Day Trading University
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Honesty
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Quality
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Cost
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Support
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Verified Trades
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User Experience
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Summary
Ken Calhoun is long time salesman of trading systems, courses, advisories, software, etc. Has been selling trading “wet” dreams since the late 1990’s. Onward he continues to dance, sing, and entertain the masses with his stories of day trading glory and day trading lifestyle. Has he ever traded successfully? Yes. He is certainly not the world’s greatest trader, but at least some of his trading records are verifiable. For this, he does deserve some credit. Most trading educators, in a million years, would never disclose performance, at least with Ken you have some sort of history. A luke-warm endorsement of a first-rate entertainer.
User Review
( vote)Thanks for reading today’s review of Day Trading University
What is Day Trading University? Day Trading University is owned and operated by Ken Calhoun. I would consider Day Trading University to be one of the few “legacy” day trading educators. Anyone that has been selling day trading courses, day trading rooms, trading advisories for more than 15 years is an old dinosaur. And Ken Calhoun is a very old dinosaur. In fact, it would be fair
to say that Ken Calhoun has been selling trading products since the birth of the internet.
What exactly is Ken Calhoun selling? A better question would be, what is Ken Calhoun not selling? TradingSchools.org assigned our best online sleuth (Reyna) onto the job of curating the entirety of Ken Calhoun’s trading product offerings. It was no small job. In fact, it took her 3 days of digging, researching, and organizing. And yet, she is confident that she has only found about half of Ken Calhoun’s differing trading products and websites. Let us start with the websites we were able to uncover. The following is a list, and we assigned a year in which the website became active and products began to appear for sale:
[table id=41 /]
In total, we found a whopping 61 websites that Ken Calhoun is selling his amazing trading secrets. What is incredible is that all of these websites contain significant amounts of written content, as well as creatively produced promotional videos. Some of the videos are quite entertaining, creative, and expertly produced.
Ken Calhoun is a marketing wizard. He is a restless, non-stop marketing and messaging machine. He cranks out trading courses and trading websites like elephants crank out elephant poop. And websites, advisories, video’s, courses, and ebooks are only part of his marketing arsenal. A deep web search of MoneyShow.com and Traders Expo archives reveals that Ken Calhoun is one of most frequent speakers on this well-known trading circuit.
The Money Show and Traders Expo
Let’s talk a moment about The Money Show and Traders Expo. Every newbie trader, at some point, is going to bounce through a Money Show or Traders Expo convention. It’s almost like a “right of passage” for all new traders. These conventions are as predictable and reliable as the sun rising in the morning. Every quarter, of every year, for the rest of your life, you will find a Money Show or Traders Expo convention in every major city, on every continent. Today is September 15, 2016. And tomorrow is September 16, 2016…guess what? There is a Money Show happening in Toronto, Canada. Can’t make it to Toronto, no worries because the Traders Expo will be in Las Vegas on November 16.
The Money Show and the Traders Expo is packed to the roof with ridiculous trading charlatans selling everything from software that uses moon cycles and mystery algorithms, to some guy selling a penny stock in a
company that markets perfume derived from pig droppings. Every ridiculous and nutty investment idea that is known to mankind passes through these conventions. Keep in mind, the investment opportunities found at The Money Show/Traders Expo are the stuff that no venture capitalist would ever touch. And no bank would ever fund. The Money Show/Traders Expo is a carnival attraction. The Money Show/Traders Expo draws in the ultimate newbie, the senior citizen with too much time on his/her hands, or the wild-eyed kid looking to turn $500 in $5,000,000 in day trading profits. But what most convention attendees do not realize is that anyone can be a “Featured Speaker or Featured Presenter” at these glossy conventions, all you need is to pay $7,000 to $20,000 for the loftiest perch in which to sell your wares. Heck, the Money Show is so unscrupulous that they would probably let Bernie Madoff pitch his amazing investment opportunity. But since Bernie is currently residing in the Federal Penitentiary, then the fraudster known as Jason Bond will have to do. (read about Jason Bond Picks here)
At the Money Show/Traders Expo, you will find Ken Calhoun up on the stage, talking and dancing and gesticulating wildly with his hands. “Day Trading is so darn easy!” And, “My newest trading indicators are guaranteed to make your underwear sizzle!” Or, “My newest stock scanner picks winners like Warren Buffet!“. The Money Show is a show, meant to get your money. Ken Calhoun is akin to a TV evangelist, preaching and praying, and dancing and hustling the crowd. Note: Ken never said he can make your underwear sizzle, but you will be so excited by his presentation that your underwear will feel sizzly with anticipation.
Is Ken Calhoun a con artist?
Ken Calhoun is not a con artist. Ken Calhoun is a performance artist. He is like the guy at the carnival, trying to tempt you into spending a few dollars to win a stuffed animal worth only a few pennies. He is like that guy on the street corner, selling a fake watch for $15, or the guy at the stoplight that hurriedly washes your car windows and then guilts you into giving him a dollar for his unwanted labor. He resembles the guy you see on late night TV, selling a toaster oven, or a kitchen knife that stays sharp forever. Ken Calhoun is a great salesman. He can sell anything to anyone, at any time. He is the quintessential used car salesman. Like this guy…
Should you be taking investment advice from Ken Calhoun?
In my opinion, the better question to ask is whether Ken Calhoun has ever traded successfully? Sure, Ken Calhoun loves to make wild claims of trading success. However, he is never willing to admit whether he is a net-profitable trader or a net-losing trader. And this is the genius of Ken Calhoun, he pushes right up to the edge of what the financial authorities will allow, and then only tempts the line. He is never willing to cross the line and make wild claims that he has earned millions of dollars each year, or even had profitable months. His performance claims are a strip tease of “give me a little money and I will show you a little-bit of my charms.” He doesn’t cross the line. Everything he does and sells is a show, a performance, an exciting potential of how great your life could be if you only know the trading secrets of Ken Calhoun. As much as I would love to scream and holler that Ken Calhoun is a con-artist, the simple truth is that Ken is just a performance artist.
