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Apparently today marks the beginning of a string of ridiculous PR's from CDIV claiming a large NSS position. What's next? A PR promising a big dividend from all the game app revenue? (Remember, CDIV sells game apps available on the iPad and iPhone - lol)
Let's start a pool on how long before the SEC suspends CDIV. I'll go first...6 weeks.
No, not at all. I was lol-ing the fact that I was considered part of a "core team" that at the time I never even considered might exist. At the time, I thought we were all family looking out for each other, and Monk was just being an extra nice guy to those of us that had shelled out money to attend his Monkinars.
I've been very open about by my naivety and having been taken in by the whole scam. That post (and the fact that I didn't really think much about receiving such an email) is simply another example of how I got taken in by the whole thing.
My hope is that by admitting I got taken in by the whole thing that some others (probably mostly lurkers--as most posters land firmly on one side or the other) will also realize that they have been scammed as well. Maybe next time, "we" won't be so gullible.
core team...lol
As best as I could tell at the time, the "core team" in that email was defined simply as those (as you said) who had attended a Monkinar before the email was sent out.
I really didn't give the email that much thought at the time. I pretty much assumed I got it because I had attended a Monkinar. I had never received anything else like that from Monk. I didn't have any free cash, so I was a little disappointed that I couldn't get in the next FLD on the ground floor and pretty much forgot about it until the period when it came up in the den and now again when Janice posted it.
By the way, that was the only email of that type I ever got from Monk (not sure about anybody else). The only other emails were the Monday updates, etc. you get by signing up on his email list.
By the way, I never bought any PN**. I had drank so much Koolaid by the time I got that email that I was already all in on C and EIGH, so I had no cash left for any other FLD's.
The Monk frontload email is 100% legit. I have a copy (dated 4/26/2010) that I'll gladly forward to anyone who wants a copy. I can also post a screen shot if you're still skeptical (but it'll look just like the one Janice posted).
It's time to wake up, admit the truth, and see this whole thing (EIGH, Monk, and the FLD's) for what it is. I'm sure Monk has some explanation that the faithful will believe just like ExBlock did at the time. Here are some of ExBlock's thoughts (who also admits the existence of the email)...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=51075777
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=51090328
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=51224597
This is an interesting discussion. So why would a float lock be illegal? I still think it comes back to intention. The SEC language seems to imply that if you buy a stock because you think it’s going to go up, you’re fine. If you buy a stock in an effort to drive the price up (i.e. manipulate the price), you’re in trouble. Assuming that there is a law that enforces the SEC language, I believe this makes the FLD concept illegal.
Back to the old folks home example. If the folks are simply buying and holding expecting/anticipating the stock will rise (for whatever reason), they are not doing anything wrong. On the other hand, if they are buying anticipating that their buying will eventually drive the price up, then they are in trouble.
If this reasoning is correct, then Monk is guilty regardless of whether or not he sold shares.
The same probably then holds true of passing along stock tips. If you’re just passing along tips because you’re a nice person and think people might benefit from them, then you’re fine. If you’re passing along tips because you hope people will take you up on your advice and push the price of the stock up, then you’re in trouble (regardless of whether or not you even sell).
It's the manipulation that causes the problem--not the fact that you do or don't profit from it.
Were you not reading your "Mondays with Monk" email? Monk (as always) was one step ahead of everyone else in this kind of thinking, although it looks like he missed FLD. And what does "expression permission" mean? Maybe it's something you learn about in physcology class?
Anyway, here's the excerpt from the 7/12/2010 email (Monk speaking)...
---------------------
I have been asked several times if I am going to take Monk’s Den to a private forum or chat room…I have considered it, but I have not reached a decision as of yet. Look for coming updates on that subject as to what direction we may take with that…
Last, but not least… I have applied for Trade Marks ™ and Service Marks (sm) on the following phrases in conjunction with the arena of stock and financial services:
Monk’s Den ™
Monkinar ™
Float Lock Down (sm)
Lock the Float (sm)
Monk’s Den
These phrases are now protected and use is limited to those with expression permission from me.
