zxcv1fu, Before I clicked on the URL that you added to your post....I had a feeling about who it was about....and I was right. Did you know....he is still on the Internet....doing his thing. I had a booth at the Trader's Expo in Las Vegas in 2003. This guy sent me an e-mail....wanting to know if he could be in my booth. My company name was listed in the Exhibitors section of the Trader's Expo website. I also realized he had purchased a package from me long before that. Anyway....I get to the show....and the "Floorpass" booth straight across from me....he was in it. He had found a way to get in a booth....to promote his BS....without paying for the booth. I had seen his picture before....on his website. He came over to my booth....I said hi "*****"....he was surprised. He now provides an "Alert" service for traders on the Internet. I won't mention the company....but the CFTC never stopped him. I know another company on hotComm....has an Elliott Wave trading room....need to watch out for him also....I know....I took a class with him many years ago. He has been shut down....more than once....then just starts a new website....and keeps on a truckin'. VSTscalper
Government has hard time to shut down scams. They are everywhere. The best way is for us to share information to filter them out first. It is nothing new in the trading business either, that's why we want to invest our time to verify everyone first. This blog has many Steve's scam links (lower righthand corner): http://tradersparadise.blogspot.com/ Wish we had someone compile the list like this guy with the RE gurus: http://www.johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html That's why I like to do GOOG search first before fork over any money. The only problem is it is time consuming. Have to dig many pages in before I hit dirt most of time.
TI update: ET members want to do due diligence is a good thing. Dave Scheuermann used to be TI's moderator is calling Franz a fraud. He has started a group to gather TI victims for law suit: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/davefromtradersinternational/messages TI has changed their web site, Franz is legend no more. Can not even find Franz when I click the links in TI site. Action speaks louder. Puff the magic rug! Guess those claims can not sustain the possible CFTC audit. It will not be the first time CFTC going after TI. I saw one case when I did a GOOG search about TI. Invest you time before invest your money!
A few months back (more than 6-9) he had about 70 'potheads' (as he used to call them) in his Hottcom room. He was charging $399 or something like that for a month. He probably still does. The guy is a fraud just as about anybody else in the chatroom business who cannot demonstrate with actual brokerage statements that he can trade.
It shows how desperate those people are. I'd take trials around to see which one can help me before fork over my money. So far I have not found one that is worth it.
It is full of pain from the people bought into it. I feel sorry for them. A few months ago there was a thread about him in ET to warn people. Here is the Investment Trading System Scams Exposed -- and How to Avoid Them: http://www.www-emini.com/ It is well-written. "Top 11" most common ways to spot trading system scams listed below. Scam #1: Too many rules - too hard to understand Scam #2: Trading only through private markets or "specially designated brokers" Scam #3: Too much time spent hyping the reward and too little time spent on how much risk is involved Scam #4: Too large an initial investment required Scam #5: Complicated, subjective trading decision-making Scam #6: Too low a percentage of winning trades (I call this the "we lose money on every car we sell, but we make it up on volume" pitch - nonsense) Scam #7: Systems that have only been backtested, never actually traded in the market Scam #8: Same bulls**t, new wrapper Scam #9: The trading contest winner Scam #10: Secrets of The Insiders Scam #11: The "little known, never before revealed system the pros use"
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/invest/daytrade.htm Click on any of the following links to see government enforcement actions taken against these signal and system providers for making false claims, some of whom are still marketing their services to the public: RS of Houston, Natural Order, Trend Reflection, Rhythm of the Markets, Swing Trader, ,Accutrader/Logitech/Index Analysis Service (George Heffernan), LSS (George Angell), Tradewins, Rapid Fire, QuantumLevel, Samurai Forecaster, Nick's Guerilla Trading Hotline, Electronic Wall Street Underground, Elliot Wave Analyzer, Pinpoint, Microflex (John Stenberg), Counterpoint Method (Steve Matrix), Mohan (Scott D. Wolfe), TCI (Tim Cho). [If the above links do not work, check out this link: http://www.targetrading.com/faq.htm]
To stay on the title of this thread: We have not found any really great chat room that can really change your trading performance yet. Some chat rooms are good for you to feel not isolated trading by youself. Some may help you to correct a few of your bad habit. Some may try to take your money when the room is not free, then you need to decide if they are worth the money & time. I'd say most are not worth it since if the system is so great he/she will be so busy rake in trading profit & not motivated trying to take your money. I recently tried Pristine's emini chat room & not very impressed. Greg is not called signals as clearly as their stock chat room. Feel fussy at the end of day. Do not know how many points made. It is not a good feeling. He did want people to sign up on his expensive training & room. I do not think it is a good idea to learn his system yet judging by my trial. I like the moderator makes calls clearing & keep tab on how much made/lost in a timely fashion. My red flag goes up when they say each trade is based on your trading style.Therefore they can not say how much was made/lost of the day. Then they are snake oil salesmen & want to put the blame on you most likely. Why pay to follow their system then?
ZXCV1FU Check out the stock chatroom that thinkorswim has which is at www.shadowtrader.net I have used it for some time and find it very good but would like to see ZX give it a test run and post a more unbiased opinion. Its free but I think they have some sort of minimum volume requirement and beyond the free trial you have to have an account with TOS.
I am a TOS client & very actively with their monthly Virtual Trader to learn institutional style option tradings. I have been doing well in my own option swing trades. ShadowTrader is scalping stocks in chat I think. For which I do not do anymore & into emini scalpings whenever I am not busy with option tradings. I have their free weekly market video emails but have no time to listen to it since my opinion is pretty good already Time is money. I like to use it to make profit! Whenever I have spare time I 'd like to check out emini chat room suspects in market hours It is more productive for my time. One of my option trading friends took the service when it is first available even he is not a daytrader. He said it is good, he even followed a few times. With his poor execution & slippage (he is not set up for direct access trading & does not know how.) he made some money. It was so funny when he told me how he did the tradings. Greed is good when you are ahead! I have not asked him lately. What is your opinion? Can you follow easily? Have you made money following the calls? What is good/bad about it?