The closest thing there could be to a winning “strategy” with a High Yield Investment Program (HYIP) would be to understand where in the “pyramid” you are and when it’s time to get out with whatever profit you’ve amassed so far.
An HYIP is basically a form of Ponzi or pyramid scheme. People pay a fee (misleadingly called an investment, but usually it’s not invested in anything) to join, with the promise that they will receive a certain impressive rate of interest, sometimes high but plausible, sometimes wildly unrealistic.
They are paid their interest for awhile, which they often simply keep on account so as to compound their profit. Meanwhile, they are encouraged to spread the word and bring as many people as possible as they can into the program, sometimes being given a financial incentive for doing so. Often these other people are their family and friends that they want to share in their good fortune of finding an “investment” that has paid them such a generous rate of return.
The people running the program pay the participants for awhile until they sense that the incoming money from new members is lessening and the program is losing its momentum. At that point they shut it down and disappear with whatever money they’ve collected.
So who wins? The people who got in early, got paid for awhile at the high interest rates, and got out before the program shut down.
Ironically, the dishonest people who set up these programs in the first place do not always profit. They themselves often misjudge when to take the money and run. They will convince themselves that more money will be coming in for awhile longer to more than cover what earlier members are withdrawing, so they will continue honoring the withdrawals. They can end up giving back all the money, or even losing some of their own, in this fashion.
So in effect, an HYIP redistributes money from the new members to the old members, with the people running the program (if they don’t mistime it) taking a hefty cut in the process. Thus the way to “win” is to get in and out early enough that there will be enough people joining and paying after you for your withdrawals to be honored. So don’t jump in late, and don’t roll your money over indefinitely without taking most or all of it out.
However, the better strategy is to avoid the temptation of the promised high return, and refuse to get involved in such a crooked scheme to begin with.