Let’s have a great week in the Den…
Monk
Interesting example. Here are my thoughts on it...
In general, people go long in a stock because they think the price is going to go up (for whatever reason), and people go short in a stock because they think the price is going to go down (for whatever reason). Short squeezes naturally occur when there happen to be a lot of people that were “betting” that the stock would go down happen to be wrong (for whatever reason). That is the scenario you describe in the old folks home. That seems to be how the market should work in it’s simplest and purest form.
Now, it’s certainly possible that one reason I might think that a stock price is going to go up could be because there is a large short position. There may be all sorts of things I consider when investing in a stock.
The problem occurs when the criteria to invest in an issue becomes a “scheme to manipulate” the price of the issue. Obviously, there is some element of subjectivity in determining when criteria becomes a scheme, but the cases that have been prosecuted have been clear (at least to most people) that a scheme was taking place. There are probably numerous schemes that do, however, go undetected.
One question then is why is the FLD concept illegal if it’s just a bunch of folks buying and holding stock. I suppose is comes down to intention. Are people really just buying and holding expecting that the price will go up for whatever reason or are they buying and holding to eventually force the price up in a squeeze? The SEC has stated that the former is fine and the later is illegal. It’s interesting that the FLD stock boards have shifted (mostly) from touting the MOASS angle to touting the so-called business models of these worthless companies. Clearly the trail of evidence left behind with all of the FLD stocks leaves little doubt that the whole thing was a scheme to manipulate the price.
I got my Monday's with Monk email this morning (actually it was from Mel yet again this week--where is that Monk guy hiding?). Anyway, I found the "Trader Talk Update!" section somewhat interesting in light of my review of a Monkinar I posted last week. Check out the list of things available in Monk's trader talk vs. the list of things I mentioned that were not covered in a Monkinar (see the post this post is in response to).
I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Either way, good for them. Seriously, I hope it helps some of them get some money back in the market. That would at least be one good thing that came out of the whole FLD train wreck.
Anyway, I need to crank some posts out. Rumor has it I'm just a lonely MM (or is it hedge fund?) employee that gets paid by the post, so here's another $0.10 in my coffers (joking).
Excerpt from the Monday's with Monk email follows...
----------------------------------------------------
Trader Talk Update!
Thanks for all the feedback regarding Trader Talk!
To keep the forum structured and allow us to sort through the different information with a lot more ease it will now be broken into Areas of Discussion.
These following topics will be stickied for Basic and Advanced.
1. Chart Annotations: (using rules for Basic and Advanced for each of the forums) the purpose is to annotate charts and to talk about specific trades that we see in the day. Everyone is welcome to annotate a chart and post it and let others give their comments. This way we collectively grow and different members can step-up and help new members that attend an advanced and are just starting to papertrade. We will cover entries, exits, rules, and other nuances that come up in the trading with the different SMA pairs that were taught in class.
2. Common Candlestick Formations: We will define and talk about interpreting specific candles such as hammers and dojis. We will also provide examples from charts and clean definitions for each one and focus on what you're supposed to interpret from the candle itself or string of candles.
3. Common Chart Patterns: In this area we will talk about different chart patterns that are seen such as double tops, ascending triangles, etc. and talk about what we are supposed to interpret from them as well as annotating charts to show good examples of each. Ideally we will find some occuring in real-time and be able to follow them as group and see how they play out.
4. Shorting/Puts/Calls/Trailing Stop Losses: We will cover all the different types of orders that can be done outside of our typical buy and sell. This will need to be collabrative and people who have strength in a certain area from experience are encouraged to take more of an active role. I personally would like to at least learn more about puts and calls from an educational standpoint.
5. Technical Indicators: This is where we can talk about the different indicators on our charts and what they mean and how to apply them in different situations.
