Sinewave's analysis of the signs and symptoms is accurate and to the point. There were other factors involved which made it seem as though he wasa very positive force. For traders at large, and in his immediate community. It was hard to ignore how he was revered by the people in Sevier County. How his wife would bend over backwards to help young families in a jam. Those stories could go on and on, but now we know that it was a carefully constructed image designed to both entice and obscure. His wife's intentions were pure and he used her terribly in this way.
As for the rest of us. Well, they say a conman can only get to the greedy. A lot has been posted back and forth as to whether the investors were to blame for not performing due diligence. I think that the profits dangled in front of them, along with the fact that most of them were brought in based on referrals from friends who had already seen what they thought were profits, caused them to overlook some factors which should have raised red flags. When I read the information sheet and agreement he provided to the investors, available for download on several of the news sites covering this story, I can't help but think that it appears to be written by an illiterate child. I can only imagine that if I were presented with this sort of documentation I would run to an attorney for advice before considering an investment. And you know, we'll probably never know just how many people did something along those lines. That would be his fish that got away. The ones who got hooked had a close friend, previously scammed by Dennis, to encourage them to overlook those inconsistencies. That's part of what affinity fraud is. Same thing Madoff did in taking the country clubs by storm. Word of mouth overcame red flags.
The reason I say "the rest of us" is that you ask about the cohorts. I may have been borderline in that camp, although those of you who have worked with me over the last few years may also recall that I raised a lot of red flags and pointed out inconsistencies too. However one of the most difficult things in these developments for those of us who considered ourselves his friends is this: We had to come face to face with how we were scammed too. Not just the fact that we were scammed, but HOW was it done? If a conman can only get to the greedy, what did he see to hook us in? The answers are varied. In some cases it was just the idea of being validated by someone who had such a positive image of success and philanthropy. In some cases he promised help in supporting specific goals, financial or otherwise. There was always some sort of carrot dangling out of reach. One of the things he used to do with just about anyone he wanted to reel in was he'd ask point blank, "Where do you want to be in 5 years?" And then he'd make it seem as though he was helping you in that direction. The first signs I had that all of this was unraveling was that I started to get phone calls and emails from people who he had left in a lurch. Contracts unsigned, investments in their own businesses never showed up, etc. Deals I knew nothing about. They were contacting me because I was a presence in his chat room last year and they thought I might be in a better position to know how to contact him. But a pattern emerged about how he bound people to him with promises.
And so that's what happened with the cheerleaders and cohorts and friends. Betrayed by someone they looked up to who had promised to make their dreams come true, and who appeared to find special value in them. It's not easy to face that kind of betrayal since you also come face to face with the idea that "wow, maybe I'm not that special after all".
TradingRooms fell into that category, at least partially. The people who were directly involved with that suddenly lost Dennis' support. There was a lot of "he said - he said" around that issue, with Dennis saying that those involved with TR weren't meeting goals or keeping promises. But I think we know how much we can trust his word on things, albeit at this late date.
I had intended to describe the "development" of the first bar trade and got sidetracked a bit there. But hopefully this answers some questions about the behind the scenes stuff and how he operated. At the very least it may be an interesting read.
If any of you attended the workshops Dennis led BEFORE the ones at his house, you'll remember that the First Bar Trade was introduced as a psychological tool. Nothing more. It was just supposed to get you into the market fast in the morning so that you wouldn't get stuck in analysis paralysis. The very basic setup itself, combined with extremely tight money management, limited the risk and provided an opportunity if the market should happen to take off in your favor. While I saw the point to it, I never liked it. Seemed like an expensive tool to me. I guess it might work for some, since we each have various trading fears to overcome during the course of our careers as traders. But he never discussed win rates or made a big deal out of it. It was explicitly "let's just get one out of the way and then it'll be easier to get back in later".
Then several years ago, around the time he started his blog, the FBT had an extended successful run. It was something like 1 loser in 10 days. Dennis popped in to various chat rooms, including one where I was a volunteer moderator (no, not THAT one!) and talked about how great the FBT was that day. People jumped all over it. Mostly the grail seekers who wanted something simple, since that was as simple as it gets. All of a sudden the FBT became a focal point of what Dennis was teaching, and the rest of the stuff based on solid trading techniques fell by the wayside to some degree. I remember telling people in the room that they better be careful with this. The FBT was supposed to be a tool for overcoming psychological inertia in the morning, not some magical key to success. Of course the people who wanted to believe made me out to be the bad guy at that point. And so it goes. Over the years the FBT morphed into something it was never intended to be, and passed along to people who never saw it in its original form. Dennis played this up of course as it gave him the chance to play guru with the info once again. And then if you study his blog posts on it, especially the most recent ones, you'll see that he changed the rules on it and also made it seem as though these were the rules all along. Not so. The reality is that it wasn't working and he had to cover that up by basically saying that people hadn't been executing it correctly all along. At that point I realized that he was going off the deep end.
We still use a few of the tools in my chat room that Dennis used too. Just not in the same way. They are not "his tools" or even his ideas. The Blau ECO is a great indicator and it's been around since well before Dennis Bolze came on the scene. And we certainly don't put any weight on the First Bar Trade.