Let me give you an example of how Ken Calhoun is crafty with his marketing. Notice the following promotional video, how these lovely ladies pronounce that Ken is a “real trader” and the rest of those “so-called traders are just fakers and phonies”.
Ken Calhoun Trading Performance
Ok, so the lovely twins are very clear in stating that, “Ken Calhoun is a real trader” and that “Before anyone purchases a trading course, they should ask for real results”. This is great advice from the twins. But now let us take a closer look at Ken Calhoun’s trading record, which can be found at Ken Calhoun’s online forum located at www.tradingtalk.com.
We dug through TradingTalk.com and in an attempt to curate a complete trading record of “real trading results” from Ken Calhoun. Unfortunately, the “real results” listed are a little skimpy. There is no complete record, by any means. Example: Ken will upload a grainy screenshot, from a camera phone and say, “Look I made $500 trading Apple!” And I have little doubt that he really did successfully earn $500 trading Apple, but a singular screenshot posted once a week, really tells me nothing about Ken’s ability to trade. The key takeaway is that Ken Calhoun gets close to the line by insinuating and suggesting how successful he is, but he never crosses the line and makes claims that he has ever made a consistent income from trading. In fact, the fine print on his trading forum contains the following:
Most of my personal income is from training active traders, not trading.
The posted trades is not by any means a complete record of all my trades (sometimes I may make many dozens of trades a day, which I do not take time to document or screencap). I take many stops as well as wins, which I have not screen capped or included here. This is a partial record of some of my winning trades, and stop-losses, to illustrate what my more successful days look like. It is not a complete record of all of my trades.
I want to continue to make that clear, for transparency and compliance; eg I’m primarily a trainer of traders; that’s what I do for a living. I do not claim to be a hugely profitable trader making a fortune trading, nor do I claim that my training will do that for others. It’s all about learning from wins and mistakes, with our goal to be learning how to trade more successfully.
Ken Calhoun deserves at least some applause
Ok, so now that I bit a chunk out of Ken Calhoun about his skimpy trading records. Let me talk a moment about the positives…first and foremost, he does have a positive track record of trading. In fact, during the year 2009, Ken was able to produce a profitable year and earned nearly $20,000 from his trading. Some readers might scoff, and be thinking to themselves that this is a paltry sum. However, in the world of trading educators, the fact that Ken does disclose at some verifiable results puts him in a class of his own. In fact, since I began writing reviews of trading educators, Ken Calhoun is only 1 of 5 trading educators that I have been able to verify, at least some performance. So he deserves credit for that.
Wrapping things up
In my opinion, and this is only my opinion, Ken Calhoun does not deserve to be thrown into the same class of charlatans and hucksters that consume so much space on the internet. Is he a world class trader? Probably not. And he admits it. In fact, in a telephone conversation, he was very open and honest and preferred to not to have to sell trading products at all. But selling the products helps to make ends meet, and he sincerely feels that he has something positive to offer the trading community. One of the other things I found interesting about Ken is that during our telephone conversation, he is very quiet and non-excitable, this stands in stark contrast to so many of his promotional videos. When asked about this, he simply replied, “hey, I want to give a good presentation and people deserve to be entertained. Ok, Ken. You are certainly entertaining. With this in mind, I will leave you with Ken providing yet more entertainment to the audience…
One of the other things I found interesting about Ken is that during our telephone conversation, he is very quiet, reserved, and non-excitable, this stands in stark contrast to so many of his promotional videos where he resembles a wild-eyed televangelist. When asked about this, he simply replied, “hey, I want to give a good presentation and people deserve to be entertained. Ok, Ken. You are certainly entertaining. With this in mind, I will leave you with Ken providing yet more entertainment to the audience…
Thanks for reading and don’t forget to leave a comment below.
Annoyed at seeing again another Elite sponsor post this month by this clown promoting his shamshow , again with Nison. As usual every few months or so there are new hapless newbs that have no idea of the snakeoil cesspool of fake bs traducators including these legacy ones that can’t even trade for a living. Shame that ET uses sponsors like these including Wrbtrader.
Then I saw “Overnight” has been on top of it for a while on Elite, calling out the sham.
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/gotta-love-zero-risk-in-the-sp500.85694/page-2590#post-5567272
lol. good work.
This guy is now on Elitetrader.com, showing his screen shots whenever he makes a few hundred dollars. This is during the coronavirus panic, as the market is making huge moves. He doesn’t show anything when the market is rebounding up 3-4%, because he’s shorting and betting on increased long volatility.
If someone has been a trading “educator” since the 1990s, and is as good as he says, why can he only make a few hundred bucks during some of the most volatile trading since 2008? And why is his account so small? Shouldn’t his account have compounded into billions (or at least 6 figures) if he’s as good as his advertising says?
Hi Emmett… i respect you for highlighting the bs in the industry, you are doing a world of good. Warning traders about dishonest bs is a plus. Yours is a great ‘redemption story’. props. btw if you want to review my live room candidly, honestly, you can have access for a month or two if you want; i work hard (tradingtheopen.com since the year 2000 & if you find it worthwhile, become an aff); no bs low-float pump & dump crap like the recent flood of young dumbasses with fake brokerage accts, shills, phony testimonials etc. (you don’t need to post this unless you want to); we can talk again on the phone if you’d like.
lol, five monitors of sim screens picking out the best one to show at the opportune time. What a big mug photo post out of nowhere. Wrbtrader still posting like a guru on elite also, the “purveyor” of bshit since 2002. These shamshows continue to post occasionally trying to snag new retail trading newbs to monthly churn as the months and years go by, since the tradingchools spotlight has passed over for a while since their respective exposing reviews.
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/whats-everyone-using-for-hardware-these-days-is-everyone-using-laptops-by-now.336140/#post-4930400
Here’s my credentials, where’s yours?
https://www.trademastery.com/about/
+ Voted #1 & #2 author of the year by S&C readers (2018)
+ Moneyshow speaker & UCLA graduate
+ have provided hundreds of webinars & training to thousands worldwide since 1999
+ trusted by Fortune 500 companies prior to getting into trading:
http://daytradinguniversity.com/clients.htm
and what did you accomplish in your life? Pissing on the internet doesn’t count. I feel sorry for anonymous afraid-to-use-their-real-name (competitor?) keyboard trolls who attack award-winning honest, credible experts like myself for no good reason. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
Anonymous trolls hiding & spewing unwarranted venom are, like the bs educators, a waste of air. just saying 🙂 Random hatorade posted anonymously by strangers has No merit.