6. Trader's Mentality: Physcology is very important in trading!
7. Trading Stations and Trading Platforms
8. Monkinar Notes to Share and Discuss: This thread will be dedicated to sharing notes with one another from classes. As we continue to have additional monkinars it is important for members to share what they learn with other Monkinar Attendees. Although we try to make all Monkinars the same so that everyone receives the same value, the fact is that different questions arise and different discussions take place each one depending on the attendees. Anyone willing to share their notes from a Monkinar can post it here or post a way to obtain them. Everyone's notes will be slightly different but will only help us all to make sure we are interpeting things learned in class correctly. This will be a great way to self-check one another on potential mis-interpretations of what was taught in class, something you may have missed, or something new that may have been covered.
If you have a prior post that relates to one of the above threads please repost it where applicable...we value your input!
In addition to the Trader Talk threads the following threads will be also be stickied as they are the most frequently viewed, up to date threads on potential trades.
We encourage everyone to share their potential trades so we can all benefit from them. Kudos to Sideshow, Jet Pilot, and Zach who do a great job of keeping everyone up to speed with these threads on a regular basis:
1. Sidesh0wb0b and Jetpilot's Swing Trades and Pincher Plays
2. Zach's Daily Plays
The following Threads will also be stickied and updated weekly as Zach does a great of job keeping us informed of upcoming market events and earnings releases. Everyone is encouraged to add their input here on upcoming market events and earnings release that are coming up for the following week!
1. Upcoming Market Events for the Week of: Date xxxxx
2. Upcoming Earnings Releases for the Week of: Date xxxxxxx
You're correct. Monk made no claims about EVCC being a FLD at the time EVCC was running. Monk made the EVCC short squeeze (FLD) claims long after the fact (i.e. when he was pumping CDIV almost 2 years later). My point was that Monk's later claims about being involved with some sort of FLD team on EVCC were bogus. Maybe I wasn't that clear in my explanation, but I agree with Kezzek's research. I was just looking at it from the perspective of Monk's claims during his CDIV pumping.
Koolaid: EVCC was a FLD short squeeze
You can find more info about this at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=57129942
One thing that caused me to abandon my belief in the FLD concept was some research into Monk's claim about the original FLD short squeeze stocks. There were two of these stocks that supposedly Monk and some other people quietly invested in for a long time before they eventually squeezed. You can read Monk's claim in his own words here...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=45578589
Let's look at the EVCC short squeeze claim. If you're willing to search back far enough in Monk's early posts, you'll find that he claimed to have bought into EVCC at around $2.00 and sold a week later for a 100% profit as he explains here...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=21168332
Now that's a great trade but far from what he describes in his short squeeze claim. Also, several of us have asked Monk what happened to all the other people involved with EVCC that helped him lock the float. Monk claims that they are all retired now and no longer investing (or apparently available for comment).
What really happened with EVCC was not a short squeeze but simply another crazy pump and dump promotional scheme as explained here...
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=1c0c9cea-5d9f-402e-b01b-30a8966ad8aa
Do your own research and draw your own conclusions, but EVCC looks nothing like an FLD to me. It appears to be just another pinkie pump and dump.
Advanced Monkinar Review
Disclaimer:
All of the stuff below is simply my opinion based on my attendance of the PHX Advanced Monkinar in March of 2010. While there is a significant amount of controversy surrounding Monk (aka Jerry Williams) and some of the companies he chose as stock picks, my goal is to ignore that as much as possible and provide an objective review of a Monkinar. If you’re interested in my personal opinions of the whole FLD idea and how Monk handled the whole thing, you can read them here (http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56176616) and here (http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56388350). Suffice it to say that I no longer consume the Koolaid.
The PHX Monkinar was the first advanced one held (before the basic Monkinar became a required prerequisite), so I have attended only the advanced. The primary extras provided at the advanced (compared to the basic) are a day of “live” trading and focus on faster time frames (e.g. 1 minute charts as opposed to just 5 minute and above charts).
Finally, given that people are paying their hard earned money to learn what is taught at a Monkinar, I will not reveal any details of Monk’s system.
