by Carlhole » Wed 03 Sep 2008, 04:11:17
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonexFRAUD', 'J')esus. How many of these boiler room operations are there do you think?
I never counted them -- but back in the late 80's/early 90's, I would guess there would have been 10 - 15 little IB's in the Newport/Irvine/Huntington Beach/Santa Ana area. They are always opening up and shutting down. It's almost like a carny atmosphere too; you get to know all the sharks and lizards slithering around. There are plenty of women in that business who can screw you out of all your money if you've got a weakness for gambling and the excitement of money. Monex, of course, was the biggest. It was the most well known operation. If you came from Monex in that industry, it was equivalent to telling people in the normal business world that you went to Duke University or something.
There are also a whole lot of various kinds reputable securities firms around there as well. There are big bond trading houses, well-known brokerages on every corner, big mortgage operations... There are plenty of little companies selling limited partnerships and raw land, real estate and development partnerships... And scummy little telemarketing scams are common in general around there, multi-level marketers abound...
Irvine is a little financial mecca. The little commodity shops are just the schlock end of a huge industry. There are more commodity brokers in CA and FL on average than other states -- I think because of easy business rules and corporate tax laws.
What kinds of sales pitches have you fallen for? I assume if you got burned at Monex, you were buying precious metals, right? Did you ever buy options or futures contracts like soybeans, oil, sugar, T-bond contracts from a broker?
Towards the end of my short career as a commodity broker, America was involved in the first Gulf War and we were all hyping oil on the radio. The phone was ringing off the hook. I was talking my clients into doing oil spreads so the money wouldn't get burned up quite so fast - this is where we go long a near contract and short a far contract. I was also doing financial spreads -- the TED Spread, the NOB Spread. It's been a while... I've forgotten a lot of it.
Some people can make money in commodities. But there is only a small chance to do it and you have to be very shrewd and very independent in your thinking. No one who uses a broker will ever make money because if you have a big winning trade, the broker will just talk you into doing another one and then you'll lose it.
When you get on the right side of a commodity trade, you can make tons of money fast, fast, fast. But those successful trades are so rare to come by. You have to be into just the right thing at just the right time. You usually have to absorb a string of losses in order to get on the right side of a trade in the first place. You have to cut your losses before you lose everything. Then you have to recognize that you're on a winning trade when it happens, and stay on it until the market is finished moving in your favor. To do that takes a certain talent. For most people it is sheer, nerve-wracking hell.
But, in truth, there ARE people who trade their own accounts at home on their own computer who can do OK and some even very well. It's just that hardly anybody can do that. And most people make the deadly mistake of listening to other people about the markets.
There might be an exception here and there to prove the rule, but the rule in the commodity business is that clients lose money.
I'm not the warmest, most cuddly creature in the universe, but I just didn't have the total lack of regard for others that you need if you are going to churn and burn other people's money all day and feel good about it. I think it is an addiction thing: Brokers are addicted to the easy scam and people who trade are addicted to the occasional winning thrill.
So, I quit and got a job with Merrill Lynch in Laguna Hills as a Financial Consultant. I did that for the next 4-5 years.