Trading the OMNI live with O$CAR

In another thread, a broker from NY (now trading out of Vegas), known to his many YouTube fans as "Oscar", was referenced. Since my reply was probably off-topic there, I've started a thread here for discussion.

Originally Posted by firewalker »

Michael Carboni (www.livewithoscar.com) for instance never trades the day before a holiday weekend because he has reason to belief -and as he's been trading for 26 years, so this is obviously based on experience in the field- that market participants behave differently. I think I read somewhere that Fridays (especially after lunchtime) most of the pro's have left the field...

Curiously, I had come across one of his videos wherein he was speaking to a group down under about his services. I couldn't believe it when I saw him say how much he charges for a round-trip futures trade in the US markets (and presumably in US dollars, although it's just as egregious in Aussie bucks too).



Just go to the 1hr 17min mark and you'll see it for yourself.



Fifty (yes, 50) dollars a round trip. No typo or misquote here. In fact, at the 1hr 18min mark on the video he repeated his fee, just in case you didn't catch it the first time around.

Unbelievable.

So my question to everyone in TL land is...for any broker, full service or discount, is FIFTY dollars a round-trip ever justified?

-fs

[firewalker]

Apart from the free vids on YouTube, I don't know him very well, so I don't feel it's my place to condemn anybody.

However, he looks like a decent knowledgeable guy and from what I've seen some of his analysis is pretty good (apart from the indicators which I personally dislike). However, I must say that some elements of the video posted by forsearch have a tendency to sound like the typical "I want to sell you something and you better pick the most expensive service because ... etc etc".

Personally, I'd ask some good questions what those $50 per roundtrip cover, because that's a full 1 ES point you need to make up on each trade. And that still doesn't cover the spread, inherent to any instrument.

Starting from minute 42 up to 43 or so is also interesting. The other guy says "I rather have an expert tell me what to do and where to buy... that's all you need to know"

[brownsfan019]

You need an answer that says "Depends".

And it depends on what you are getting for that $50/rt.

I've watched some of Oscar's videos before but not sure what that $50/rt is getting you. If it's a 'set it and forget' system that makes money, sure $50/rt is doable. If you are doing a lot of the work then $50/rt is expensive.

So, it depends on what that $50/rt gets you.

[myrtleturtle]

you can get an fair idea of his abilities, since he posted youtubes for a long while.
he gets them wrong as well, but he tends to pick the entries and exits fairly well, even pointing to support or resistance on the way to the profit target, and if tou look at the charts, the price seems to stall at these points.

he, of course, gets them spectacularly wrong as well, but the stops should take care of that.
he has reduced the number of youtubes of late.
his site has a forum, and the free calls are generalish, eg, "buy mid-to-low xx".
he has a premium room, which I am loathe to pay for.

he is one of the few people to post his views/calls in advance for a considerable amount of time, and his reputation stands or falls on that.

$50 r/t = a bit steep.

[BlowFish]

Personally if I was a customer I would rather pay a competitive rate for the execution part and pay for any "value added" separately. Just more transparent like that, I guess I am a transparent sort of guy.

[firewalker]

Originally Posted by BlowFish »

Personally if I was a customer I would rather pay a competitive rate for the execution part and pay for any "value added" separately. Just more transparent like that, I guess I am a transparent sort of guy.

Well I think that's actually the case, it seems like you need to pay for both separately...

http://www.livewithoscar.com/index.php?pa=membership

You need to have the Gold membership ($99.95/month), if you want detailed daily recommendations...

Come to think of it, I should've asked money for some of the daily targets I posted in the past. Obviously, some were wrong as well

[johawk]

This commision rate in current times is robbery, if your paying it I'm sorry to say your the sucker in the room. This is what commoditity brokers used to charge 20 years ago when there was very little access and no one knew any better. Plus they actually provided some services. Its a majorily out of date model. These days I consider $2.40 an average rate. If have any negoiating leg to stand on, for ex you do any volume or have potential to do so, you can cut that in half or more.

[johawk]

to be fair i have to revise my thoughts a bit. I just reviewed some of that video and while it is an outrageous some per carr he is also offering some mentoring. So it becomes are you getting your moneys worth for the education. He's dealing with the green of the green so he probably deserves $100 a turn. If you have any experience and like him, use the service but open an acct elsewhere.