I have no idea about Mr. Fredrikson, what he trades, how he trades, or anything like it, however, I think some things need to be pointed out. First, from the very few things I was on his site, all I found was stock information. This excludes him from NFA oversight immediately, so the CTA debate is moot. Second, if he is covering futures, he doesn't necessarily need to be registered. Registration is needed if he is giving specific trade recommendations, e.g. but CLN5 at 55.0 stop. If he is saying something like "crude looks like it could be a solid long trade above 55" then he is not giving specific advice, and is therefore not required to register. Remember the acronym; Commodity Trading Advisor. Regardless of whether he has 4 or 4000 clients, if he is not giving specific advice, he's exempt. Third, people seem to forget trading is a business. I have a feeling many people on this board have no idea about business tactics. If there is a market for advise, there will be advisors. The whole "if you're good at trading, then just trade" concept is flawed at best. If you can make some extra coin by "mentoring" someone else at a price of $1000 per week, and still trade while you do it, then why shouldn't you do it? Lets say you hit a drawdown in your trading, but you still have clients lining up. Now you have some coin coming in even when you're in a trading slump. This is diversification of your business. Fourth, this guy started to get pissed after three pages of rude or negative comments from people he specifically asked not to post in the original post. I have never seen Brandonf spam for clients like the shady vendors that come and go around here. He usually has good and relevant input in his postings. He's trying to run a business; cut the guy some slack. Ok, there's my two cents. Flam on if you have to, but I think this board needs to focus on some positive or constructive postings, as it is quickly turning into a forum for juvenile quabbling. If you want to bitch and moan, go find an online game board. Most of us here claim to be professionals; lets at least try to act like ones. Edit: Please note this is the 6th page in 2.5 hours, and 90% is bitching and moaning about general vendors and their shortcomings, whether it be trading or regulatory. None of this has been in the spirit of the original post.
I think it is logical to assume this would be true, but in fact it tends to not be. I know of several people who have offered up audited track records, and all it really produced was a chorus of people saying oh well you could have 10 other accounts and this is your best one etc etc. The truth is that there are people who you could give a million dollars too and they would bitch that they have to count it, and it seems there area a lot of them here. The people I have seen who do post track records actually have fewer clients than I do, so I don't see that it has in the past helped them and hurt me. I have been here for a long time on ET as well as writting newsletters and running a chatroom. That is all very well documented, we offer free trials and all of that good stuff. Anyone who is interested has ample opportunity to sample what we are about. Also, I would note that the only negative client feedback we have so far on this thread is one I actually posted myself. Brandon
I have met brandon for a beer and years before that I did a demo in his room. Iwas not there long enough to say he makes money or not. But I think he may have lost a little on the futures and made money on the stocks. Overall there were some pretty good calls made in the room. Now for the real reason I posted Someone said "Vendors like Zanger at chartpattern.com, larry williams, Oneil, Raschke, Tim Treubenbach, Larry Connors.. all fall into these categories. They all can prove that they have made serious loot trading" This is sort of ironic. I have seen a thread question the legimacy of zanger and especially his record the last few years. Larry Williams has been challenged by public book writers like the winner take all guy gallacher. He has had run ins with regulatory bodies. At one point in time I got his service for free for a little while from a futures broker. (he got smoked, losing trade after losing trade) I have heard he puts on a nice seminar though and trades part of the seminar fees. O'neil himself has destroyed two "new america" type mutual funds. So I question his record of achievement. But my own account and someone here who sent me stats Rashke lost money the six months I paid for her service. Her calls lost money while she said she was scalping well. (This was a few years ago. She mentioned she was starting a fund to keep her trades in and show the world what she was doing. I never saw the results. Trunebach I have no experience with. And connors has some very interesting somewhat retarded research about the vix. Based on very limit sample sizes and after the fact systems building. Does anyone know how he is doing real time? If the vix systems were so good how come he keeps revising them? Data mining perhaps?
Brandon, to silence the doubters, why don't you post some of your real time calls and results (and not just the profitable ones). If I was going to use you as an advisor, I would want to see your track record.......
Do a search man, Im posting stuff on here every single day BEFORE it sets up. If it works its there, if it doesnt it is too. Go to my blog and read that, take a free trial. I post tons of real time stuff that there should be an ample number of examples of me putting my neck out. Brandon
My interactions with Brandon have always been first class. I, nor anyone I know have nothing but positive things to say about him.
I tried out the room "trading from main street" or something like that a while back when it was getting started and during its free phase. I was impressed at the amount of time Brandon and Toni put in chatting after hours. The low level of the chat room participants (newbies worshiping) put me off a bit. I learned a couple of interesting things from Brandon, and he does stress risk management a lot, but can't say I'm using any of his techniques but the time spent there was a good experience and Brandon was scalping like a madman! I also spent time in Nihaba's room for a longer time. I really like that room though I'm not there anymore for some time. The rules were a bit strict but there is a very high level of trader and learning from the different techniques is a valuable experience. Nihaba is a very generous individual with his time and patience for the questions of others and there were a handful of very good traders in there when I was logging in. My own conclusion is that the only time I really want to be on chat is when my trading stations go down as I find it distracting from the focused concentration on the markets and clear mind I like to have while trading. I also would state that I would never pay for a chat room.
I have never tried Brandon's services, so I cannot comment on THAT. But, about three years ago he gave my sister VD. He did the responsible thing and took her to the free clinic for her treatments, and now everything is cleared up. So as far as I am concerned, he is a stand-up guy.
Kgharris, Im very sorry about your sister and please send her my regards. Also, if she still happens to talk to those other six guys, if they caught it from her tell her to let them know I'm very sorry for thier pain and suffering as well. Brandon