I invested with Bear Commodities in January 2014.
That month, they had a loss of nearly 17%.
Commodity trading is very volatile. But this was particularly rough.
The next 4 months were good though. The loss was recouped and we even got to profitability.

Unfortunately, the losses resumed in June.
As the program lost, I bought additional units so as to cost-average.
The idea being that when the program comes back, you’d have a shorter distance to the break-even point.

But this was (as they say) like catching a falling knife.
It just kept falling.

I stayed in touch with Steven Paitchel regularly.
We discussed what was going on and he remained confident that he could return to profitability.
I was hopeful, but of course discouraged as months went by and he continued to lose money.
I instructed Mr. Paitchel to reduce risk / exposure by not holding any positions overnight.
Originally, he told me that the program was all intra-day (no overnight risk or margin usage).

I reduced my investment from 6 units to 3, then 2 and finally to 1.
Thank goodness!
At the end of October, the program was down 24% from where it ended in May.
Not good.

On November 4th, I was looking at my account.
I saw 2 positions that had been on for at least a day (when I’d given constant instructions to not do this) and they were losing over $6,000. That was 14% of what remained of the account.

My broker and I both contacted Mr. Paitchel.
He said that since things had been going so poorly, he wanted to try something different.

This was in violation of every instruction I’d given for the previous 3 months.
We had also discussed a maximum of 3% loss for a single day (get out if losses reach this amount). So, told him to get out and I closed the account.

Total loss was over $77,000! I did know the risks going in.
And while disappointed, I don’t take exception to most of it.
But the $6,000 lost under conditions that were in violation of my instructions is a problem.

I will be filing a case with the National Futures Association to recover the $6,000.
But also want folks considering investing with Bear Commodities to know what they could be in for. Usually, these services are found in databases on the web.
Fortunately, many people Google names of people and companies before committing large sums of money. So, hopefully they will see this report and give the matter additional thought.
If you do invest with Bear, be sure to add a rider to the agreement that includes the conditions that suit your risk tolerance.