I was posting in a forum over on elitetrader.com concerning a strange experience I had with a sudden spike in my cost basis for a currency future held at amp trading.

Then there came an extremely rude post by somebody from amp trading that started "XXXX, I'm not surprised you're having problems managing a single lot position..." going on to brag that they report their transactions daily to YYYY and generally implying I was a tiny trader who was crazy. And then he followed with a voluminous spam post carrying on about the virtues of amp, their data feed, and carrying on about their clearing.

I replied, asking the Amp rep to take his condescension elsehwere, while I take my business elsewhere. I then continued that emails at amp went unanswered and their "emergency trade line" hung up on me deliberately. I stated the opinion that amp futures had some real problems and stated the fact that for the past 3 months I'd been trading that account in tandem with an equal sized account with equal positions at Mirus & hadn't had a problem. The correspondence with Mirus was immediate. They offered clearing through RCG which had been in business since 1928 with > $1 billion in client accounts and 10's of millionn in excess assets, compared with amp's in-house clearing with under $1 million in excess assets and $30 million in client accounts.

There followed posts by multiple other posters stating that amp's post & the behavior of their rep was obnoxious, unprofessional, and reprehensible for berating a client in public & giving details of a client's account in a public forum. Those posts stated the opinion the rep should apologize, pay me money for their bad acts, and possibly give me a commission free account for a year (which I would never use, since I no longer trust Amp).

What followed was interesting. My posts concerning sudden shift in position cost basis at amp, my comparison of Amp & Mirrus was removed as were all the other sympathetic posts from other posters. The only post left remaining was amp's voluminous spam post. I was banned from the forum & can not even see it from my IP address any longer.

I emailed the moderator at elitetrader.com concerning what they had done, and here is the response:

"XXXX, Amp is a sponsor and thus is allowed to promote there (sic) firm. Members that interact with amp be it positively or negatively should not be restricted from posting unless they have repeatedly voiced the same opinion and in doing so have not furthered the conversation, and have halted AMP's efforts in reaching out to our members." (emphasis added)

My translation of this is that you are not allowed to interfere with the advertising efforts of a sponsor in their "forum", for example, by relating your actual experience trading with them, or you will be banned from the forum and your posts removed! Heaven forbid that you should actually let a bit of reality interfere with advertising spam in an elitetrader.com forum.

This is like censorship from the USSR before it broke up, only there they put you in the gulag or had you declared insane by a corrupt shrink & shipped off to a psych hospital.

Has anybody else seen anything like this on any other forum?

sandman 

I was posting in a forum over on elitetrader.com concerning a strange experience I had with a sudden spike in my cost basis for a currency future held at amp trading. Then there came an extremely rude post by somebody from amp trading that started "XXXX, I'm not surprised you're having problems managing a single lot position..." going on to brag that they report their transactions daily to YYYY and generally implying I was a tiny trader who was crazy. And then he followed with a voluminous spam post carrying on about the virtues of amp, their data feed, and carrying on about their clearing. I replied, asking the Amp rep to take his condescension elsehwere, while I take my business elsewhere. I then continued that emails at amp went unanswered and their "emergency trade line" hung up on me deliberately. I stated the opinion that amp futures had some real problems and stated the fact that for the past 3 months I'd been trading that account in tandem with an equal sized account with equal positions at Mirus & hadn't had a problem. The correspondence with Mirus was immediate. They offered clearing through RCG which had been in business since 1928 with > $1 billion in client accounts and 10's of millionn in excess assets, compared with amp's in-house clearing with under $1 million in excess assets and $30 million in client accounts. There followed posts by multiple other posters stating that amp's post & the behavior of their rep was obnoxious, unprofessional, and reprehensible for berating a client in public & giving details of a client's account in a public forum. Those posts stated the opinion the rep should apologize, pay me money for their bad acts, and possibly give me a commission free account for a year (which I would never use, since I no longer trust Amp). What followed was interesting. My posts concerning sudden shift in position cost basis at amp, my comparison of Amp & Mirrus was removed as were all the other sympathetic posts from other posters. The only post left remaining was amp's voluminous spam post. I was banned from the forum & can not even see it from my IP address any longer. I emailed the moderator at elitetrader.com concerning what they had done, and here is the response: "XXXX, Amp is a sponsor and thus is allowed to promote there (sic) firm. Members that interact with amp be it positively or negatively should not be restricted from posting unless they have repeatedly voiced the same opinion and in doing so have not furthered the conversation, and have halted AMP's efforts in reaching out to our members." (emphasis added) My translation of this is that you are not allowed to interfere with the advertising efforts of a sponsor in their "forum", for example, by relating your actual experience trading with them, or you will be banned from the forum and your posts removed! Heaven forbid that you should actually let a bit of reality interfere with advertising spam in an elitetrader.com forum. This is like censorship from the USSR before it broke up, only there they put you in the gulag or had you declared insane by a corrupt shrink & shipped off to a psych hospital. Has anybody else seen anything like this on any other forum?

