You know, I always wondered why he stopped posting his monthly returns in 2009, since he was making 30K or so monthly at that time. I think I have found the answer.
Quote from Eddiefl:
Yes his commission is low, but that is not the only reason he makes money.
Actually, pretty much that is why he makes money. When you quote his returns minus the savings of his membership, you always use his VERY BEST year.
Why don't we use an average year for Don and see how he would do??
Here we will
assume that on a yearly base he pretty much trades the same amount of contracts, and that was 293K in 2008, so about 1170 returns per day.
Now Jeb quoted the numbers for 2008:
Cost savings of IOM membership $510,051
So if we assume (again) that my estimate of 550K profits in 2009 is fairly accurate and we subtract the savings from that, we get 40K as profit for a trader trading exactly the same style, but without the benefits of membership.
40K on a 2.4 mill account is less than 2%.
What does it mean in plain English? That
Don has to make more than half million a year in profits just to beat the charge of "he only makes money because of his membership." And he should make well over that, because making 2% return on capital isn't what most retail traders are aiming for.
So why did he stop posting the monthly returns in 2009? Because he did the math and realized that he would make only a little above his membership advantage, thus proving the charges. Had he made way over that 500K (let's say 800K), we sure would have heard about it.
Now before some sorry apologist starts to cry, I don't have a problem with Don making good money because of his membership discount. But his students should be aware of the fact, that using average retail commission they are not going to be able to duplicate his numbers and %...
Quote from Eddiefl:
So hats off to him for having a product people want.
All I am saying is Don seems like a decent guy,
Just 2 quick replies:
1. My great granddaddy sold a cancer cure, and that was also a product what people really wanted. Hats off to him too.
2. Mother Theresa was such a decent, sweet lady, but I wouldn't buy any product from her just based on that alone.