The service that I have received from Schaeffer, particularly from my account rep/mgr John, has been exceptional; with a personable attitude and quick responses, coupled with the ability to listen and... See more
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I got their life time service for $3000. I swear till day not their single call hit the PT. 90% of their option recommendation goes to zero. out of 50 may be 2 or 3 will hit and they will adverti... See more
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I subscribed to a basic service with about 4 recommendations per month. Never received anything except emails trying to sell me more. Salesperson Cody says he tried to call and told me to call. Never... See more
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I have been with this company for only a short while, but my first experience with my Account Manager, John Son promises to be an enjoyable time with positive results in my journey in the world of... See more
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Company details
Written by the company
Schaeffer's Investment Research is a privately held publisher of stock and options trading recommendations headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded by CEO Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, we're celebrating over 40 years at the forefront of the thriving options industry. From our flagship Option Advisor newsletter to our expertly curated array of real-time trading services, we've got options for every investor. Ever since that first Option Advisor newsletter was published back in 1981, it has remained Schaeffer's Investment Research's flagship offering. Of course, we've since expanded our product line quite a bit, with key offerings including a wide array of real-time option trading alert services, premium weekend-trading bulletin services, in-depth educational courses, and complimentary market newsletters. Schaeffer's Investment Research provides a wide variety of trading programs ranging from 1 day holding period to 4 month holding period, aggressive to conservative, options buying to options selling, and moneyness varies by product, too! We offer trading programs that provide real-time entry and exit instructions for the more active trader as well as Sunday-night trading services for those who prefer to set trades outside of market hours or simply prefer not to worry about the market during the week. Our leader, Bernie Schaeffer, is highly regarded by major media outlets for a unique and well-known approach to the market. Bernie and his team of traders have regular media appearances on CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, Nasdaq, Benzinga, CBOE, and PBS’ Nightly Business Report. They are also frequently quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Associated Press, Thomson Reuters, and Yahoo! Finance. Bernie has won numerous awards and accolades over the years, including: Recipient of the Traders’ Library “Trader’s Hall of Fame” award, Recipient of the Market Technician’s Association “Best of the Best” award, Consistently ranked among the top 10 marker times by Timer Digest, Three-time winner of the Wall Street Journal stock picking contest, and was Named “Guru of the Year” by TheStreet. Our website, www.SchaeffersResearch.com, is updated throughout each trading day with breaking market news, analysis, and unusual options activity. Research from the Schaeffer's Investment Research team of in-house analysts is regularly quoted by The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, USA Today, Reuters, CNBC, US News and World Report, and more. It's easy to see why SchaeffersResearch.com has been named a "Forbes Favorite" within the options space. Schaeffer's Investment Research is not like most online investment publishers where all you can do is email in and hope for a response in 2-5 business days. Not us. Not when the market is always on the move and timing is everything. Here at Schaeffer's Investment Research, we believe in quickly and completely supporting our clients. We provide LIVE trading support and we put customer experience at the very top of our priority list. You can always reach a product specialist or our customer support team via phone by calling Schaeffer's Investment Research at (800) 448-2080 and dialing 1. Our team of senior product specialists is available during the trading week between the hours of 8:30 am - 5:30 pm ET, with the exception of market holidays. Prefer to have us reach out to you at a time that is convenient for you? No problem! Click here to schedule a consultation with us! You can also reach the Schaeffer's Investment Research team through Live Chat on our website. If it is outside of our normal business hours, you can always leave us an offline message there and we will get to it as soon as possible via your preferred contact method. Also, if it's outside of market hours, you can always email our general inbox for the Schaeffer's Investment Research team at support@sir-inc.com and one of our team members will get back to you as soon as possible!
Contact info
5151 Pfeiffer Road, Suite 450, 45242, Blue Ash, United States
- 5135893800
- service@sir-inc.com
- schaeffersresearch.com
3.7
Average
183 reviews
No history of asking for reviews
This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative
Replied to 88% of negative reviews
Typically takes over 1 month to reply
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Lots of promise...pressure sales…
Lots of promise...pressure sales tactics...
You will go broke trying all there recomendations
before find one or two winners.
There is always another program they try to sell
you that is "sure" to do better to make up for
your previous mistake of buying in the first place!
Based on 2024 - 2025 year experience.
