Thanks for reading today’s update regarding SureTrader.com and Guy Gentile
This past Monday, on May 28th, 2016 the owner and founder of Sure Trader and Swiss America Securities was officially charged with criminal Securities Fraud by the United States Department of Justice, as well the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Specifically, the criminal charges were filed by the US Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey. These are very serious allegations. There is a high likelihood that Guy Gentile will be going to prison for many, many years.
The US Attorney is alleging that Guy Gentile used his position as a broker dealer to execute a $17,000,000 stock fraud. Specifically, he used his access to customer funds and customer accounts to orchestrate the appearance that there was massive buying pressure for two fraudulent penny stock companies named Raven Gold Corporation and Kentucky USA Energy Inc. The appearance of this heavy buying pressure, working in tandem with fraudulent mass mailings touting these companies created enough upward price momentum that Guy Gentile was able to unload his unregistered shares for what is alleged to be several million dollars in trading profits. For those interested in the particulars of how this fraud was executed, please read the official indictment from the US Attorney:
Guy Gentile of Sure Trader
If you read the official indictment, then you also noticed that Guy Gentile has two co-conspirators named Itamar Cohen and Mike Taxon. Both of these individuals have also been charged with federal securities fraud, and both have already plead guilty to both civil and criminal fraud charges in this matter. If you are interested in reading about their individual involvement in the fraud, then please read the following SEC complaint filing. This document gives you a deeper understanding of how all three worked together to bilk investors out of millions of dollars.
So what exactly is happening here? Well considering that I have personally been down this hellish road, I can tell you exactly what is happening. Both Itamar Cohen and Mike Taxon have already plead guilty to the criminal charges. Both of these guys, as part of their plea agreement and reduced prison sentences are now fully cooperating with the US Attorney and have agreed to testify against the biggest fish….Guy Gentile. In a nutshell, Guy Gentile is totally screwed. In the coming weeks, both Cohen and Taxon are sceduled to be sentenced in Federal Court. Their sentences will most certainly be much less than Guy Gentiles’s and the length of their sentences should be used as a guide to the sentence that Guy is likely to receive.
If my writing seems too assured, this is only because I was also charged with criminal securities fraud and served a three year sentence in Federal Prison for securities fraud. I can tell you from personal experience, that I do not wish this experience upon anyone. The general public has no idea how thorough the FBI and the US Attorney is at investigating and sending offenders to prison. They turn every single stone, they follow every lead, they are methodical, they are patient, and they are fucking smart. In my fraud scheme, I ran boiler rooms and unbeknownst to me, they had an agent that actually worked for me. He got close to me. In a million years, I would of never guessed that this guy was an FBI agent. And they planted fake accounts into my customer book. They surveyed my every single activity for a full five years and then indicted me on the very last day of the statute of limitations.
By the time I was indicted, they knew the color of my least favorite underwear. They knew were every penny was hidden. They had interviewed anyone and everyone that was close to me. And they used them as leverage against me. People that I thought would never betray me, in fact betrayed me at the drop of a hat. They are ruthless and blind in their pursuit of the criminal. They never quit, and they will work even the softest angle. For instance, my father was undergoing chemotherapy for throat cancer and he weighed barely 100 pounds, they threatened him with what would of been a sure death behind bars, and he only worked for me part time doing office chores. My partner, also guilty as hell, they turned him and he got a reduced sentence to cooperate against me. When the Fed’s show up with their badges, all friendships instantaneously terminate in a moment of panic and fear.
As I watch this drama unfold with Guy Gentile, I cannot help but cringe at the amount of emotional pain that he is experiencing. There is no escape from it. Its like having your hand held to an electric stove top, and your hand is searing away and smoking and blistering. When the Fed’s put the heat on you, and you know you are going to prison, the emotional and physical pain of the experience is beyond excruciating. Its an inescapable thing. You want it to end. And all you can think about is the offer to plead guilty that the US Attorney has on the table.
The nastiest smart person you will ever meet
The thing about the assistant US Attorney’s, they are all extremely smart. You cannot con them. You cannot charm them. You cannot manipulate them. They have tremendous power and a conviction rate of nearly 100%. And when you fight them, you have two choices…either go to trial (suicide) or you take the plea deal. And the plea deal means prison time. The first deal they offer is always the best. I learned that the hard way. When under federal criminal investigation, take the first offer they give because it only gets worse over time. The harder you fight these people, the tougher they get. I know that this sounds insane, and most people have this sense that the justice system is somehow even and fair, but in the Federal criminal justice system these people are absolutely ruthless and nasty. They have no problem giving a person a 20 year sentence for what might seem like a minor offense. There is no such thing as prison overcrowding at the Federal level. The Federal government has a printing press and they will just make a new prison to house the next batch of idiots that do stupid shit.
Lady Justice carries a sword. Ever notice that?
No amount of money is worth it
My parents are so proud.
Sometimes I hear people say that “I would commit that crime and make millions in exchange for a couple of years at Club Fed”. And to that I would say, what the fuck are you talking about? The first thing you have to realize is that they are going to discover where every single dime is stashed. They nearly always find the money. And they take it from you. They will take anything and everything that you own, it will be viciously ripped away. Nothing is off limits. Have a spouse? Cannot hide it with her. Have an offshore account in a pirate cove? They probably going to get that too. Gold coins or precious metals? They will gladly tear out your carpet and punch holes in your walls to find your valuables. And then after they strip out the valuables, they auction off your home and sell your car. When they are done with you, there is a high likely hood that you will be financially destroyed.
And what about this “Club Fed” nonsense? Everyone seems to have this odd notion that the Federal Prison Camps are just these wonderful places to lazy the day’s away. Where you play tennis, read books, work out, and hang out with a bunch of cool dudes shooting the shit. What a bunch of baloney! The reality is something entirely different. Its a shitty place where you will lose your name and become a number. Literally, you are just a stupid fucking number. Everyone has to have a job, which for me meant being stuck in the dish room where I had to get up every morning at 4:40 am and wash dishes for a camp of 400 inmates. And the food is crap. All starchy filler where the goal is to put enough calories in your gut so that you don’t die of starvation.
