Madoff falsified statements from his own firm. It's not like the statements came from a reputable firm like Scottrade etc. We are overthinking this. The posers will always find a 1001 reasons why it can't be done (just like they have a 1001 reasons why they can't show their actual trading statements) because then they would be exposed for the Pretenders they are. I guess if somebody provided their 1040s they do would be deemed falsified. You don't mess with the IRS and sending out false 1040s as documentation.
OK as an alternative, how about a journal with live calls meeting a set level of performance? Sure there will always be some shoot-from-the-hip troll claiming bogus posting or whatever but the onus will be on him to prove it. With a journal demonstrating good performance over 50 trades or whatever, perhaps that is deserving of some site recognition.
Seriously? 50 trades proves something? I don't trust anyone that has a journal. When I was starting out and had but $2200 and trading stock index futures the last thing I could have done was a journal Why? Real traders are extremely focused, actually insanely focused, on the markets. Maybe I am just dumb, but I could never understand the mindset of those who do journals. Again, it's just like it always has been in the trading world, the Pretenders will think of a 1001 excuses why they can't or won't provide multi year statements of their actual real money results to validate themselves. I've been harping on that since the early 90s, but it's been a fruitless battle.
And to your point and to the OP's original point about the validity of journal entries and market calls, there has been some very recent regulatory interest regarding trading journal entries made here on ET by regulators. Even warranted a household visit. In terms of a trading website where all of the members are pre-screened for trading bonafides ? I'd be all in.
Funny thing, but after years of struggling when I was younger , one of the many things that turned my trading around in the 80s was a particular trading book. It wasn't until years later when I got to know who's who in the trading world that I found out that the author of that book was nothing more than a crook, con man, and charlatan and investigated by the CFTC among others. So sometimes it doesn't matter who's for real and who's not. It's what we get out of the often times worthless books, trading courses, and newsletters and how we craft it into a workable and profitable strategy that fits our own personality. In the end, it's 100% up to the trader himself whether they succeed or fail.
These anti-journal objections are downright silly. First we have one guy who doesn't trust anybody who keeps a journal here, which says far more about him than any of the journalists. Then we have a vendor raising some heretofore unheard-of regulatory boogieman. Have I stumbled into some comedy-club amateur night? Live calls means no bogus after-the-fact calls. This is easily verifiable. "50 trades or whatever" doesn't mean 50 trades. There will always be nitpickers but let's at least look at all the options before dismissing an idea out of hand.
Dead nuts on. If someone chooses to blindly take live trades off of an anonymous poster's blog without putting in the work to understand the logic and strategy and to verify the posted timing behind the trade entries and exits - then that person will not succeed. Likewise, if someone hires a mentor or educator and just expects to be gifted with an ATM with very little effort on his part - then again that person will never succeed. The secret is that there is no secret. No holy grail. Every successful trader works his ass off at it. And if someone requires certainty - go get a government job because trading is definitely not your line of work. Absolutely no one can predict what markets are going to do.
>>> The secret is that there is no secret.<<<<< On that we completely agree!! Nice post. So many here and other forums are looking for the secret or certainty or someone to lead them by the nose to the promised land of instant trading wealth.
LIVE calls is the only thing that proves abililty to me (calls such as those given in the ES journal thread) None of this hindsight BS, or these vague, nebulous 'calls' which gurus try to claim credit for after the event. The only people who i'm confident make money on this forum is Convex, ESkiller and Volente. There's a few more who posted live calls in the ESjournal but they seem to have stopped posting here so won't mention them. I know Nodoji and DB get lumped together as hinsight gurus, but Nodoji has made a few real time calls in her defense.