(binned per thread starter’s request) Society of Traders Vetting

To vet means to investigate. The results of the investigation will prove that a commercial member falls into one of two categories:



This thread will provide an ongoing and updated list of the most active commercial members and label them accordingly.
Here is a beginning list of some of the most active commercial members here at Forex Factory.

I am inviting any of these commercial members to now provide evidence that the products they sell have and still are resulting in profit via an account they or the website actively manages.

JAMES 16 -
SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN A NUTSHELL BY ALFONSO MORENO-
SPIDER'S DEN-
STRAT'S LONG TERM STRESS FREE TRADING-
TRADE WITH 60-

I and many other traders abhor the commercial member section here at Forex Factory. I and I hope others will join me in vetting the commercial members. This will serve to bring out the truth (good and bad) about commercial members. My intentions are not to bad-mouth commercial members. In fact this is an opportunity for commercial members to come clean.

A typical commercial member is a commercial member because they have something to sell. Typical commercial member products include website memberships with varying levels of access, educational material available via membership or fee and trading strategies via DVD, books or downloads.

So why does the commercial member section have such a bad reputation? Most of you know the answer to this already. Those who don't could find out in about 10 minutes by just looking at the 10 most recent commercial member forum entries. Just the titles themselves say it all. But let's be clear about the #1 reason.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF COMMERCIAL MEMBERS SELL PRODUCTS THAT HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO PERFORMANCE RECORD

The commercial member section is a place where the laws governing the rest of the financial and investment world do not apply. Why? Because they hide under the guise of providing an opinion or providing only educational material and not trading advice. Yet they can legally sell you all manner of trading material suggesting that if you buy the material you will be profitable.

In the regulated world of investing and finances an investor can obtain a record of performance of the investment they are thinking about investing in. If you ask a commercial member for evidence of performance of any product they are selling you will get nothing and most likely you will be ridiculed and even persecuted and if you persist you will be banned from their website. I know. I was banned on 1/9/2016 from James 16. Check out my posts and you will see how it happens.

But lets be honest! Most assume that the material these commercial members are selling has profit potential. One only needs to review the commercial section and do a little browsing to find out that there are plenty of buyers hoping to find a profitable strategy. James 16 is probably the premier example. They have many members. No doubt these members are all looking to be profitable.

I might be wrong but if I am then I'm ready to be proven wrong through evidence of the following statement:

NO JAMES 16 MEMBER OR ANY MEMBER OF ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL MEMBERS' WEBSITE OR PURCHASER OF ANY COMMERCIAL MEMBER'S PRODUCT CAN SHOW A SUSTAINABLE RECORD OF PROFIT BASED ON THE PRODUCT/S THEY PURCHASED

FURTHERMORE IT IS HIGHLY UNLIKELY THAT EVEN THE COMMERCIAL MEMBERS THEMSELVES CAN SHOW A RECORD OF SUSTAINABLE PROFIT BASED ON THE PRODUCTS THEY SELL

The sad truth is that commercial members make money in one way: Fees for membership and fees for access to educational material.

The purpose of this thread is to vet the most active commercial members and to educate and warn all aspiring traders about the true intentions of most commercial members.

Hi, Winston

I totally agree with your post above. Unforunately for people with money to spend, these 'commercial members' are able to gain traction in FF and make their money before they finally get kicked off!

How do you propose to vet the members?

MT

On the premise that a consumer has the right to become informed about the products he/she wishes to purchase then a trader considering purchasing a product from a commercial member has the right to ask for the performance of the product.

​If a person buys a car that person can go to "Consumer Reports" , "Edmunds" or some other third party and obtain a great deal of information that helps that person decide whether or not to purchase the car. You don't have to investigate the car but if you don't then buyer beware. If Ford, Chevrolet or Dodge refused to provide any performance data on their vehicles would you purchase it?

If a person wants to buy a new washer/dryer or new computer or a new cell phone he/she can again without fear of ridicule or persecution easily obtain data about the performance of any of these items to make an informed decision. Again you can buy any of these products without investigating them...buyer beware.

