Thursday 17 February 2011

Another member Review of SOT & JJ

Here is the full article from a recent post at http://united-business-servicing.pissedconsumer.com/www-schooloftrade-com-sot-joseph-james-20101025204102.html, a very honest and comprehensive account of SOT and JJ :

Hello Lloyd. Where do I begin?? First, I discovered your writings about SchoolofTrade in Big Mikes Trading and also Invest2win forums. Even though your claims seemed to be quite legitimate in what you were saying with how you were explaining what you were claiming etc., I have to admit, I was “sucked in” by Joseph James with his Post Trade analysis videos he sends out every day. I mean, how can you not get sucked in? How can a guy send these videos out claiming what he did in his room with 150 ticks a day or more with 80% to 90% plus accuracy if there wasn’t some “reasonable” truth to it?? It can’t all be BS can it?? Even if he did half of what he claimed it would be of some value right?



Well... has this been enlightening to say the least! Lloyd, I want to apologize for even remotely doubting you but you have to understand that sometimes it appears when one is so steadfast in taking someone down, it is either absolutely legit for the person to be doing so, or that person is just going overboard and perhaps exaggerating your claims. I felt that maybe you were exaggerating but you are not at all.



I know I am about to write quite a bit but I did want to make sure I tried to give some perspective on my experience so people can save $4000.



First of all, I wanted to say that it isn’t like he doesn’t provide some value. The guy has a TON of videos going into a million things about trading that are actually pretty well done etc. A newer person to trading can learn a lot from the guy. However, 90% of what you can learn from Joe you can learn for free if you spend time in a trading forum as so many people do share a great deal about various concepts of day trading and it is all available for free or at least a very small cost. But I just wanted to make that clear. You can learn something from him. The issue I have is the $4000 one time price tag.



I now understand why he charges such a significant amount. If he only charged $200 to $400 a month or something like that, I think most people would leave after the first month because all the promises of “what members will get when they join” vs what you see and get in your trial period will come to light quickly and he wouldn’t have much of a residual income stream. This way, he can do the trial, do his fast talking, constantly remind people about how they “would have known” not to take a trade he just called and went South on him because they would have had the information from the Advanced course to stay out of his losing trades he constantly takes but then says he didn’t take it after all. Imagine selling just 10 people a month (newer people that are caught up in something they don’t quite understand but have JJ with his fast talking and mountains of videos etc doing hundreds of ticks a day according to him) at $4K a pop. That is $40K a month which is NOT a bad living for working 5-6 hours a day! He is obviously very slick at throwing those videos together with fancy charts and providing all of this perceived “value”. Do you see how many trends lines he has? How can you ever trade? You are always hitting resistance aren’t you??



OK. Let’s get back to the room experience.



I don’t know how many trades he called out where he was getting in and the trade went past that entry 2 ticks and reversed and then he would explain that he not only didn’t take that trade, but he knew not to take it because of some indicator doing something and if you were a member, you would have known not to take that trade as well. I mean, he does that a lot and it is actually quite comical when he is always trying to get away with saying that.



Then, there were the trades that he said he was “in” so now he couldn’t lie and say he didn’t take it but then it would go like 5 ticks in his direction and then reversed right away and he would say he got out with break even trying to convince us he took profit off right away and moved the stop to break even because something happened with one of his proprietary indicators to tell him to do that and if you were a member you would see that also. So this excuse presents itself often when he can’t say he didn’t take the trade like so many others so then somehow he gets breakeven on those. No proof of any of this of course.



Then there are the times where he just starts ranting and raving and shouting out numbers like a mad man that you can’t understand what they mean so there is no way you could possibly interpret where to get into a trade. Those are times when PA is moving and he wants you to believe he got into it and he wants to take credit for taking the trade he didn’t take.



Finally, there are the occasional trades that he is actually in, as you know he doesn’t trade real money, and he may show that trade as he is finding places to get out etc so you can see him successful navigate the occasional trade to make you believe he is consistent at making money in trading. Those aren’t very often where he shows that and of course, those are only where he actually took one that is safely into profit etc.



