KING - Competition? What competition?

I decided to show you three examples of how the competition out there, meaning other e-mini trading products, compares to KING.

Three price examples, to be more specific, so this comparison may not be as complete as it can possibly be, and I think that I should state so honestly. There is one more thing that singles out these competitors of mine, which is pretty common, and that is the fact that they show literally no evidence that their trading ideas can result in profitable trades, as opposed to what I show on these pages. Say, here, or here, here, and here. And I just started doing so here. Yes, I mean 5 consecutive years of results, 3 of which are full, and not just testimonials, although those are genuine too.

So here is this sample of three.

Number 3: only $3,777. Now so that you don't think it's so easy to get their super-duper thing, you first have to email them your contact information to be advised how to pay. I am much more laid-back, I think. You can order KING right now, without ever contacting me, although I certainly don't mind answering questions if you think you may need my help. By the way, I love those sevens in $3,777. These fellows are obviously marketers because it's very common among marketers to believe in the magic of seven in the price tag. Don't ask me why. Never tried that, but I remember that Apple I was launched with the price of $666.66, and it was quite a success, so as you see there is nothing magical about 7.

Number 2: only $3,995. Nice price, almost 4 grand, like 4 times the current price of KING.

And the winner is ...

Number 1: only (cough, cough) $9,995. I am surprised that they did not go $9999.99. What a waste of a perfectly good idea. On the other hand, it's quite generous of them to save you 5 bucks off the full 10 grand.

Compare this to $1,200 that you would have to spend to get your hands on KING. This does not include a fancy trading room, to be precise, and I do think that charging $3,000 for a trading course that includes a trading room is not unfair from a business point of view, although charging 10 grand or even half of it is a rip-off, in my opinion.

But is the room like that really worth thousands of dollars more? The question the potential buyer has to ask here is this: will the trading room make me a profitable trader? Or, in other words, is there any evidence that the people running the room can consistently produce profitable trades? Well, I have to say that I could not find such evidence even for the product priced practically at 10 grand. However, they seem to be quite eager to insinuate how much you can make by just "being able to sit at your computer."

I kid you not: $500 or even $1000 by merely "being able to sit at your computer" for a few hours a day. Well, I have been day trading eminis for about 10 years now, and somehow it has never dawned on me that this can actually be that easy. Must be the old age or something. Or perhaps this gorgeous Southern California weather has made me so mentally lazy that I can't see the obvious.

Anyway, here is some piece of advice to those new to the emini trading business. Unless a trading room can demonstrate some trading consistency via systematically recorded trades, there is no good reason to believe that participating in it will make you a winning trader.

What can actually make you one is systematic, diligent practice, and that's not the same as sitting in some room taking someone else's calls that may or may not be profitable. And yes, that practice thing is not necessarily about merely "being able to sit at your computer" but about analyzing the market on your own and making real time trading decisions, then evaluating them every day in order to improve your performance.

In other words, there are no effective substitutes to putting in some effort, no shortcuts to staring (instead of just "sitting by") at your computer screen for many long hours or to mental work as opposed to merely pressing your mouse buttons in some zombie mode. If anyone told you otherwise, I am afraid they were not necessarily honest with you, as sometimes happens when someone wants to sell you something.

I don't think that a trading room is necessary to learn how to day trade emini futures as the example of a complete newbie who bought KING and mastered it well enough to be consistent in his trading in just a few months demonstrates. I suggest that you do read his emails as they tell a story of someone who knows what it takes to become successful.

In general, I believe, if you really want to accomplish something, expect less from others and more from yourself. This way, you will also have to pay less, and so, as you see, you may be able to start profiting even faster than you thought.

Two years later ...

About two years after I originally published this piece, the price of KING remains pretty much unchanged. It has briefly flirted with the $1,500 level, but it has largely stayed around $1,200. Even though, I kept posting my trading results through 2012, 2013, and continue doing so in 2014. As of this writing, there are about 620 of them, which means about 100 per year. And even despite the fact that I am now also posting my trades on Twitter in near real-time, and my competitors have yet to warm up to the idea of using Twitter the same way I do. I have posted about 600 of my trades on Twitter over the past 12 months or so.

My competitors habits (or should we call it "business practices") have not changed much either. Their prices remain as if taken from some fantasy books, and yet to the best of my knowledge none of them has written any fantasy before. Well, not counting their trading courses and stuff, which, they would certainly insist, have nothing to do with this literary genre (fantasy, that is, again). But since they have yet to produce any, even borderline convincing, evidence that they can trade, all they have produced so far does strike me as fantasy indeed. Fuelled by a hefty amount of self-delusion. Or wishful thinking, at the very best.

I could easily offer you many more examples of how they value their fantasy products. More than the current sample of three. There is depressingly many of those out there. But what would be the point of that? And what would that change? I could also easily charge $4,000. Or even more than that and perhaps one day I will. But not for KING. It was not meant to be that expensive, to begin with. But its price will soon see $1,800, which is still considerably lower than all the other numbers mentioned above.

There is a simple reason why you see prices that high and so little to justify them. It's all about marketing. These guys know that and they know how to play this game. They don't bother with the results. They will never get them, anyway, so why let this silly obstacle interfere with your mission to educate the eager masses. The masses are desperate to believe they are dealing with genuine trading experts. When this desperation matches the self-delusion of the "experts," any amount of money can get exchanged.

Last updated on June 9th, 2014.