Hi Guys,
As I am sure most of you are aware there has been an ongoing dispute between Darkstar, myself and several others, concerning the training that he is offering along with how genuine his advertised trades are. Unfortunately to find out the quality of his products cost me $2800. Luckily enough you can read more about my experiences in these posts here and here without having to lose a penny finding out for yourselves. My reason for creating this thread was because A: I feel that this should be public knowledge and B: DS has since banned me from posting in his thread, so I was left as this route as the only alternative.
Now lots of people will accuse myself and others for being a little harsh, perhaps we have but I believe that this is justified given the circumstances. DS has been given numerous opportunities to prove his worthiness by making some real time live calls or to have his results audited and available for inspection. Instead of working to clear his reputation, he has instead of attempted to villainize both myself and others. You can read more here, about how DS was most probably fabricating his results.
Now I don't consider DS to be a a trader at all. Instead I do find him to be someone who is highly skilled with his use of marketing tactics, in an effort to promote his products. Lets start by deconstructing his latest promotion posted here.
Initially he is trying to make the target audience believe that he has a genuine reason for pulling the plug. The Moral Appeal tactic is supposed to remind you that the goal of the negotiation is mutual satisfaction, both on his and your parts. Next he is using scarcity to market his product. Look at the parts in bold below;
Here he trying to cleverly use scarcity to sell the product and push the reader into thinking that this will not last forever and that you really only have one opportunity left to buy this. I am not to sure how trading his personal accounts will go, since the attached was posted and removed from his facbook page. Feel free to form your own opinions on this.
Lets look at the next part;
Notice the use of moral appeal again? He is trying to make it look like he is actually doing you and himself a favour by offering this?
On the linked website you will notice he states the following;
Now with this part I am really not sure if he means this as a joke. Anyhow he is using a deadline as a pressure tactic and once again invoke the feeling of scarcity for his product. Further evidence of this tactic can be found in his follow up post here where he says;
Anyone starting to see a trend here? Its very similar with the "sales ends tomorrow" used by retailers.
Moving on from this advertisement lets talk about DS himself. After reading through his posts, you will notice how he demands superiority and his highly critical of anyone highlighting flaws in his thinking. TheGreatMilenko highlighted one of his posts here that displays this. By acting as superior to others in this way, he is automatically creating an inferiority complex. Anyone who would think about challenging his beliefs would feel very unmotivated to do so. At the end of the day if he is superior then he has to be correct, no? I truly believe that this is why he has continued on for as long as he has. Customers would be more inclined to think that it were themselves to blame, for their own failures in trading and not DSīs order flow methodology. I am quite certain that many of his students are suffering from cognitive dissonance and feel inclined to side with DS, even though they have not achieved profitability.
So hopefully anyone who was thinking about parting with the $5000 DS is demanding will now see right through his marketing tactics and save themselves both the money and time. If you are still thinking about paying for training, please feel free to post here and we can discuss the steps DS would need to take to prove, that he genuinely has a good product to offer and is not falsifying his claims, as I highlighted in the OFT thread.
As I am sure most of you are aware there has been an ongoing dispute between Darkstar, myself and several others, concerning the training that he is offering along with how genuine his advertised trades are. Unfortunately to find out the quality of his products cost me $2800. Luckily enough you can read more about my experiences in these posts here and here without having to lose a penny finding out for yourselves. My reason for creating this thread was because A: I feel that this should be public knowledge and B: DS has since banned me from posting in his thread, so I was left as this route as the only alternative.
Now lots of people will accuse myself and others for being a little harsh, perhaps we have but I believe that this is justified given the circumstances. DS has been given numerous opportunities to prove his worthiness by making some real time live calls or to have his results audited and available for inspection. Instead of working to clear his reputation, he has instead of attempted to villainize both myself and others. You can read more here, about how DS was most probably fabricating his results.
Now I don't consider DS to be a a trader at all. Instead I do find him to be someone who is highly skilled with his use of marketing tactics, in an effort to promote his products. Lets start by deconstructing his latest promotion posted here.
QuoteDislikedIts become apparent to me that the life of a trading educator is not as fulfilling as it once was.
As such I have decided to cease all training, shut down my site, and live a private life trading my personal accounts.
Before I go, I've decided to run one final program for the fans that I've made over the years who might not have had an opportunity to train with me:
http://www.orderflowtrading.com/FinalProgram
I would like to thank the staff and membership of forexfactory.com for helping me take my first tentative steps into this industry.
May luck be with you all.
Initially he is trying to make the target audience believe that he has a genuine reason for pulling the plug. The Moral Appeal tactic is supposed to remind you that the goal of the negotiation is mutual satisfaction, both on his and your parts. Next he is using scarcity to market his product. Look at the parts in bold below;
QuoteDislikedAs such I have decided to cease all training, shut down my site, and live a private life trading my personal accounts.
Here he trying to cleverly use scarcity to sell the product and push the reader into thinking that this will not last forever and that you really only have one opportunity left to buy this. I am not to sure how trading his personal accounts will go, since the attached was posted and removed from his facbook page. Feel free to form your own opinions on this.
Lets look at the next part;
QuoteDislikedBefore I go, I've decided to run one final program for the fans that I've made over the years who might not have had an opportunity to train with me
Notice the use of moral appeal again? He is trying to make it look like he is actually doing you and himself a favour by offering this?
On the linked website you will notice he states the following;
QuoteDislikedThe program will start on April 1st.
Now with this part I am really not sure if he means this as a joke. Anyhow he is using a deadline as a pressure tactic and once again invoke the feeling of scarcity for his product. Further evidence of this tactic can be found in his follow up post here where he says;
QuoteDisliked11 seats remaining
Anyone starting to see a trend here? Its very similar with the "sales ends tomorrow" used by retailers.
Moving on from this advertisement lets talk about DS himself. After reading through his posts, you will notice how he demands superiority and his highly critical of anyone highlighting flaws in his thinking. TheGreatMilenko highlighted one of his posts here that displays this. By acting as superior to others in this way, he is automatically creating an inferiority complex. Anyone who would think about challenging his beliefs would feel very unmotivated to do so. At the end of the day if he is superior then he has to be correct, no? I truly believe that this is why he has continued on for as long as he has. Customers would be more inclined to think that it were themselves to blame, for their own failures in trading and not DSīs order flow methodology. I am quite certain that many of his students are suffering from cognitive dissonance and feel inclined to side with DS, even though they have not achieved profitability.
So hopefully anyone who was thinking about parting with the $5000 DS is demanding will now see right through his marketing tactics and save themselves both the money and time. If you are still thinking about paying for training, please feel free to post here and we can discuss the steps DS would need to take to prove, that he genuinely has a good product to offer and is not falsifying his claims, as I highlighted in the OFT thread.