What you will Learn
I estimate about a quarter of the time was devoted to hearing stories of how people discovered Monk and why they were attending a Monkinar. Another quarter of the time was devoted to looking at the stock charts of various hope stocks that individuals in the group had invested in (i.e. stocks that you hope go back up some day but probably never will). Probably only an hour or so was devoted to a discussion of the infamous FLD picks and answering questions about them. The remainder of the time was devoted mainly to two things. The first was basic chart reading (e.g. things like what is a candle, what does open/close mean, etc.) and the use of a small handful of basic indicators and how Jerry uses them for swing trading in various time-frames (e.g. 5 minutes to days). I won’t get into the details of Monk’s system (as that is what you’re paying for if you go), but I will say that the system is fundamentally a moving average based system subject to the same pros and cons as all moving average based systems are. The one appealing aspect of the system Monk teaches is that it is extremely simple and easy to follow. The bigger question is if it actually works (more on this later). The second thing you’ll learn is how to daytrade (or swing trade) leveraged ETF’s like FAZ/FAS and QID/QLD in both 5 minute (and above) and 1 minute time frames. You’ll also get to see Monk trade a live market using a 1 minute chart.
Aside from the above stuff, you will get to meet a lot of nice people and get to know some of the faces behind the names on the message boards.
What you won’t learn
You won’t learn about more than 3 or 4 basic indicators. For those of you interested in the math behind these indicators, you won’t get that either.
You won’t learn how to do anything with indicators besides use them for Monk’s system (e.g. you won’t learn how to detect bullish and bearish divergences, etc.).
You won’t learn about basic chart patterns (e.g. head and shoulders, flags, pennants, double tops, etc.) nor will you be taught how to draw a correct trend line or channel.
You won’t learn how to conduct scans or search for your own plays.
You won’t learn about level 2 quotes or how to read and use them.
There is no discussion of different order types beyond market and limit (e.g. trailing stops) nor is there any discussion of money management (e.g. enter or exit a trade in pieces as opposed to going all in or all out at once). There is no real discussion of limiting losses (e.g. when to exit a failing trade or how to use a trailing stop).
There is no discussion of how to use basic put/call options to trade the ETF’s to achieve even additional leverage beyond what you get with the 2X and 3X ETF’s (or for protection in longer term trade).
One other thing worth noting about the live trading day is the following. The concepts of slippage and bid/ask spread cost is never really addressed during the live trading. Monk would simply call out that he was entering or exiting a trade now, and someone would note the price. Unfortunately, this ignores the fact that the entry would have been at the ask and the exit at the bid, and the spread as well as a roundtrip commission would have been lost on the trade. So trades that were considered break-even or small losses would actually have lost a bit more in real life. This tends to obviously bias the results some.
Does it the system work
Monk claims that his system produces winning trades over 82% of the time (if you follow his rules) and can make 3%-5% a day or more trading a 3X leveraged ETF. FWIW, here is my opinion: I have a degree in engineering and use NinjaTrader for trade strategy development and back testing (although not for actual trading). I coded up Monk’s ETF rules and back-tested them against the FAZ/FAS, TNA/TZA, and QID/QLD for the past year. If you just use Monk’s rules as is (in a 5 minute time-frame and close out everything everyday), his system does about break-even (the 1 minute version is worse). Like most moving average based systems, it tends to do fairly well during trending markets and very poorly during range-bound , flat, or choppy markets. In my opinion, to make the system work, you’ll need to enhance it in some manner to get more reliable entry/exit signals or to filter out trading during non-trending markets (either via additional indicators or personal discretion from looking at the chart).
Conclusion
One thing I’ve learned in my short stint so far as a part-time trader is that making money consistently in the market is very difficult at best. Most successful traders are wrong a lot (sometimes as much as they are right). They make money by controlling the loses on the wrong decisions and maximizing the gains on the good ones. If you really think you can go to a weekend seminar and learn some magic trick that will have you making 5% a day every day, you’re most likely just setting yourself up for failure. Monk made the claim at the Monkinar that he’s never had a losing day while day trading. While that is probably impossible to refute, it seems difficult to believe.
Anyway, that’s my take on the advanced Monkinar. I actually don’t have big regrets about going. If I had it to do all over again, I would, however, invest my money elsewhere. My suggestion to you is this: Like you should before investing in anything like this, do a little shopping around and some due diligence before plunking down a few thousand dollars. There are other options.