My final prison paycheck. $12 for an entire month of washing dishes in a prison kitchen.
Get a toothache in prison? Oh wow. You are in for a real nightmare there my friend. The camp dentist usually comes to the prison camp once a month. And you are not getting any filings. The achy tooth comes out. And it comes out fast, by a dentist that would be better suited working at Auschwitz.
Develop any sort of serious medical condition? My oh my. They are not taking you to the local hospital to take advantage of your Obamacare. Nope. You have to fill out a lengthy form, submit it your asshole “counselor” and they might make an appointment with the camp doctor. And the camp doctor may or may not show up this month. I cannot tell you how many dudes I saw die from simple maladies, things that a free person nearly always beats.
The ultimate humiliation is to die in prison. The first time I saw it happen, I was shocked. The prison calls in the camp medic that will pronounce you dead, usually hard and cold in your bunk. Once you are pronounced dead, they then proceed to handcuff the body, chain the dead legs together, chain you to the gurney, and only then do they wheel your chained up dead body out to a van where your body is tossed into the back. The family of the deceased is given only a phone call, “Your father, son, etc. is at the county morgue. His remains are all yours”. Seriously folks, there are no flowers and tears. Instead, the very moment the body is out of the prison dorm, then the inmates scramble to steal every little thing of value. Asshole inmates fight over whatever meager possessions are inside of the small metal locker. Its ugly stuff folks. This is not the Orange Is The New Blac BS you see on TV. This is raw humanity where everyone is trying to get through the day and hopefully someday get out of this hellhole.
For me, the most humiliating thing was having my young child visit me in prison. He had only known security, comfort, happiness, a family together, and a life free of financial worry. There is truly nothing more humiliating and shameful in this world than having your child visit you in prison. I could only bear it once. After my wife and son left the visiting room, I went out to the most private area I could find and I sobbed like I had never sobbed before. Great wracking sobs that I could not control. I had hit the absolute bottom. I had been stripped of everything.
Living a life of deception and dishonesty
In my own dealings with financial fraudsters, the common trait that we share is that our lives were filled with deception and dishonesty. We are always deceiving for gain. Everything is about creating the illusion and appearance of something fantastic. We deceive in various degree to various audiences, always looking for the angle. Always trying to get something from somebody. For myself, I can say that my thirst for more was fueled by several factors that began in my youth. As time progressed, I became more and more cunning and ruthless and my frauds became more and more audacious. In particular, financial fraudsters usually start off as petty hustlers working minor angles and then progress deeper and deeper and they learn to exploit loopholes in the financial system. For me, I started off as a small time, penny stock hustler but over time I become increasingly more complex, sophisticated, and manipulative. I became callous to my fellow man, and highly manipulative to the people that loved me most.
When I look at Guy Gentile, I see a person that has probably been dishonest and deceptive for a very long time. I would find it hard to believe that his involvement in the Raven Gold and Kentucky Energy penny stock scams are his only forays into this arena. In fact, I have been highly critical in the past of Sure Trader. Why? Since Sure Trader has only been around for a few years, it has been the primary feeder within the day trading educator community.
In particular, I wrote a review on Tim Sykes Profit.ly website where I discovered that many of these so called day trading educators were only using the day trading simulator from within Sure Trader to “build a track record” of successful trades and that were later used as marketing bait. In other words, the educator could have unlimited amounts of simulated trading accounts and just by sheer chance, one of the simulated trading accounts could produce an amazing equity curve. The newbies looking to learn how to day trade would cough up thousands of dollars to “learn the secrets of day trading” and they would be compelled to purchase by these supposed real trades that were reported through the Sure Trader reporting system.
In fact, it seems like every month someone is sending me screen shots of some trading educator that supposedly has a live account at Sure Trader and they magically turned a couple of thousand dollars into a couple of million dollars in only 3 days. Of course, some people howl how unfair I am because of these supposed records undeniably came directly from Sure Trader. However, as folks are now discovering, that Sure Trader is a creation of Guy Gentile and he knows exactly how to manipulate people and create an illusion. That should be plainly clear by now.
More About Sure Trader
At the most fundamental level, what is this Guy Gentile creation known as SureTrader.com? Essentially, Sure Trader caters to the day trading dreamer. The day trading educators needed a place where they could send people with very little money to trade, that needed additional leverage. Sure Trader was born from this need. The hustle of Sure Trader and the various educators that send them traffic is that if a person buys a day trading education for a couple of thousand dollars, and they open a thousand dollar account with Sure Trader, then they will be able to soon quit their day job and easily make thousands of dollars scalping profits from the stock market. I have written extensively about these fraudsters. Who makes money?
The only people that typically make money are Sure Trader through high commission rates and the educators that dupe their subscribers. Truth be told, I dont really blame Sure Trader much. But I absolutely loath the day trading educators that commit these frauds, in various forms. Lets take a look at the most common frauds.
Most common types of trading frauds
- The educator, while trading in a live trading room will use a trading simulator that generously fills limit orders. This gives the impression of easy profits and the person is directed to open an account with Sure Trader, where they will also be able to supposedly copy these trades. However, executing limit orders on live markets is not so easy with real money.
- The educator will trade a very small, live trading account in only thin volume, lightly traded stocks. The educator gets his fill and then the horde of subscribers that follow the educator will scramble to copy the trade. The mad dash to get filled by the trading room participants immediately gives the educator an easy profit. The educator exits the thinly traded stock while the trading room members scramble through the mess. Yes, I am talking about Jason Bond Trades and Warrior Trading.
- The educator creates false spreadsheets that look highly sophisticated and seductive.
- The educator does not show a trading DOM on screen but simply calls out trades and uses generalities regarding entries and exits.
- The educator fills a trading room with fake people, known as “straw man traders”. These are fake people that create streams of messages that give the impression that everyone in the trading room is making money, but its all in illusion.