7 August 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
We’re sorry to hear that your experience did not meet your expectations. Options trading involves significant risk, and individual trade outcomes can vary depending on market conditions and execution.
Our services are designed to provide research, education, and trade ideas based on specific strategies, but no service can guarantee profits. We also strive to ensure that subscribers understand the risks involved before participating in any trading strategy.
If you would like to discuss your experience or any concerns about the service, we encourage you to contact our support team so we can review the matter with you directly.
Schaeffer’s sells more hype than trades…
Schaeffer’s sells more hype than trades — anyone can brag about winners when the losers get buried.
All hype, no consistent results — too many services, poor performance, not worth the money.
12 December 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
We take feedback like this seriously. However, we are unable to locate any record of a customer matching this experience based on the information provided.
Schaeffer’s has been serving investors for decades, and we stand behind the transparency of our services. As with any trading strategy, not every trade will be profitable, and results can vary.
We would welcome the opportunity to review your situation directly. Please contact us at service@sir-inc.com with your account details so we can investigate further.
Worst service I have ever had for…
Worst service I have ever had for investment newsletters. I was charged twice on my Am Ex card. When I called I got the rudest person I have ever spoken to. He told me he would refund one but the other was nonrefundable. That charge was made October 27 and I called about 2 weeks ago but never received a refund. Tried to call today & got no answer.
7 November 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
We take feedback like this seriously. However, we are unable to locate any record of a customer matching this experience based on the information provided.
Schaeffer’s has been serving investors for decades, and we stand behind the transparency of our services. As with any trading strategy, not every trade will be profitable, and results can vary.
We would welcome the opportunity to review your situation directly. Please contact us at service@sir-inc.com with your account details so we can investigate further.
Call Cody Sholler to succeed at options
If you want to succeed at options call Schaeffer's then ask for Cody Sholler. Cody will take care of you because he wants you to succeed. Call him!
5 October 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for the great feedback. We’re glad to hear Cody has been able to provide the guidance and support you value. Our team works hard to help subscribers navigate the options market with confidence, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.
I took 3 of their trades ideas and LOSS…
I took 3 of their trades ideas and LOSS MONEY on all 3. This outfit is a Major Scam. Too, I don't think they offer a rebate for the money they charge for their service. SOOO that says a lot there.
2 October 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
We take feedback like this seriously. However, we are unable to locate any record of a customer matching this experience based on the information provided.
Schaeffer’s has been serving investors for decades, and we stand behind the transparency of our services. As with any trading strategy, not every trade will be profitable, and results can vary.
We would welcome the opportunity to review your situation directly. Please contact us at service@sir-inc.com with your account details so we can investigate further.
This company is very solid!
This company is very solid! They provide great success signals in a timely manner and have excellent customer support that responds quickly. I subscribe to several of their programs and am very happy with all!
5 August 2025
Unprompted review
Happy I did!Where do I begin
Where do I begin? I'm very satisfied with my trading experience
with Schaeffer's Investment Research! Especially with my service advisor, Travis Gabbard and his trusty sidekick Landon Whitehurst.
They have helped me with making and closing trades for gains that I was not able to accomplish with my limited knowledge and experience. Get off the fence and jump in. You'll be glad you did!
30 June 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for the wonderful feedback. We’re thrilled to hear that you’ve had such a positive experience with Schaeffer’s Investment Research. Travis and Landon work hard to provide helpful guidance and support, and we’re glad they’ve been able to assist you as you build your trading experience. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.
They over promise and under deliver
They over promise and under deliver. I bought a couple of their cheap services that didn’t do well then they “upgraded” me to a more costly service that was supposed to do better. It did not. Then they tried to upgrade me again . I said NO!
23 June 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for the wonderful feedback. We’re thrilled to hear about your positive experience working with Cody. Providing attentive guidance, professionalism, and solutions that fit each subscriber’s needs is very important to us. We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and will be sure to pass along your kind words to Cody.
Customer service.
Mr. Benjamin Dolan listened to my problem and explained how it will be solved soon.
16 June 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re glad Benjamin was able to listen to your concern and clearly explain the steps toward resolving it. Providing helpful and responsive support is very important to us, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience.
Ryan has been patient with me as a…
Ryan has been patient with me as a beginner. He knows his way around the options world and is a great teacher. I appreciate how he customizes his recommendations to what I ask for specifically and follows up with me.
