Junior Mining Trader: Legit Luke Burgess Service or Scam?

The Outsider Club’s Luke Burgess recently released a presentation about five gold mining stocks he’s bullish on, and it was essentially a promotion for Junior Mining Trader.

According to Burgess, subscribing to the advisory service is like joining him “on an international treasure hunt” because he routinely travels to “some of the most far-flung regions in the world,” including Albania, Mexico, and Canada.

Burgess says his goal is to find “the next mining jackpot” and that each of the “tiny miners” he recommends offers a potential 10x to 20x return.

I was a bit skeptical but also curious to learn more about the service and find out if it’s legit or not. So I decided to take a closer look at what’s involved. And in this post, I’ll show you what I found to help you decide if it’s worth the (almost) $2k price tag.

What Is Junior Mining Trader?

Junior Mining Trader is an investment advisory service published by Outsider Club and edited by Luke Burgess. And according to Burgess, the core idea of the service is to identify developing trends and get ahead of them to make “make quick-strike gains.”

“The key idea of my alert service, Junior Mining Trader, is to identify developing trends and then get ahead of them. We’re looking to make quick-strike gains.”

As the name suggests, the service focuses exclusively on junior miners, small exploration companies that search for precious metals like gold, or natural resources like lithium, for example. Essentially, any minable commodity.

These companies typically have a market cap of less than $500 million, which puts them in a similar league to a micro-cap stock or small-cap stock, depending on the company.

As Luke pointed out in the gold mining stock presentation that led me to this service, junior miners can be risky investments given their size. And he’s not wrong.

For one thing, the small market cap of junior miners can make them extremely volatile because there’s less money in them. It’s not unusual for small or micro-cap stocks to have significant moves to the upside or downside on a regular basis.

Volatility isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. In fact, it can be a great thing if you bet on the right company. However, therein lies the challenge – choosing the right company.

And unfortunately, many junior mining companies fail. Why? In short, it’s a risky business. As the article I just linked to points out, factors like jurisdiction, drilling results, regulation, financing, and commodity prices all play a role in whether a junior miner makes it or not.

Of course, some are successful. And the upside on those can be enormous if you’re right. So this is a good example of a high-risk, high potential reward type of investing.

What sort of junior miners does Luke Burgess recommend?

According to Burgess, he doesn’t just recommend gold miners. He also tracks junior miners that focus on silver, vanadium, lithium, and copper exploration.

I also recently wrote an article about Luke Burgess’ “Miracle Mineral” stock pick, a small mining company with a phosphate mine in Canada he teased in a recent presentation.

So his recommendations vary.

How does he find these investments?

For the most part, Burgess suggests it’s his “boots on the ground” approach of meeting with prospectors, geologists, and mining entrepreneurs that gives him an edge in the market. However, he also claims to spend time going over drilling results and the like.

“And when I’m not poring over drill results, I’m meeting with prospectors, geologists, and mining entrepreneurs from across the entire world.”

So, to sum it up, Burgess tracks junior miners he believes could be worthwhile. And as a subscriber of Junior Mining Trader, he shares his top investment ideas with you.

In the next section, we’ll take a closer look at how the service works to give you a better idea of what to expect should you decide to give it a go.

How Does Junior Mining Trader Work?

At the core of the Junior Mining Trader service are the “Instant Buy Alerts,” which give you a briefing on Luke Bugress’ latest stock picks and instructions on how to execute each trade.

This includes why he’s recommending a given stock, the name of the company and ticker symbol, and how much he suggests paying for it.

You essentially get all the details on the investment and instructions on how to follow his idea using your broker account should you decide it’s a good idea.

As a subscriber, you can expect anywhere from four-to-ten trade ideas each month, and each trade can last anywhere from a few days to a few months.

And on top of the email or text “buy alerts,” you also receive “sell alerts” to inform you when Burgess suggests selling a position.

Aside from that, Junior Mining Trader subscribers receive Monthly Recaps (AKA newsletters), which provide you with updates on the open positions Luke Burgess has recommended, insight into where he believes the resources market is heading, and a detailed breakdown of any mining stocks he’s been tracking.