What is going to happen to Sure Trader?
Well, since the indictment was unsealed by the US Attorney and Guy Gentile was formally charged with securities fraud, there a few noticeable changes. First and foremost, Guy Gentile has been completely stripped off of the Sure Trader website. There is no mention of him whatsoever. In all likely hood, he has already surrendered his passport to the FBI and is on what is termed pre-trial services. Basically, he is on a sort of federal probation where he waiting to go to trial, or take the plea deal and head off to prison. While in pre-trial services, he will have to pee in a cup and a federal agent will visit his home unexpectedly. They will basically keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn’t flee the country.
The broker dealer for Sure Trader is another company that Guy owns, this company is known as Swiss America Securities. If you now visit the website, everything has been stripped off and it appears that Swiss America is no longer operational. In all likelihood, all of Sure Traders trades are now being routed through some unpublished avenue.
I reached out to Sure Trader over the past few days and attempted to get some guidance on what is happening with the company. It appears that the company is now being managed by a local “place holder” executive named Antonio Collie. A search of Antonio Collie in the Bahamas reveals that he is a local account, but in reality his is just a proxy for Guy Gentile. I did speak with Justin Ritchie, known as the Deputy Director of Sure Trader and he did not want to comment. However, he did reach out to me and said that Sure Trader would be releasing a press release in the coming days. I expect that the press release will talk about how everything is going to be OK with the company. But in truth, nobody really knows. The vast majority of the trading accounts are US based customers and I am sure the SEC, the FBI, and the US Attorney have been watching Sure Trading for many months. Technically, since Sure Trader caters to mainly US customers, they should be registered with FINRA, but thus far they seem to have dodged the bullet of the regulators. Will this continue? Will the next axe to drop be onto Sure Trader? I dont know. It would be irresponsible to speculate. However, knowing the shit storm that Guy is currently facing, I would be really surprised if he pulled anymore BS.
One Final Note
I remember that during the final two years of my fraud investigation, it was plainly obvious to me that I was heading to a federal prison. The federal criminal justice system is painfully slow and so you have a lot of time to think about the situation. I remember my lawyer telling me, “do plenty of good deeds, do some public service work, get plenty of nice letters from influential people in the community”. And so, I went into full overdrive trying to make myself look like this community super hero. I got involved in the Big Brother program, I donated time at the Boys and Girls Club, I organized this ridiculous neighborhood watch program where I walked around the community with a walky talky and acted like I was patrolling the streets (the walky talky never had any batteries in it). Of course, I was just the same deceitful moron that was attempting to yet again pull a con and maybe convince a judge that I deserved a lighter sentence. The US Attorney could see through my bullshit and gave me zero credit for my good deeds.
When I look at Guy, I have to chuckle just a little bit. If you look at his Linkedin profile, you cannot help but notice that since 2014 he has been on an all out charm offensive, attempting to create this zany image of a community super hero. In the past year he is now a volunteer fire fighter, has supposed enrolled at the University of Phoenix and his studying criminal justice, is a volunteer peace officer, a volunteer for the US Coast Guard Auxillary, a “trusted adviser” of the Putnam Valley Sheriff, a fingerprint technician, a volunteer for the Humane Police that protects animals or whatever. Of course, all of this stuff is just a bunch of baloney and he is obviously prepping the judge for a reduced prison sentence. Its pretty laughable, but if you want a real laugh, you have to see this ridiculous video that Guy created as a member of the Putnam County Traffic Safely Board. I got a big laugh out of this video as its so darn cynical and obvious.
Speaking for myself, none of my good deeds in the community did a squirt for reducing my sentence. The only thing that worked was cold hard cash. The US Attorney knew that this was the only thing that really motivated me. And they squeezed me hard. At the end of the day I sold every possession that I could find, and most shamefully, my mother even sold her home and gave the cash proceeds to the US Attorney ($200,000) which reduced my sentence an entire year. Embarrassing stuff folks. I went from making millions to being flat broke and in prison.
Well that’s it for today. I sort of rambled on this article. So if you made it through my painful prose, then I have to thank you for taking the time for reading this story. Once again, thanks for reading and don’t forget to leave your comments below.
In general, penny stocks fraud is similar to the one you wrote about. But in the case of Ross from Warrior trading, he has been trading with DOM that shows order entries ( in Lightspeed). He uses hotkeys for limit order entries, so execution is faster. And I’ve watched his live streams, demo accounts have 15 min delay in data. His trades can’t be live streamed unless the broker has given him real time simulation. Next, the stocks he’s trading comes from a scanner, so he is not calling on them. Stocks that he’s trading are moving on news (most of them listed on Nasdaq not OTC). Similar scanners (TC2000) will show the same stocks as he’s trading. So he’s just pointing out a potential trades. And finally, he’s putting a lot of effort in analyzing trades and setups. I mean, fraudsters are likely be “I’m a master, go buy my shit”. He is putting the time actually.
Any proof or details abt Tim Sykes ?? cant find any fraud against him, I knew Ross and warrior trading is fraud..Hard to belive anyone now a days !!
In my opinion, Sykes does trade and he probably trades pretty well. Shorting penny stock pump and dumps was very profitable.
But the truth is that Sykes is 99% promoter and 1% trader. He makes his money selling courses and stuff. He is one hell of a good promoter. Have to take my hat off to the guy.
Case dismissed.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-31/brokerage-owner-wins-dismissal-of-17-million-fraud-indictment
Just posted the reprint from cooperatingwitness.com.
Hopefully, readers will get engaged, its certainly an interesting story.
I have to say, Guy has huge balls for fighting this out. I am totally shocked he beat the US Attorney. Hardly anyone wins that fight. Cannot imagine the relief he is experiencing.
He did not win because he was innocent. He won on a technicality because the statute of limitations had already expired. I am not sure that is something to get bragging rights about. Yes I scammed folks, but they took to long to prosecute me.
Correct. He did not win because he was innocent. He won on a technicality. The “cooperating witness” website is Guy’s blog.
