Yes, I can confirm that. I think Scientist also had a loss or two, but who cares? You can read it all in my thread, if you like.
LongShot, like I've said before: I won't put you on my ignore list, because sometimes you might write something useful - and you are admitedly very funny. People I have on my ignore-list are mostly shouting nationalists, hipocrats and totally biased and blind argumentative spammers. They would never change their opinion even if they were watching a really bright blimp and a mushroom crawling their way. I really don't care what people write here - especially about me. If someone wants to waste their time - it's all up to them. I normally won't read what they write anyhow - so they better put me on their ignore list - it would really be welcome. The EliteTrader forums has it's shares of wisecracks pushing oneliners and sporadic anti-social behaviour from others, but it's actually nothing compared to flame-wars on USENET news or anything I've seen before on the Internet since I started using it regularly in 1991. The nice thing about these forums is that you can get banned pretty quickly if you step out of line - and the regular wisecracks knows it - confer: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=490882&highlight=nonsensical#post490882 ... Some people put a lot of effort in trying to be funny, and frankly that's a relief sometimes - to be able to read something funny - amongst other "serious matters". Obviously they would like to have a reputation as being sharp and witty - someone always has to be the class clown, right ? Thankfully they usually know not to pull to hard on their leash. If someone has nothing useful to add but some abusive language, sarcasm or just goofing off we shouldn't get too offended. We have to admit that we all like a good laugh sometimes - and often it might be provoked involuntarily by international posters who don't master the dominant forum language well. The regulars are welcom in this way too. Who would stop a well-trained dancing monkey performing it's show ? Well, some animal rights activists might object - but they're still entertaining. I'm not actually aiming particularly after LongShot here (pun intended), but if he or anyone else of the regular wisecracks try to say something serious one day - it's hard to believe or trust anything they say. It's mostly ignored if it's not funny like usual. I would never take anything they write for granted. On the matter of success and people's response to this I think we need to go to the psyche of people compelled to try and put other people's success down. If a mountaineer in a post was talking about how he climbed a cliff so-and-so many thousand meters high - hanging by his fingers 20 minutes tring to get a better position and fasten a new hook - some people might respond with ridicule. Others would be impressed, or want to hear more - perhaps even try to learn something. Many business seminars are modeled on this principle; even Sun-Tzu has shown popularity in business circles. One thing is certain though - a fellow mountaineer would not try to put down any of the posters feat/success - at least not if he didn't have some behavioural problem or attitude deficiency. If I however out of the blue say that I can hold my breath for 3,5 minutes and hit a 2-inch bullseye with a rifle with 7.62 NATO ammunition 300m away, it would seem out of place. It would sound rather stupid - just like any other babble coming from someone unexpectedly. It doesn't mean it's untrue about me, but it would be better served in a free diving forum or a hunters/military forum. The point is: people without success and with attitude problems could be offended and react to their own failures and lack of success to try and diminish the importance of those who have success. Most successful people like to hear stories about other successful people and their stories. They might keep quiet about some naive views by someone slightly less experienced, but would be hard pressed to be offensive or sarcastic if they were not having some problems. This is true for most areas of skill and experience. I might draw a smile when reading scientist's vivid explanation of his sparring with 7 black belt-graduated fighters - but I know a lot about martial arts - and have even run my own TaeKwon-Do and Hapkido club, but I would never try and belittle his profound experience - even if I would not know the first thing if it was true or not; because I've been there with my experiencing various profound moments when being almost crippled by my opponent. So, for various pathological reasons losers might crawl out of the woodwork when someone mentions success. I would like most people not claim to speak any language perfectly - not even my mother tongue. Still, I try not to write or speak to many erroneous phrases. Luckily we have a spellcheck here on the forum - but mostly I'm to lazy to use it - only used it once in fact. Perhaps I'm a special case because I have friends with the same computer science background as myself who study latin, esperanto and more. I studied Japanese spoken and written language for one year at university - but would not claim to speak the language - only being able to read/write/say some simple phrases (understand a little bit of what's being said too). I'm just intrigued by japanese culture and history - as well as korean culture and history - although I only know the TaeKwon-Do related words/commands in Korean. Still, I'd stick to my claim about being fluent in other languages, it's