I’m honest & successful. One of the decent professionals in this
industry. I’m proud of what I accomplished. Are you. I stand up for myself because I’ve earned the trust of thousands, the hard way.
Truly, gfy https://tenor.com/view/baby-middle-finger-gif-10099524
Hi Ken.
You’ve got some real nerve after scamming thousands for years and you can’t do any better than having a piker’s profitable year trading some years ago which doesn’t earn enough except for section 8 housing and food stamps. Already countered and exposed in these old comments and yet here you are pathetically attempting to turn around more hapless newbs to your worthless products. I’m a live trader that never had to sell or use any of yours or others shamshow products to be profitable or make an honest living with unlike yourself selling crap. What’s the matter, things are financially tight again after more losses or gross negligence? having to post your mug on elite with your clownish plastic surgeries face? gfy yourself you cess show.
And the real reason he was “subdued” and quietish when you called him Emmet, was because he was caught and facing exposure. We all know it as long time tradingschools readers after all these countless review scams. Same with Wrbraider and his ebonics retard talk as they try to duck for cover. They thought they get away with it with manipulating the narrative on corrupted review sites for long with no counter until tradingschools. imo, you let this “gesticulating” Ken off easy. Sheez, I hate these shamshows. Plight on the retail newbs journey and dream.
This scammer obviously spent duped newbs’ money on cleaning up his web seo search similar to Ross. And he and other shamshow slippery artists maintain their presence on elite and other places of free speech with their distractive smoke clouding posts masking the stench purvued from old comments like these:
https://www.tradingschools.org/reviews/day-trading-university/
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/would-you-trust-any-trading-vendor-without-a-blotter-proof-schedule-d-profitable.160074/#post-2440343
https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/trading-university.69625/page-2#post-1160733
That newbs are still giving needed bucks for trading to this shamshit is vomit-inducing.
LOL! Ken Calhoun’s trademastery seems to be hosting a bunch of the ol trading educator dinosaurs such as the sham Bbbarry Burns!, ToniTurner, broker scrounger TomSnotoff, Nison who seems to be trying to get back share from Brooks lol.
https://trademastery.com/
http://worldstoptraders.com/summit/
The shamshows never end! the poor new monthly churned suckers..
IM a member of his swing courses and they are of good educational content..his basic looking format on reading charts is awsome.Saved me monies overtime.i have too make some allowances on the ASX over here when watching his vids.BUT his teaching is excellent, and proffessional.courses nicely priced for newbies..WELLdone KEN..
Can you do review of aheadofthecharts.com dekmartrades or tradenet.com ?
Haha. I received a flyer in our mailbox about Money Show, and Jason Bond is presenting in Dallas. I want to go with my millionaire grandpa to make more millions. You guest it! I’m sarcastic.
Emmett, is it true about what they are saying on other sites about you? You have tax liens for tens of thousands of dollars against you? Isn’t it hypocritical of you to demand transparency from traders while you yourself are obviously terrible with your finances? Seems like you may not be the best person for the job? Thoughts?
Its all true. You should read my “Warning” page. My past is very dark. I am a felon that served a three-year sentence for securities fraud. During the 1990’s, I owned and operated multiple boiler rooms in several states that sold fraudulent investments for hundreds of millions of dollars. Truly, I was one of the worst. I was a drug addict. A member of the Boston mob. Been involved in racketeering on many levels, including illegal bookmaking, bribery, corruption of public officials, frequented many prostitutes, you name it…I was a bad apple. If I was convicted of 1% of the crimes that I have committed, I would be in prison for multiple life sentences.
My main gig now is managing horse racing syndicates in Los Angeles and New York.
The blog, for me, is entertaining, interesting, and gives me perspective on my old life. If I had to start life over, it would be as a writer or investigative journalist. But as you are probably aware, I am a terrible writer. Certainly not making a living from this stupid blog, which typically earns a few hundred dollars a month in advertising revenue.
As far as the tax liens, those will follow me for life. And the restitution demanded by the Federal Government would be impossible to pay. I am financially scarred for life. I can never again hold an asset in my name. Ever. My reputation amongst the “mainstream” society can never be repaired.
The one advantage of being an outcast for life, is that you have nothing to lose. No reputation to protect, no assets to constantly fret and worry that someone might take, no worries that what you write or say can harm you. I am free to be open and honest, about everything, to everyone. Its liberating.
Oh, and I forgot to mention…probably the most rewarding aspect of writing about fraud is that I am now working with law enforcement, not against. In fact, they read my blog and I am constantly on the phone and emailing with CFTC, SEC and FBI agents. Whom would have thought that would ever happen? Sure as hell not me!
Well, there are many of us and newb traders who appreciate the blog and your way of turning over a new leaf. Kind of unfair someone like Belfont gets a hit movie and book made after him, and is making more than this blog doing his speaking seminars. Thanks for letting us know you are in constant contact with the authorities. No wonder the scam vendors can’t lay a finger on you as they can’t go too far without the spotlight turned on them. Hope you get a book out there someday about the sham retail trading education and products industry. It would be great if it became a bestseller and an important book of the century of the financial scamming of the last gasps of the middle class.
Hi. Do you know Whitey Bulger? Are you doing a film on the Boston mob?
Who would know a con artist better than a con artist? Who better to call out the worst scum on the planet than the number 1 Master Criminal?
Also when I read what Emmett writes it is exactly what I experienced in the past with day trading rooms. If you question it go to any of the day trading rooms and do the exact same thing and ask for them to show their DOM and provide real proof of profitable trading. And you too will quickly see the light.
And on a side note, “frequented many prostitutes”, liking the ladies is not a crime in my book as long as everyone is free and willing participants. Gosh I hope I do not stir up hate mail with that one.
I’ve been a bad dog too and enjoyed it immensely, probably because I escaped without having to face too many consequences.