There are a couple of considerations: were the victims of the original crime given justice, and was Guy’s cooperation sufficient?
I find the case incredibly interesting. Part of me thinks ‘fuck the US Attorney’ and the other part of me thinks ‘wow, he sure as hell provided a massive amount of cooperation’.
He absolutely dodged a bullet. Yet in order to dodge the bullet, he had to risk jumping out of the airplane with only an umbrella. Somehow he lived. Personally, I would have never jumped out of the plane and taken the chance of going to trial. I would have been all over the plea deal. But hey, got to hand it to Guy Gentile…he rolled the dice and won. And the odds were stacked 1000 to 1 against him.
Thanks for clearing this up for me. So he was probably guilty anyways and there is no imaginary perpetrator of the stock fraud out there. Maybe it was just a handful of rich fools who got churned out of 17 mill and not a bunch of small investors who got their savings killed so that the case didn’t look that “severe”. I’m not impressed of the bragging rights either. Out of desperation to cooperate so the feds let him go..this time. I recall on American Greed a few cases where the perpetrator cooperated and got off with a second chance only to be caught again in another financial scheme years later then finally got convicted and jailed for much of the rest of their lives.
Overall, the story about Guy Gentile is really about Sure Trader. The vast majority of folks could care less about Guy Gentile. They are mostly concerned with the legitimacy of Sure Trader, the brokerage in which he owns.
I thought his story was incredibly interesting. But overall, readers could care less and barely touch the written articles.
I am sure that Guy thinks it’s a big fucking deal! Heck he even cranked out that corny website that describes him as some sort of secret agent man. Funny stuff. Anyway, on to the next story.
I admit I was shocked to hear he was “found” innocent. I would think he could have been publicly fined or issued a cease& desist, a warning ruling of some kind instead of going to jail. On the whole it stinks and it’s unsettling to me how the financial regulatory agencies handled this. So is the $17 million in stock fraud just going to become a mystery attributed to some perpetrator still at large “somwhere” out there.
For sure simmer Ross of WT dumped his praise and took off his website banners recommending suretrader leaving only speedtrader which both use DAS. I only tried speedtrader and they had StockUSA as their clearing and only recalled Suretrader seemed to be based offshore. Mabye Gentile woke up a bit and will not invovle himself in a defrauding stock scheme in the future. The same can’t be said so far of WT-Ross who probably won’t have any real empathy for the trading losses and debts of his clients who churn out, until the feds actually come into his trading room in view of that ceiling-upturned webcam and forcibly handcuff him away from this trading sham desk.
Guy Gentile scammed honest people out of $17.2 million, and is now crying that the FBI scammed HIM? I guess Guy has a monopoly on scamming. He steals slmist $20 million then thinks the government is going to just let him walk away? And now he reveals he wore a wire on the feds? Gentile, whether he realizes it or not, has now destroyed every case he ever worked on, even those that they got guilty pleas on. The FEDS are now going to come after him and make Gentile pay heavy. Conspiracy is a major charge. Unless of course he wants to now flip on all his “activities” in Putnam County, NY. C’mon, Guy. You know you were dirty in Putnam. Just do yourself a favor. Unlike last time, tell the feds EVERYTHING.
Guy Gentile was caught numerous times trying to buy police badges. Pice uniforms. Telling people to this day he’s “law enforcement”, which he most certainly is not. That he serves some purpose on a traffic safety board, which is s joke. If he wants to extricate himself from his current predicament and avoid 10 years in jail, he should tell all about his sheriff friend, who didnothing but use him for free tables and under the table cash. Guy: a word of advice. When you want the jets to the kingdom, you have to tell the full truth, not selective truth.
http://m.tribune242.com/news/2016/jul/18/broker-i-was-fbis-bait-fraudsters/?templates=mobile&news=
Hello, Firstly, I would like to state that this article is Very well written. Coming from me, that is a supreme compliment to them skills of the writer. Seeing how you freely admit to having been to prison for fraud, I cannot trust what you say any more than any other fraudster. Maybe you have turned over a new leaf, but old habit die hard and I sincerely doubt that this article is completely bereft of attempts at manipulation.
That being said, I have heard both bad an good about suretrader, which is my focus. See, I come from a place of poverty. And like most people who come from a place of poverty, I often see gambling and similar things as a way to possibly escape it. Disabled, I have complex-ptsd and asperger’s syndrome. Currently, it is the best I can do to attend school part time.
Naturally, I desire the freedom that money offers. But I have always lacked the means to acquire it. Warrior trading, whom you fault, and others, have offered up free information on how to trade. And I have, in the last two weeks, read five books on day trading. I opened an account at marketwatch, a paper trading account, and have successfully made over 50% returns each week.
My plan is to take 20% of my savings, a paltry sum to most, and start trading early next year. Suretrader is the route available to me. I suppose what I want to know, the purpose of making this comment on here, is: If your reviews are unbiased, do you recommend that I disregard advice given by warrior trading and others? Also, do you believe that suretrader is not a good option for me moving forward?
It seems to me that I have some skill at day trading, though it has yet to be tested in a real market situation, and I desire more than anything to find means to escape the prison of poverty. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to work a full time job.
My mother discourages me from the day trading route, and I know a lot of people lose money in the stock market. If you’re as impartial as your website portends, maybe you could give me your honest advice on the matter. Is day trading a viable way to make money, and is suretrader a good brokerage to use to do so?
How do I know if you honestly review these trading programs, or if you are just an affiliate who bashes the competition who doesn’t cut you in? Surely, with writing skills like yours, you can lead around a lot of gullible people. I can only expect of you what I expect of most people, to put your own interests first. The question here is: How do I know if you write from a position of truly wanting to help others, or a position of gain?
Obviously, you’re among my peerage in terms of intellect. So I am curious as to what you might have to say in response to this rather long winded comment.
I am not anyone’s peerage in intellect. My ignorance and stupidity have been on grand display for quite some time.
