[ZOSO]

Let me go out on a limb here.

You should get what you pay for. For example if someone is selling a trading method for $49.99 and claims they are having success with it and yet won't prove that, so what. You might pay a small amount of money for, say, a moving average crossover system and write it off. Not the end of the world.

On the other hand, if there is a course/chatroom that runs into the $000s it is imperative that the buyer complete sufficient due diligence to satisfy himself that the people who sell are applying their methods profitably in a real trading account.

This means YOU MUST SEE AND CONFIRM TRADING STATEMENTS FOR AT LEAST 6 MONTHS.

If they have ANY excuse for not providing trading statements, then the process is over, period and just move on and don't look back.

As a point of reference, there was a vendor who charged $6000 for a course and posted extraordinary results on a website claiming the trades were called and taken by the moderator. Over a year, there were only a dozen losing days trading the ES. Many of the members were so impressed, they gave this guy their own money to trade, thinking it was a way to mint money--after all, he seemed to be a great trader, so how could they lose? None of them asked for his personal trading statements to back up the website's numbers.

Well, to make a long story short, it turned out the guy was not a great trader, the website results were truly hypothetical in the strict sense, and most of the members who gave him money ended up taking huge losses on their accounts.

Caveat Emptor.

[brownsfan019]

At the very least I think James should start a 'buyer beware' thread and let all of us post our thoughts in one thread and then sticky it.

[HAL9000]

Well here is my opinion,

a white list would be good, just because betrayers (the other way) have attorneys.

the problems with a white list are,

- not complete (maybe no real problem, it can grow).

- ! what, if somebody looses cash using someone from a white list!


And sometimes, like in trading, you just know in hindsight.

Look at Mr. Bolze. I trusted him, but never was a customer
(would have been against my basic rule; be responsible for yourself).
Everything made sense. Now it might more sense.
I don't trust him anymore now.
But I don't have a clue.

It up to others to judge on him. Its up to judges. Until then he is innocent, and maybe even after.

[Harlequin]

Originally Posted by HAL9000 »

- ! what, if somebody looses cash using someone from a white list!

I think it's inevitable that most will lose even when given good calls. One of my mentors told me that if you give 10 new traders a winning strategy, 5 will try to "optimize" it and end up trading a different strategy, 4 will stop trading it as soon as it experiences a draw down and move on to try and find the next holy grail and only 1 will actually make money.

Originally Posted by HAL9000 »

Look at Mr. Bolze. I trusted him, but never was a customer
(would have been against my basic rule; be responsible for yourself).
Everything made sense. Now it might more sense.
I don't trust him anymore now.
But I don't have a clue.

It up to others to judge on him. Its up to judges. Until then he is innocent, and maybe even after.

As for Dennis I think he gave up the right to presumption of innocence when he did a runner. If they don't catch him and a judge never gets to decide does that mean he was innocent?
BTW he had me fooled too!

[Soultrader]

Thank you all for the input.

Ill put in some more thought into this and will consult a few others before moving forward. There are some good valid points from both sides which makes it quite tough to come to an agreement inside my head. Will keep this thread updated. Thanks again.

[AgeKay]

James, is that the reason I just received the newsletter "The Secret to Beating This Bear Market" by Bernie Schaeffer from Traders Laboratory? You can't be serious suggesting this is a valuable service!??

It's obvious they are targeting gullible inexperienced "savvy investors" (quote from the newsletter).

[Soultrader]

Hello AgeKay, I will discuss this with my marketing agency. Please accept my apologies, I do not handle the marketing side of TL due to time limitations. I appreciate your input and will take it into consideration.