Karen the "Supertrader"

Apparently her name is Karen Sue Bruton and she is founder of the charity 'Just Hope International' and is listed as president of 'HOPE ADVISORS LLC' at:

http://www.nfa.futures.org/BasicNet/Details.aspx?entityid=9VPANMdQyO8=

So, she is a real person. However, this does not prove her investment results. Anyone who has watched the TV show 'American Greed' knows it is very easy to create a ponzi scheme and hide it for years, especially if you are good at shuffling paperwork (like a CPA) and keep your personal expenditures low. One of the best ways to stay under the radar is to do charity work. I really hate to accuse this woman of anything in the event that she is the rarefied real deal... but if she is not willing to produce audited returns then she shouldn't be doing trading interviews nor expect any respect from the trading community. Skepticism over her lack of verification is her own fault, and TastyTrade's fault.
 
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I think I'm going to take back what I said about Karen and TastyTrade for now. I spoke with an options trader I respect and he had taken a pretty hard look into Karen's case a while back and said she has averaged around 20% to 30% over the last 5 years which is actually not that unusual for a successful options trader. Whether or not she is taking on too much risk I guess is debatable, but maybe her returns are not as crazy as they first sound. I think maybe the truly amazing thing about her has been her ability to raise capital quickly from clients and increase her trading account substantially to the point where it was not such a stretch to make 50 million in profits.
 
I am leaning toward believing that Karen is legit. I don't want to say anything negative about her. But unfortunately, documents like those cannot prove Karen's investment results. Many investment gurus (who were later discovered as Ponzi schemers) took client deposits and started or contributed large amounts of money to charities. What you need to keep a Ponzi scheme going is; (1) Excellent and timely paperwork to clients that 'proves' you are making money, (2) Self promotion and word of mouth to acquire new investor funds, (3) High level of faith in your progress among clients so they do not seek to withdraw funds, (4) Keep personal spending within reasonable limits in order not to milk funds too hard. If a schemer can do these things, a Ponzi can last for many years. Watch American Greed. It is a real eye opener. I'm not saying Karen is one of those evil doers. She may very well be what she says she is. But if she wants respect from traders she needs to publish audited trading results.
 
This is fantastic. So much additional information here. I always wanted a follow up after I watched the first, then the second, interview.

Hat tip to Xenomorph and piezoe for the links. Thanks!
 
She mentioned she sold delta 5 options and close them off once profit target is hit but the problem is price have to move a great deal to generate a small amount of profit 0.2 cents

How does she do that?
 
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