But sabena, you've got it all wrong, the intention of the vendors is to MAKE money not LOSE it. If they followed your (very sensible) plan, there would be no one left pay for the advertising in all the great trading magazines... Unfortunately, the gullible masses will always outnumber sensible realists. Which I guess should be good news for profitable traders as there will always be dumb money. But it still stinks that they get away with it. You can never say these two things enough: THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS!...IF IT WORKED LIKE THEY CLAIM THEN THEY WOULDN'T SELL IT!
Both SEC and CFTC have followed a pattern of ridiculously weak punishments for wrong doers. These are not even slap on the wrist, these are like touch on the wrist. It's outrageous What a waste of taxpayers money and government agency resources! There's no deterrent; scammers keep scamming.
Well, it's not an honest world we are living in...just listen to "Honesty" by Billy Joel. But there are still a few honest people around that make it worthwile to live in this world and that are the ones that get all my respect.
I didn't say ALL people are chumps - just chuckleheads who think that they can BUY the easy path to riches on Amazon.com for $49.95. Likewise I didn't say ALL people are dimwits - just those who think that HALF-following a system and failing is the SYSTEM's fault. And it is SO trite to say "No offence, but...[insert offence]" - just SAY WHAT YOU THINK rather than trying to pretend that you are saying anything from a position of balance and/or authority just because you pre-pend some pablum to the front. Wall Street is replete with charlatans - if you don't believe that then you will have money taken off you until it is all gone. Do you think Abby Cohen HONESTLY BELIEVES that the S&P will be 1250 (or whatever garbage she spouted last week) by year end? Do you think Jeffrey Applegate believes what he spouts? Or Joe Battip[aglia? Or Tom Galvin? Of COURSE they don't - but they have a job to do - to get the morons who still listen to them to BUY STOCKS. However again, it doesn't mean that EVERY ONE ON THE STREET is a con merchant. Tom McManus was overweight (relative to the Street) ALL THE WAY UP, and has been underweight (relative to the Street) ALL THE WAY DOWN. His recommended equity weight crossed under the consensus in APRIL 2000. Ditto Barton Biggs: smart guy, never gets his head on CNBC. I don't know who taught you to read, but differentiating between specifics and generalities is an important part of our language.
GeoffreyT, I am with you on that one. Yes, very few people on the street known in fact what they are talking about. Just like 90 % of traders lose money, I think we can say that 90 % of those people talking about the market and pretending they have insights of value, are just that "Pretenders" My only enemies are the ones who deliberately violate the truth. People who are telling they known where the market is headed and at the same thinking by themselves about the crap they are talking. Like Julius Caesar said, just give ordinary people bread and games to keep them satisfied and quiet. In fact we are just taking money from those naive investors...
I didn't say you said "ALL" people were "CHUMPS". What I said was: 1 person is not a chump 1 person is not an idiot 1 person is not a moron 1 person is not a dimwit...and I am not a sap. It's not your opinion,but your attitude that has a problem.
Hi Sabena...If you don't mind, I'd like to challenge your statement. I'd like to use "golf" for my analogy. In the same way that 90% of traders fail,I think it's fair to say that 90% of all aspiring golfers fail to earn their PGA cards. Does this mean that those 90% who failed to earn their cards are just "PRETENDERS" and know nothing about golf? I hope you see the logic in my argument,and take no offense. Have a nice day.