I'm reposting my Monkinar review because iHub has some goofy feature that only allows a post to be made sticky if it's been posted in the last 48 hours...whatever...I'm new to being a mod...
Speaking of Koolaid, Virtual Drew has started a board to dissect and examine the FLD Koolaid. You can find it here...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=19351
Hey Drew, thanks for starting this board.
Since you're looking for people to share their stories, let me go first as an ex-FLD/Monk believer. Here are a couple posts I've made on other boards that tell some of my journey out of the whole FLD scam...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56176616
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=56388350
I also posted a review of the "Monkinar" I attended on my board...
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=57048579
For any of you that are so bored that you end up looking through some of my past posts, I have a confession to make...
If you haven’t figured it out, I used to be a serious Koolaid drinker, mainly of the float lock down (FLD) variety. I totally bought into the whole “massive naked shorting, we’re going have a life changing short squeeze” craziness.
Anyway, not anymore. It's been quite the learning experience for me, although some days I wish I could just delete some of my old posts.
"the product could be the direct cause of death for a dozen nuns holding orphans"
lol...that's really funny...but at least that company actually has a product unlike some of the other ones.
Great links...definitely worth reading.
Oh Janice, you clearly don't understand how the market works. The proven recipe for the greatest short squeeze in history is to pick a scam company and run the stock up on ridiculous PR's (never selling a single share) so that the SEC suspends trading and it comes back on the grey sheets (all part of the plan). Once on the grey sheets, that's where the real float lock down and shorting happens so that the price can sky rocket to multiple dollars once those evil off-planet alien MM hedge funds finally get the buy-in notices and start to cover.
(hopefully no one missed the sarcasm in all that).
That seems to work. Cool.
Maxell46, question for you...
Do you use any additional criteria besides Monk's signals to decide to enter or exit a trade? I looked at that chart in light of Monk's system, and I see why you entered where you did, but I also see some other points one might have followed Monk's system into the market. You also don't seem to exit based on Monk's system (exits are very subjective in his system IMO).
Obviously, we can't really discus this in detail without getting into the details of Monk's system (which I totally understand why we can't and support not doing). My claim is that if you use Monk's system in a purely mechanical way it's not much better than break-even (based on my back-testing). However, if you start adding to his system with either additional criteria or more subjective things, I think you can be successful. The couple people I know who I genuinely believe are consistently successful with his system are doing just this (adding some additional criteria--often subjective). However, I think there is a fairly large and silent group of people that are not doing nearly as great with his system on an on-going basis (because of this subjective element, which is very difficult to teach just because it is so subjective).
Anyway, just my opinion, but I would be interested in your take on this if you feel you can answer honestly without betraying any trust or giving anything away. Thanks.
KoolAid: Daily FINRA Short Numbers
This is one of my favorites. How many times have you seen someone post the daily finra short numbers and make some claim about how the market makers are holding back a stock because the the short total is so high or some other unfounded claim. Let me state that those numbers mean almost nothing. Here’s why.
It is theoretically possible to have 100% legitimate retail sells show up as 100% shorts in the daily finra numbers...
Consider someone selling shares through their broker. There are two legs to the transaction, the MM selling the shares into the market and the MM taking ownership of the shares from the seller’s broker. There is also a possible third case in which the MM just buys the shares from the broker to complete the sale and holds them (as MM's can end up with both short or long positions in a stock in an effort to make a market). In this sell case, if the leg of the sell transaction from MM to the market is counted, the sell will (somewhat surprisingly) appear as a short in the numbers if the MM sells the shares to the market first before taking ownership of the shares from the broker (as the MM may sell short to the market first knowing that he’ll immediately get shares to cover from the seller’s broker). If the buy from the broker to MM leg (or the buy to “hold” by the MM) is counted, the sale will not appear as short. Only one leg of the transaction will appear in the daily numbers to not confuse the volume numbers.