I have to laugh at how many times something like oil or gold move big time and he makes no mention of it until the move is over but he will act like he is talking to a member on the IM and say “Hey Joe, you got that 25 cent move in oil? Good job Joe… Good job. I can see you took that based on our rules of XYZ from the advanced course so that was a great set up. Good job Joe. Way to go. I didn’t get that because I was over here explaining this setup over here with Gold that never quite transpired so I didn’t have my eyes on that. That is what you get when you are trying to teach and at the same time trading live. Good job Joe. Way to go! That is great Joe! Guests, that is what you can expect when you become a member. I don’t always see everything when I am teaching but when you become a member, you get to take your own trades and you would have got that 25 cent move on Crude just like Joe did. Way to go Joe! Good job This is what we do at SchoolofTrade, we equip you to be your own independent trader for life.” This is the kind of thing JJ constantly does.



He will say things like, “Hey Sandra, how are you? Thanks Sandra… I appreciate that. I really do… Yes, thank you very much. It is always great to hear my members doing so well. You are up 187 ticks today? Wow! Great job.. Great job Sandra! You got those big moves on Gold and Crude? Excellent Thanks for sharing. I love to hear that… Great job… Congratulations!” Of course, there is no way of verifying any of this at all as no one can see any other members in the room or any sort of dialogue or anything like that. Even if you would just see dialogue it would be great wouldn’t it?? But you can’t because then you could see some real commentary of what people are asking about but being ignored etc and calling him out when he is contradicting himself etc. It really is something else to experience.



Also, he will talk about a dozen things or more to “look for” that day in trading and as the day progresses, if 2 things come true, like “look for the Euro to come down from the highs” or “I expect this to be a rough day” or some vague statement like that, he will make sure to bring it up a dozen times during the room to make sure people think he predicted something. Of course he will not mention the several other vague things he said that were completely wrong. Or he will make comments with an announcement of oil where basically he is covered if it goes up or it comes down. He will say something like “this news could be interpreted two ways… Either this way or that way and therefore the price can do this or that based sentiment and interpretation etc.” So when the price does go up, he was right. Then when the price comes back down, he was right again and he will actually have the nerve to say that he was right both times! It is so over the top with this guy!



I realize I am going on and on here and Mr. X’s explanation is very much the same as is Lloyd’s etc. I just figure the more people that share their details explanations of this clown the better it will be for saving as many people as we can about Joseph James and the SchoolofTrade or SidewaysMarket etc. It is so easy to get sucked in by this guy if you are new and decide to believe the BS he is telling you and the excuses he is giving when it is obvious he is taking every move that appears to be a good move and only shows you the few that actually did something positive and the others he either didn’t take at all, got stopped out with break even or a small loss. The only ones you will see are the good ones and when they are well into the run of the trade.



Worthy of note is that if you go back and watch his older videos circa 2009, you will notice a lot of things have changed on his charts and many of the things he talks about over time. Of course, the obvious answer to that is that he is constantly improving what he does for the benefit of all etc but I would lean toward he is trying to have as many “proprietary” indicators as he can to make you believe you MUST be a member to now only learn from him, but in order to execute you have to have his proprietary indicators you can only get from him and you will have those for life, etc. I am here to tell you. There is nothing you need that is not provided in your trading package with Ninja Trader or whatever if you need indicators but of course that is not what he would have you believe. Also, his indicators are just like everyone else’s in that they are delayed just like everyone else’s etc. There is nothing special about them at all.



Finally, as Mr X is very clear about, JJ is just a used car salesman who has put together a very flashy product promising you riches for what would appear to be a meager amount of money because he can make you $20K to $30K a month on 3 contracts on 2-3 hours a day right with a $5K or less account right? Let me tell you guys something. If he could really do that, he would trade real money, show all of hits trades in transparency, and have his chat shown live so people could see each other fawning over the God that he is. Use your head. Ask yourself the last time you heard someone talk like he does and what kind of person they were. Understand the psychology he uses to get into your head so you send him your money. You will realize this guy is nothing but a dirt bag for doing what he does and making a very handsome living as a result. Stay away. Stay far away. Lloyd, you are doing a good thing here. You have my permission to cut and paste this and put it into any forum you like whether Big Mike’s Trading or wherever if you would like. No, I didn’t give my full name as I don’t want to get INVOLVED anymore than this. I did however provide enough detail so that someone could recognize what I am saying if they take a free trial and hopefully they can understand what is going on before they part with the hard earned money enriching this guy.