Dont give up on your dreams of trading. Sure, there a far too many that are looking to sell you “trading secrets”, but dont let that sway you away. Keep trying.
You’re simultaneously telling him you don’t trust him and asking for his advice. That doesn’t seem very intellectual to me.
Well thanks for your perspective, it adds great value to the discussion.
You’ve made 50% each of the last 2 weeks. Please realize that 2 weeks means absolutely nothing, other than you may have a good plan and should keep on working with it. But don’t be misled by that small amount of trading. For your own good and to remain driven to escape poverty (although I’m not sure how you are defining poverty, if you have enough to trade), please don’t trade real money until you’ve really experienced the markets on a longer term. Also, define what markets you are trading and know the nuances, the reports and other features of each market before you put real money on the table. I’ve said in another post that there are real professionals out there waiting to take your money. As someone who has traded for 15 years, I can hopefully warn you of the dangerous path you are about to undertake. Yes, it can be done, but a lot is required. Beware.
I can’t comment as to Emmett’s intellect, although his work here on this site is a shining example of his hard work and efforts to unmask those that scam new traders like yourself. As far as I know, Emmett is the real deal and each time he has asked for proof, none has come forward.
By poverty, I mean my highest earning year ever was $12,651 usd. Recently, I’ve been able to save money by not paying rent. (staying with mom) I appreciate your perspective, you have added value to the discussion. I am right though, to be weary of any advice given in a field such as this. I do not have enough money to day trade with, except in an offshore account. I can trade with suretrader. I realize that I’m likely to lose any money I put into the account, very likely, but I wouldn’t risk it if I couldn’t afford to lose it. Yes, putting a couple of thousand dollars on the line is risky. At my young age though, risk is something I can partake in, since I have only myself to take care of. After having lived in my car for a year, then staying with my mom these last six months, I have managed to save a considerable sum. And also, I have more money coming in. I would like to see if this strategy I’ve developed will work in the real world, but there’s no way to see, beyond the farce of paper trading, what this strategy’s efficacy is. At least, other than risking some of my money.
Money, to me, represents freedom. Even a couple hundred dollars a day in income would change my life drastically. So, I have been spending 12+ hour each day studying, even though I have a herniated disk and my right hand is numb.
From what I understand, the hardest part about day trading is risk management, psychological factors. I have found a niche, a small area to focus on and develop, as well as analysed my weaknesses. My learned curve has evened out, And I feel like I am ready to risk a portion of what I’ve saved.
I really do appreciate any and all advice, and take it into consideration in my efforts. rtchoke, you seem like a smart guy. I do appreciate your opinion here, and what you think of Emmett certainly lends him more credibility.
I see all these guys, Timothy is one that comes to mind, who sell overpriced programs that “teach” people how to trade. I’m not a sucker, I won’t pay money for something I can acquire for free from the library or youtube.
And I understand very well the danger of the path I’m about to embark on. But I also know that you make none of the shots that you don’t take. After having failed, repeatedly, in the workforce, I’ve realized that maybe working for someone else isn’t for me. I just don’t have the communication skills and ability. There are a few things which I excel at though. Writing is one of those things, and numbers are another.
Paper trading is as close to proof of concept that I can get. And yes, I’ve had three days where I lost money, but those losses weren’t substantial. As I understand it, losing is part of this profession. No trader win 100% of the time. The fact that I am winning 70% of the time, and abide by the risk management strategy I’ve developed means that this may very well work out for me.
I’m not sure if you intend to discourage me entirely from day trading, or if you think more time studying and preparing is needed, but I can tell that your advice is heartfelt and coming from a position of caring for my well being. This is something I truly appreciate. It may not be today, but someday soon I intend on testing my strategy in the real market. I really don’t have much to lose. If I do lose my money, I can save more. But if I lose my opportunity, who know’s when the next one will come around?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to hang my whole future from a tenuous prospect, I have other things going for me. Right now, I am in school for electrical engineering. It’s something I’m good at, but not passionate about. And as my studies have taught me, passion is everything in a career.
Don’t take it as me disregarding what you have to say, because that couldn’t be further from the truth, but I still intend to enter the market. If I work hard enough, I might very well be successful. Many people have been wildly successful as day traders, and I have to ask why not me? I’m willing to put in the work, and the desire is strong, so I’m going to try for it. And if I fail, I can learn from my failures and try again, or just move on to something else. One thing is clear to me though, going to work at the same job every day, working for an employer who uses my talents to make profit, is not something that either appeals to me or has been demonstrably possible. At 27, the longest I’ve held a full time job has been three months.
I’m not ready to give up on life, I’m not ready to admit defeat. I know in my heart and my mind that I am capable of greatness, and I will achieve it at Any cost.
Welcome to the wild west adventure of retail trading. You’re just starting out so it’s understandable you may have some initial preconceptions. We all had those early ideas and dreams. About Emmett, all of us who have had at least five years at this venture, unless one hasn’t turned into a sham vendor, see Emmett and his site as a pioneer of accountability in the snake oil trading education underground where the SEC keep themselves blindfolded and trading forums keep it all hush due to conflicts of interest usually due to other vendor sponsor and affiliate deals. I would check out RobB’s excellent posts about the nature of trading rooms and trading education vendors. (he should combine them all up into a book or series of blog articles someday as they get hidden with the newer setup of comments). Good luck.
Thanks Sam, I will give more weight to the words of Emmett, knowing that you and others trust him so.
It is not a matter of trust. As the Gipper said: “Trust, but verify.”
Ditto. It is what he is saying that I agree with (mostly). Do not trust anyone in the business including me. All the honest folks have been ran off by the con artist promising fantasy in this unregulated industry where apparently anything goes. So the 1st thing to go is the truth.
