Youngevity’s foray into forex trading popped up on BehindMLM’s radar back in January.
We didn’t have a company name but knew Sal Leto was involved. Leto’s past raised a red flag but we didn’t see anything overtly out of compliance.
In July 2022 Youngevity’s forex offering was given the name 8 Minute Trader. A launch date was eventually scheduled for September 1st.
Just over a month later and with the compensation plan now public, BehindMLM revisits 8 Minute Trader for a formal review.
8 Minute Trader Corporate
8 Minute Trader was launched as part of Youngevity. Sal Leto heads it up but his exact corporate role isn’t clarified on Youngevity’s website.
As stated by Leto (right) on a June 29th 8 Minute Trader marketing webinar;
I gave Youngevity an exclusive licensing agreement to my strategies.
We have a system where we can take someone who’s never traded before and get them on a call with us, for five minutes, ten minutes a day, and help people achieve 5%, 10% and 20% gains on their account – in five or ten minutes.
While 8 Minute Trader is buried in a long list of “shop” products on Youngevity’s website, the company itself does nothing to promote it.
Youngevity has a fairly active FaceBook page. I went through each post back to August 1st – not one pertains to 8 Minute Trader.
Considering 8 Minute Trader launched on September 1st, this comes off as pretty strange. At least on the corporate level, it seems Youngevity is hesitant to promote its forex offering.
8 Minute Trader’s Products
8 Minute Trader markets a signals platform aimed at generating “a few percentage per day within just a couple of minutes of trading”.
8 Minute Trader’s trading is done on the US30, also known as the Dow Jones Industrial Average – with a specific focus on the opening hour.
You download this onto your computer, you’ll have the screen set up, you’ll be able to get in and out of the trade by just clicking a button.
The software is MT4, and the signal range provided is purportedly generated by AI.
In a nutshell, if the live chart enters the green area (between the dotted and solid green line), users click “buy”. If the chart continues to trend up, profit is made.
In addition to the primary trading signals platform, 8 Minute Trader also provides access to
- “morning calls”
- “Post 8 Scalper” 24 hour alerts
- “advanced trading psychology academy”
- “digital marketer’s academy”
The Post 8 Scalper is an Artificial Intelligence oriented software application, which runs on the MetaTrader 4 platform.
The software is designed to detect strong trends across the entire spectrum of financial markets, from indexes to forex, to metals and commodities such as Gold and Oil, and even cryptocurrencies.
Customers will also receive a combination of master class level trading education, including groundbreaking psychology classes that are typically utilized for high net worth, expert traders.
Youngevity fails to provide information as to who’s behind the 8 Minute Trader addons, making it difficult for consumers to make an informed evaluation.
8 Minute Trader retails at $599 and then $199 a month.
8 Minute Trader’s Compensation Plan
8 Minute Trader’s compensation plan is a modified version of Youngevity’s compensation plan.
8 Minute Trader’s compensation plan pays commissions on the sale of subscriptions to retail customers and recruited affiliates.
8 Minute Trader Affiliate Ranks
There are seven affiliate ranks within 8 Minute Trader’s compensation plan.
Along with their respective qualification criteria, they are as follows:
- Sales Associate – refer and maintain three active customers
- Senior Associate – maintain three personally referred active customers (not a typo, rank qualification is presented the same as SAA)
- 1 Star Executive – maintain three personally referred active customers, have twelve customers across your downline, recruit and maintain three affiliates and generate 5400 GV a month
- 2 Star Executive – have three unilevel team legs with a 1 Star or higher in them, have thirty-six customers across your downline, maintain three personally recruited affiliates and generate 7500 GV a month
- 3 Star Executive – have five unilevel team legs with a 1 Star or higher in them, have sixty customers across your downline, recruit and maintain five affiliates and generate 10,500 GV a month
- 4 Star Executive – have six unilevel team legs with a 1 Star or higher in them, have seventy-two customers across your downline, recruit and maintain six affiliates and generate 27,000 GV a month
- 5 Star Executive – have nine unilevel team legs with a 1 Star or higher in them, have one hundred and eight customers across your downline, recruit and maintain nine affiliates and generate 43,200 GV a month
Note that for rank qualification, 8 Minute Trader only counts activity across the first three levels of recruitment. That is required customers, GV and recruited affiliates.
GV stands for “Group Volume”. GV is sales volume generated by an 8 Minute Trader affiliate and their downline.
For reference, the initial sale of an 8 Minute Trader subscription generates 600 GV.
The monthly fee GV isn’t specific but, based on the initial fee GV, is believed to be around 200 GV.
To count towards rank qualification, customers must be paying their monthly subscription fee.
Customers can be retail customers or recruited affiliates.
Referral Commissions
8 Minute Trader pays an “up to $135” referral commission on personal sales of an 8 Minute Trader subscription.
Note that 8 Minute Trader’s compensation plan doesn’t explain the “up to” part of referral commissions.
These can be sales to retail customers or recruited affiliates.
Coded Bonus (initial fee)
8 Minute Trader pays $290 in Coded Bonuses on every 8 Minute Trader subscription sale.
The Coded Bonus is rank-based:
- SAAs earn $30
- SRAs earn up to $80
- 1 Stars earn up to $150
- 2 Stars earn up to $210
- 3 Stars earn up to $250
- 4 Stars earn up to $275
- 5 Stars earn up to $290
The coded nature of the bonus kicks in when lower ranked affiliates sell 8 Minute Trader subscriptions.
