Incorrect, I do not overlook it. In contrast, you pretend this guru problem is isolated to book authors when such is just a minor problem in comparison to the overall guru problem and I only say such because in all the conversations I've had with you about this issue...you have never replied with an acknowledgment about forum/blogs/stocktwits/chat room gurus...not a single reply from you about the biggest group of gurus.
Therefore, I don't know why you're ignoring the biggest group of gurus because if you want to regulate book authors that spew trading advice that some say is good while others say is bad...you need to regulate all gurus and not a small group of them called book authors.
In fact, there's many at this forum that are consistently named as
gurus or accused of having some kind'uv cult like status. Most of them consistently give trading advice and only a small percentage of them actually give any kind of verification. Why would they get a free pass and book authors don't get a free pass considering its the
same advice ?
Today, here at the forum, I saw three trading advice messages by people that I consider to be gurus or having a large following of believers and there's no focus by them on risk management nor did they mention any disclaimer statements about the high risks of trading. Yet, I've seen similar like advice by book authors about the exact same topic. Therefore, you can not regulate one and not the other when the advice is the same or similar like.
Simply, don't underestimate the fact that free advice can be equally damaging if the advice is bad advice and someone then follows (acts) on the advice. In addition, don't be naive in thinking that free info can not be
manipulating or more manipulating considering there are too many legal cases involving such that proves that an anonymous user can post messages online under the facade of "helping" or "instructional" for any reader to see and followed the advice.
Do you think I'm joking ? You have now stated that name titles or backgrounds can be used to manipulate other traders. There currently are two trading forums that label members with titles like "Elite Member", "Master Trader", "Veteran Trader" and so on along with allowing members to post their academic or trading background in their profiles. Do you think that's manipulating and its all for
free. Seriously, would you listen to advice of an anonymous forum member with the title "Master Trader" and his profile states he graduated with a math degree from Northwestern or would you listen to someone giving you advice that has the title "Beginner Trader" and nothing mention in their profile ?
Therefore, don't be naive in thinking book authors manipulating. Its something everybody does via their small avatar pictures to them saying "I'm a woman" at a forum or them saying at a forum "I'm a former hedge fund manager" or someone that post live trades at a forum "without" any verification such trades actually were taken.
This is why many forums about trading or not related to trading have their own disclaimer statements...
They (forum owners) are not liable for what their members post because they know some of the crap members post is problematic.
Once again, no argument about book authors needed more regulation but the issue is that you're missing the biggest group of gurus and they aren't book authors. Therefore, if you want regulation, you can't regulate a small group and let the biggest group go unregulated unless your argument isn't really about gurus...its just about a specific type of book author in which you aren't able to take responsibility for your poor judgement and you feel you were manipulated...contrasting others that say the book author is worth it.
You also may not realize or maybe don't care...many book authors say they don't trade "any more" and that they're just in the education business. How do you regulate and verify those book authors ?
What about book authors like psychologists that works with Wall Street and they themselves are
not traders ? This is important because some of the best books I've ever read about the markets did not involve any instructions on how to trade. My point is that you're in fact talking about a specific type of book author...a small percentage of book authors...those that teach
how to trade.
Some of the best books I've read on that topic (how to trade) are by people that are now dead or retired from trading and those books are still being publish...how do you regulate them...do you call their spouses and ask for broker statements from accounts that are +10 years old or prior to the book being written ?
Seriously, its very easy to say this small group of people need to be regulated but you give no clues or suggestions how to regulate them nor do you mention anything about additional tax burden for doing such when you keep using the words "government regulators".
That's why people say its
your responsibility to do your own due diligence because there will always be someone out there that sees the trading advice as bad while someone else that sees the same trading advice as good. Just go to Amazon and look at the opinions by buyers...some recommend the books as a buy while others say don't waste your time.
Besides, many today get around that book author thing via printing their own books or going digital format without the need to go through a publishing company.
Just remember this...the OP of this thread gets some advice from stocktwits (e.g. his VRX trade). The trading advice he actually saw on stocktwits was by Jim Chanos that VRX was a "short". Instead, the OP decided to play the "long side" and lost and then failed minimize the loss via using poor trade management due to poor risk management.
Is it Jim Chanos fault for not reminding the OP about risk management. Is it Jim Chanos fault for not knowing the OP should not be trading with money from high interest loans. Is it Jim Chanos fault for not knowing he has some readers that are trading from work. Does Jim Chanos even know the backgrounds of those reading his messages on stocktwits. Of course its not Jim Chanos fault.
By the way, since you've made a big issue about how titles can be manipulating (actually you've implied it was intentional for the purpose to manipulate). Now check out the profile of Jim Chanos @
http://www.insidermonkey.com/hedge-fund/kynikos/231/ or the bio @
http://www.valuewalk.com/jim-chanos-bio/ or @
http://som.yale.edu/james-chanos
I'm now curious, how does his title and profile manipulate you into trusting him ? What happens if he says on stocktwits again that he's Shorting something and you follow what he's doing but you lose money...should he be regulated or should you be given access to his broker statements for verification he actually took those trades so that you can feel better about your loss that he's not a fraud ?
Here's another point...Jim Chanos has not written any books that I know of. In contrast, there are many books written by others about him as a Short seller. Should those book authors be require to verify Jim Chanos is the real deal considering those book authors are recommending him along with discussing in detail the how and why behind Jim Chanos trade positions. The other point, gurus (professional and retail) are on stocktwits giving out trading advice.