Ross Cameron Small Account Challenge: up 100% in 4 days

[guru]

@guru, why did you start this thread exactly?

Yeah, I realize I’m the only one defending Ross and this may look suspicious.
But I posted this because of trading challenge that looked good/interesting, and really not much stuff being discussed on ET recently, especially such challenges that every successful trader could be doing. Where are all the successful traders and why everyone here even tries to get into trading business if they don’t believe it is possible to make money from trading?
While I do follow Ross because it’s one category of stocks I’m trading and need to keep an eye on.
Though it really doesn’t need to be Ross and I’d be happy to observe/follow/discuss other such traders. I just seriously don’t know anyone else in this space that seems to be active and successful (imho).
I also like a trader at Seven Points Capital, and generally a few traders interviewed on Chat With Traders. But I’m never reminded of any of them, while Ross pops up on my radar screen every year with his challenges.
And I have no problem with this post being removed and never mentioning Ross again if a few people will ask me to, or if it simply gets canned.

 

[qlai]

in this space that seems to be active and successful (imho).

I started a thread recently where another guy trading low floats but in a very different way from Ross.

Where are all the successful traders and why everyone here even tries to get into trading business if they don’t believe it is possible to make money from trading?

Excellent point.

 

[guru]

I started a thread recently where another guy trading low floats but in a very different way from Ross.

Was is Madaz Money? I remember watching his video from your post and subscribed on YouTube, but he seemed too young and excited, without track record and a strategy I could analyze. I think he made great money trading KRTX long the day when I lost 100% on it shorting it I also see some people calling that guy fake, so it's hard to find positive discussions about traders making money trading.
BTW, I continued shorting that stock through additional trades where couple trades made money the following days. And this is the art of shorting penny stocks (or volatile stocks as this one was expensive), you have to be able to lose 100%, but I trade them with small amounts like options where I also may lose 100% or more. Just need lots of trades.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

I don't follow, but I have watched a lot of his videos. Entertaining guy, but no way would I trust him. I have no doubt about his claims of success in his challenge thing. What I got to ask, though, is if he had more than one account, and just picked the one that DID make crazy profits to post on youtube. Honestly, starting with a 3 figure account and trading it up to $25k, that is exactly what I would do if I wanted to establish myself as a guru. Out of 10 $500 accounts, at least one is probably going to double every week or two in the beginning. There are a lot of ways to game the system for marketing purposes. A small staff of helpers to watch the screeners would help, but is a luxury a genuine small trader will not have. His marketing is great. His trades, at least in his vids, are mostly successful though I have seen him make a few real bonehead plays. COULD a newbie make that kind of profit starting with less than $1k account? Yeah. I think I would buy Powerball tickets, though, TBH, LOL! But it is possible, I am sure someone has actually done it, and it is a great dream. Selling dreams is a pretty lucrative business model.

Trading after gurus has always seemed a bit risky to me. "BUY THIS CAUSE I DID AND I HAVE ALREADY MADE 70% PROFIT ON IT", he says, as he dumps it. LOL! "SHORT THAT CAUSE I DID AND IT IS FALLING LIKE A ROCK", and he snaps up 50k shares just before it bounces off the bottom. How much profit has been made in guru chat rooms for the owner? Not counting the "membership dues" LOL. "I EARNED A 32% PROFIT LAST MONTH AND I SAY LOAD THE BOAT WITH THIS STOCK CAUSE IT IS GOING TO THE MOON THIS AFTERNOON!" LOL! I honestly do not trust anyone who makes a business of guru-ing. Why isn't he trading, instead? It is a full time job if you are serious about it. JMHO.

Still his vids are kinda fun to watch, if watching trades can be considered fun.

 

[guru]

What I got to ask, though, is if he had more than one account, and just picked the one that DID make crazy profits to post on youtube.

Good point and something I was thinking initially. But you’d quickly realize that he trades live and comments on his trades live, and re-posts his videos as soon as the trading day is over, and publishes continuous results every day from the same account. And he repeats this process every 1-2 years.
This is what impressed me about him the most, and possibly initially made me believe that traders make serious money, even if I was duped. I spent way too much time trying to replicate his strategy and never succeeded (except doing the opposite - shorting), but never found serious proof undermining him either.
From my tests I can actually replicate his results during certain periods or even years, so I know it’s possible to do this, but the tests fail during different years or with different tweaks, and often due to lack of granularity. I backtest since 2007 on 20k+ stocks (incl delisted) and can’t even squeeze 1-min level 1 bars with additional data into 256GB RAM. I might need several TB of RAM to test on 1-min level 2 data (and purchase that data), and each backtest could take days or weeks. I’d need years to optimize such strategy. But he makes some decisions in seconds, so even 1-min level 2 data may not be enough for backtests. This is the advantage of human day-trading over machines.

