Since coming on SI a number of weeks ago I have seen a lot. I personally DO NOT THINK A TRADING FORUM IS WORTH MORE THAN $100 or so taking into consideration the price to run a premium website, administration, programming which doesn't run cheaply. I am a retired from middle management in Northern Trust Corp. and have just begun trading my own account after 38 years as a banker. I am not interested in arguing the veracity of trading sites. Many of them are amateurish and put together on the fly run by wannabes who have nothing to offer but a desire to make a killing quickly. They have no proper education in money management and probably can't even balance their own checkbook. However, there are alternative sites and services that don't charge $175 to $750 a month reasonable fees ($25 to $75)and offer technical analysis charts,bulletins citing breakouts, real-time news, futures and options trades, that could lead to profitable day trades.
A website costs about $20k to set up, good programming can run another $15k so these sites are not just milking the subscribers, they have invested in an enterprise and deserve to be compensated. Some of the websites I've seen recently look like the $495 packaged websites. The question arises how much compensation is justified for such a service? You can easily pick out the winners from the losers. They should be in the business at least a few years with a fee-based service and not a newbie.
In my career, I've seen many honest hard-working folks taking out home equity loans to finance trading schemes and web-based businesses that cost people their homes, cars and even families when they failed. So a good education, whether it be in money management, trading, risk tolerance, beginning a web-based business is priceless. Education costs as many have seen. You can take a home education course or go to Harvard.
You DON'T always get what you pay for if what you pay for is hundreds of dollars charged by a novice trader whose only skill is in enticement. You DO get what you pay for if after a month or two you see your bottom line is increasing and you are making money from the service. The service can cost $25 a month or $95 a month or even $10 a month and it could be much better than those costing 10 times that fee. But in the final analysis it won't be these phonies on this thread that define the quality of the service (they can't even define the quality of this thread) by just yourselves. Trial and Error.
If you feel you have something to offer, go for it, don't get put off by those that criticize and can't even do that convincingly. There could be a need for a thread like this, but it should be run by someone who knows what he is preaching, and not someone whose own veracity is suspect. |
