DislikedThe only way I see to do this is by providing a new member qualification. Audited Senior Member.ASM.Ignored
1. Given your comment "without disclosing private details of either wealth or live accounts" – and I agree that it has to be that way, for privacy reasons – the best it can effectively prove is that the ASM has a profitable trading methodology, as opposed to having mastered his personal psychology to the point that he's trading serious money, or even for a living, himself.
2. Full ASM certification would need to be withheld until a reasonable trade quota (500 trades?) is reached, for obvious reasons.
3. Following on from point 2, there are plenty of trading strategies that are capable of making huge returns for several weeks, even months (trading competitions are full of them), yet given enough time will eventually fail. Similarly, there are methods whose weakness is masked by MM techniques (e.g. Martingale or escalating sizing; averaging down without limit; using wide or no stoplosses, etc) that are ultimately unsustainable. But until they crash and burn, their performance is going to seem superior (especially to newbies) to those of 'real' traders.
4. There's the possibility that, for better or worse, FF would gradually become another site like collective2, a breeding ground for system and signal sellers. If a method underperforms, the trader simply devises another one, and re-enters using a different name/IP address.
Having said all that, I nonetheless agree with you in principle. Something along the lines of your proposal would represent a huge leap forward from the vouching system, which I agree is essentially meaningless.
In the meantime (and given the thread topic), let's give Jim a chance to post some live calls, and withhold judgement until we see how they develop. Personally, I'm every bit as interested in his accompanying rationale, as I am in the result of the trades.
David
DislikedBecause I think it will (like Buffet says) show whos wearing swimsuits and whos not. LoLIgnored