Your welcome Sam. Emmett does make a few mistakes but it’s a far better believable review site than practically any out there in the world now. Having been duped in the past by two of the sites reviewed here and seeing proof of their shenanigans, that’s good enough reason for me to have a high level of trust of the reviews as Emmett’s digging further confirms these scams. Compare that to Dean Handley who may have started with solid intentions but now his reviews and side promotions are a joke. You can still make your own judgement as well. Such as the sites Emmett recommends that have a higher rating, the performance is so low still imo, not worth it to try even if they have honest results reported with all due respect for their transparency. Those well reviewed sites might still be good for beginning traders to get their feet wet and learn from a breakeven trader at least to get started and the costs may be reasonable for an introduction. You may have to do some sifting, but elitetrader has some good threads on best and worst books of trading. Some of these hall of fame threads are good reading too.
http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?pages/hall-of-fame/
Seems like every site that I recommend, quickly turns to crap. No midas touch here.
LOL, True Story – Me and another trader friend constantly joke and call it the Emmett Curse
If I ever start a TR, and I meet all your criteria, instead of recommending me, please just conclude: “I did not find much to make me think that this TR is the usual scammy whatchamecallit.” Maybe not making a recommendation would spare us the Emmett curse. lol.
Your site has helped shore up my past “vibe” suspicions of past vendors, Emmett. Sorry, my first sentence was too general. The two sites that were reviewed that I was referring to were actually TopDog and Warrior. I saw the review on Warrior too late before I discovered tradingschools. Someone in the chat posted this site’s link before he was shut up/muted/banned! (as they continue to do so from the sound of it every month) I tried DTP and sure I quit after I saw the shenanigans but it was an early mistake by the site. Tradingschools has been immensely helpful (and entertaining lol) to me and I’m sure to a lot of others. I had attended a tradersHelpdesk webinar and knew it was a sham years ago and was glad to see there was a review on it years later on ts. They can’t all get away it.
Your story about Guy Gentile need to be updated.
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2016/jul/18/broker-i-was-fbis-bait-fraudsters/
He was an Undercover FBI Guy!
Working on that story now.
Wow. He got a raw deal.
He didn’t get a raw deal. As usual, Guy thought he was the smartest guy in the room. He immediately became a rat when cornered, no surprise there, then two of the men Gentile ratted out became informants themselves, and they in turn ratted Gentile out. They threw Gentile out of the program.
This needs to be clarified. He agreed to be undercover to try to get out of penalties for his multi-million pump and dump. Geez, now he complains after a few years doing “work” for the FBI. He should count himself lucky they still didn’t put him in jail for 20+ years immediately for his past frauds.
Guy Gentile is advertising this website: http://rogueinformant.com/ (Search Google for “Guy Gentile”. It looks like he was the informant that informed on Adam Gottbetter
Guy Gentile is advertising this website: http://rogueinformant.com/ (Search Google for “Guy Gentile”. It looks like he was the informant that informed on Adam Gottbetter
Typical “American Greed” case during the prosecution last segment of the show. The instigators turn on each other trying to lessen their jail time by cooperating with the feds to prove their partner in crime was more complicit than themselves. It can backfire too and they all get 15+ years anyways.
Hm. So now Guy Gentile appears to be saying that he was an FBI undercover agent all the while.
At first, I called bullshit, but then I remembered that even Emmett seemed to be hinting that there was something strange about the way that this guy was being treated.
Now I see also that his passport was never seized, and indeed he was allowed to continue travelling to the Bahamas all this while. Given his resources, I should think that he would be the epitome of a flight-risk, yet he was still free to travel out of the country?
Maybe he really was undercover after all? We shall see.
Not an undercover agent. An informant. Let me explain.
The FBI, once they have someone in the net, they will then attempt to make a deal where the defendant can provide useful information regarding other potential crimes. More than likely, Guy began feeding tips to Federal agents. Essentially, trying to wiggle out of his own shit sandwich.
Informants comes in two flavors. Paid an unpaid. There is a contract that the person must sign in order to be an informant. How do I know? Because I was offered a contract as a paid informant. At that time, which was 1998, I was offered $1000 per month. The deal was that I had to disassociate myself from my boiler rooms and then do the bidding of my handlers. (I wont publish the names of my handlers, this is illegal) Did I take the $1000? No. At that time, I was making $1000 per hour and like all criminals, I could not walk away.
I had the chance to walk away, keep the money that I had stolen through the boiler rooms, and then live a cushy life as a “rat”. Wish I would of walked away. And taken the gig as a paid informant. Instead, I thought that I could play both sides of the coin. Just like Whitey Bulger, I wanted to keep my criminal enterprise and use the Fed’s to destroy my competitors. What a stupid idiot! I actually thought I could pull this off.
Ok, so now back to Guy. He is probably a non paid informant. And has been feeding the Fed’s information for quite some time. This is probably one of the reasons why Sure Trader has been able to avoid US regulators. They have been allowing him to continue with Sure Trader, whilst he has continued to feed them valuable information on Penny Stock operators.
As you have walked the walk, I cannot but agree with what you think. I was just going off what he claims in the heading on that http://rogueinformant.com/.
It reads: “Rogue Informant
The true story of an FBI undercover operative”
Maybe just another con?
http://www.thenassauguardian.com/bahamas-business/40-bahamas-business/64586-securities-commission-officials-spend-day-at-swiss-america-office
Emmett,
I want to thank you so much for your honesty and transparency. This has helped me in SO many ways. I have had a SureTrader account way before I even knew about Warrior Trading. I have been doing OK on my own learning to day trade. I don’t follow Sykes or these other “gurus”. I just use it to avoid the PDT rule. It’s accelerated my learning exponentially. Do you think it’s still safe for me to keep using them since I don’t meet the capital requirement or is this a flag to withdraw everything and RUN.
SureTrader is OK. The article was more about the company founder and his legal mess. SureTrader serves a purpose and they appear to do it well.
You’re a really sad and pitiful human being Emmett. Not only do you dedicate your time to writing these pathetic articles about these traders, you also comment on your own shit… I could laugh but it makes me sad how bitter of a man you have become. So how do you garner all these comments, yet you only have 35 followers on Twitter? That I don’t understand at all. Get your life together dude.
