Capital Available for Traders

[mickson]

Quote from propseeker:

marketing to investors is prominent on the front page of their website:

"1. Capital providers may take the form of individuals, companies, family offices, hedge funds, institutions, etc.
2. RAPA Capital introduction portal provides investors the opportunity to identify themselves as well as articulate the kind of traders they are interested in investing with."

some red flags for me:

1. their website is clearly marketing to investors, i haven't gone through the thread to see if they are here, however, by the fact they're linking to it, they're indirectly doing so.

2. they're setup outside of the US (australia)

3. their pay structure is setup like a hedge fund. their business plan is setup like a "fund of funds" hedge fund.

4. they do not seem to be legally setup as a hedge fund.

5. whether they are or aren't, they definitely quack like a duck, and as such, they are breaking numerous US securities laws with the above.

6. the top 6 strategies belong to the same person and are all option selling/short vola strategies with short history. this person also happens to be from australia. there are other affiliated persons in their trader list (Gleneagle Securities).

7. they market themselves as having a superior risk assessment algo. short history allocation, on short vola strategies, to "known persons", does not sound like a great risk assessment algo.

oh and

8) as soon as the lead strategist is criticized, he shows up on ELITE TRADER and makes a comment comparing his vol selling strategy to apple. seriously classic.

essentially, it smells like shit. either they're goofs, or they're scammers, it doesn't change the aroma.

There is no where on this site that is calling out for investors to come give us their money. There is no where on this site for people to click a link and go and fill in a form with details to sign up and send us money.

We are a beta version web portal where we have invested our own money, i.e. the money of the principals, and we are looking for talented traders. That simple!!

In future there may well be a way to invest via the website but that is certainly not currently on the cards. Our "parent" company has more than $100m under management and we are quite confident that if we find the correct talent on our portal we will be able to take care of the investment capital, and yes this might be from individuals, companies, family offices ..... etc.

I am not sure how you can assess from a website without any documentation what our legal structure is with regards fees and whether we are considered a hedge fund etc.

When a manager is chosen based on performance on the leaderboard for capital to be provided, we have to assess each and every situation based on its own merits. At this stage agreements are entered into with the appropriate legal and compliance structuring. This is the process that is taking place with Kevin our first capital allocation.

I understand what you are getting at with regards the top 6 strategies. Let me make it 100% clear, I and nobody connected to RAPA have ever met or heard of Kevin Saunder's before RAPA's launch. You can chose to believe this or not. In terms of the allocation for the end of March 2013, Kevin will not be able to qualify for an allocation for all 6 strategies. If he has a completely different strategy then he will qualify.

I think before you can question our risk assessment algorithms and the credentials of our technical and practical ability you need to put forward your credentials of superiority. I have no doubt about the quality of our abilities and we put forward our credentials on the site.

The success of RAPA 5 weeks into its launch speaks for itself, doubters like yourself are all over the place. I sense you are a frustrated trader who cannot make money or have tried to do something of a similar nature and failed. You therefore enjoy the soap box that ET provides you to cast aspersions. If you had the communities best interests at heart you would put forward some suggestions to make us better. We wish to learn from the community how to be better, not waste our time dealing with naysayers.

Oh and a final note the Gleneagle strategies will not be legible for the allocation at the end of March 2013, there is no point in allocating to ourselves, but you were probably thinking we are going to somehow rig it that we are the top 5 positions so that nobody else outside the circle will get the money. I suppose you could come to that conclusion if you wanted to throw negativity around so I hope this clears that up. I welcome you to join the RAPA community and load your performance so we can see how good you are, we have done so with all our strategies good and bad. Who knows you may become our number one man.

 

[propseeker]

Quote from mickson:

There is no where on this site that is calling out for investors to come give us their money...

on the front page of your website you have "Investors" listed under features and you specifically define the types of investors you're interested in taking on. whether you are you aren't right now is irrelevant. you'd have to be an asshole to not see this as solicitation. securities regulators will FOR SURE see this as solicitation.

you'd also have to be an asshole to call a firm that markets for investment capital, manages capital allocations, actively markets for ip in the form of trading talent, and takes a cut of the returns of trader allocations in US SECURITIES as a FUCKING WEB PORTAL.

the level of assholishness increases still, when you despondently wonder how anyone might come to the conclusion that you APPEAR to be OPERATING like a hedge fund (brush up on your reading comprehension), or how anyone might come to the conclusion that you are charging fees when you come right out and say that you take a 50% cut of 2/20 on the FIRST FUCKING PAGE IN THIS THREAD. i'm sure everyone here can name TONS of WEB PORTALS who are setup like that.

it would be incomprehensible that one would be able to bathe themselves in their own asshole, but it seems this is in fact possible, when after all the above, you then feel you have the standing to try and personally insult the person who brought these very relevant facts of due dilligence up? you sense that i'm a failed trader that cannot make money and am frustrated? good strategy, i'm sure everyone who goes through my post history will come to the same conclusion and commiserate with you.

since you decided that being a prick was the best play here, i'm going to give a little back. i'm having my assistant check if you're registered. if you're not, i'm going to have her file a complaint. since you're shitting all over reg d, i'm sure they'll have some words for you regardless. nothing you won't be able to get around, assuming you're decently lawyered up, and can get your i's dotted and t's crossed in time. it will be a pia, cost you some $$$... maybe they don't shut you down.

you said you want some suggestions? 1) next time you step up to the plate, know who you're hitting against. 2) don't EVER play the asshole card in public when you represent a business.... it's not a question of IF, it's a question of WHEN you'll get fucked.

