Final last post on ET. The prospect of complying with the various laws on promoting hedge funds in all countries where potential investors are based can be daunting. So daunting, in fact, that some managers and fund distributors may be tempted to ignore them. But they do so at their peril. They could face criminal proceedings and fines. In addition, any breaches could have a detrimental effect on the manager's relationship with their own regulator and can, in some cases, expose the manager to claims against losses made by the fund. It is therefore vital to have an understanding of the marketing rules in each of the investor centres: Here is a full link: http://www.hedgefundintelligence.com/eh/reports/2001_03/marketing.htm If you are truely interested you can find out how I am doing and have done, including that the first time I was managing OPM I fell flat on my face. I would not expect to see either Toni or I posting here again. Brandon
Note this is for a european fund, but the rules are essentially the same here, I looked for about 3 seconds and this is what I came across.
I hesitate to point out the illogic of this since it may seem as though I have some sort of ax to grind. But if I were given the task of determining whether or not there was general satisfaction with a teacher/trader/mentor, I would not limit myself to those individuals taking his/her classes since it can be assumed that they are at least marginally satisfied. Otherwise, they wouldn't be there. At the very least, one would want also to solicit the remarks of those who were not satisfied. If Toni does not see the illogic of her position, it should not be surprising that she can't see the illogic of her refusal to post her results.
Zulu, While it is possible to be both a good trader and be looking for a mentor in a chatroom, it is extremely improbable. Hence the conclusion, you are a newbie. Ok. Oh, I don't question that you are full of opinions - what I question is how you can be seeking a mentor and already dishing out some of your own. Going into a chatroom where there is no proof of the credentials of the "teacher" is the biggest waste of money on this planet outside of putting a torch to your money. You came in here assuming that the only place to find mentoring is on a paid for chatroom. If I were starting out like you, I would watch carefully all the posts that are made by all the posters. I may spend a few hours a day looking thru them. Immediately, you will eliminate hundreds if not thousands of posters just by this precursory perusal. Once you begin to get a feel for who the honest posters on this site are that are not selling anything, start asking questions of that person and start reading everything they wrote. In some cases, this may take you months, in others it may take you weeks and in other it may take you days. _If_you_are_really_really_lucky_, and you do not try to get spoon fed, you will begin to get a glimpse of the people that trade for a living on this site, and not by those that make their living by teaching others to trade. I will start you out by suggesting you read everything Don Bright has written. That is your first assignment. Now go study and come back in six months. nitro
Why are you not going to post again? Is it so much of an insult that you were asked to provide your trading income.There is a lot of money made selling advice to traders - I do not understand why mentors would not be happy to show their success as traders as well. THE NUMBER ONE best thing I have got from ET is the courage to ask vendors about their records- before giving over the money. That has saved me thousands in the last few months. Interesting the different excuses given of why this cannot be done (in some cases). In contrast I asked Vadym of reality trader this question and he wasn't worried at all: "My trading account is up 88% in 2003 as of December 20th when I closed the year. MBTrading reviews my numbers curently so official confirmation is in order." http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=401482&highlight=threei#post401482 and then a month later published a letter from his broker. I asked him if that was his only broker (have to ask these details) and he said it was. I still aren't 100% satisfied as I would have liked to see the whole years trades, but at least it helped to give some confidence. BTW, I am now trialing vadyms room.
Even though my new mentor Super Ego might disapprove of this statement, I have to say that out of the people giving away advice on this net BrandonF was one of the best. He has shamelessly promoted his service. (and paid to advertise) but he also put out some of his work. For instance his gap work. He had a thread about trading gaps. He gave his stats for percent of time they close. We were in a bear market. Those stats according to dp changed. But that is the nature of markets and my theory is you have to do the research and exploit what is working now. Brandon pointed out the ideas in many of his threads. I thought one of his best contributions involved the interplay of setups and eps. In fact, I would bet his 100,000 program is based on that. It was one of the top 2 or 3 gifts I have seen on the net. In hindsight obvious. something I was working on, but not something most traders give away. By the way I have never paid brandonf a dime. But if I were still daytrading all day long I would consider working with him. And if his services are around in the fall, I may consider then, assuming Super Ego, does not lock me into an exclusive mentorship program.
I agree that Brandon is one of the better teachers, and he seems to have forgotten that I was one of his defenders when he was trying to post charts and trading info. However, none of that is necessarily pertinent when it comes to the question of mentorship, which is, or was, the subject of the thread. When seeking a mentor, one has a right to expect some evidence of trading competence, and I don't mean occasional message board posts.
db I agree and I think you know I have made that statement many times. I allow a concession for my normal hardline statement on the subject because brandonf gave 2week free trials away to his room. I took a couple and saw him at least call out trades real time. But I agree before you give away money you should know that the person taking it can produce profits at least for himself I mean everyone who has a brain has discovered set ups. The question is how can you turn set ups into a profitable repeatable edge. For instance I wonder why linda raschke does not show her records. She once talked about it in her room. If she produced a good record. She would have 20 times more people paying her. I mean she is obviously not afraid to reveal her "methods" why not make more money if they work. I know I would pay her room fee again if I saw records.
The thing is that neither Brandon or Linda Raschke trade a mechanical system. Rather they are discretionary traders. Therefore even if they did show records, that would not mean that you could reproduce these records. What I do is I take interest in what they teach, and I adopt the ideas that make sense to me. By saying 'adopt' I mean that I put them in the back of my mind and then test to see if they work for me (test on paper, not with live money). Eventually from all things I hear, some bits and pieces sink in and integrate into my trading. I think it's the only way. You can't copycat a guru. It has to come from within you. I never paid for an advisory service in my life, I only use the material they give for free. I follow Brandon's stuff since 2000 and I learned a lot from him, I think he's completely legit and he has been a good resource for me for years now. I don't use moving averages as much as he does but other than that he has contributed a lot to me. Can't say that about some other gurus, who did more damage than good to my trading in the past. But I can't blame people who want to see track records before they pay $1000. Just my opinion for what it's worth 50