The "gurus" do tend to be awfully touchy about the subject of verification, though I tend to agree with the proposition that a verified record of trades may not be necessary if one has the opportunity to watch the trader in real time and knows what to look for. I've had the opportunity to watch just about everybody that has a for-fee chatroom and have been impressed primarily with how sloppy they all are. One of our more well-known members guessed on most of his/her entries, and his stops at best were what one might charitably call "fuzzy" (one stop was so fuzzy it might as well not have been there at all). His "setups" were nothing more than variations on the same old tired setups that everybody from O'Neil to Pristine uses. There was a lot of feeling, a lot of belief, a lot of maybe and might and ought to and should, but not an ounce of discipline anywhere. And this over the course of a week. Granted, he/she said that it was an unusually bad week for him, but I could see why. Based on what I had seen, whatever success he claimed to have was most likely the result of guessing right. This is a skill that can be taught? I was also less than impressed by his consistency, or should I say lack of consistency. Though he contends that "real traders" stick to it throughout the day and don't bail just because it's slow, he often did just that when bored. My point being that audited trading records may not be the great leveler that everyone seems to assume they'd be. Certainly anyone with an ounce of ability can turn in an excellent record during strongly-trending periods. And whoever may not be using the same techniques in his/her chatroom that he uses in his own trading (why give it away for peanuts?). If you can filter out all the "oh you're so wonderful" that are a common element of these chatrooms and focus on what the trader is doing and why he's doing it, the trading record may become superfluous. --Db
yeah, you or I, or anyone that's actually traded for a year or so could probably work it out... but if you can, then you probably dont need the guru anyway.. that's where the trading record comes in handy...it's not a panacea, but it's a hell of a lot better then the "i just love helping traders" crap that passes for an excuse these days..
I'm not so sure, Daniel. At the very least, one ought to be able to determine from the website what the trader's plan is. If not, he ought to be able to determine the plan by emailing him/her. If that doesn't result in a reply, and there's no way of finding out what the plan is before signing up for the room, there's little point in going through the exercise. On the other hand, if one can find out what the plan is, then he has something to go by in the room, keeping track of when the trader does and does not follow that plan, assuming that the trader follows the plan at all. If the trader doesn't follow the plan, then the opportunity for questions arises and one can determine how the trader responds to these. Amazing, isn't it, how touchy they can be when questions are posed? --Db
i guess you're assuming the fresh to the world newbie is actually gonna realise the importance of getting to the core of what the vendor's trading plan is... i wouldn't be so sure most newbies are... just look at the typical "i'm new, what should i do?" threads that get started up on ET.. and of course, any vendor worthy of the title should have barrels full of ready made responses to deal with the tough questions... and focus the newbie's attention onto what he "really" should be looking at.. (ie, the winning trades, the "your so wonderful" accolades, the generic psychological pearls of wisdom etc..)
Not all newbies have brains, of course. And a large part of how they approach and respond to these rooms depends on how easily they came by their money. Unless it's hard-earned, their crap detectors - if any - are likely to be on idle, if not mute. But such lambs are going to be fleeced one way or another, if not by trading rooms, then by real estate scams or gambling losses or some such. I should point out that a great many of the participants in these rooms couldn't care less what the guru's plan is or why he does what he does; all they're interested in is calls. They deserve whatever they get. --Db