E.g. you are 2 Star and sell a subscription. You receive your $210, leaving $80 of the $290 Coded Bonus still to pay out.
The system searches upline for a 3 Star or higher ranked affiliate.
- if a 3 Star is found first, they receive $40 ($250 minus $210 already paid out), leaving $40 still to be paid out to a 4 Star or higher
- if a 4 Star is found first, they receive $65 ($275 minus $210 already paid out), leaving $15 still to be paid out to the first upline 5 Star
- if a 5 Star is found first, they receive the $40 amount still to be paid out
In this manner, higher ranked affiliates earn the Coded Bonus on subscription sales by downline lower ranked affiliates.
Coded Bonus (monthly fees)
8 Minute Trader pays a $30 Coded Bonus out of every $199 monthly subscription payment.
- SAAs earn up to $3
- SRAs earn up to $8
- 1 Stars earn up to $15
- 2 Stars earn up to $21
- 3 Stars earn up to $26
- 4 Stars earn up to $29
- 5 Stars earn up to $30
Note the monthly Coded Bonus is paid per rank exactly the same as the initial fee Coded Bonus (details above)
Residual Commissions
8 Minute Trader pays residual commissions via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
8 Minute Trader pays residual commissions as a percentage of $65 set aside from monthly subscription payments:
- Sales Associates earn 8% on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates), 8% on level 2, 7% on level 3 and 6% on level 4
- Senior Associates earn 8% on levels 1 and 2, 7% on level 3 and 6% on levels 4 and 5
- 1 Star Executives and higher earn 8% on levels 1 and 2, 7% on level 3, 6% on levels 4 and 5 and 8% on level 6
Lifestyle Bonus
The Lifestyle Bonus is tied to rank progression over a specified time frame.
- qualify at 1 Star Executive and hold it for 2 consecutive months to receive $300
- qualify at 2 Star Executive the next month and receive $600
- qualify at 3 Star Executive the next month and receive $800
- qualify at 4 Star Executive the next month and receive $1000
- qualify at 5 Star Executive the next month and receive $1500 or $2000 (variance in bonus not explained)
Global Revenue Share Bonus Pool
8 Minute Trader takes 2% of annual subscription volume and places it into the Global Revenue Share Bonus Pool.
8 Minute Trader 5 Star Executives with 500,000 GV for at least nine out of twelve months qualify for the Global Revenue Share Bonus Pool.
The Global Revenue Share Bonus Pool is paid out as two smaller 1% pools.
In the first pool shares are allocated based on annual GV generated by an affiliate’s downline, up until another Global Revenue Share Bonus Pool qualified affiliate is found in each unilevel team leg.
If no such affiliate exists, GV from the whole leg is counted towards shares.
The second pool is divided equally among all qualified 5 Star ranked affiliates.
Joining 8 Minute Trader
8 Minute Trader affiliate membership is tied to Youngevity affiliate membership, which costs $30.
More expensive options are available if an affiliate want to build a Youngevity business alongside 8 Minute Trader.
8 Minute Trader Conclusion
The immediate concern with forex trading MLM opportunities is whether or not they are a securities offering.
A securities offering is present if trading is automated in any way. In 8 Minute Trading, this isn’t the case, with the company clarifying “the software will never make a trade for the user”.
Use of 8 Minute Trader’s platform seems simple enough. You fire up their bot and click either buy or sell when prompted.
And apparently you only do this for a few minutes a day, five days a week.
With income representations like the one above, I’m oddly enough not seeing people rave about 8 Minute Trader. Results from people using 8 Minute Trader seem tepid.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing (I didn’t find anyone complaining of blowing up their account), but I don’t think anyone is getting anywhere near turning $2500 into $130,000 in a year.
One potential compliance issue I’ll raise is 8 Minute Trader being used in conjunction with EnviFX.
Although it’s not overtly featured on Youngevity’s website or in the 8 Minute Trader support docs, I kept running into EnviFX in marketing from affiliates.
Back in July a BehindMLM reader claimed 8 Minute Trader “use(s) EnviFX as their platform”.
This is problematic in that EnviFX is not registered with financial regulators and thus operates illegally.
Additionally, over the past few months, EnviFX has emerged as the platform of choice for at least two MLM opportunities committing securities and commodities fraud; Automated Capital and Adivah Tech.
EnviFX appear aware of their fraud, stating on their website that it “is not directed at or intended to elicit citizens and/or residents of the USA” and “this website does not solicit US Clients.”
Youngevity is a US MLM company and it follows that the majority of its affiliates, including those in 8 Minute Trader, are US residents.
With respect to the MLM side of 8 Minute Trader, there’s a danger that it operates as a pyramid scheme if the majority of subscribers are also affiliates.
8 Minute Trader does nothing to encourage retail over recruitment, counting recruited affiliate subscribers and retail subscribers the same.
As previously stated, that Youngevity doesn’t market 8 Minute Trader to a potential retail customer base is a due-diligence concern.
The good news is as a prospective 8 Minute Trader retail customer or affiliate, basic product due-diligence is easy.
You want at least two months of trading history attributable to 8 Minute Trader’s signals. No excuses or exceptions.
If the person trying to sell you 8 Minute Trader can’t provide that, walk away.