Cops and Bloggers

As popular as this blog is, incidentally well on track for 1,000 hits a day this month, it's not often that I receive special requests for a post, but the above Tweet from @GeeksToy last night, read by his 103,000 followers, which is more than I have, couldn't be ignored. I'm expecting a bumper day.

The request came in the midst of something of a Twitter storm, with Geeks Toy surprisingly at the forefront. 

Whether Paul Spry himself was at the helm or not, it was surprising to see what I'd always thought was a reputable product, with a sense of humour,...

...get involved in some rather questionable behaviour, the details of which aren't important and won't be repeated here, although I don't see that any crime was committed. That it was late in the evening suggests alcohol may have played a part!

The trigger appears to have been this post from Betfair Pro Trader, which was in turn prompted by a comment from Boris which opened with:

James you have never been keen on showing the poolside life of trading, I understand why.

James wrote a post mostly about the future being algo-trading rather than manual, before concluding with:

I have no problem with people taking holidays. What I have a problem with is people using exotic holiday imagery as a marketing exercise to sell an unattainable lifestyle to the many.

Now if anyone was to have a problem with this perfectly reasonable observation, you'd expect it to be someone using exotic holiday imagery as a marketing exercise to sell an unattainable lifestyle to the many, but it was Geeks Toy who seemed upset about it, although others joined in later. Why would a software vendor care?

One can only assume that the comments of James are seen as a risk to their sales. He may well have commented on the merits of Geeks Toy, Bet Angel and whatever other trading tools are out there, but I don't recall him taking any strong sides, and it's not a topic I know anything about myself. Software is not one of my many strengths - far too nerdy for a normal person like myself!

So why should James' post, which at its core merely encourages readers to look carefully at claims and how realistic they are, before getting involved, trigger a reaction from Geeks Toy?

Understood that James is a "best-selling" author whose publications are available on Amazon, and James may have something to gain from encouraging people to move in an algo-trading direction versus manual, but that shouldn't hurt Geeks Toy's sales significantly unless I'm mistaken. Maybe their software is for manual traders only? 

Boris's 'poolside' reference was presumably to Caan Berry, who hints at a "£100,000 a Year" income, with a "No Boss. Better Living" lifestyle but as this blog as pointed out, the actual lifestyle doesn't quite match up with the claimed lifestyle. 

Caan's address, a distinctly average rental property, wasn't mentioned, in part because details of any company's address, including Talented Mavericks Ltd, are readily available for anyone who is interested, i.e. anyone performing due diligence before buying any products, but also because it seemed unnecessarily invasive. Who cares if someone lives at number 4, Acacia Gardens, Craptown?  

A quick look at the Geeks Toy (shouldn't Geeks have an apostrophe?) web page shows that all recent blog posts are written by Mr Berry. 

Are Geeks Toy sales that dependent on one trader? 

One other topic that came up in response to a Tweet from a none-too-impressed Geeks Toy customer, was that of selling.

The reply needs a little clarification:

James does sell books through Amazon which guarantees your money back in the unlikely event that you may be dissatisfied. 

As for 'one did', that would be me, although my service has long since permanently closed since a promotion at work meant that I no longer had the time (several hours a week) for it, but again, it was run with a money-back guarantee:

The refund clause was never triggered, which was fortunate given that inputting data each week, calculating new ratings, reviewing 49 matches each week, and compiling the emails, took up so much time that the service was a bargain anyway and halving my already miserable hourly rate would have hurt. 

Back to topic, and one curious Tweet was this one:

Although I have yet to see a Star Wars film, again - far too nerdy, I believe C3PO is a robot - but was it formed of a single large block of stone which is what monolithic means? Perhaps the intended word was monotonic - "speaking or uttered with an unchanging pitch or tone".

In summary, I have nothing bad or good to say about the Geeks Toy software, or Bet Angel's for that matter, since I am not qualified to offer an opinion. 

What this blog does do is offer unbiased, impartial opinions on many subjects, but is always open to a reasoned debate. 

If you think you can beat court-siders, explain why logically this might be so. 

If you think a course is going to really teach you anything of value, i.e. to the detriment of the course provider, explain why. 

If you believe someone has made several hundred thousand pounds trading horse racing from home, explain why their edge hasn't been identified, replicated, and eliminated long ago.

If you have experience of courses, video packs or trading guides, share them, good or bad. 

I'm away for a few days shortly, but keep the hits and comments coming, and I'll address them on my return.