Rec'd an email a few days ago from this guy (portion posted below) - sounds pretty fishy! He claims a whole year without a loss which I find just about impossible to believe. Anyway I was surprised to not find any references to "Success Trading Group" or "Anthony Myers" in searches of ET threads. Does anybody know anything about this guy? Thanks, Swish Dear InvestmentHouse.com Member: Our Success Trading Group Just Completed A FULL YEAR Without A Trading Loss! That's right . . . the last time our Success Trading Group entered a position that was ulitmately closed for a loss was entered on August 22, 2002. Yes, 2002. Over a year ago! If you would like to begin making many, many profitable trades without the time and expense associated with sifting through the endless maze of investment "research" available, then this might be the most important letter you'll ever read. My name is Anthony Myers. I am a successful businessman. While, I cannot sit in front of a computer trading stocks all day, I love to trade. I am successful doing so. I am going to give you the opportunity to join me. Specifically, I am going to give you the opportunity to receive email notices from me which show the trades I am about to enter. In fact, I will send you this solid trading information prior to me actually placing the order myself. This insures you have the opportunity to profit along with me.
Here's how it works: Send out 100,000 emails. 1/2 say XYZ will go up, 1/2 say XYZ will go down. XYZ goes up, he's right on 50% of the emails. Does this again with the remaining 50,000 that got the right call on the first trade. 25,000 say that XYZ will go up, 25,000 say XYZ will go down. After doing this 5 times, he has around 3100 people who 'witnessed' him make 5 winning trades in a row. Now comes the sales pitch: "Send me $50 for the next call".
A pretty good scam. In days of yore it was more difficult to generate the volume of mail neccessary. With the miniscule cost of emailing it is making a comeback.
http://www.successtradinggroup.com/a/goto.htm For only 97 per month. Usual hype imo from a google search Bsulli
You gave me some bad ideas. Forget about sending email. Alot of people know how that tout scam works just as you described. Here is something even more diabolical. Put the calls on a website so people think they are all looking at the same trading track record. Then track the users by IP or username. Give each user a different website view which contains a different prediction set according to the tout scam. Everyone thinks they are getting identical, real winning calls on the website. They would be even more sure that the service is legit.
I think the tracking by IP wouldn't work due to dynamic IPs, but the Username idea could work. Hmm... -FastTrader
This is the Mr. Market "don't-report-the-open-but-losing-positions" technique. Carefully read this sentence: "the last time our Success Trading Group entered a position that was ulitmately closed for a loss was entered on August 22, 2002. Yes, 2002. Over a year ago!"
OK...how about if you offer the service for free? Then, just tell everyone to BUY into a thin stock right after you open a position in that stock. Buyers rush in, stock goes up, you unload your position and put out a Sell signal out there. Now, not only do you look good in front of your members (stock DID go up thanks to your members, and it did go down), but you profit in the market as well -FastTrader P.S. Yes, it's a slow and losing day for me.
Actually in Nasim Taleb's book "Fooled by Randomness" he mentioned this particular scam in detail. Someone actually successfully did it. Here is what he did. He sent out a market newsletter doing exactly what you said, telling 50% of the people the mkt would go up this month and here's why. The other 50% he told them the mkt would go down this month and here is why. He explained he had a secret system that could predict the month to month moves with 100% accuracy. Each month he would continue to send letters to only the 50% who got the correct calls, the others he wouldn't bother with. He started out with maybe 25,000 people. After 6 months he had about 750 people or so that saw he accurately predicted the mkt 6 months in a row. Then on the 7th month he sent those people a newsletter stating he was starting an offshore hedge fund using this very same secret technique. Of course these people jumped all over it. They sent him a total of about 2.5 million dollars into an offshore bank. Of course they never heard from him again and their money was gone. But this guy basically for the cost of around $2,500 in postage made 2.5 million in 6 months. Not a bad return on investment heh. Very easy scam to pull, very easy. By the way, this same scam has been pulled in the sports betting industry for years and it amazes me that is still continues to work. You know the guy who calls you up with tonight's guaranteed monday night football winner because he has correctly picked the winner 6 weeks in a row. Easy easy money and people still fall for it