Beware Fraudulent Claims

A trading Meetup recently announced a new online meeting in a way that, I feel, was heading down the fraudulent path.

This was not the actual commission of fraud. No funds were raised through the website and nobody, to my knowledge, lost anything. Based on outside appearances, I simply think this had the appearance of something shady.

The meeting announcement read:

     > Fellow trader S [name removed] will share some of his
     > Futures trades/strategies. S says, “make around 20
     > points a day/contract and no losing day ever.” He’ll
     > share some real examples with you.

S’s personal introduction read:

     > [website address omitted]. Professional futures
     > trader specialize in s&p and oil. Trade using
     > proprietary algorithms.

I went to the website (omitted above) and found I could subscribe for $300/month to get ES futures trades.

On the Meetup website I posted this:

     > I was going to RSVP yes until I read “…and no
     > losing day ever.” Show me a system guaranteed
     > not to lose money and simply by holding up a
     > mirror I’ll show you a system that won’t make
     > any money, either.

The Meetup organizer responded by inviting me to attend the webinar. He said my response is even more reason to join in and he told me to “have fun.”

I told him how I felt:

     > I love to laugh and I do it plenty… but on
     > behalf of the thousands who have been defrauded
     > by financial charlatans over the years, in this
     > instance I am not amused. You’re featuring a
     > presentation by “fellow trader” S who is
     > affiliated with a premium website and there’s
     > a claim about no losing days. The SEC doesn’t
     > take kindly to guarantees and hollow promises
     > like that. Honestly, [as the Organizer of this group]
     > you should have told him to muzzle it before you
     > ever put that quote up on the page. Part of becoming
     > a more experienced trader is learning about fraud
     > and the myriad of ways “support personnel” in this
     > space who provide premium “tools” and “services”
     > are all too often just looking to separate traders
     > from our money. A claim like “no losses” raises
     > multiple red flags about S. I’d be better off going
     > to a timeshare webinar because then I might at
     > least get some sort of free vacation!

I pulled no punches.

I consider claims like these bad news because they have the appearance of truth and all too often succeed in tricking the uninformed into surrendering capital. Any strategy has risk and will produce losing trades. No experienced, honest trader would tell you otherwise. To even mention “no losing” anything is therefore, in my view, meaningless (if based on a small historical sample size) and/or fraudulent (if commenting on future performance).

Fraudsters can be very persuasive with a variety of techniques and sometimes impeccable charisma. Beginners may not identify the deception. Even someone with advanced experience may not identify the deception if s/he is not suspecting that anything wrong might be taking place. This is where “impeccable charisma” aids with the establishment of rapport even before the pitch is given.

The Organizer responded to my last comment by suggesting I apologize to S and by deleting my comment from the site. I find such censorship to be suspect, too. I have seen people in premium “trading rooms” question conflicting details and be subsequently muted or banned from the room altogether. Some of these may be deceptive conspiracies at work.