But it is quite easy for a savvy consumer to become informed about pretty much any product he/she is in the market to purchase.

It should be the same with regards to aspiring traders wanting performance data on a commercial member's product. Refusal or inability of the commercial member to provide performance data in my book is huge red flag.

Commercial members sell products that have the underlying assumption of profit potential. We must assume that the commercial member has developed the strategy and that he/she has profited from it on a consistent basis. At a minimum the commercial member must be able to demonstrate that he/she has in fact profited from the very strategy he/she is selling.

​To vet means to investigate. The results of the investigation will prove that a commercial member falls into one of two categories:

1. Legitimate - commercial member has provided performance data on the product or products sold and the data proves profitability.

2. Illegitimate - The commercial member has not provided performance data or refuses to provide such data but continues to sell products and suggesting to buyers that the products will result in profit.

Here is a beginning list of some of the most active commercial members here at Forex Factory.

I am inviting any of these commercial members to now provide evidence that the products they sell have and still are resulting in profit via an account they or the website actively manages.

JAMES 16
SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN A NUTSHELL BY ALFONSO MORENO
SPIDER'S DEN
STRAT'S LONG TERM STRESS FREE TRADING
TRADE WITH 60

​So far I've gotten a couple of responses.
Strat replied but thus far has failed to provide requested performance data. He suggested I ask the profitable members on his website. I told him it is not my responsibility to prove his methods are profitable but that it is his. Let's see what happens.

I am in discussions with Jim from James 16. I am hopeful he will come through and appreciate his willingness to enter into discussions with me. Do the right thing Jim. Be different than all the rest. I will be your number one supporter if you do.

​I realize that by starting this thread may in fact cause my membership to be revoked here at FF. I am prepared for that eventuality. Please realize my intentions are to bring to the attention to all those forking out their hard earned cash with the hope they will become profitable by following the strategies of the commercial members here at FF that you are for the most part wasting your time and money. The only one's profiting are the commercial members taking your money for access to their websites, downloads, books, DVDs, etc. etc.

If a commercial member refuses to provide performance data you really should walk away from them. it's as plain and simple as that. If I get revoked I wish all of you the best.

As for you commercial members refusing to back up your claims I believe Karma will get the best of you. Funny, someone else told me Karma may get me. Whoa!

Hi Winston. I agree completely with what you are trying to achieve here. Although a new member to FF, I have been a "lurker" for many years & have been trading for many years before that. I have seen a multitude of Commercial members touting their wares with little or no evidence of profitability to back up their claims of success.
I believe ALL commercial members MUST provide an on-going trade explorer at all times & as a result, be allowed to converse with non commercial members including posting on all threads. Fairs fair both ways. Commercial members providing proof of product should not be treated as lepers whereas those who do not should not be allowed to post at all.
The fact this is not happening makes one wonder who runs FF & what is FFs real agenda.

[quote=Basill;8681859]{quote} Hi Winston. I agree completely with what you are trying to achieve here. Although a new member to FF, I have been a "lurker" for many years & have been trading for many years before that. I have seen a multitude of Commercial members touting their wares with little or no evidence of profitability to back up their claims of success. I believe ALL commercial members MUST provide an on-going trade explorer at all times & as a result, be allowed to converse with non commercial members including posting on all threads. Fairs fair both ways. Commercial members providing proof of product should not be treated as lepers whereas those who do not should not be allowed to post at all. The fact this is not happening makes one wonder who runs FF & what is FFs real agenda.[/quot​

Basill I could have not said it better myself. You said much here and many should listen. Thank you very much!!!!

Hi Winston

Just to let you know this is a great thread. Great question - its amazing how slow the commercial vendors are. If i had a great strategy i would post the P&L (live not demo) quickly. Their slowness speaks volumes - sometimes silence isnt golden !

Thank you for raising a great thread - if you do get banned from FF i will resign from here as a principle.

Have a great day

In my opinion even the traders who do not have any commercial intent, yet posts on forexfactory about their trade ideas should also publish their trade performance instead of screencapping the profitable trades.