Thank you for taking the time to share your story, I actually considered them a month ago. I have never heard of such rude behavior from a company in a long time! When people like that work for a company, I cannot imagine how potentially poor the rest of the organization is.

I don't expect such a company to exist for a long time as more and more companies start understand the value of satisfied customers (finally!), realizing happy customers = competitive advantage.

Messed up policies on different forums, where the core value is profit and satisfied sponsorship (brokers) makes you value forums like futures.io (formerly BMT) even more.

sandman 

... I emailed the moderator at elitetrader.com concerning what they had done, and here is the response: "XXXX, Amp is a sponsor and thus is allowed to promote there (sic) firm. Members that interact with amp be it positively or negatively should not be restricted from posting unless they have repeatedly voiced the same opinion and in doing so have not furthered the conversation, and have halted AMP's efforts in reaching out to our members." (emphasis added) My translation of this is that you are not allowed to interfere with the advertising efforts of a sponsor in their "forum", for example, by relating your actual experience trading with them, or you will be banned from the forum and your posts removed! Heaven forbid that you should actually let a bit of reality interfere with advertising spam in an elitetrader.com forum. This is like censorship from the USSR before it broke up, only there they put you in the gulag or had you declared insane by a corrupt shrink & shipped off to a psych hospital. Has anybody else seen anything like this on any other forum?

Quoting 

unless they have repeatedly voiced the same opinion

I had seen your posts and they repeat the same thing and now you want to repeat it here to.
As far as ' interfere with the advertising' I had personally run 2 sponsors out of town, hazing a sponsor is a tradition to weed out weak sponsor but that doesn't mean you can keep on posting the same thing all the time.

Actually, they wiped out all the posts over there, the reprehensible post by their sponsor, the posts excoriating the sponsor for that post, my post concerning strange behavior with CQG/Ninja at amp, and the comparison of amp and mirus. Everything BUT Amp's voluminous spam. That remained.

Listen, I don't want to run any sponsor out of anywhere. But i witnessed some questionable behavior at amp & they behaved in an abhorrent fashion on that forum. Their stuff remained, mine was obliterated: 1) Where is the justice in that, 2) that's a story that needs to be told so those considering Amp will go in with their eyes open, or not at all, and 3) the simple fact that forum exists for the sole purpose of serving the advertising needs of their sponsors without allowing any possibility for reality to be seen needs to be public knowledge.

After this episode, I went over to forex peace army to check what other people had to say about elitetrader.com. Their composite evaluation was about the worst I've ever seen, and this policy of not tolerating any criticism of a forum sponsor while allowing copious spam from those sponsors has been seen before by others, in the particular case of Amp Trading. You might say it's a pattern.

https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-reviews/3510/www.elitetrader.com


I added my own evaluation. Is that repetition?

The issue of censorship in favor of commercialism is an orthogonal issue from the basic fact amp trading stinks. You'll find my opinions of Amp & Mirus elsewhere on this board. That is NOT repetition. When elitetrader made the dubious decision to wipe out my posts on that board, it became a separate issue that deserves separate treatment. Maybe when they lose all credibility in the trading community they'll change what they do. One can dream.


If you don't like what I have to say, there's a simple answer, Cory. Just don't read it.

@sandman,

Message received. Now, let's talk about some trading... Or other fresh issues with AMP.

They do seem to be kind of New York rude, but Chicagoan's are kind of like that... Tough, ya know, like Capone...

Kind of makes it fun to work with them.

sandman 

If you don't like what I have to say, there's a simple answer, Cory. Just don't read it.

Careful with this -- this type of thinking and attitude/posture in a post is not welcome on futures.io (formerly BMT).

Mike

Sounds more like the work of capitalism than communism if you ask me.

Anyhow, I've heard some horror stories of AMP on various forums. I won't go into everything here, but I'm glad I decided to seek up some reviews of them before opening an account. Sure, they have the cheapest commissions out there, but it comes at the price of something.

Hmmmm,
I guess AMP won't be on my list of things to check,....thx

FWIW,
I lurk ET as well,......I really wonder how many posters actually trade,......timestamps submitted suggest a lot of free time on their hands on some of these forums during the trading day,.....just sayin'

Happy New Year to all,....

Still lookin around for a broker / data vendor,..wondering what the heck will happen with the fee structure as of tomorrow,.....TS raising rates,...again,......

travelboysteve 

Hmmmm, I guess AMP won't be on my list of things to check,....thx

Good idea. I had to close my account with them. Really bad support, unresponsivem and I could not take it closed my account.

travelboysteve 

FWIW, I lurk ET as well,......I really wonder how many posters actually trade,......timestamps submitted suggest a lot of free time on their hands on some of these forums during the trading day,.....just sayin' Happy New Year to all,.... Still lookin around for a broker / data vendor,..wondering what the heck will happen with the fee structure as of tomorrow,.....TS raising rates,...again,......

I know some people who trade who read ET, but most don't post. Just sayin'

FWIW, Ninja, TT and DDT have worked out well for me ( and @sam028 has great VPS's )