BonTrade
-
Honesty
(1)
-
Quality
(1)
-
Cost
(1)
-
Support
(1)
-
Verified Trades
(1)
-
User Experience
(1)
Summary
Absolutely zero transparency. Company is offering a $50,000 trading account to anyone that purchases a $5,949 trading program and learns the material. Company owner refuses to disclose full name, prefers to simply be called “Scott”. Trading room has no record of trades, no trading DOM present on screen, no trading from the charts. All trades within trading room are simply suggestions that the market might move higher or lower. Made multiple requests regarding trading performance disclosure, and the $50,000 fully funded trading account, but “Scott” simply ignored all requests for clarification. A complete and total sham operation, don’t waste your time.
User Review
( votes)Today’s review is BonTrade, a live day trading chat room.
What is BonTrade? BonTrade offers a live day trading room that specializes in teaching students how to day trade the crude oil futures. The cost of the day trading room is $399 per month.
In addition to the live day trading room, BonTrade also offers an Advanced Course at a price of $5,949, a price action course at a price of $3,449, and a mini course at $1,349.
Who owns BonTrade.Org? There is no listed ownership anywhere on the website. However, we were able to confirm that a person named “Scott” is responsible for the company. We sent three requests to the company asking for some sort of summary of ownership, however they were only willing to reveal the name “Scott”.
How long has BonTrade.Org been in business? Once again, the company refused to answer the question. However, through a quick perusal of Archive.Org we can see that the company has been offering a live day trading room and educational products since 2009.
Funded Trader Opportunity?
One of the things that I found interesting about BonTrade is that they are offering a “Funded Trader” trading opportunity to anyone that purchases the $5,949 advanced educational course. In a nutshell, a person pays a fee of $5,949 for the Advanced Course, and once a person has proven that they have learned the course material, then they will be given a trading account funded with $50,000. BonTrade describes this opportunity as “No Risk Trading”.
I had some serious questions about this funded account opportunity. Specifically, what exactly does a person need to accomplish to be rewarded the $50,000 trading account? How many other people have also been awarded a $50,000 trading account? Whom is providing the $50,000 for me to trade “risk free”? Am I allowed to lose the entire $50,000? All of these questions are serious questions, and so I emailed the company and asked for specifics regarding the $50,000 trading account.
Thus far, the company has not responded to my inquiries. I have given the company two weeks to respond and made multiple requests via email…they have simply decided to ignore me.
Recently I wrote a review of TopStepTrader, which offers a similar opportunity. However, the people at TopStepTrader were more than forthcoming in verifying the opportunity. At TopStepTrader, I was able to actually speak with the funded traders, as well confirm the size of the trading fund. BonTrade is simply unwilling to even answer the most basic questions regarding the opportunity. Very suspicious.
The Day Trading Room
From July 28 through July 30, as well as August 6 through August 10 I recorded the live day trading room in its entirety. For the six days of attendance, the only thing that I was able to witness was a chart of crude oil. There is no speaking or sound whatsoever. Rather, there is a chat box where the moderator would occasionally type something like, “this could be a good spot” or “I might take this” along with chat, the moderator would type in abbreviations that apparently mean something. Not once was I able to ever record the moderator giving a specific trading recommendation. However, if the market moved in the predicted direction as the prior suggestion, then the moderator was quick to congratulate himself for yet another winning trade.
The following is a typical chart that a person will see once inside of the trading room:
One thing that you will never see inside of the BonTrade trading room is a trading DOM. Nor will you ever see any trading from the charts. This appears to be a trading room that only provides the occasional suggestion via chat box. But no concrete trading that can be tracked and recorded.
One more pressing issue regarding the chat box…there is a cacophony of other people frantically typing in suggestions and chatter, so whenever the moderator typed a message, I had to fish out the message. Very, very confusing, annoying, and unprofessional. In particular, one anonymous person kept typing in “BOOYAH!!!” with way too many exclamation points. Apparently he had placed a trade in some sort of market and was doing a happy dance. I find him really irritating because I was trying my best to figure out what Scott was doing.
Searching For Performance
At the end of each trading session, I sent an email to “Scott” and asked for a record of trades called within the prior trading room session. “Scott” responded that he no longer kept a record of trades because it was too easy to simply create a fake record of trades, and since it was too easy, that he would not send me something that could be easily faked. This sort of ridiculous logic I found annoying. I emailed back to Scott an assured to him that I believed that he would not send me a fake record of trades, however Scott replied that I should go back and reread his original message.