It’s a strange twist of fate, Emmett with his dark past is the vanguard of this expose blog finally bringing to light all the tricks to these scams many have wondered about but not dared to voice in most forums and other review sites all brought together as a single convenient list style reference. Before, you had to dig in old posts in the depths of places like elitetrader, forexpeacearmy, ripoffreport and yes, even the isolated dissenting comments shoved to the back of investiscamma often suffocated by the shill comments or the vendors themselves. Like Emmett said, he’s fully transparent now and paid his jail time. The scam vendors have not been transparent. Most will continue to carry on until the feds handcuff and cart them off away from their keyboards. GTR has been nagging me btw. No update to the update review of GTR on how their frontpage continues to say they were exonerated by their “biggist critic”?
That damn Unicorn.i know she is out there!
Is there a trading vendor/educator/room that you can see the actual Gurus trader blotter as he/ she buys and sells an equity no demo crap real live account trading. Where you can see 500 shares long and see it on your end time and sale match his/her order entry the close out for profit or loss…or is that Wayyyy too much to ask for for $200 monthlty sub fee? Also match broker account statement kinda seals the deal with consistancy and eliminate cherry picking trades.
Anyone?
No one that can deliver the fantasy returns with no drawdowns like the Day Trading Rooms promise. But that is what people want to belive in the fantasy. There is a reason virtually all the rooms Emmett’s reviews are rated 1 star. Hedge funds managers who are paid hundreds of millions are doing cartwheels if they can get a 25% return in a year and most underperform the S&P. But no one wants to hear that. All you have to do is work hard and you to can turn a $5000 account into a million dollars. As I have said a million times you have better odds playing Powerball.
Nice to TS now taking on the legacy vendors and “official legit” face of the trading education industry i.e. moneyshow. Good coverage of “link pimping” in the previous review of CTU. I had long used a dummy free email account to trial out vendors and along with CTU and DTI (Busby and sons) , there are tens of thousands of spam email over the past few years. I think the days of moneyshow milking the retirees and newbs are numbered. As the baby boomers get too old to trade, gen-x and younger generations are of the internet type to push the web more deeply than the surface of Sykes’ investiscamma. Hopefully Tradingschools will be the number one go to place for the sim-sham industry reviews eventually for most and most newbs will get to see these reviews first before they spend anything on trading. It’ll be fun to see TS take on LarryLevin’s Tradingadvantage next. Be prepared for the onslaught. Trade2win had a thread which was flooded with over 200 fake id plant testimonials before it was shut down. Good job Emmett.
Your online sleuth should find much dirt on Al Brooks as well based on her expertise with Ken Calhoun. The “professional trader” Dr Al Brooks who “trades for a living” should be left in shame once he realizes the seriousness of his (imo) flagrant and callous violations of the Hippocratic Oath and the harsh judgment he should face from the international community of traders he has misled and profited from for nearly a decade now, while irresponsibly using his privilege and status as a doctor to strengthen his sales pitch, without critical refutation or condemnation for nearly a decade.
Keep banging on your Al Brooks drum Pete. Violation of the Hippocratic Oath is a stretch. You should detail what it is that’s angered you so much about Al Brooks in a review and send it to Emmett.
You don’t think the dangerous ideas Al Brooks has propagated since 2008 have led to insolvency and distress for many people? His actions HAVE clearly done that to atleast one person, therefore I find him in violation of the Hippocratic Oath.
There is no edge in his methodology it’s a vague descriptive series of inappropriately oncretelabels to describe randomness, 2. he appropriated ideas from predecessors without properly acknowledgement, i.e. Elliott Wave theory’s waves is very similar to Brooks’ “three-push pattern”. 5 minute close of the bar is looked at by institutions on line charts to determine next institutional movement is utterly false. Calling yourself a professional trader and boasting of taking 1 point scalps without ever addressing the psychological and technical issues with overtrading, the extremely high commissions from 1-2 point scalps on the ES, etc. Brooks has done all of this and more(without ever making any trading calls or sharing any trade blotter) I wonder what charities he has donated his trading vendor profits to? Since he claims he’s helping the public has a need to know.
There you go Pete. An intelligent and articulate outline of your issue with Al Brooks. You don’t need Emmett to write a review. You’re very capable of doing it yourself and Emmett may appreciate the help with the heavy lifting.
I agree with Pete. Since 2008 Brooks has been selling a lot of books and runs a live trading room. His room turnover is very high as expected. I was in his room at beginning for about 3-4 months until i realized it has no value.
Most what you hear in his room is “maybe” “but” “possible”
never anything clear.
I feel like i wasted $400 dollars and lots of time reading his hindsight analysis bs.
Whats ridiculous is Al claims to be trading many contracts scalping ES for 1 Point all day. Never mentions entries Live,only mentions Exits after the fact.
Brooks is not his last name he changed it. Also would be intrested if someone found out if he even is a MD.
These guys put MD,PHD fancy abbreviations after their name to stand out and give them credibility. Reminds me of Alexander Elder,MD
I was in Brooks room for a couple of months. I also saw how his commentary often differed from what was in the book and how he tries to equate changing bias as “always in long” vs. “always in short”. It’s almost cult-like in his terminology in the book. Failed-failure. H1H2, breakout-pullback etc. Some of what I remembered in the room. Once he said it was like floating along a river rapids in a raft bouncing around following the current, presumably attesting to his trading prowess. I don’t understand how he takes the room so seriously for the entire session then writes it up. Most vendors are far lazier in their maintenance of their monthly churn of newbs. Either it’s all some twisted work-ethic bs, or some delusion. I’m sure those of you in the room recall his voicing repeatedly “comPUters”, “com-PU-ters” in that basso voice. Another time he said he knows a “friend trader” who only trades for 1 tick in the ES for 10k profit then quits for the day. The end commentary he may mention vaguely he took a trade “here” or “there” and often it was for a “scalp” here or there. Almost never a full swing trade. However he often mentioned speculating that other traders were “probably” doubling down “here”. When asked about trading size as he gets asked often, one time he said he doesn’t say because he didn’t want to have “watch his back” all the time. The original forum started out as a “club” site, then due to “readers” and “fans” “wanting more”, a pro-rated trading room was set up. Last time I checked, there were a couple of possible shills saying they were successful trading with the method now in the forums. It used to be no one reported any consistent success and there were often occasional threads questioning if the method really worked or if Brooks actually traded. So maybe as typical of these shams, they evolve and build up a “testimonial” structure. Hope Reyna is having fun following the room. Emmett, maybe there should be a donation paypal button if just for expenses of attending these rooms. Too many reviews lately without actual room attendance such as the mystery of Kongzana and his NT report tab dream profit results.