 

[marketsurfer]

Whoa!

 

[m1ckey]

Quote from propseeker:

you said you want some suggestions? 1) next time you step up to the plate, know who you're hitting against. 2) don't EVER play the asshole card in public when you represent a business.... it's not a question of IF, it's a question of WHEN you'll get fucked. [/B]

Step back slowly, don't make eye contact...

 

[chipmunk]

oh dear...what's that smell? It's Bull .....!

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with our team of 3 Ph.D.’s whose expertise range across: trading, investments, economics, mathematics, computer science and psychology.

 

[mickson]

Quote from chipmunk:

oh dear...what's that smell? It's Bull .....!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
with our team of 3 Ph.D.’s whose expertise range across: trading, investments, economics, mathematics, computer science and psychology.

Enlighten us

 

[rwk]

Quote from Chuck Krug:
I don't know why everyone is jumping to all sorts of conclusions.
Quote from rwk:
That's the ET way. About 4 years ago, a fellow named Doug Allen showed up wanting to fund traders. ETers were absolutely brutal with him. I never did find out whether he was legit.
Quote from Pekelo:
I remember him, because he lives in the same city as I do, and I was investigating him. My call is that he was a MLM salesman.... It is safe to assume had he been legit, we would have heard about him...

The Doug Allen on ET said that the MLM guy was somebody else with the same name. I saw no reason to doubt that. There must be a thousand people in the country with my first and last name. I never saw anything about Doug Allen that was other than what he claimed. The same applies to RAPA.

The question I never answered about Doug Allen probably applies as well to RAPA: Is there a hidden agenda? propseeker seems to think RAPA is looking for suckers to invest money. I can neither rule that out, nor see any evidence of it. The RAPA model would seem to be an extraordinarily difficult way, and ET unlikely place, to find suckers with money to invest. If RAPA and Doug Allen have a hidden agenda ... and I am not saying they do ... it is more likely that they are looking for trading ideas.

My trading approach is much more simplistic than Saunders', and mine is mostly automated as well. A monkey could run it. I spend my time doing research or hanging out at the beach. That's why I am not eager to have somebody with RAPA's resumes deconstructing my trades. Paranoia? You bet!

It puzzles me why folks on ET are so quick to call BS or charge fraud based on so little evidence. Dishonesty, ulterior motives, and outright thievery are rampant in the financial world, and there is a lot of dumb money waiting to be invested. But the financial markets are a giant poker game, and what do I care if there are suckers at the table? I might (or not) call BS or 'fraud' when I am sure, but the tone of the heckling at ET has me scratching my head. I feels more like junior highschool pettiness than altruism.

 

[jack hershey]

I failed to be able to register....three times.

Always had the same statement after I changed my password three times due to ineligibility.

Too bad for me.

doees anyone know what A-zo-9 means?

 

[Pekelo]

Slightly offtopic, but let's get the Doug story to reach a conclusion:

Quote from rwk:

The Doug Allen on ET said that the MLM guy was somebody else with the same name. I saw no reason to doubt that. There must be a thousand people in the country with my first and last name.

Come on, give me more credit in investigation journalism, after all, I have just found out all about Karen, the Supertrader.

There is only one guy with that name in the same city. Just like with Karen, when they run a charity fund/organization that is a huge red flag itself. Also, birds of the feather... it is important and very telling whom you associate with. Doug liked other MLM people, even when they were in different business, just like that psychologist woman, whose services he advertised for the would be traders. I guess it is I scratch your business, you scratch my business kind of deal. But anyway...

Here is Doug today, decide for yourself:

http://dougallen.com/about-doug-allen/

"I then went on to do my own events, primarily focused on the psychology, strategies, and implementation techniques that have helped me go from making $5000 a month a 9 to 5 job to creating my own million dollar business."

Now he doesn't say anything about backing traders, does he?

His bio is at the bottom, best part is:

"Allen began by trading his own money in 1997, then created the Douglas Allen RAM Fund in 1998. In 1999 The Douglas Allen RAM Fund generated a 169% return for its investors."

P.S.: I kind of lost interest in RAPA when I realized they only give 10% to the traders...

 

[oldtime]

"only"10% to traders?

2/20 is common, if you can still get that anymore

50/50 sounds fair, unless you want to find the capital, and run the whole business yourself, including all the bookkeeping and reporting