13 June 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re glad to hear Ryan has been helpful and patient as you continue learning about options trading. Providing guidance that’s clear, supportive, and tailored to each subscriber is very important to us. We’ll be sure to pass along your kind words to Ryan.
Customer Service Rep included a picture
Schaeffer's Customer Service included a picture of a subscription page that clearly showed the "Auto-Renew" function is "turned off." I had not asked for a picture, but I was very pleased to see it because I keep detailed records of any contact I have with any organization. The picture the Schaeffer's Customer Service Representative included is one of those details I greatly appreciate.The picture is an example of the Outstanding Customer Service I receive from Schaeffer's on a continuing basis.
13 June 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for the kind words. At Schaeffer’s Investment Research, we strive to provide transparent communication and responsive support for our subscribers. We're glad to hear that our team was able to assist you and provide the documentation you appreciated.
Customer service is non-existent except for upsells
I signed up for an introductory options advisory service. Only 1 out of 15 recommendations were profitable. They are supposed to be the "experts."
When I asked for a refund of the unused subscription they told me it was not refundable and they knew it was a lousy service, but if I paid thousands more I could get a "better" service. Customer service was unresponsive. They were not interested in servicing existing customers except to get an upgrade to a more expensive service. Why would I spend another dime with them after being treated so poorly? Any money you give to them you will never see again.
27 February 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
We take feedback like this seriously. However, we are unable to locate any record of a customer matching this experience based on the information provided.
Schaeffer’s has been serving investors for decades, and we stand behind the transparency of our services. As with any trading strategy, not every trade will be profitable, and results can vary.
We would welcome the opportunity to review your situation directly. Please contact us at service@sir-inc.com with your account details so we can investigate further.
John Voss of Schaeffers Research is…
John Voss of Schaeffers Research is very helpful and patient assisting me as a new trader in placing and closing out trades. Highly recommend him and Schaeffers.
29 April 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank you for the great feedback. At Schaeffer’s Investment Research, we strive to provide knowledgeable guidance and responsive support for traders at all experience levels. We’re glad John was able to assist you and will be sure to share your comments with him.
Excellent service
We worked with Cody Frye. Cody Frye is a trusted advisor. He always looks out for our best interests. He is very professional and knowledgeable when handling our investments. His promptness and reliability are excellent. We recommend Cody and Schaeffer's Investment Research without any reservations.
Henry and Bonnie S.
22 April 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thanks so much for your positive feedback, Bonnie! We appreciate you sharing with others :)
I would rate this group lower if I…
I would rate this group lower if I could. I paid $5,000 for their program. Within 5 days, every trade I took lost money. I tried to get a refund, but they told me "no". Then I entered a trade, $5,000 of my own money, the trade was up over 100%, they didn't tell us to close the trade, so I lost the 100% profit and lost my $5,000 investment. So basically, that trade cost me $10,000. That was it! I contacted my credit card company and contested the charge on my credit card. After 3 1/2 months, the money was credited it back to my credit card. While this was taking place, I watched the trade signals they provided. I was amazed at how many "close trade" to preserve capital (meaning the trade was losing money) was sent to their clients. I would run from this company!
***In response to Schaeffer's Investment's response - NO, nobody went over anything with me after purchasing the program. I didn't hear from anyone until I called to question why my trades were losing money. The main person at Schaeffer's was supposed to give me a week to use it then call me back. Never heard back from him. I paid for a service, for the amount I paid for the service, I expected to have you all know what signals to provide. Also, I have many, many notifications stating that we needed to close a position to "perserve capital" Some huge losses were taken during these trades as well, but thank goodness I quit taking the trades.
6 November 2024
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thanks for your feedback and we apologize for the clear miscommunication that occurred here. Our trading programs are not designed to be traded in the way you described trading them. On the day following your purchase, our Customer Experience Manager went over our Quick Start Guide with you that explicitly explains how to allocate to each trade when buying options. Putting $5K into a single trade than has more than a 50/50 chance of losing is 100% not how an options buying strategy can be worked into a profitable portfolio. Sticking with our programs over the long term can yield significant returns with proper trading discipline, but trading for 3 days without a disciplined allocation plan can yield tragic results like the ones you describe. We do wish you the best in your future trading!
Fraudulent Company!