So if you've read through this, hopefully you've found it at least entertaining and possibly informative too.
MarkB therapy hour over and out!
As for the rest of us. Well, they say a conman can only get to the greedy. A lot has been posted back and forth as to whether the investors were to blame for not performing due diligence. I think that the profits dangled in front of them, along with the fact that most of them were brought in based on referrals from friends who had already seen what they thought were profits, caused them to overlook some factors which should have raised red flags. When I read the information sheet and agreement he provided to the investors, available for download on several of the news sites covering this story, I can't help but think that it appears to be written by an illiterate child. I can only imagine that if I were presented with this sort of documentation I would run to an attorney for advice before considering an investment. And you know, we'll probably never know just how many people did something along those lines. That would be his fish that got away. The ones who got hooked had a close friend, previously scammed by Dennis, to encourage them to overlook those inconsistencies. That's part of what affinity fraud is. Same thing Madoff did in taking the country clubs by storm. Word of mouth overcame red flags.
The reason I say "the rest of us" is that you ask about the cohorts. I may have been borderline in that camp, although those of you who have worked with me over the last few years may also recall that I raised a lot of red flags and pointed out inconsistencies too. However one of the most difficult things in these developments for those of us who considered ourselves his friends is this: We had to come face to face with how we were scammed too. Not just the fact that we were scammed, but HOW was it done? If a conman can only get to the greedy, what did he see to hook us in? The answers are varied. In some cases it was just the idea of being validated by someone who had such a positive image of success and philanthropy. In some cases he promised help in supporting specific goals, financial or otherwise. There was always some sort of carrot dangling out of reach. One of the things he used to do with just about anyone he wanted to reel in was he'd ask point blank, "Where do you want to be in 5 years?" And then he'd make it seem as though he was helping you in that direction. The first signs I had that all of this was unraveling was that I started to get phone calls and emails from people who he had left in a lurch. Contracts unsigned, investments in their own businesses never showed up, etc. Deals I knew nothing about. They were contacting me because I was a presence in his chat room last year and they thought I might be in a better position to know how to contact him. But a pattern emerged about how he bound people to him with promises.
And so that's what happened with the cheerleaders and cohorts and friends. Betrayed by someone they looked up to who had promised to make their dreams come true, and who appeared to find special value in them. It's not easy to face that kind of betrayal since you also come face to face with the idea that "wow, maybe I'm not that special after all".
TradingRooms fell into that category, at least partially. The people who were directly involved with that suddenly lost Dennis' support. There was a lot of "he said - he said" around that issue, with Dennis saying that those involved with TR weren't meeting goals or keeping promises. But I think we know how much we can trust his word on things, albeit at this late date.
I had intended to describe the "development" of the first bar trade and got sidetracked a bit there. But hopefully this answers some questions about the behind the scenes stuff and how he operated. At the very least it may be an interesting read.
If any of you attended the workshops Dennis led BEFORE the ones at his house, you'll remember that the First Bar Trade was introduced as a psychological tool. Nothing more. It was just supposed to get you into the market fast in the morning so that you wouldn't get stuck in analysis paralysis. The very basic setup itself, combined with extremely tight money management, limited the risk and provided an opportunity if the market should happen to take off in your favor. While I saw the point to it, I never liked it. Seemed like an expensive tool to me. I guess it might work for some, since we each have various trading fears to overcome during the course of our careers as traders. But he never discussed win rates or made a big deal out of it. It was explicitly "let's just get one out of the way and then it'll be easier to get back in later".
Then several years ago, around the time he started his blog, the FBT had an extended successful run. It was something like 1 loser in 10 days. Dennis popped in to various chat rooms, including one where I was a volunteer moderator (no, not THAT one!) and talked about how great the FBT was that day. People jumped all over it. Mostly the grail seekers who wanted something simple, since that was as simple as it gets. All of a sudden the FBT became a focal point of what Dennis was teaching, and the rest of the stuff based on solid trading techniques fell by the wayside to some degree. I remember telling people in the room that they better be careful with this. The FBT was supposed to be a tool for overcoming psychological inertia in the morning, not some magical key to success. Of course the people who wanted to believe made me out to be the bad guy at that point. And so it goes. Over the years the FBT morphed into something it was never intended to be, and passed along to people who never saw it in its original form. Dennis played this up of course as it gave him the chance to play guru with the info once again. And then if you study his blog posts on it, especially the most recent ones, you'll see that he changed the rules on it and also made it seem as though these were the rules all along. Not so. The reality is that it wasn't working and he had to cover that up by basically saying that people hadn't been executing it correctly all along. At that point I realized that he was going off the deep end.
We still use a few of the tools in my chat room that Dennis used too. Just not in the same way. They are not "his tools" or even his ideas. The Blau ECO is a great indicator and it's been around since well before Dennis Bolze came on the scene. And we certainly don't put any weight on the First Bar Trade.
So if you've read through this, hopefully you've found it at least entertaining and possibly informative too.
MarkB therapy hour over and out!