Thanks for “feeling sad” about me. But, you really should save your feelings. The truth is that I am quite happy and lead a great life.
I apologize that I only have 35 friends on Twitter. That hurts. To only have 35 friends on Twitter is my greatest disappointment in life. I will try and make more friends on Twitter. Will you be my friend on Twitter?
It appears as though he will try and fight the case: http://www.thenassauguardian.com/bahamas-business/40-bahamas-business/64495-securities-firm-not-affected-by-gentile-secindictment
He is in a very tough position. They must of gave him a really terrible plea offer, else he would of plead out.
Emmett how do you get through a day knowing that you only have 35 twitter followers? Do we need to stage and intervention? Get out the and hustle man, get those twitter numbers up. Tweet something about Trumps penis, for god’s sake do something!
Epic read. Thanks for saving my ass. I was getting closer and closer to take a look at that Warrior Trading stuff, even tho I usually can smell through the bullshit within seconds, WT really got to me, the lots of upvotes on YouTube and other stuff really made me think for a day or two. I wanted to check the Chat on a free day, but after reading your review, I know that I don’t have to waste any more time.
You’re doing “gods” work here (I’m exaggerating here, but you get the point). Sites like yours, with really in-depth reviews (I haven’t noticed the shenanigans he did in the YouTube Video where he apparently faked the numbers of his 1k to 8k profit video) you save a lot of people of losing a shit ton of money.
I feel like I have to do something similar in German, as I’ve noticed an increase of pyramid schemes and even people I know personally are involved and would sell the story and the crap even to their moms it seems.
Bottom line. Thanks for your website – read your back story too – interesting stuff. Almost enough material to make a “real” Wolf of Wallstreet Documentary 🙂
Ross Cameron used to work for Jason Bond Picks. Another fun read.
Ok, I’m def. in for another of your stories.
You won a regular here!
Great Stuff… I know U and IRS reporter and Achilles X in the past had looked into Nate… Investorslive… I hope U guys don’t give up on him.. as he is truly a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Clearly He is also trying to paint a altruistic image of himself with the Trader4acause campaign. Get him.. he deserves to be exposed.
IRS Reporter was so nasty. In a good sort of way. For the longest time, everyone thought he was me. Not true. He got his twitter account banned because he was such a nasty character. Am curious whatever happened to him. Never heard of Achilles X.
Timothy Sykes, I thought he was really good at what he does. That’s a shame. I don’t believe in penny stocks and will not trade them. Emmet, have you ever done a review on Tim before ?
Oops, I initially posted this in the wrong review. I stumbled on this which was very recent just before this review.
http://www.israelsneuman.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Gentile-BrokerCheck-3.23.16.pdf
Seriously, this is the model that those kids at IP aspire to be? I feel sorry for Gentile’s kid shown in the photos. He probably doesn’t have any idea what’s going on until the incarceration day. Well at least there won’t be new photos of Gentile by a private jet window for a while. One day Sykes should get his comeuppance too , for all the people that were dumped or wasted tens of thousands each due to bogus comments on investiscamma.
But Mr. Joseph Tacopina is a verrrrrrry good lawyer!
If Guy were dealing in NY state court, then he would probably get off with a slap on the hand. But the US Attorney is nasty. Very nasty. They like to make examples of people. Unfortunately, these “super” lawyers (Tacopino) are only too willing to drain you dry, before you head off to prison. There is a personal promotion with some of these lawyers.
The plain truth regarding the US Attorney working in conjunction with the FBI means that defendants are going up against the best and the brightest prosecutors in the game, and the evidence collection from the FBI is very solid. In my opinion, the best defense attorney, in dealing with the Fed’s is the lawyer that can negotiate the best deal.
A lot of these white collar sentences come down to money clawback. Rather, how much money the defendant can “buy down” his points. The sentencing in the Federal system is still mainly a points based, or guidelines based system. United States vs Booker, and United States vs Fanfan gave Federal Judges discretion to sentence outside the parameters of mandatory minimum sentencing. However, most Fed judges still use the old guidelines as the primary avenue to disperse judgement. Its a crazy, fucked up system where the Federal Prosecutor is more like a Federal Persecutor. The defendant is left with little room to negotiate and the defense counsel is often reduced to a professional groveler.
And so the moral of the story? If you get a Federal criminal case, and it looks tight…the best option is to find a former Assistant US Attorney that spent several years working in the very office that is trying to send you to prison. Former US Attorney’s that go into defense will often maintain good relationships with the prosecution. That relationship can really make a huge difference.
He made generous campaign contributions and was rewarded with a badge and a uniform. Unbelievable. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Patterson12563/conversations/topics/9323
One wonders if his wife will get wrapped up in this too.
Emmett is so good that now he can see into the future.
Surely, you mean Mar. 28, 2016, not May 28, 2016! We are barely into April 2016. lol.
What I was surprised about was that the lawyer would recommend someone indicted to volunteer and do good community service works to offset the image of a white collar crook. Looking over that link to Gentile’s linked-in page, it does indeed look like some kind of fireman sheriff campaign supporter local hero. Like someone like that could never be a crook profiting 17 million from hapless investors caught in the pump scam making them lose millions as those stocks fell. American Greed showcases many cases where ponzi and other scammers would donate to charity. Then after the shitstorm fell through, the trustee of the clawbacks would have to retrieve the donated funds from the recipient institutions. pfgbest guy was an example.
I could not stop laughing when I watched his You Tube video…”I have walked these roads a thousand times“. This is such a cynical attempt at being a community super hero. The bottom line is that he is very scared and desperate as hell. He knows his situation is totally screwed. I feel for him. Its excruciating. And there is nothing you can do to escape it.
Thanks Emmett. An interesting and insightful read.