@Pete
This is probably the wrong thread to discuss Al Brooks, but I guess this is as a good a time as any.
I’ll be honest with you and say that I totally get where you are coming from. Al Brooks is held as being a Saint that has totally and utterly mastered Price Action trading. But there is zero proof he trades now, has traded in the past or has been profitable from trading, period.
I have read all of his books. Sure, there is some merit in a few of his topics, but where I start to raise an eyebrow is in the deeper discussions of price action on past charts. He sounds such a genius.
However, that is extremely easy to do on hindsight charts. I could literally blow your socks of in describing the Price Action behind the ES from Friday’s market. Why? Because the footprint is already there!
But as the footprint is unfolding in real time Al Brooks will hide behind “maybe”, “could”, “possibly” – he NEVER commits stronger than that. He will tell you that is because he is not licensed to make trading calls and he has to be careful with the regulatory authorities.
That is utter bullshit. There is NOTHING illegal in a trader saying “I am taking a long here at 2165.50” – if the other traders in the trading room want to take that trade that is up to them – the CFTC disclaimer takes care of the rest.
What he can’t say of course is “I would advise we all go long here at 2165.50”.
There are ways around it, but Al will dance around and play with non commital words and will NEVER state when he has entered a trade.
And then of course at the end of the day he describes exactly what happened with today’s Price Action with acute accuracy.
Nobody seems to dare question whether there is profitability behind anything he says. If it comes from the mouth of Al Brooks it must be true!
Any vendor, trading room or trading educator that claims success at trading or promotes an ‘edge’, should not have ANY excuse as to why they can’t show their brokerage trading statements. If they can’t then they should be considered a fraud until proven otherwise.
There is nothing illegal about showing them. In fact, they should be ready willing and able to show daily and monthly statements.
I have become so cynical that I feel sorry for any new traders coming in to the market getting caught up behind the bullshit.
Hi Emmett – I’m one of the top-respected figures in the trading industry.
I am Ken Calhoun, UCLA grad, not the same person as “Kent (with a t) Calhoun” referenced above. I have been in business since 1999 (not earlier). Read that document; it’s a different person (in a different state, Texas). Your comments in the Entire area of ‘an unsavory past’ above are NOT me. I’m Ken Calhoun, NOT Kent Calhoun. Different educator entirely. That person is Kent C. Calhoun; I’m Kenneth Edward Calhoun.
Here’s a screencap Proof of my UCLA degree & name:
http://trademastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/KenUCLAGradProofthumb.jpg
I am a real money trader, see extensive P&L PROOF at http://www.tradingtalk.com with screencaps of both some winning real-money trades as well as stops in my IB & Fidelity accounts. I make no performance nor profitability claims; that’s what many dishonest educators do. My assertion is that many educators don’t even trade at all; at least I Prove I do really trade. I’m not a charlatan, I’ve worked hard to help traders.
I have never said “My newest trading indicators are guaranteed to make your underwear sizzle!” Or, “My newest stock scanner picks winners like Warren Buffet!”. Complete falsehoods.
You may want to read:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-law-made-simple-29718.html
This entire post has been screencapped and saved to pdf as evidence.
-Ken Calhoun
.cc legal
Sure looks the same. But I did remove, as per your request.
You know Ken, I write a lot of reviews about trading hucksters, and your marketing is quite entertaining. I removed all references to calling you a charlatan, that seems a little harsh. Huckster or Extreme Entertainer is a better description.
Would love to draft a new review. I find humble pie to be delicious. But the key is that the audience has to know that you are experiencing some form of success, that I can verify. If you would like to privitely share, I will write a new review based upon whatever you can show. Unfortunately, the little screen clippings from the forum is a little light.
Thank for engaging with the audience. Most vendors will not.
Moneyshow also has also promoted Al Brooks. If Ken Calhoun can man up and show his diploma and trade blotter and makes no claims of consistent profitability then what’s stopping a selfless and altruistic pro trader like Al Brooks?
With over 98,000 views, the extensive Real trading proof P&L screencaps here on my forum show more actual trades than anyone else I’ve seen in the trading education industry; I agree that all educators should show they are at least Capable of making hundreds of winning trades (as well as stops), as seen at:
http://www.tradingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?53-Ken-s-Trading-Journal-(IB-Fidelity)-REAL-Trades-(Partial-Record-of-Example-Actual-Trades-I-ve-Made)
I completely share an overall distrust of this industry; that’s why I’ve taken so much time to document hundreds of real-money trades I’ve made on that forum thread. Some transparency is helpful. I make no performance nor profitability claims (per sec regs). My main thinking was to at least prove the point that, unlike most of my competitors, I Do actually trade. I’m thankful to the industry & my traders who’ve found my training helpful.
Real-money videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQXVBFqsCtw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtW8M4JSHjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4DxAjtmpCg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtW8M4JSHjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQohvevGR90
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF2opq5LkoM
etc….PROOF talks, bs walks.
I’m a small-size trader, my biggest shortcoming is I never got comfortable trading large size. So I leverage my knowledge.
and yes I like to make entertaining videos… the difference is I’m Also a real-money trader who shows P&L proof at least I trade.
-Ken
Cherry picking a winning trade is meaningless. Unless you are going to show actual brokerage statements showing proof of profitability for all your trades, it is just more sales pitch smoke and mirror non sense.
It reminds me of the newsletter that comes out and says how they made 100% on some option call then I look that newsletter up in the Hubert Report and they acutaly lost money. Some how they forget to tell you about all the options that expired worthless.
