During the time I followed him in mid 2009, he showed in a video that you got for signing up for the room his clearing statement and in the room he trades on the real platform, the infinity simulator is a different color--so without massive corruption on the part of his broker he is actually trading and losing real money. FWIW the part of his clearing statement he showed had aggressive averaging and he again got out with a tick.
Never traded at infinity, but most platforms allow u to change the colors. If someone uses the platform may be they can post here.
I do trade at infinity and the people that state the color are right... he is trading live. Also as far as "how do you go from 1- 850? Thats very easy- as it goes against you you don't double- as all these people on this thread keep saying.. you go from 1 to 4 to 16 to 60 to ect.. get it? it happens very fast when one takes off against you. I believe the term is exponential. The idea of the method and why it will work hundreds of times in a row is that you only need a few ticks on the new huge position to get it all back.. but that one day comes.
On the Infinity DOM the background color changes depending upon trading live or simulator. It also says SIM when you are trading on the simulator. I have watched RH trade live (in person) and watched him trade live in his room for a number of months. I have no reason to believe this huge loss was a simulator account. I have also seen what I believe is a valid screenshot of the loss (just under $307k before comms) and it was not a SIM account. This loss doesn't surprise me at all. It is exactly the crazy trading style he has used since day one that resulted in wiping out weeks of good trades numerous times. He is partnered with Infinity Futures, having spoken for them at numerous trading expos. While RH may not be registered with the NFA, Infinity is. I highly doubt Infinity would subject themselves to NFA regulatory action by providing a fake simulator account that gives the impression of being a real one. Besides, Infinity is just "reselling" the TransAct trading platform. My understanding is that RH *only* had about 470 contracts when Infinity triggered the margin call. Total contracts traded after the exit would have been double that at about 940. I think the 850 number of contracts got confused with the TF trading in the 850 range at the time of the trade. BTW, anyone that sells trading services and provides trading advice to the public and provides actual trading results is subject to being regulated and audited by the NFA at any time even if they are not registered with the NFA.
Watched this trade myself: Rob had built up to a position of 832 contracts in this trade. He was calling it quits at just above the $825 price level, had just commented that was "it" for him and "we had just witnessed his first losing trade". He had not started selling yet. TF then broke below $825, triggering the liquidation by Infinity at that point. The Infinity window alert popped up at the $825 level, TF kind of bounced around in the $824's at that point during liquidation of his position. I've been in the room several months, had never followed any of his trades live fortunately, wasn't planning on renewing for a variety of reasons before this trade. I Like John and Huberts styles, but don't need trading room for that. Had come to conclusion I'd wasted my $ on the room, but now realize watching this trade was the most important lesson I've ever gotten about trading. I'll remember it a long time! Thoughts on why: Rob boxed himself in finally, marketing himself as not having any losing trades, he couldn't take losses when support levels broke. As many have said before, his method is just unsustainable forever. Second, John had traded very successfully earlier in the week in the trading room when John took over the room while Rob's power was out due to storm. John's success was referenced several times, I got the sense Rob wanted to also have a big day/trade, so didn't take respectible profit when he had the chance. He pretty much wiped out at least several years of trading profits from comments I have heard about his past couple years trading income. I guess the room profits will make that up, if anyone stays.
That failed attempt at trading always ends the same way: broken. Anyone who tries to play the average-down game will 100% certainly lose it all in the end, even if it takes years for the universal laws of statistics and math to kick in. Anyone who tries to play that game is not a trader, does not know how to trade and will probably never learn to do so. All of the people I know who get jaded with bouts of brief "success" in that approach never get past the memory of periodic rewards. They cling to belief that somehow there is some way to control large loss following miniscule profits. But the universal laws of statistics and probability bend for no one.
I attended the webinar they had today, and it was admittedly pretty good. I just dropped out now to go to work. Hoffman was fairly honest to many questions. It sounded a lot like he was trying to save face a bit, however, he did admit he made a lot of mistakes and went over them. He didn't gloss over the loss, said that it was over $300k, said he was being greedy, etc. The one question he didn't answer was whether or not his technique is sustainable over the long run, but I think he would now answer that by saying that he is has his "physical" stops put in place. I don't buy it, I still think it is unsustainable, but time will tell. John Carter was great up until the point I dropped out. He was pretty honest, and a lot of the things he said are very helpful.
Rob tried to make it sound like his account size was so big to begin with that the loss was not that a big deal to him at all. He said that anyone claiming he got wiped out has no idea how big his account is and they're only speculating. He also made it sound like he "didn't get slaughtered" (his exact words). He made it sound like he could still be ahead of the game this year (or perhaps relative to when the winning streak started). He also made it sound like he didn't really get margined out. He said something about how he had set up a percentaged-based loss limit with his broker ahead of time, so that if his account drops below a certain certain percentage for the day, then his positions would automatically be closed out. He didn't say what the percentage was, but he made it sound like it wasn't something that his broker decided upon, but that he himself decided upon in advance. He also referred to himself as an "institutional trader". I'm finding it hard to believe he is really profitable from trading futures over the long haul, or that his loss wasn't substantial relative to his gains. That's what really matters. ADD: I'm doubting he is really being honest in implying that he is profitable over the long haul with his futures trading itself (subscriptions notwithstanding).