Schaeffer's Investment Research is a fraudulent company. The "sales" staff calls up prospective clients and reports totally invalid returns. I received a call this week of a service with "1025.5% return, YTD." Trading one contract per recommendation would have had an outflow of $4826 and an inflow of $6159 for a net gain of $1333. Not bad, but that is about 28%, NOT 1025.5% However, this was based on a mere 18 trades, not a statistically significant sample size. The SEC needs to investigate this company.
I have the full recording. I will be forwarding it the SEC as part of a formal complaint. Here is what the SEC says about newsletter performance reporting fraud.
"Investor Alert: Investment Newsletters Used as Tools for Fraud
June 2, 2014
The SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy is issuing this Investor Alert to help investors avoid fraudulent schemes that may be carried out through investment newsletters.
...
While many investment newsletters are legitimate, some are used to carry out schemes designed to deceive investors. Such schemes can include:
.
.
.
False performance claims – misrepresenting the track record of the newsletter’s investment recommendations."
I asked "Andrew" the direct question, "What are you saying the return is?" Response: "Year to date a little over 1,025%."
Here are the trades reported to me. You be the judge if the claim of "1,025%" is legit.
Strategy Entry Avg Exit Avg
Straight Buy 6.920 0.000
Straight Buy 1.700 3.660
Straight Buy 6.450 26.490
Straight Buy 0.340 0.010
Straight Buy 1.450 5.800
Straight Buy 0.610 2.500
Straight Buy 2.520 0.010
Straight Buy 4.690 0.010
Straight Buy 1.880 4.500
Straight Buy 1.060 0.010
Straight Buy 3.520 0.010
Straight Buy 5.690 0.010
Straight Buy 0.320 0.300
Straight Buy 1.630 6.920
Straight Buy 3.640 0.000
Straight Buy 1.680 5.890
Straight Buy 1.700 2.980
Straight Buy 2.460 2.490
9 April 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Hi Jeff! Thanks for taking the time to post your feedback. I welcome the opportunity to share the complete overview of your experience here.
Our representative reached out to you to discuss one of our top performing trading programs, Expiration Week Countdown. Despite you being incredibly rude to him, he offered to send you more information on what he was talking about so you could see the trades for yourself (being fully transparent).
He explicitly, and on a recorded line, told you that the service had accumulated a 1,025.5% gain so far this year. He did not EVER say anything about a portfolio return, return on investment, or "return" in general. We have the full recording.
He also sent you the full details of the trade recommendations, listing the gain and loss for every single trade in 2025 and explaining that this report is simply adding up the winning and losing percentage gains from each trade, it is not meant to represent an actual return on investment (ROI). We also included an average gain per position in this report for further clarification.
We clearly identified both the time frame of the trades included in the report as well as the outcome of each trade per our trade instructions. What you are indicating is our misrepresentation is more accurately described as your misunderstanding of cumulative gains as a metric in trading as compared to portfolio returns.
In the interest of transparency to all who read this defamatory review, Schaeffer's recommends that customers utilize the fixed fractional bet system in trading our recommendations. This means customers should allocate a set PERCENTAGE of their available options trading capital to each position recommended. We would never recommend simply buying 1 contract of each recommendation as you would accumulate no profit worth mentioning for all of that work.
Expiration Week Countdown, as of April 10, 2025, has a portfolio return of 82.26% year-to-date. We started with a $12K portfolio on January 1, 2025 and that portfolio size is now $21,870.72 based on a fixed percentage allocation to all trades recommended. This is compared to the SPX that has a return of -7.22% year-to-date. Happy to share this complete track record with anyone who seeks it.
Cody S was great!
Prompt response to my call and delivered on my request right away. Cody S. was great!
28 March 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thanks so much for your feedback, Hutson! It's a pleasure working with you.
Options success
I worked with Eric, and Travis who have helped me "kick-start", my Options Trading Strategies to the next level of financial success!
Thanks !
5 March 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Thank YOU for your support, Dennis! We appreciate you and your feedback!
I have just subscribed to the lightning…
I have just subscribed to the lightning trader and is looking forward to many winning trades. My senior account manager Cody Sholler have assist me with questions I had and also helped me with my long term investment goals.
27 February 2025
Unprompted review
Reply from Schaeffer's Investment Research
Hi Tom! Thanks so much for your feedback. We know you're in good hands with Cody :)
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