Dear Baron and the Elite Trader Forum,
I wish to take this opportunity and express my regret over how I handled some of my responses to the recent posts that were made. I most likely came off as intolerant to criticism/arrogant/pain in the butt... lol... not my intent. Let's take a look at it, there's two sides, I want you to understand the big picture, here goes:
I hope that you will all give me a fair opportunity to explain to you exactly what happened in this forum, so that you may understand my position. You are probably not all aware of the whole story.
First, I have always welcomed honest, constructive feedback on ways to improve my site. I've made dozens of site improvements based on the suggestions that my traders have made over the years, and these continue to be welcome.
Second, several posts were made at Elitetrader.com which were both false (regarding alleged errors at my site, eg trinq, bid/ask info) and misleading. Whether this poster is actually a competitor trying to make my site look bad (unlikely but possible), or simply a new DTU member who didn't understand the content, is not known to me.
Also, another false post mis-identifying me with another person, a Kent Calhoun in Texas, was made. This caused me great concern. (think of how would you feel?)
Third, I definitely should have simply pursued correction of these false posts with Baron and the posters offline, rather than posting public responses, so that these errors could be corrected.
Please realize that my site is my life's work and that I have been working very hard to provide top of the line content to my subscribers. I'm a UCLA alum, had a long corporate career (Ford, Rockwell, Boeing etc) prior to getting into trading, and have solid credentials. Over 140 businesses here in Hawaii have trusted me to be a trainer for them as well (Sheraton, Outrigger, Polynesian Cultural Center, and I've taught MBA courses at local universities here etc).
Rather than seeing some of the other posts that were made as criticism from a positive side, I took it as disapproval of all the hard work I have done over the last three years. I have learned my lesson from this, and will continue to respond to constructive criticism in a positive way. I have hundreds of positive trader emails, yet I reacted defensively to a few other posts, which I shouldn't have.
Traders, this last week taught me very important lessons, and I promise that I will continue to make every effort to provide solid customer service in the future. I will take all constructive criticism as an educational tool.
The only time you'll see my "feathers get ruffled", as in this last week's incident, is when false or misleading posts are made. Making mature, honest, thoughtful and sincere comments and criticisms is *always welcome*. I listen and respond. In the case of some of the posts here, I listened and over-reacted, and in a way that may have offended some.
I do sincerely apologize if I have offended anyone by the way in which I responded.
If you want to post "hey I like xyz's services better than dtu's because xyz has better coverage of swingtrading", or "I like the charts better at xyz" or whatever, types of things, that's fine of course. Making false statements about who I am, or about the content I provide, is not. Fair enough? I do need to protect my business from false statements that are made in a public forum, as many of you would also do in similar situations.
Folks, I do express my regret for the public way in which these things were discussed, in hindsight it may have been more appropriate to simply talk with Baron about this.
Thank you for taking the time to read this rather long post, I hope it clarifies things. People, myself included, tend to rush to make responses, especially in this message board format.
All the best,
Ken Calhoun
p.s. I think all of us, myself included, would do well to give thoughtful consideration to what we say on message boards before we say it. At least, can I ask for honest posts? That's all... hope it's a reasonable request, folks. Thanks all, and good trading. (^_^)
) deserve the credit for. We're all here to help each other and share information. There will be disagreements and differences, but as long as we discuss them intelligently, it will continue to be to everyone's benefit. Thanks!