My experience with Riz International: Elite Membership + Stock Trading Masterclass (November 14, 2022))

This post is for you if you’re curious about stock trading OR already into it and looking for more resources. 

UPDATE (Nov. 14/22): I originally wrote this post (August 12, 2021) long before Riz had any kind of affiliate option. I wrote this post based purely on my own experience with both the Elite Membership (affiliate link; non-affiliate link)(monthly subscription) and the Stock Trading Masterclass (affiliate link; non-affiliate link)(one-time payment for lifetime access), which I pay/paid for with my own money (and continue to do so). However, I now have affiliate links! So I will provide BOTH link options in this post, and you can choose which one you click. Clicking the affiliate link helps me at no extra cost to you.

ALSO! The content of this post has not changed since I originally wrote it, except for “updates” added throughout, which are labelled by date. The only change to the substance of this post is the addition of affiliate link options. I’m happy to be an affiliate now because I was already tooting the Riz International horn, and would have kept doing so even if I never got an affiliate link.

Important note: Nothing in this post constitutes financial advice.

First up, the Elite Membership

I actually joined the Elite Membership first, and I suspect this is what a lot of people do because it’s a lower cost of entry. It’s about $100 USD/month and you get access to the private Discord channel. BUT, you don’t have to commit to that price right away. When the membership opens for enrolment, you can try it for two weeks for only $2.

INSIDE the Discord channel, you get tons of resources! You can actually learn quite a bit just from being in the chat, even if you don’t participate. Riz also links a lot of great resources and shares the trades he’s making (these are not trade alerts, just information for transparency, but you can enter the trade at the same time based on the info shared, obviously at your own risk).

In addition to getting a behind-the-scenes look at Riz’s personal trades, you also get access to “Team Trade Ideas,” which are trades generated by the Riz International team, but not necessarily taken by Riz. 

What I love about the Elite Membership

• • Super easy access to Riz – you can DM him and he’ll respond fairly quickly
  • A great way to feel connected to others who are also into trading and building wealth
  • Amazing resources
  • Elite members get special course pricing 🎉
  • Members and the team share news/updates, so it’s kind of a like a curated news feed
  • Access to Riz’s International Brokers dashboard set-up (a saved setting you download and import)
  • Access to Riz’s TradingView watchlist (a file you download and import into TradingView)

Things to be aware of:

• • I’m a cishet woman, and there are not a lot of us (i.e. women+) inside the Elite Membership. This isn’t a “con” per se, but I’m totally aware of how intimidating it can feel to be one of a handful of women+ inside a very male-dominated membership (which itself is inside a very male-dominated field).
    • RE: this point – I messaged Riz about having a private channel for women+ to create a space where we all felt comfortable shooting the shit the same way all the men/male-presenting members do in the main channel. This was already something he was thinking about doing, and was totally on board. SO, there’s now a private channel for women+, yay! This is NOT about segregation, it’s about encouraging participation for a group of people that may not feel totally comfortable participating otherwise, AND it’s been working. Within this private channel, people are speaking up more, asking questions, and sharing ideas.
      • December 1, 2021 update on this: The activity died down and because the channel was so inactive, it was closed down. I was initially a bit disappointed about this, but it’s true, there was hardly any conversation going on, so I totally understand the decision. I’m still really happy that Riz was open to trying it out, and he’s been vocal about wanting to increase representation of women both in trading, and in his membership 🎉. I understand that this is not an overnight fix, so it will take some work and experimentation.
    • I also generally make it a point to participate in the main channel as my full (cishet) womanly self (my display photo is an artistic self-portrait) as part of my own personal mission to increase the visibility of women+ in trading (and to do so without conforming to how society thinks or expects people to look/show up in this space).
  • If you’re totally new to trading, the Elite Membership (affiliate link; non-affiliate) can seem really overwhelming at first. The chat moves quickly during trading hours, and terms and concepts get thrown around without explanation (because everyone generally knows what they mean). There are beginner/intro resources available, but still, it can be a lot at first.
    • November 14, 2022 Update: There is now a FAQ channel! This channel is super helpful for answering all these beginner Qs, and members are an amazing resource. From what I’ve seen, everyone is pretty welcome to any questions, even super “n00b” ones, so new members don’t need to feel intimidated.

And now, the Stock Trading Masterclass (STM)

I bought the STM (affiliate link; non-affiliate link) with the special pricing for Elite members in July 2021. Having started teaching myself trading in Fall 2020, I would say the first part of the course was more of a refresher and not a ton of new information.

That’s not a negative, but I’d say the course is more targeted toward those who are new to trading or still early in their trading career. I’m definitely still early in my trading career, so while it was some information I already knew, I very much appreciated the structured review and the confirmation that I really was learning and teaching myself the right things (for me and my goals, obviously there’s no one right way to trade).

What I love about the Stock Trading Masterclass

• • Most of my self-learning was related to technical analysis, so I loved the digestible look at fundamental analysis, with a screen share walkthrough of Riz actually going through some numbers.
  • Access to the Riz Alpha Cross EVO indicator in TradingView – you don’t need this to trade and, like everything else, isn’t perfect 100% of the time, but it’s a great tool to have. You get lifetime access to this indicator when you buy the masterclass.
  • Screen share walkthroughs of TradingView and charting.
  • Riz’s “Triforce” approach – his unique combination of strategies, method, and mindset.
  • All the extra resources provided, including a worksheet to guide you through creating your own trading plan, a PDF on understanding business cycles and economic data, Riz’s stock ledger template, and a bunch of other helpful things.

My personal results

I had actually joined the trial of the membership months ago (March 2021), and then decided not to continue; however, when it reopened later, I jumped back in, and have been in ever since mid-May 2021. After about one month in the Elite Membership, my account was up by almost 10%.

I already had some trading knowledge before that, but the mindset stuff I got just from being in the membership, including transitioning from hard to “mental” stop losses (a HUGE mindset shift), really made the difference. I wouldn’t have been able to make that kind of shift so soon on my own.

I’m not saying you’ll get this kind of result or that any particular result is guaranteed. There are no guarantees and everything is at your own risk. I know I would have grown my account regardless, but for me, I know that the Riz International resources, and being surrounded by others committed to becoming better traders, helped me get there more quickly.

Just getting started?

Check out this post on resources for beginner swing traders.

Then… (affiliate links)

1. Create a free TradingView account for your watchlist(s) and charting.
2. Open a demo Interactive Brokers or Questrade account to practice trading.