How Much Does Investors Underground Cost?

Before concluding the Investors Underground review, we should take a look at the cost of the service. Investors Underground has three membership options divided by the regularity of payments.

• Monthly subscription option costs $297 per month, $3,564/year
• Quarterly one costs $697 per quarter, $2,788/year
• Annual subscription comes at the price of $1,897/year

Although the annual subscription may sound much for a one-time payment, it saves you $1,667 compared to the month-by-month subscription. All plans offer the same features, so you have to choose only based on the cost, and membership duration intention. Those memberships do not include any education package.

Membership and Education

You can also choose to purchase the “Membership and Education” bundle. It provides you with all the perks of standard membership but also gives you access to over 20 hours of educational content.

The Tandem Trader and Textbook Trading package are included and the cost here is:

• $1,297 for the first month, $297/month after the first month, equals $4,564 in the first year, and $3,564/year thereafter
• $1,697 for the first quarter, $497/quarter after the first quarter, equals $3,188 in the first year, and $1,988/year after the first year
• $2,697 for the annual one, $1,697/year after the first year

Once again, the only difference regarding the features included in the Investors Underground package is the overall cost, the regularity of payments, and the time of access to IU Elite. All combi-packages include access to the Textbook course and the Tandem Trader course.

The quarterly subscription to the Investors Underground education and membership package seems to have the best price/value ratio. The minimum investment for this is $1,697 for the first quarter and that’s enough time to find out if it lives up to your expectations. Before making the first payment to Investors Underground, all free resources should be used.

Is It Worth It?

It is safe to say that Investors Underground is a bit pricier than other day trading services on the market. It is well worth it if you are seeking professional guidance and know-how about trading. The ratings on trustpilot.com are a bit mixed, but IU exists for many years now, so it’s proven that they do things the right way.

Official trade alerts and live screen sharing would make the offer complete. Without those features, Investors Underground lacks a bit compared to other services.

The most important thing to do before signing up is asking yourself what you are looking for. Is it day trading stocks, a community, a trading course, or a stock picking service with trades to duplicate?

At the end of our review, we should summarize that Investors Underground is one of the best trading communities you can find. Their focus is being a community to interact with others and to provide trading education material.

Pros

• Established community for over 10 years
• Solid product mix
• Free resources available

Cons

• No official trade alerts by IU, instead trade alerts from thousands of day traders
• No screen sharing at Investors Underground