Thanks for the input which I've condensed and added!
Jack, did we miss anything?
The
Jack Hershey Method of Gurudom has proven effective for over a decade:
1. Seek out locations like ET that are teeming with newbies and wannabees who have a desperate need to believe
2. Troll for followers with grandiose claims, both trading and personal
3. Recruit flunkies and "seconds in command" to support your unsubstantiated claims of trading success... if this is not possible, simply create sock puppets
4. Peddle an incomprehensible "method" with its own jargon that can only can be learned from you or one of your stooges
5. Speak in riddles and gibberish to keep followers hanging on your every word and believing their lack of success is because they didn't grasp the full meaning of your "wisdom." This also makes the "method" nearly impossible to backtest... but if you do mistakenly state something in clear enough terms for others to test, attack backtesting and whoever ran the tests
6. When exposed as a fraud, disappear until it blows over... reappear later in a thread filled with potential fresh victims
7. Constantly berate "detractors" and the "conventional wisdom"
8. Make up success stories about followers who were willing to "do the work" -- even if in reality they went down in flames
9. Never, ever do live trading or show any proof of success (because there is none)
10. Foster a cult-like atmosphere
11. Keep things fresh by promising new things on the horizon that will never materialize, like books and automated trading platforms
12. Find someone to support you so you can play pied piper full time and not be distracted by trivial matters like having to earn a living