Finally, I sent an email asking “Scott” if he was actually trading with a live trading account, and that the only way I could place a value on his educational products and methodology was to look at his own individual trading performance. I very kindly requested a copy of trades that comes from the month end statement. This month end statement gives the profit and loss and the exact trades entry and exit for the month. Once again, Scott explained that this could easily be faked with photoshop and that I could not ever believe if anyone ever sent me account statements. I explained that I would not question his integrity, and that I would believe whatever he sent me. He once again refused and once again gave me the explanation that anyone could simply create fake account statements and that this was the worst possible way to verify his trading performance.
However, Scott did invite me to read his testimonials and that the testimonials were proof that students were happy and profitable.
Using Multiple Identities
Perhaps “Scott” had a problem with my personality. And so I created a couple of different aliases and random email addresses. And then I sent “Scott” variations of my prior line of questioning. Once again, Scott responded with same line of broken logic.
Getting Scott’s Attention
In one last attempt to get Scott to speak with me, I sent an email that said that I was now ready to spend $5,949 for the advanced trading course. This certainly got his attention quickly and my email was promptly answered. However, I said that before I send my $5,949 fee, that I would need to verify that “Scott” actually trades. Once again, “Scott” referenced me to his prior reasoning and that he would not disclose any trading performance. However, he once again offered testimonials.
Wrapping Things Up
The BonTrade trading room is a complete waste of time. There is absolutely no record of trades for the trading room. The person that owns the company refuses to verify if he even has a live trading account. No live trading on the screen whatsoever. No DOM, no trading on the charts, no release of account statements. The trading suggestions from the chat box are just suggestions, there are no specifics like “I am entering at X price, with a stop at Y price, and a target at Z price. However, if the price moves in the suggested direction, then the moderator was quick to congratulate himself.
The $50,000 fully funded trading account also appears to be complete and total nonsense meant to lure the newbie into purchasing the $5,949 dollar course in the shadowy and remote hope that he would be able to secure an additional $50,000.
The only way I was able to get even the most minuscule amount of attention from BonTrade was when I said that I was ready to spend my money on the educational course.
This guy Scott is a complete BOZO. Avoid.
Speaking of POS scam artists…I think Emmett takes the cake. Nice Job Emmett on this rave review of just how trustworthy and honest your endorsements are…who’d listen to a fraudulent con artist such as yourself…just idiots who can’t think for themselves.
http://tradingschools.info/2015/08/05/a-review-of-emmett-moore/
Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to Bontrade! I have been a member there since 2010 and have made a lot of $ from their system. It is a shame that someone like yourself spends a minuscule amount of time in there and writes negative BS when you have no clue!
I agree with Case, although you would have to take the course to understand the abbreviations, the cost of the education would be well worth it, from what I have seen each day . CRD
moderator is a massive trader ,trading live ,its takes time till you get used to his typos
Exactly Mark! Smith is one of the best traders on the planet!
Bon Voyage Bon Trade! I love seeing these scammers exposed. Good work Emmett! Hard to imagine that from your scathing review this trade room was at one time on Dean Handley’s recommended list (although to be fair he withdrew it a while ago) . It’s not the first one of his much touted Titans has fallen foul of your proper scrutiny – CFRN and EMini Volume rooms are two you’ve unearthed so far. I know you’ve no doubt got a list to keep you busy for years but I hope you have time to get around to the remaining “Titans” such as True North and Revs trading – as these rooms have gained great publicity by being on Handley’s list and deserve to be put through their proper paces by you as opposed to the somewhat slacker scrutiny of the good doctor.
Dean started off with great intentions. However, this investigative work is back breaking and difficult, he has not dedicated the resources to dig deeply. I simply picked up and look to improve on Dean’s work. I dont want to give Dean too hard a time on this. It seems his only requirement is that the trading room simply post a track record on the website, but he does not do the grunt work of recording the video and then watching, over a course of at least a couple of weeks.
I also ask the really tough questions that most are not comfortable asking. Questions like, show me an account statement covering three months or show the account statement that verifies the trades posted on your website, etc. I flat get in their face and get tough.
Another problem that Dean has is in defending personal lawsuits. He is currently mired in a Federal law suit from PureTick. Surely Dean is going to win but he has to spend thousands of dollars to defend himself in Federal court. Me…I dont have this problem. Why? Because the Federal Government and the IRS have a lean on me for millions of dollars, and they are the first in line. Anyone filing a lawsuit against me is simply wasting their money.
Am I threatened by lawsuits? Yes, I receive Cease And Desist letters from random attorneys all the time. My response is uniform….get in line.
Being a former scum bag penny stock promoter, ex convict has its advantages. I guess. Fucked up for sure.
LoL, Top notch Emmet!
Bon Scott….AC/DC…Highway to Hell: keep up the good work