all about the cultural importance of foreign language - and where you come from IMO. Again, people from large nations have very little regard for anyone speaking other languages ... that's based on psychological and national feelings and background in most cases. They ridicule others because they are basically ignorant to the experiences of others who do (and need to) speak other languages. Someone asked/PMed me after my previous post here why I bothered to share anything with all the slandering and wasted time reading abusive posts on the forum. Well, I think that there are some useful posts around here, and that I actually have something to learn from a few of them. On the other side I sometimes trade up to 3000 ES contracts some days, so the chance that I'll get to meet some of them on the other side of a trade or joining momentum with them is a chance either directly in the ES or indirectly by them being part of the broader daily US markets. Other than keeping IB happy - better liquidity is all good, right ? Good capitalism makes it logical for me to encourage people to trade and show some inspiration to others if I can. That some with less experience in being successful - or feeling their inadequacies in some other form - will feel the urge to speak out is obvious. It's the same experience many of us have from business meetings where someone will add some mindless babble or hollow jokes to cover up that they don't have anything more useful to add. Professional inadequacy is prolific everywhere - on all levels - and many try to go with the flow - and not stand out - while others will be ambitious and sometimes fail. My most profound experience in business was working with a leader who was totally honest about decision making, strategies and work in general. Since, I've tried to apply that into most of my work, and reflected a lot about how helpful and powerful you are with grateful allies. That is something many other leaders could greatly learn from in this day and age. Likewise, this site's owner is probably interested in a lot of people joining his forums - and equally interested in the quality and the broad variety of the topics discussed. So he probably understands that he has to keep the jokers and abusers on a leash, but still let them do their thing. And one can't deny it's fun sometimes. (PS! This post is quite long - and I won't bother to proof-read it this time ) (PPS. I understand I'm going out on a limb here - trying to say something serious in the chit-chat forum - but if you don't care - I won't either - deal ? )
Hehe, just try to get through my flame-proof asbestos vest if you can ... Moderator's ridicule don't scare me, and your practice is bad for Internet site business if you think about it a little.
I too have risen to the rank of billionaire from humble beginnings. I'm the only ET member once on the Forbes 400 list. As an infant behind the Iron Curtain in Soviet Russia my family was so poor that my first solid meal was not until age two. It was then that my family ate our dear dogs Marx and Trotsky. However my mother was keen on education. I spoke over 70 languages by age seven as well as ebonics which I learned by watching BET on a crude satellite at my father's work camp in Siberia. Unfortunately during the dark days of the Afghan war we were forced to eat the television set. By age twelve with my first Grandmaster Flash Chess Championship under my belt I emigrated to London with my first wife Uma Thurmond. Oxford had already accepted me into their quantum physics daytrading NQ program but the work was stifling. Part of the curriculum was sitting in an ET chatroom watching Nitro tick fuck the ES with 1 lots all day. You can imagine my disgust. It was then that my entry into HMSS began. Working as a teenage spy in the Falklands was a blast but the turning point came when at age 16 I was sent to America as part of an assassination team headed by the mad but brilliant John Hinckley. By then my marriage with Uma had rotted like Marx and Trotsky's dead carcuses. Hinckley and me both dated Jodie Foster for a time but after Jodie and Uma became lovers Hinckly seemed to become unglued. Desperate I fled to Seattle where a friend, Bill Gates was working on some rather pedestrian software systems. I gave Gates a helping hand that summer and in return I became equity partners in MSFT and SBUX. My fortune secure I then traveled to OZ so i could hang with Scientist the man aptly named as the finest trading mind in the world. How humble I felt in this young geniuses' presence. After a few disappointing days where I made well less than a million dollars, I was able to adequately make use of Scientist's market depth system. After my return from the Space Shuttle though things got really in gear. While driving through the outback in my hot new Honda Civic I met up with Naomi Watts. With Naomi in tow I headed to Los Angeles where I confronted Naomi's live in mate ART. I had him banned at ET and his pride wounded ART drove his less than three year old Volvo off a ravine in the Palisades. It wasn't until outside of Philly though that things got fucked up. At a party held in the home of Allen Iverson, Naomi met this guy named only Commisso. The look on Naomi's face told me she was his. I then lost it all. I bet millions on the Cubs to win the pennant and I swear it was Scientist who is really Steve Bartman. Today I live homeless in South Philly selling my body to transgender Pakistani hookers and eating pigeons that make Trotsky and Marx taste like filets.