Burgess also shares technical details about the miners he’s tracking, including his analysis of the geology of the mines and a breakdown of drill results.

So, that’s the “meat” of the service – the buy and sell alerts and the monthly newsletters, which are located in the Junior Mining Trader member’s area.

There are also several other resources located in the member’s area, including the model portfolio that tracks Burgess’ stock picks, special reports he’s put together, and interviews he’s done with mining CEOs, prospectors, and geologists.

How much does it cost? A one-year subscription to Junior Mining Trader is $1,999, so this is one of the Outsider Club’s higher-priced advisories.

However, the company website states that the service comes with a three-month refund policy, so you can request a refund if you’re not satisfied with the service during your first few months, which is pretty rare in the advisory space.

Who Is Luke Burgess?

According to his profile on the Outsider Club website, Luke Burgess started “paper trading” when he was 11 years old, which led to a career in investing.

And sometime after that, in 2002, he became interested in precious metals investing. The Outsider Club website (more or less) describes Burgess as a levelheaded “gold bug” that values rational thinking over emotional investing.

The site also talks about how he once ran an advisory called Secret Stock Files, a similar advisory to Junior Mining Trader. However, the site says he sold his positions in 2011 before the precious metals market topped, even though many thought he was nuts.

In any case, Burgess says he has learned a lot about precious metals and mining companies over the years by studying, reading, and traveling around the world. He also says he’s “made countless contacts in the mineral and finance world,” particularly in the junior mining space.

How have his picks worked out?

I was unable to find any mention of how his stock picks have worked out or how the service has performed since its inception. However, it seems as though Junior Mining Trader is a relatively new service, so that might be why.

Regarding his prior service, Secret Stock Files, the Outsider Club website claims the portfolio was “sitting on dozens of triple-digits winners” and “several quadruple-digit gains.”

Luke Burgess also claims that he’s used his “connections and resources” to help guide his readers “through some of the greatest gold returns in history.”

So, it’s hard to say for sure how well his stock picks have worked out. But he does seem to be an expert on precious metals and mining stocks. And according to Burgess, his research has been published on sites including 321Gold.com and Kitco.

Is Junior Mining Trader a Scam?

I don’t believe Junior Mining Trader is a scam.

The company that publishes the service, Outsider Club, is a real Baltimore-based company that sells numerous other advisories I’ve reviewed. For example, The Crow’s Nest, Wall Street’s Proving Ground, and Adventure Capitalist.

And as I said, Luke Burgess seems like an expert when it comes to precious metals and junior mining companies.

Of course, that doesn’t guarantee you’ll make money by subscribing to Junior Mining Trader. And given the risk associated with investing, it’s virtually a given you’ll lose money on some trades, especially considering the service is focused on junior miners.

As mentioned, these stocks can be extremely volatile.

In any case, the only way to know how worthwhile the service is would be to sign up and see how it works out over time (without investing more than you can afford to lose). And if it doesn’t work out, you could always request a refund for the service itself in the first few months of signing up.

So my point is, I don’t think Junior Mining Trader is a scam advisory. However, there’s no guarantee you’ll make money, and there are risks involved as with any service.

Bottom Line

Investing in junior mining companies is a double-edged sword, in my opinion.

On the one hand, you could potentially make life-changing gains on one stock if you’re right. However, similar to betting on a micro-cap tech stock, you could also lose your entire investment if you’re wrong because many junior miners fail.

That doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t join the service, but I do think it’s worth considering your goals and investment preferences before diving in.

It’s also worth considering how actively you want to trade because this is a faster-paced trading service – the trades typically last between a few days to a few months.

In that respect, it’s very different from services like Extreme Value, for example, a Stansberry Research advisory I recently reviewed focused on conservative, multi-year investments.

In any case, I hope this post helps you make a more informed choice. And if you’d like to share your thoughts on Junior Mining Trader, leave a comment below.