Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
I have watched many show up here looking for a quick answer and a strong leader who "always" has the answer. I have watched the old hands and Big Mike be patient but I have seen some who have filled their ears with cotton.
Louis Rukeyser used to say on 'Wall Street Week' "there are two kinds of people in this business, those that are wrong and those that are liars".
I don't want to rehash all of what I already wrote, but let me expand a bit:
It is entirely within the realm of possibility that Alex is the stand up guy he claims to be, and that I have banned him unfairly. I do not pretend to be omniscient or infallible. It could also be entirely possible that he is lying through his teeth. I have witnessed both on the forum, and have been fooled a few times, while also catching a lot of vendors red handed. It can go either way.
My experience has taught me to be suspicious of most vendors, especially ones exhibiting traits that have previously lead to very bad outcomes here on the forum.
Unfortunately, in many of these past events when a vendor is "caught" or "exposed" as a "fraud" (all statements are my opinion and not fact, and I do not intend any correlation directly towards this particular event) many have gone on to make threats against me, including death threats to me (and even my dogs), create entire websites to trash talk me, create ripoff reports against me, file CFTC and NFA claims against me, even report me to the FBI and IRS. All with entirely nonfactual commentary as well as out right intention to do harm against me.
I mention this not because Alex will do this, or is in any way like this, but to make a point that I try and do what is "right" for the majority of the forum, even when it is a very difficult decision. I haven't watched the video that was just mentioned as today's "room" recording, but if it is true that Alex spoke no ill-will towards me then I believe he earns respect for that. But it does not change my decision.
I made a decision a long time ago when creating the forum, that I would try to be different than the other forums out there. I've done my best to implement these differences, and the result is what is before you. This is an extremely difficult job. Some FIO members appreciate the complexity and the way I run the site, some do not. I also learned long ago, it was simply impossible to please everyone.
So my stance is simply to do what I think is best, and history can be the judge. I go out of my way to be transparent and anyone that wants to learn about the events is free to make their own informed decision. Hopefully I do get it right more often than not.
Like trading, you can never be certain of the outcome of the next trade. Especially when you are trading on the hard right edge -- which is where this decision to ban Alex came from (like with all real trades). In hindsight, everything can be made clear, but the trade is done and the decision is made.
If you want to disagree with it, that is of course entirely your right. But I do hope that you will respect why a decision was made. I never expect anyone to agree with every decision I make, but I do hope that I have earned your respect. Otherwise, why are you here?
Let's do this. I normally fully believe that in cases such as this, a decision must simply be made and move on, because if you invite too much discussion for every decision it just ends in chaos. In the end, a leader must lead, and his followers can decide if he is a good leader or a bad one.
However, because of the complexity of this particular case, I am going to simply let you decide. Below is the poll, you can vote and we'll just go based on that. I will implement whatever the members want. Poll is open until end of Friday.
I was only able to catch the first portion in the room this morning but did get to hear his side of things which I am glad for. First let me say that you could hear in the guys voice that he was genuinely upset and hurt by all of this because he loves the futures.io community so much and it helped him get to where he is today. As another poster indicated, he started out by saying that he is not mad at Mike and only wishes that he had a chance to answer to these accusations before being banned. He said that he would've gladly never mentioned the room again if he would've been allowed to stay.
He said that when he first had the idea to open a room, he thought about charging a small fee to cover the costs and to make a small amount for his time. After talking to Mike, he decided against it and made the decision to fund the costs of the room with his own money. At one point (years ago from what I gathered) he was asked to be a moderator on another site but eventually left because he didn't agree with their business practices. Here is what he says about that on his site:
In my second year I was asked to join one of these rooms and moderate for them. I spent a lot of my time speaking with the members one on one. I quickly came to the realization that none of them were profitable and that they needed real help. It was the that I decided to leave and become my own man. I wanted to develop my own trading style and help those that hadn’t done so yet.
I've only been to his chat room a handful of times but he has never asked anyone for money or tried to sell anyone anything when I've been there. He also didn't understand what was wrong with his posts from 2015 because he never promoted the other chat room and actually said some negative things about it. Apparently, someone thought he was a 48yr old so he showed his drivers license and college ID to prove that he is who he says he is.
I found it interesting that about a week ago, he asked for feedback on the room no matter if it was good, bad or ugly and everyone had only good things to say. Then as soon as he gets accused of something, basically the whole forum switched directions and jumped all over him when nothing has changed.
He was very positive towards Mike and futures.io and even asked everyone not to be mad at Mike and wanted to keep things civil. I do understand that there are a lot of snake oil salesmen in this industry and that you have to be on the lookout for these people constantly but with all due respect, I think you guys may have got it wrong on this one.