Ok. I am not mad but will point out that your reviews imply micro trading is possible. First, look at the review of WatchHimTrade, the guy trades as small as possible (one lot?). Secondly, this from the TradeZero review “The advantage of the USO ETF is that a person can trade only a few shares at a time, learning and growing,..” Your not likely to find a Prop Firm that will allow you to trade 5 shares of aapl or 50 of uso. But Pikers and newbies who read reviews would likely come to the conclusion that it is possible. Actually, it IS possible w Suretrader. Finally, the supposed review of Suretrader isn’t actually a review at all. None of the companies features or functions seem to be mentioned, just the plight of the owner, who may not even be involved in its daily operations. You owe your readers and Suretrader a legitimate review.
“Finally, the supposed review of Suretrader isn’t actually a review …”
Where did Emmett say this post of his is a review?
MicroTrading? I looked at the past couple weeks of track records for the watchhimtrade, and the 1 lots were options from what I saw. You can definitely trade 1 lot in options, it is simple. There are even things at TDA like Dough set up to make it affordable. The stocks were like 30 or 80 of TSLA. Even the 50 share lot of USO is probably possible. I don’t trade so little, but if you had the money to open an IB account, I don’t see why they would care if you only bought 30 shares of TSLA. Everyone doesn’t need a Prop Firm to trade. I never started with one, and I’ve never used one.
Pikers and Newbies could follow his option trades easily enough. They may have to build up a little before following the stocks themselves.
Bingo!? Why would review all these little sites that cater (prey) on small traders? I haven’t seen any reviews of licensed prop firms or even Cy Group. But this site is full of reviews for WatchMeTrade, K Capital, & TradeZero (which doesn’t even take US clients). And you have the gall to yell Bingo! This whole site attempts to lend credibility to the idea that small timers have a place. WTH!
Actually, I have a review coming out for T3. This should be out by Monday. Have a review in front of T3 scheduled for tonight.
Please also review T3 education and not just brokerage…so far education sucks and their trading room is possibly the worse I’ve seen..also recent reports showed ALL t3 traders combined made $50k LOL…so basically most of their money came from commissions as broker but all traders combined profit is $50k..they have thousands of traders, so thats like $100 per person annually lol
That day trading rule for US clients truly sucks. I could write a post giving 100 ways to skirt it, but doing so would open up pandora’s box.
Trade Futures and there is no day trade patter rule, although if you have a small account with a few grand in it as a newb you wont make it anyway, sorry
Word of advice, u want to bypass pdt rule get a license and trade prop. Don’t use sure trader
Bingo!
I have heard some bad things about suretrader, but there are no prop firms in my state. It still is overseen by the bahamas’ government regulatory people, which must mean something. Are there any prop firms that I can apply at from across country? Or any other alternatives? I’ll not trade forex or futures, they aren’t part of my strategy. Surely, suretrader can’t be all bad. I understand they have high commissions, but such is the price to pay in order to skirt the PDT. Which, by the way, doesn’t seem like a fair rule to me. It allows only the rich to day trade. Anyways, what alternatives do I have here?
Oh shit! Suretrader is my broker! I actually started pulling funds out last week so it looks like they are honoring their commitments. Too bad, its really the only game for small timers like me, who don’t want to trade prop. They are likely profitable too (i paid over $1000 in commisions last month). I hope there is a solid business continuity plan in place to keep things going w Suretrader (maybe sell-out to to TradeZero?). Currentl just gonna keep a minimal account balance and wait n see. Good luck Guy
Sell out to TradeZero?
TradeZero are using a whitelabel of Turbotick
Thank you very much for sharing this eye opening report on Guy, and thank you for sharing your personal story.
Sam
Emmett, as painful as it must be to relive those days of your life and to be vulnerable enough to talk about them on a public site such as this, well, my hat’s off to you and all that you are trying to do here to educate people who are new to trading. Having traded for more than 15 years, it’s so refreshing to me to see someone actually investigating and outing these frauds who prey on those who are new to this game. Thanks for what you are doing. Great blog.
Well written piece. Thank you.
A sad retelling of your story as well as eye popping expose on Gentile, suretrader and swiss america. I hope the feds investigate suretrader and find all the sim accounts the cons like Ross, Bond, Kavan et. al. use in their spreadsheet data mixing results. As well as showing the kickbacks Sykes got for “reviewing” suretrader as the best broker to short penny stocks. Now I wonder if speedtrader which was also started by Gentile, and it’s broker stockusa will also be affected from this fallout. CNBC should allow free showings of their “American Greed” episodes to show how deep the rabbit holes are fall all of these scams and what lengths the FBI can go as well as showing how often co-conspirators turn on each other. Is there a trustee for clawbacks still on your case Emmett? I recall you mentioned something about still owing restitution. Overall, this review should hopefully wake up newcomers to trading that it really is a cesspool out there and learn to be on guard.
Nothing more valuable than freedom. More powerful than money. Its everything. A single day of pure, unadulterated human freedom is more valuable than a 10 years in prison and 100 million dollars in the bank. Sounds crazy, but it’s so true.
Emmett,
I really appreciate you and your complete honesty period. You going to prison made you a better man. You remind me of Frank William Abagnale, Jr. You became an consultant to the trading world and continue to expose all the impostors, scams and liars. You saved me a lot of aggravation and money. Keep up the great work! I look forward to reading all you upcoming reviews and future robot results.
Thank You,
Richard
I wish they would go after Timothy Sykes, Ross Cameron or Jason Bond next. That would really scared the shit out of these morons.
ditto. /w Kavan, GTR, Amico, OTA and endless more. That’s not lone thinking by far.
Considering they were all pushing Sure Trader as a preferred broker even though there were so many complaints about them I agree big time, Ross Cameron had a one day free pass that I tried out and someone asked him about Sure Trader in the room and he said they were a great broker, better then IB…LOL
Well see. I wonder if the SEC has already begun to dig into them. I saw tickercandy has been talking about this for a while too. Cant believe people would use SureTrader. Reddit had some good info about SureTrader but the Sykes lovers tried to stick up for them. Wonder what they are saying now?
TickerCandy.com is also digging up dirt on some of these scammers. A pretty good source of information.
Have been withdrawing funds from Suretrader, lowering my exposure. No noticeable changes