I've heard him say to the room something along the lines of: "you have no idea how valuable it is having someone with my experience to learn from...I never had someone like myself to help me out when I was learning how to trade.......I had to learn everything myself....I would have loved to have someone like myself around to help me out....blah, blah, blah" Also, he's said multiple times is something like: "you have no idea how many full-time traders this year have left the business and are working at full time jobs...I've been a trader for over 15 years...I've been around way before most of today's traders got started, and I'll be around long after most traders today have had to quit trading" I'm sure he's right though, since most traders lose money...but it can't hurt that he's got all the steady extra income from what he sometimes refers to as a"family"...meaning the trading room.
That "extra income" I believe is his primary income. He is an educator, not a trader, $300 was the original cost for his room, if I remember right there was over 100 in that room the first few days, that number dwindled quickly, and the speaking engagements, one on one mentoring, dvd sales,probably kickbacks from his broker for students that sign with them,....That is how he makes his money.... He can make all kinds of unverifiable statements about how long he has been a successful trader...He will be around as long as he can make money "teaching".....
I believe that I have heard him say that there are 100 or more members. The times I've counted, there were 30 (or less) people in the chat room portion of the room at any given time. Granted, I suppose that not everyone stays around the whole trading day. He says there are people who don't use the chat room at all, and only view the webinar itself. He says that he doesn't get any special deals or special discounts for recommending his brokerage. However, there is always someone from the brokerage present in the room, and I was approached (in a text message) from his broker on the day I joined, so one has to wonder that there may be some type of deal going on. Maybe the brokerage helped him set up and run his website....who knows?
I was going to check out Trading the Markets. Went to their website, looking for the free trial to see what it was like, could not find it, so I emailed them. This was their response. Quote 'Thank you for your interest. We do not include a trial with the Trading Room. However, you can cancel at anytime. In other words if you wanted to sign up and if during the first month you decide it is not a good fit, you can cancel and only pay for one month.' End of quote. It really surprises me that they truly expect someone to pay $295 for something, sight unseen? Plus they want you to 'apply' for the room & send your credit card info through email! Plus they do not accept Paypal! Pay first & no refunds. And this is supposed to be one of the better places?
I think that they have a free video newsletter that you can check out, to see what type of stuff that they talk about. I have noticed that they sell indicators at ridiculous prices, like $500 for something that essentially works like a moving average crossover. Indicator sales are a great way to make money from idiots who don't realize that there is nothing special about one indicator over another, and that you are being asked to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars for crap that can be obtained elsewhere for essentially nothing. Selling indicators is a great business model!
Hi FBI123. Looking at a lot of your posts and am very impressed with your knowledge of the markets. Obviously there is no easy way but I am eager to learn from the 'right' sources. What would be your opinion of http://www.eminiaddict.com or Larry Levin's room 'Secrets of Traders.com'. Do you yourself know of any good sites that help with a hands on approach that don't charge $1000 an hour' All the best
By the way, the Squeeze indicator was developed by two Tradestation users. These developers put their code out free for all to use. TTM took it, make some minor change and call it the TTM Squeeze. Selling for a fortune, never give any credit to the original contributors. Anyone looking for free Squeeze indicator code, just google.
I got the squeeze indicator for thinkorswim from here: http://sandp500analyst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=36 Just copy and paste it in. They're about to start hawking the darvis indicator as well, but that one's already built into thinkorswim for free.
And I guess that tells you everything you need to know about them, then doesn't it? It really is a great idea to repackage and sell indicators... there's lots of clueless newbies out there who will think that you're selling them something valuable, as though your indicator is somehow the "key" to the markets. The reality is that every indicator has times when it works, and times when it doesn't... you can code up any old indicator, give it a fancy name, and sell it for $400. My favorite is the "slingshot"... essentially it's just two moving averages with the space in between them colored blue or red depending which one is on top. You get to pay hundreds of dollars for something that you can construct in any charting package for free in about 60 seconds - what a deal!