Unless you disclose full brokerage statement showing all trades winner and losers, it is completely meaningless.
As for Al Brooks I would trust anything anyone in this industry says. Like Warrior Trader the Architect that wasn’t. It would not surprise me if Mr. Brooks was never a Doctor or was a disgraced doctor like Rightline.
Marketers gonna’ market; selective proof or results.
Oh yea – he is exactly like a marketing machine w/his wordy replies here in the forum.
Just KNOW that KC grinds out that living by advertising his ‘stuff’ ad infinitum.
How’s that job/career autonomy working out for ya?
Robotically running the numbers I suppose.
Yawn!
ballsy move to advertise another scam site here.
On the same very forum to which you posted a link, you say unequivocally that nobody should post any links, on pain of immediate removal. ref: http://www.tradingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?51-No-Posting-URLs-of-Any-Kind-Is-Allowed-Here
The least that you can do is to treat other people’s web presence with the same respect that you demand. Your attitude on this shows just how cynical you are.
If only trading was as easy as screen grabbing winning trades from various (demo) accounts.
That’s what Felton did. He would have multiple sim accounts going on before his room started, then start off with a winning trade he “was already in”. Never underestimate the tricks these charlatan shams come up with. I heard recently the NT local db could be hacked. Maybe that’s how in part Kongzana came up with 5 to 15k “profits” every day.
Word games and Screenshot games brought to you by Ken Calhoun. He will never show Broker Statements because they would expose him as not being able to turn profits and would be the death of his business charade,
broker proof of a (modest) winning year from 2009:
http://www.tradingtalk.com/showthread.php?301-How-I-Made-16-825-In-My-IB-Account-on-4-9M-of-Trades-In-2009
http://www.tradingtalk.com/charts/IB2009TotalGainLossSummaryKen.gif
All the P&Ls in the other thread Are real-money from my IB/Fidelity accounts (not demo).
I don’t make millions trading, granted, but as Emmett points out at least I do have proof I really trade, which is oddly missing from most other educators.
Granted it would be a lot More impressive if I could show years of cpa-audited six-figure consistent profits, but I cannot, nor do I claim to be a millionaire trader with a fancy car, lol.
My main thing is, I’m a small-size trader who is teaching his lessons learned. No phony bs performance claims like the others. I’m a teacher, coach & trainer, who trades.
in the 90s I used to be a Fortune-500 consultant, trusted by industry execs (but I got tired of travel + office politics; trading & teaching is better):
http://daytradinguniversity.com/clients.htm
I’ve got plenty of room for improvement, I appreciate the comments, it’s food for thought. I’m not perfect, though I’m honest/candid; thanks to all for your posts.
most educators are total bsers who don’t even trade; I’m glad Emmett & you guys call ’em out on it.
-k
Really 2009. What happened 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, & 2015? Plus who can tell if the results shown are from day trading or swing or long term trading.
Ken if you are legit, then get with Emmett, open up your brokerage statements live for each year. Then let Emmett update with a full report. If you are making 18K day trading you are doing better than any of the other con artist claiming to make millions and deserve a high star rating.
But if you can not show proof of profitable then you are teaching clueless desperate underfunded individuals to scalp highly leverage and highly volatile instruments and do it by using bad money management techniques to boot.
Except for short period or periods like the NASDAQ bubble days I have never seen anyone day trade the way 99% of the day trading rooms teach and be profitable. They teach you to trade white noise. The best scammers out there make demo trades using a lenient sim generator. So yes with no commissions and getting positive slippage they can show a little gain, but even that is not enough so on top of that they fake their results missing a loss here or there in their track record.
If it wasn’t for the fact I would get a thousand fake brokerage statements, I would offer a $5000 reward to anyone that could profitable day trade the way the day trading rooms teach you. And for anyone who states you do not think you can trade like the Turtles or swing trade profitable – THAT IS NOT WANT THE DAY TRADING ROOMS TEACH YOU!!!!!!
I trade profitable but not the way they teach you.
The way I trade is nothing like what the TR educators teach. They teach the following:
1) You can trade a highly leverage highly volatile instrument such as CL,
2) You can do this with some small account like $5,000,
3) You will have an 80% win rate,
4) You will have virtually no drawdown,
5) You can come in everyday rain or shine no matter what the market condition and take numerous scalps in CL every single day,
6) You will have a straight up Equity Curve and
7) And you can quit your day job as you make money every day trading like a salary. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
I am sure I am missing some stuff. I am sorry but this is the complete nonsense that the vast majority of TRs teach. Hedge funds, CTAs, mutual funds and etc. performance is available to the public. No one can do what they claim. Well maybe during the NASDAQ bubble.
So hear is the Real World of Trading that I trade:
1) You have to be properly funded to trade or you will blow your account, which means the only ones that should be trading CL are GS and very well-funded individuals, which is not 95% of the day traders.
2) You do not control the market and you surely cannot trade the white noise they are teaching you to trade. This also means you will have drawdowns and down periods that can last a long time. This is how the real world works. You are not going to make a daily salary trading.
3) Sorry but unless you are extremely lucky you are not going to make the insane returns these TR promise. I am doing cartwheels if I can do a 25% return a year. Now in the real world that is a great return, but in the fantasy world that is a horrible return.
Ken, how much did revenue did you produce in 2009 from your day trading education sites?
Brooks and Calhoun are probably making a lot more selling and misleading new traders, even if they are actually trading. Emmett, there’s a line of victims eagerly awaiting your Brooks review, expecting a great takedown piece as usual.
Fuck Off!
Hi. Im Jeff Calhoun co founder of daytrading university sadly. I have pending litigation against it all. I apologized to the State and mentioned anyone wanting a refund should be given such. The rest is on ripoff report. Respect.
I will give you some extra stars if you write for TradingSchools.Org. Why not?
Wait a minute, you are his BROTHER? I read the ripoff report.