Some amateur traders in these forums tend to look for an easy way out by copying other traders' trades, and some posters here who screencap trades are the best route for these amateur traders to copy trades, However this is dangerous because you never know whether the traders who screencap are actually holding just that one profitable trade, and whether or not they have closed the trade yet, sometimes they would just say oh TP for 30 pips... but wheres the proof...??

But yes I agree that anyone trying to sell any product must publish their trade performance, and not any screencapped trade performance, but rather one where investors can click into it for advanced statistics.

​Well I want to update you on the latest. After a series emails with Jim from the famous James 16 thread and www.james16group.us Jim has refused to even acknowledge my request for evidence of profit. In fact he is apparently going to refund my membership fee which can only mean that he is terminating my lifetime membership. In all honesty I offered him this option if he wanted to. Here is his response to my last email:

"I mean totally gone man. As in not at FF. There is another example of you not thinking things thru before you talk. I'm sending your money to Buckley where the rich people live in there 350,000 houses. I'm done. Hope all your wealth does great things for all the people you help."


I'm not sure what "As in not at FF" means but I have my suspicions. If my membership is revoke suddenly the you can guess most likely why. But fear not. FF is not the only avenue for exposing the illegitimacy of the commercial members. My email is [email protected]. You can email me to find out how I plan to continue my quest to make commercial members accountable.

Based on responses I have received from the purveyors themselves refusing to provide evidence of profit I can post the following:

JAMES 16 - illegitimate as of 1/10/2016
SUPPLY AND DEMAND IN A NUTSHELL BY ALFONSO MORENO-no response as of 1/10/2016
SPIDER'S DEN-no reponse as of 1/10/2016
STRAT'S LONG TERM STRESS FREE TRADING-illegitimate as of 1/10/2016
TRADE WITH 60-no response as of 1/10/2016

Btw just so you know. not all members here with commercial member status are actually selling products/services,
forexfactory has been in a proper d**kfest lately in moving disruptive members who generates profits but always getting into controversial arguments with other members in the regular threads, so the admin decided to just put us in Commercial Thread.

Also, me sharing my twitter for people to follow doesn't imply at any commercial intention, so screw you forexfactory, screw you twee.

I will post the conversation between Jim (from James 16) and myself so you can see for yourself the truth. I'm a bit tired but you have my email so if my membership is revoked you know where to find me. Take care everyone and stop paying membership fees to unverified websites. By unverified I mean illegitimate ones.

​Agreed FXTyrant. As you can see I have chosen only a few of what I feel are the major ones with the most influence. Most of the other's will come and go and be forgotten and I don't feel they are worthy of vetting. Take care my friend.

Instead of just Vetting through the Commercial Thread, I'd Love to also create a vetting process on all the "Red Flagged" High influence members in other threads...
as these people have the highest number of member subscribing to them so their posts has much more influence, I would like to clamp down on a**holes who screencap trades with no trade explorer to prove their trade performance.

I mean why bother screencapping trades when you don't even post a trade explorer?? are these people hiding something? are they simply screencapping profitable trades and hiding the losing trades just to act cocky about it?

​FXTyrant,
You are ambitious my friend! I think I have my hands full doing what I am now. I may even be dealing with a law suit in the near future, not started by me to be clear. I need to concentrate on commercial members for now but if you want to start something as you stated I will support you in your endeavor. You need to know that there are powerful people with a lot of influence and doing what you say may very will cause your membership to be revoked. Remember FF has much to gain from influential members as they play a major part in the wheel cogs of revenue production. So you have been warned my friend.

​I want to be completely transparent and clarify matters when I get it wrong. Jim has clarified his statement above 'As in not at FF'. He is referring to deleting his thread at FF. Yes the big one "James 16 chart thread". Whoa!!!

[quote=Winston Reed;8682023]{quote} ​I want to be completely transparent and clarify matters when I get it wrong. Jim has clarified his statement above 'As in not at FF'. He is referring to deleting his thread at FF. Yes the big one "James 16 chart thread". Whoa!!!