Buy transactions are equally confusing as they also have two legs. The leg from the market to MM and the leg from MM to broker. If the leg from market to MM is counted, the buy not will show up as short (as the MM bought shares). If the leg from MM to broker is counted, it will show up as short (as the MM sold shares to the broker). There is also a third case in which the MM sells his own inventory to complete the buy (which will likely not show up as short) and a fourth case in which the MM sells shares it doesn't have (naked shorts) to complete the sale. This naked shorting is legally allowed so that the MM’s can make a market.
In general, the finra numbers are supposed to tally only the "consolidated tape" transactions, that is the transaction legs between the MM and the market (not the legs between MM and brokers--called media transactions). This has the effect of often having a large number of legit sells (possibly even all of them) show up as shorts in the counts.
If this was confusing, that’s the point. Exactly what a short in the daily count means depends on a variety of factors including exactly when and in what order a MM completes the two legs of a buy or sell transaction. High short numbers might very well indicate a high number of legitimate retail sales.
In the spirit of the name of this board, I thought I’d start making posts about various KoolAid items that float around the market and iHub. I’ll start this in the next post.
You are more than welcome to agree with, disagree with, and/or critique the Koolaid items. You’re also more than welcome to post your own take on the KoolAid you see people drinking.
I want to do more with this board (as my time permits) than just go round and round about Monk's system. I'm happy to keep that as an ongoing subject. I think there's a reasonable amount of interest in Monk and his system (lol), but I would like to cover other material as well.
I'd like to actually discuss trading techniques (e.g. technical analysis) and stuff related to trading (e.g. money management, the psychology/mental aspect of trading, etc.). I want this to be actual content--not just things like buy this as it's going to the moon. For example, Maxell made a couple decent little scalps today. Would you have followed him into those trades? Why or why not? Obviously, the Monk folks aren't going to share any details about why they might buy here or sell there, but the rest of us can.
Anyway, just some thoughts about where to go with this board. Other ideas are welcome.
I'm getting ready to head out now for the weekend... so to all of you Monk lovers, Monk haters, and anyone else, have a Happy Thanksgiving...
The second link works...can you loan me some money?
still all zeroes for me...
I can see it, but everything in it appears to be zero
Let me clarify a couple things about my review of a Monkinar. The system is a technical analysis system (based on lagging indicators) like numerous other ones. It is based on a signal followed by a confirmation (there is nothing new or novel about this idea--read a book or visit a technical analysis website--it's used in many, many trading systems). I haven't given away any keys to the kingdom in saying that. My claim was that it does not work well out of the box trading every signal/confirmation it provides. You need to either enhance it (e.g. filter out some signals) via other indicators or chart patterns, etc. or via more subjective criteria such as where price might be relative to other things, etc. It may be entirely possible to use it as a basis for a profitable system (however, I still think that 5-10% a day consistently certainly pushes the bounds of believability).
Finally, to all the Monk followers out there reading this, you all need to relax a bit and not be so defensive when someone offers a contrary opinion. This whole everyone who disagrees or questions you is some sort of paid basher with an agenda is way beyond ridiculous. Seriously, let the paid basher thing go. Research it a bit. It's pretty much an urban legend just like most conspiracy theories. Anyway, if your system and ideas are really as good and valid as you claim, you should be able to handle some contrary opinions and doubts.
Good for you...a couple nice little scalps there.
I know you're not interested, but I still claim that the only way to give any real credibility to Monk's system at this point is to use some sort of service that verifies people's actual trades over a reasonable period of time through various market conditions (e.g. up, down, choppy, etc. conditions). That would show it working with real money, real slippage, real commissions, etc. One person PM'ed me and claimed to be interested in doing just this. If this person or someone else does, I'll be the first person to put it up here so we can all follow along.
Trust me, if someone does this and demonstrates 5-10% a day over an extended period of time, Monk should send me a thank-you card because this would be the best marketing ever for his Monkinar business substantially.
Hey all...I'm at work right now and don't have time to really moderate things, so play nice. If people want to discuss entries/exit based on Monk's system and how well it does or doesn't work, great.
I'm not big on deleting posts, but no Monk (or other people) bashing, please. That's what the EIGH and other FLD boards are for. lol
I'll try to provide some more direction where I'd like to go with this board later...