Hi. I by written contract and by co founding Day Trading University am an owner of the company. Due to tax evasion by Ken the company was moved to Colorado Springs CO from Honolulu Hawaii. My brother had a Hawaiian Business Consulting company and taught at Univ of Phoenix. We cut a deal and he did a contract and shook my hand. He lied. My father also had interest and first tried to protect Ken then later saud sue him. Ken will be subject to full government review this year and probably lose it all. Ken at one point claimed he had a 6 million dollar home as an inducement for traders to follow his trading online. He had to adjust websites as he got caught over the years. He should of played. The entire company was set up as a front company and he got lost in it believing it was real. It is time for him to awaken. The company and all dirative cocompanie are being shut down. Thats why you see him bug trying to change names. I am 60 percent owner . He has other work to go to especially with reportedly him losing his home and all possessions and his lady leaving etc at least he will have time to return to the real. If anybody needs a refund let me know.
Sorry Jeff. Sad to see brothers fight.
I have two brothers. Both from different fathers. Long story short, both continue to be involved in the mob. New England, Boston area. Racketeering, extortion, public corruption, bookmaking. Both have lengthy rap sheets. And I have fought with both for nearly my entire life. One time in particular, it nearly ended in death. Many fist fights with my mother screaming and crying in the background. All sorts of embarrassment and pain.
Hopefully someday the Calhoun’s can put things to rest and find forgiveness.
I, Ken Calhoun am the sole founder of the award-winning Daytrading University network of educational trading websites. I founded my website in 1999 as a sole proprietor and have never at any time entered into any contract with any other person and/or company regarding my site’s ownership, backing, support and/or any other financial interest of any kind.
Nobody other than myself, Ken Calhoun, is authorized to manage and/or handle anything related to my business (including but not limited to relationships with customers, colleagues, and third party companies).
I went to my local police department last weekend (as well as consulting legal counsel) for help; everybody has been very supportive. Background checks, prior court actions/history, google+ pages and other publicly available records have been provided to law enforcement.
I’m fully compliant with applicable regulations and my company is successfully growing, as we’ve done since 1999. I’ve never evaded taxes nor entered into any contracts with anyone regarding my business. I have no idea what this is about.
Everything is being documented as evidence (including this page); as this is an ongoing investigation no further comments will be publicly posted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation
Just one final comment; I’m thankful that there are laws designed to protect public figures like myself from unfounded potential criminal cyberstalking, harassment & extortion attempts, as well as civil actions that I can take to protect myself & my family. My local police are helpful in investigating (I was at the local CSPD precinct for nearly an hour showing them evidence last week; they are very helpful; I’m following up with them).
Based on my discussion with CSPD (and my attorneys) I am confident everything will be resolved fully in my favor and that justice wll be brought to anyone trying to commit a finance-related crime (or civil harassment/extortion action) against me. In law enforcement EVIDENCE is everything; which I provided lots to my local police station in my support.
As posted on my site: Public notice: I, Ken Calhoun am the sole owner, founder & only employee of this business. Nobody other than Ken Calhoun is authorized to manage and/or handle anything related to this business (including but not limited to relationships & transactions of any kind with customers, colleagues, and third party companies). Disregard any phishing attempts, online posting or communications from anyone other than Ken Calhoun claiming to be associated with this site.
Truth is the best defense. And proof. I’m thankful that in the USA, crimes (including cyberstalking & attempted financial crimes) are often prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I do not let myself be victimized nor harassed nor lied about publicly; I stand up for my rights. I will continue to work with law enforcement here in Colorado and elsewhere to investigate, and where applicable, prosecute attempted criminal (and civil harassment/cyberstalking) actions taken against me. Protecting my family & business is the most important priority. My reputation speaks for itself. As does everyone’s.
Good thing there’s public records (like court records, arrest records, other confidential police records) for law enforcement and courts to rely upon, when evaluating situations and people’s backgrounds. I count on it (as do police, when investigations are underway). Mine is spotless; I’m an honors UCLA grad who went on to teach thousands, and (solely) founded my business back in ’99, to train others.
back to work…
Ken
@Pete Ok, I don’t follow Al Brooks much so I will pass on this.
@Ken Calhoun I thought your post was reasonable until the end when you wrote
”
This entire post has been screencapped and saved to pdf as evidence.
-Ken Calhoun
.cc legal
“”
The thing that annoyed me the most is that either you don’t seem to know that CC does not work in comments the way or you think writing .cc Legal give it some gravitas. Why the veiled legal threat? It makes me think Emmett was striking a nerve in coming close to the truth.
As the bard would say “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”
Hi Dave,
Let me clarify the disconnected discourse. Originally, when I was researching Ken Calhoun, I discovered a nasty fraud enforcement from the CFTC, and the name was Kent Calhoun. As it turns out, Kent Calhoun was also a trading educator that sold a $12,000 trading package, and he made outrageous claims to his profitability and success. Some folks went to prison, some others got fined, a lot of people got scammed. And so my original review draft had incorporated this nasty information. It was mistaken identity. Ken called me on the phone. We discussed it. And he gave me a bit more disclosure and openness on his trading performance and his views on the industry. So, I removed some of the negative aspects.
Ken probably feels this review is terrible. But the truth is that its actually quite friendly. Most of my reviews are just nasty and ugly.
@Emmett True, you did give him a much better review than most.
@KenCalhoun, Emmet did give you a fair review, it you read most of the other reviews you will probably agree. I can certainly see how anyone could confuse Ken and Kent Calhoun, and I am sure it will not be the last time.
Emmett, thanks for correcting that error re similar-name / different person, that was my main concern since it’s not me — and I appreciate the more balanced review after our phone talk.
All my training is based on my lessons learned (the hard way) from real-money trades, mainly the differences between stops vs wins in small-size trades I’ve done, so it’s authentic.
As I’ve said publicly for years, I think it’s important to encourage traders to evaluate transparency of educators — gurus who just talk about charts & don’t prove they can make winning trades, are dime-a-dozen & part of the problem, not the solution. “If they can’t prove they trade, it’s just a charade”; kind of catchy & I wrote that as how I feel about educators in general, 99% of them are bs. I like your reviews here for the most part.
fyi I started my company as an “anti-guru, I call bs, show me you really trade” type of thing back in ’99 since I bought a lot of crap books & courses that didn’t work in my real-money trades. So I started my biz based on lessons learned from live trades, to “show ’em how it’s done” and it gradually took off from there.
