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Now let me get this straight... We risk tens of thousands of dollars every
single day. But we are extremely concerned that we might lose a few hundred
or a few thousand to an unscrupulous vendor? We won't risk some cash for
the opportunity to (perhaps) learn a few things of value? That is
irrational.
I said it once and I'll say it again: Buy the indicators, courses, books,
systems, software, etc. that interests you.
The Omega Man
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick White <spy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: omega list <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, June 07, 1999 12:37 PM
Subject: Fw: Vendor tricks
> In an effort to maintain balance on this list regarding
> vendors etc., I just ran upon a wonderful gem from March of
> 1997 posted by David Cicia to the Omega List regarding
> vendors and the tricks they use to separate you from your
> money. Read with care.
>
> Patrick White
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Cicia <david.cicia@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Sunday, March 16, 1997 10:19 AM
> Subject: Vendor tricks
>
>
> A large number of people from this list have asked me for
> information
> about a certain trading guru whom I have had experience
> with, whose
> training course I took. I am not responding to any more
> requests for
> information about this person at this time, for reasons I
> have detailed
> elsewhere.
> However, in my search for answers I have encountered a
> number of
> unscrupulous and tricky characters trying to sell me on one
> thing or
> another. The commodity trading field seems to have more than
> its share of
> such people. Without referring to any specific individual,
> I'd like to
> share something of what I have learned about assessing
> claims and sales
> pitches from these people. I'll cover 2 areas:
> pycho-manipulation and
> ignoring evidence.
>
> 1. Psycho-manipluation.
> DO NOT underestimate this! We live in a society which is
> dominated by
> sales techniques and psychological insecurity. Ways to
> secretly play on
> unconscious emotional and psychological factors have been
> thoroughly
> studied, systematized and are being actively and
> aggressively used. This is
> documented in the book Influence, The Psychology of
> Persuasion by Robert B.
> Cialdini, Ph.D. He, along with others, is teaching a course
> called Mind
> Grasp to major corporate and business leaders. The ad for
> this course says
> that you can get your customers to do things against their
> better judgment
> and even against their own interests, using the techniques
> he teaches.
> These techniques are used, secretly, by salesmen,
> brokers, teachers,
> business leaders, clergy, media people, politicians, gurus,
> casanovas, and
> all sorts of sly people looking to gain an unfair advantage.
> Fortunately,
> the book tells us what the main techniques are:
> a. Reciprocation - the sense of obligation incurred in
> return for a real or
> imagined favor, which may be way out of proportion to the
> favor.
> b. Commitment and Consistency - once you are emotionally
> invested in a
> course of action, however slightly, you find it hard to back
> off from it.
> You are then hooked.
> c. Social Proof - the herd psychology of believing something
> because
> others, or a group of others, believe it. Testimonials,
> hearsay, imitation,
> etc.
> d. Liking - you are made to feel liked, important, special,
> included in
> some sort of "family" (or familiarity); or you find yourself
> liking the
> salesman even though you don't have very much to go on to
> justify this
> (this is called "confidence" , as in "confidence game" or
> con.)
> e. Authority - the appeal to defer to someone who allegedly
> knows better or
> more than you do, or to bow down in some way to a commanding
> presence (this
> is parental stuff, so the play has to do with manipulating
> your "inner
> child" who is still unconsciously looking for external
> approval or control.)
> f. Scarcity - beliefs that there is not enough to go around,
> or that it
> will go away if I don't get it soon.
> You will not consciously know that these techniques are
> being used
> against you unless you become aware of and work through the
> unconscious
> emotional factors that they play on, and become consciously
> aware of the
> techniques and the variety of ways in which they are used.
> But you can get
> a feeling sense of when they are being used against you by
> paying attention
> to emotional pulls that you feel in your gut. Some of these
> feelings are:
> 1. needing approval
> 2. needing security, control
> 3. fear
> 4. hope
> 5. an inexplicable emotional pull
> 6. a pressing need to take some action
> 7. etc.
>
> Another good source of insight about this is Carl Sagan's
> last book, The
> Demon-Haunted World, especially the chapter on "Fine-tuning
> the baloney
> meter."
> My main point is that there is a corollary to the old
> adage "If it seems
> too good to be true it probably is." You could put it this
> way: "If it
> FEELS too good, and you don't know why, you are probably
> being
> unconsciously manipulated."
> I highly recommend Cialdini's book. Since I read it I
> have had a much
> better "bullshit meter." He goes into detail about all the
> variations of
> the techniques.
>
> 2. Ignoring Evidence
> I once had a system vendor calling me quite frequently
> over a long
> period of time, really getting chummy with me. One day I
> asked him to send
> me a track record of his system, with actual trades. He said
> he would be
> more than happy to. I never heard from him again.
> If something, including a trading system or method, has
> any real value,
> it can be substantiated OBJECTIVELY by concrete, clear,
> unambiguous
> evidence. The criteria for evaluating the evidence for a
> mechanical trading
> system may be somewhat different than the criteria for a
> more discretionary
> system - but not much. There should be a track record and it
> should hold up
> to objective means of evaluating it, decided on in advance
> of testing and
> independent of the system or method being evaluated. The
> track record
> should be over a substantial period of time of actual
> trading, not
> simulation.
> If I were going to buy a house, I would hire an
> independent building
> inspector to look at it thoroughly before I signed the
> buy/sell agreement.
> If I were going to buy a major appliance I would check in
> Consumer Reports
> for tests on that appliance. It is strange that we would buy
> a trading
> system or go to a trading seminar or training without
> similar investigation
> beforehand. Two reasons come to mind:
> a. laziness - checking and testing is not easy, and we
> want something
> quickly.
> b. psycho-manipulation, as outlined above. For reasons
> unknown to
> ourselves, we overlook things we would not ordinarily
> overlook, and do
> things we would not ordinarily do. (This underscores the
> reason not to
> underestimate the possibility of psycho-manipulation being
> used on you to
> influence your decisions.)
> Ask the vendor, salesperson, teacher, guru, etc. for
> objective evidence
> of the effectiveness of what he is offering, based on means
> of evaluation
> that is appropriate to what he is offering and that can be
> independently
> verified. If he can't or won't provide this, you have no way
> of knowing the
> truth or falsity of his claims. If you don't want to put in
> the effort
> yourself to check and test, you are leaving yourself in a
> situation where
> you can easily be fleeced. Don't take crap or excuses from a
> vendor, or
> from yourself!
> So, I am sorry that I have not answered your specific
> questions about
> that specific teacher, but hopefully this information is
> more like helping
> you learn to fish rather than just giving you the fish - not
> that I have
> any claim to any great knowledge or insight myself, but just
> sharing some
> thoughts that might be of help. Just remember, in the
> futures business
> those fish are likely to be sharks!
>
>
>
>
>
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