No...and take a moment to understand what I'm saying before you respond again.
You don't have to explain why you make the trades (that can be your secret). You simply have to show your entries and exits in real-time. For all anyone would know, you could be basing entries and exits on a roll of the dice.
I think this would be amazing marketing material for the Monkinars.
Here's the deal...All of you people making claims about how well you are doing with Monk's system could shut everyone up (including me) by allowing people to follow all your Monk system live trades with real money over the course of at least a few weeks and see the actual results. I believe Covestor is one way to do this.
You Monk followers have so damaged your credibility via the FLD disasters that no one believes anything any of you say anymore. You could prove how great Monk's system is by simply showing all your trades over several weeks in real-time (so that it can't be disputed). Making claims on a message board or posting easily fabricated results after the fact is never going to convince anyone who doesn't already believe.
Trust me, if you can offer proof of a system that consistently gives 5% a day returns with 80% trade accuracy, you'll have a lot more people signing up for the next Monkinar.
Yes, one definitely needs to learn about them before jumpping in. I'm still in the getting my feet wet stage. I've done a lot on paper and some live with a small number of contracts. It's very easy to give gains back rather quickly.
The risk and rewards certainly go both ways. I didn't mention that the same options that were up 60%-80% today were down 40% yesterday.
I don't remember Monk saying anything about options in PHX, so I can neither confirm nor deny that.
OK, I'll play along...
Just out of curiosity, how did you back test it (e.g. what platform, etc.) and what time frame was used (5, 15, 60, daily?) and over how long (the past year?). Which Monk system did you use, the 1 min version or the swing version? Also, how did you address entry/exits? Did you simply use the open price of the bar after you got an entry/exit signal? Did you account for commissions and factor in any sort of slippage? Was any sort of curve fitting done before publishing the results?
FWIW, the reason I didn't bring any of this up a while back was because a while back I was a loyal team member slapping the ask on the FLD's and didn't want to rock the boat. Since exiting the FLD's a couple months ago, I've come to believe that people should make informed decisions and consider all sides of something before jumping in. I never said don't attend a Monkinar. If you think it's a good thing to spend your money on and will be successful because of it as so many claim, then by all means attend one.
Three things…
First, in response to the private and public messages I’ve received about how successful they are with Monk’s system and how it’s changed a lot since I attended, cool. Since Monk has upped the price on these things, I hope he has added material, and if you’re successful with his system, that’s great. I genuinely wish everyone would make some money in this market, especially given that many lost a ton of money in the FLD’s. I met a lot of nice people in PHX, and it’s sad to see how much money some have them have lost. Also, if someone is really making money live trading and wants to prove how great Monk’s system is, you might consider signing up with with a service like covestor and letting people follow your real trades.
Second, my reason for posting this review was simply to offer some information for people who might be considering attending a Monkinar. If you think it’s a good investment of your money and you’ll make money as a result, by all means, please attend. I never said don’t attend one. I even admitted I didn’t regret going. I just think people should make informed decisions. A lot of people might have a lot more money today if they had been more thoughtful and considered all sides of things before dumping their life savings into an FLD.
Third, for those of you wondering what I’m invested in, I have a full time job, so I can’t watch stocks all day during trading hours. I’m forced to trade longer term things. You’re welcome to check the “my stocks" on my profile to see what stocks I hold. In addition to those, I also trade options on QQQQ and SPY. For all you Monk followers who can make 5-10% a day with a 3X leveraged ETF and call 9 out of 10 trades correctly, you might consider looking into options as you can probably make a whole lot more with them. As an example, some of the Dec QQQQ puts were up 60%-100% just today.
gotta run here...but in PHX, he was not spending actual money. He was using stockcharts real-time with a 1 minute chart (15 sec refresh) of FAZ/FAS and just calling out "I'd enter now" or "I'd exit now" while someone took notes on the entry/exit prices.
For those who might be considering attending a Monkinar, I've posted a fair and objective review (IMO) of the one I attended at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=57048579
For those watching still EIGH, if you're interested in what is taught by JSW at his Monkinars, I've posted a review at http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=57048579