Snake oil marketing on Elitetrader
- Thread starter candletrader
- Start date
i don't know what you're asking, but it is obvious that if one has a 500K annual income and commits and loses 100 K, this is not nearly as difficult for him than it is for the unemployed individual to lose his entire life savings of 100 K without any means to recover. Isn't this obvious? It is always easier to begin a new business when one is well capitalized than on a shoestring where every choice must be the right one and there is no room for capital eroding error.
) ? Please be nice! This thread is on thin enough ice as it is!I think this thread is worth a relook:
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26634
I am very happy to pay for education. And I have bought several courses and over 50 books. But there are so many frauds in vendor land.
What has started to save me money is asking to see the broker records of anyone who is selling a course.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=26634
I am very happy to pay for education. And I have bought several courses and over 50 books. But there are so many frauds in vendor land.
What has started to save me money is asking to see the broker records of anyone who is selling a course.
DufferDon's post is one of the smartest, but I question the valuation of mentor services, not just his, but all the other attempts. Whether the fee is $300 or $25000 seems immaterial. What is more important is the focus of the education.
If the "mentor" is trying to teach you a system, run.
If, on the other hand, he/she is trying to teach you to be a trader, then discuss the possibility of paying a percentage of your net, perhaps beyond a certain reserve level. If anything, this would help prevent the student from being taken. More important, it would prompt the mentor to stay on his toes and do something more than dish out bumper-sticker bulls**t.
Of course, there's always the chance that the mentor might wind up with nothing if the student turns out to be a complete dunce. But then nobody's holding a gun to the mentor's head, either. There are certain criteria that could be employed to weed out the genuinely incompetent so that a mentor would not be wasting his time on truly lost causes.
If the "mentor" is trying to teach you a system, run.
If, on the other hand, he/she is trying to teach you to be a trader, then discuss the possibility of paying a percentage of your net, perhaps beyond a certain reserve level. If anything, this would help prevent the student from being taken. More important, it would prompt the mentor to stay on his toes and do something more than dish out bumper-sticker bulls**t.
Of course, there's always the chance that the mentor might wind up with nothing if the student turns out to be a complete dunce. But then nobody's holding a gun to the mentor's head, either. There are certain criteria that could be employed to weed out the genuinely incompetent so that a mentor would not be wasting his time on truly lost causes.
I started in July of 2003 trying to learn how to trade. I have hundreds of links in my Favorites for web sites which have something to do with stocks, trading, or investing. I started with zero knowledge.
I have gone through some trial offers and learned quite a bit. I'm still trying to figure out my own trading style, which at present seems to be heading toward swing trading.
One particular trial offer I took, and again, I was just starting out, was for a very conservative money management service. I'm not mentioning the name because the service is reputable. But, I realized shortly after signing up that the vendor had some very expensive additional services which he was trying to sell to his captive audience. I purchased a service that cost about $100 a year, and I was placed on his email list to get offers every other day for an options service that cost $5000 a year. The emails were coming fast and furious, and of course, the big one was just around the corner, so don't miss this opportunity. I quickly tired of that.
Another trial offer I signed up for, a stock picking service, was a great learning experience for me. The service is ok, but the marketing of additional offers was relentless. And very often I seemed to get a specific stock recommendation after it had already jumped up in price, maybe minutes or hours before. That tells you something. Along with that, I put their recommendations in a watch list. Some did poorly, some did ok, and some did better. I finally figured out that they were giving enough recommendations that they could always get a winner in there somewhere and use that in their advertising. When I requested my refund, the customer service was very slow in responding.
This ET site has been a great help to me. I have reads hundreds of posts, followed many threads, sent a few private messages and have gotten some great recommendations, and I really appreciate it.
Because of ET I've become very cautious as to what I will purchase in the future. But, on the other hand, I seem to have so much information now, I'm having a hard time making a decision. I want to find something I can commit to and go from there.
I have gone over several web sites looking for solid information, which I think I can recognize now.
I don't use the service, but I'm considering Ken Calhoun's DayTrading University. He has a business, of course, but his web site has some excellent free info for someone like myself trying to get a handle on trading. I notice he is very cautious, maybe never does it?, about promoting himself on ET. I like that.
Are there any swingtraders (any time frame) on ET, that can recommend some services, whether software, data, or whatever, that is worth having? And, could you point me to some threads on ET for swingtrading that are worth reading.
Thanks.
I have gone through some trial offers and learned quite a bit. I'm still trying to figure out my own trading style, which at present seems to be heading toward swing trading.
One particular trial offer I took, and again, I was just starting out, was for a very conservative money management service. I'm not mentioning the name because the service is reputable. But, I realized shortly after signing up that the vendor had some very expensive additional services which he was trying to sell to his captive audience. I purchased a service that cost about $100 a year, and I was placed on his email list to get offers every other day for an options service that cost $5000 a year. The emails were coming fast and furious, and of course, the big one was just around the corner, so don't miss this opportunity. I quickly tired of that.
Another trial offer I signed up for, a stock picking service, was a great learning experience for me. The service is ok, but the marketing of additional offers was relentless. And very often I seemed to get a specific stock recommendation after it had already jumped up in price, maybe minutes or hours before. That tells you something. Along with that, I put their recommendations in a watch list. Some did poorly, some did ok, and some did better. I finally figured out that they were giving enough recommendations that they could always get a winner in there somewhere and use that in their advertising. When I requested my refund, the customer service was very slow in responding.
This ET site has been a great help to me. I have reads hundreds of posts, followed many threads, sent a few private messages and have gotten some great recommendations, and I really appreciate it.
Because of ET I've become very cautious as to what I will purchase in the future. But, on the other hand, I seem to have so much information now, I'm having a hard time making a decision. I want to find something I can commit to and go from there.
I have gone over several web sites looking for solid information, which I think I can recognize now.
I don't use the service, but I'm considering Ken Calhoun's DayTrading University. He has a business, of course, but his web site has some excellent free info for someone like myself trying to get a handle on trading. I notice he is very cautious, maybe never does it?, about promoting himself on ET. I like that.
Are there any swingtraders (any time frame) on ET, that can recommend some services, whether software, data, or whatever, that is worth having? And, could you point me to some threads on ET for swingtrading that are worth reading.
Thanks.
One of my all-time favorite scams, one which is far more difficult to implement today what with internet communication, is the survivorship scam. The marketer starts with a mailing list and sends out recommendations, some bullish, some bearish.
If the stock or index or whatever rises, he then sends follow-up recommendations to those to whom he had sent the bullish recs (if it falls, he contacts those to whom he had sent the bearish), again with a mix of bullish and bearish recs.
If his recs rise (or fall), he then sends further follow-ups to those to whom he had sent the bullish (or bearish) recs, who by now think this guy is pretty smart. And even though his list is getting smaller and smaller, the fish he is reeling in are more than willing to be scooped up in the net.
Eventually, of course, he has so few people that he can't keep up this facade any longer, so he just starts over with a new list.
This is so simple......no daily blotters = snakeoil......