While really this is what I’d love to see done by multiple traders to strengthen my faith in trading, because I’m never sure of some of my own edges either. It’s the lack of other traders being able to make huge profit nowadays that undermines this business and turns people into disbelievers. There are plenty of them on YouTube nowadays, but which ones do have an actual edge and seriously trade every day? At least no one seems famous enough to be recognized by everyone, except some old-timers.

 

[SteveH]

He's probably real from what I've seen. The reason he's grinning so much in the recap vids, even if he has a losing day, is not because the trading was fake to begin with. It's because he still can't get over the fact that 1000's of noobs have handed over $3500+ risk-free money to him first before they lost it all in the market and quit.

 

[qlai]

I think he made great money trading KRTX long the day when I lost 100% on it shorting it

I don't know if you have seen it, but Ross, in one of the videos, commented that he was about to short KRTX and saw hidden buyers on the tape and decided to pass. That's what separates experienced traders - they develop a sixth sense that cannot be easily transferred or backtested.
There's another guy that I like - he is part of Bear Bull Traders, his name is Thor. All these guys are tape readers, so if you don't believe in that, may not be for you, but imho that's where the majority of their edge comes from.

 

[trader99]

I don't know if you have seen it, but Ross, in one of the videos, commented that he was about to short KRTX and saw hidden buyers on the tape and decided to pass. That's what separates experienced traders - they develop a sixth sense that cannot be easily transferred or backtested.
There's another guy that I like - he is part of Bear Bull Traders, his name is Thor. All these guys are tape readers, so if you don't believe in that, may not be for you, but imho that's where the majority of their edge comes from.

I don't know if Ross is real or not, but I think he does have some legitimate skills. Even on a sim account, I doubt newbie traders can even put up those numbers. The other trading guru that I think is legit is Steve Dux. His style is not mine but I've watched his videos. His logic and reasoning for getting into trades makes a lot of sense.

There are a few legit good traders out there. It's just that the vast majority sucks and think that it's impossible because they can't do it.

 

[Sberg]

I had joined Warrior Trading a year ago and am no longer a member because of the following.
You cannot replicate his trades. trading stocks for over 20 yrs and being very successful on long term holdings ,I was never able to sell shares or block of shares on the ask side like he does. I do not believe it can be down with the frequency that he he does day in and day out.
Most important , he advertises more than the leading Democratic presidential candidate.
He is in everyone's email, pop up , you name it. He has too many deals that expire yet he always adds on more time and more options. I do not believe in this type of marketing.
If he really makes the money he say's he does, he is either attracting a lot of customers by advertising , yet no one else that has his sense of security in trading stocks would go out and do that.

 

[guru]

I had joined Warrior Trading a year ago and am no longer a member because of the following.
You cannot replicate his trades. trading stocks for over 20 yrs and being very successful on long term holdings ,I was never able to sell shares or block of shares on the ask side like he does. I do not believe it can be down with the frequency that he he does day in and day out.
Most important , he advertises more than the leading Democratic presidential candidate.
He is in everyone's email, pop up , you name it. He has too many deals that expire yet he always adds on more time and more options. I do not believe in this type of marketing.
If he really makes the money he say's he does, he is either attracting a lot of customers by advertising , yet no one else that has his sense of security in trading stocks would go out and do that.

I recently see him live-streaming summaries of his trading on Facebook and it looks very impressive because I watch the same stocks. He trades in a single account that everyone can see growing every day. And he trades the same stocks that several prop firms trade, so he isn’t the only one. So basically I’m still impressed.
I’m always interested in these trades because I have an algo shorting the same stocks, but since an algo isn’t aware of news & press releases, it mainly shorts any stocks that it sees pumped. I’m still trying to make it trade long, so I’m observing such trades. But indeed at least once I noticed that the volume he traded seemed to be very high and he was able to buy like $50k worth of a penny stock without moving the price. Usually you can’t get too many shares all at the same low price. Though he does watch level 2 and possibly spots some larger blocks. At least that part is suspicious.
And everything you wrote are very good points.
If you or anyone would still have access to any of his live trading, it would be good to post here one of his trades with exact time and qty. This way we could check them against actual trades reported by the exchange(s).