I’ve worked hard for my traders, both actually trading (to try out & test what works vs doesn’t) + speaking/writing industry articles and creating all those sites, courses & videos. It’s not perfect, in fact with so many sites in my network it’s likely a bit confusing, so I’m working on improving that.
Some final thoughts:
+ If an educator can’t produce any P&L screencap proof of actual trades, “Just say no”
+ Try out educators’ free content Before spending Any $ on them, to see if it actually works (usually it’s theory-unproven fluff or too basic).
+ Beware the youtube videos with phony papertrading “How I made $8,000 trading today” bs done on sim accounts misrepresented as real-money trades. Ask for broker screencap P&L Proof. Also it wouldn’t surprise me if we found out a lot of the unrealistically high view-count (>5,000 views) yt videos were fluffed up w/fake “buy youtub views” services. Some of the young guys lately in the ‘day trade cheap stocks” niche are social-media savvy con artists (imho).
+ and speaking of which, day trading sub-$10/penny stocks w/low float on quick spikes is unrealistic and does not work, from what I’ve found…it’s fools’ gold marketing to appeal to folks w/small accts. I’ve seen many total bs youtube videos on that topic. I’m an original dot-com day trader from ’99 and I like stocks in the $20-$50-/share range w/minimum 15k shares/minute volume & > 1-point trading ranges for liquidity.
+ beware the slick internet marketers-posing-as traders (my #1 gripe); a lot of of these guys are Not real traders. I’m a good marketer (I learned how, out of necessity to compete) and produce top-quality videos; the huge difference is I also Prove I really trade.
Just because someone talks about chart patterns does Not mean they are capable of making winning trades.
I still have much I can improve on, mainly getting braver to trade larger size. I appreciate the site here; I’ve read it for months; seeing candid comments from everyone is a good thing for the industry.
– ken
61 websites? To me, that sounds like marketing, not trading. And marketing is okay if, and only if, the materials have some real, usable, provable value.
I agree with rtchoke and the presentation of the promotional material reminds me of all the get rich quick BS that’s out there. I’m not saying that your material doesn’t have value but as someone who has been involved in the trading swamp for a few years the presentation puts me off purchasing the courses.
Hey, if trading with Ken doesn’t work out. You can always try his “Million Dollar Copywriting Secrets To Success!”
Like I said, Ken can sell anything, to anyone, at any time. Honestly, I see Ken as more entertainer than anything else. He is a rogue, a showman, an entertainer, etc. But no matter how much you dig through his sales materials, there is never a mention that he earned millions of dollars at trading. Salesmanship.
Yes, which one had more websites, this one, or BestProTrade and their many Ninja*.com’s? Now I wonder what “Moneyshow” as a whole will do about tradingschools. Will they hire a team of lawyers? Will CNBC’s “American Greed” put out a special on the long history of Moneyshow and TradersExpo?
I guess Moneyshow is ok with the CFTC. They even had a “CFTC SmartCheck” Booth #511 in their March 3rd, Orlando show. Sad to see when it’s just full of charlatans smart enough to just toe the gray line. http://smartcheck.cftc.gov/articles/newsarticledetails.aspx?id=3537
Who knew — that Shakespeare knew about trading?
On second thought, Shakespeare always wrote about the big themes — greed, lust, power, revenge. Yeah, that sounds just like a trading scamsite.
In addition to greed, lust, power and revenge Shakespeare would often throw in some crazy plot twists and a bit of cross dressing – sounds like a night out in Bangkok to me.
This review is further proof that Al Brooks’ claims of consistent trading success are shocking and not industry-standard. Consumers must weigh what Brooks has been doing consistently (selling trading material) since 2008 with much more gravity and prejudice due to his unusual claim of consistent profitability and his (IMO) violation of the Hippocratic Oath. We must remember Ken Calhoun never took this oath. Al did take this oath and uses his background as a doctor to earn our misplaced trust and we have suffered as a result.
@Pete I do get the connection between Ken Calhoun and Al Brooks
Can you give it a break with the Al Brooks stuff
? All I see is you complaining about Al Brooks on every single review. We get it, you don’t like the guy… but you make It sounds like the guy ate your newborn or something. Let Emmett do the review or just get your own ihatealbrooks.com domain so you can talk about how much mental and physical anguish brooks has brought upon your life.
Other folks are in agreement with me and see similarities between Brooks and scammers mentioned on this site. You think Brooks gave you an edge in trading, you’re the one making the outlandish claim that does not fit with the moral lessons extracted from these many great reviews Emmett has done of Al Brooks-like characters.
Well I do have sympathy for Lucky7s point of view. We get it Pete, you hate Al Brooks and probably with justifiable reason but the last three reviews have been hijacked by this Al Brooks stuff and the discussion about the people being reviewed is getting lost because of it.
You have demonstrated that you are capable of articulating your points of view about Brooks so do that, submit it to Emmett. If he gets enough complaints then I’m sure he’ll follow up on it, or you could write the review yourself and send it to Emmett.
Brooks and Calhoun have both been using the Moneyshow to further their agendas. All readers who want to see Brooks get reviewed holler at Emmett ASAP
You don’t have to holler at Emmett, you could go to the “Add Listing and Review Request” tab and make a post there.
Do you really need a review of Brooks. He does not show a single trade or any proof what so ever he can trade profitable. I put him in the same camp as Mack, who circles a bunch of trades you could have made all in hindsight. Man it is easy to find perfect trades in hindsight and circle them, especially when you ignore all the other trades setups that look the exact same but did not work.
Anyone that can truly day trade profitable and wanted to sell their services, would clearly show their trades and be more than happy to show their actual brokerage statements of profitable trading.
Emmett,
You actually copied an paste the following twice in your review here..
“I have little doubt that he really did make $50 trading Apple, but a single grainy screenshot, posted once a week, really tells me nothing about Ken’s ability to trade. The key takeaway is that Ken Calhoun gets close to the line by insinuating and suggesting how successful he is, but he never crosses the line and makes claims that he has ever made a consistent income from trading. In fact, the fine print on his trading forum contains the following:”