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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Forex Power Break Challenge Series 2

The Forex Power Break Challenge :-Marketing Tactics Suck

A few months ago I received a marketing splurb in my mail box entitled "The Forex Power Break Challenge" by "Expert Forex Systems."

The Challenge
The marketing hype invited 500 Forex traders from all over the world to join the challenge and turn $1000 into $80,000 over a 24 month period working only 10 min a day using only the Power Break System.

The Cost
All this for the amazingly low price of $97 for an e-book and a further $48 per month to receive the daily trade signals.

The Spam
The challenge sounded too good to be true, but offered 2 free trading e-books just for leaving a name and email address. As an avid reader I figured no problem, leave my name and e-mail address and get 2 free e-books. The e-books promptly arrived, but so did the spam. These had nothing to do with the Power Break System.

Yes there is an unsubscribe option available but I was curious to follow how the challenge materialised over time and therefore decided to live with the spam.

My Trading Philosophy
My personal philosophy is to make my own trading decisions and live by those decisions for better or worse. If I suffer a loss due to a bad trading decision, I can live with it and also learn from it. Because of this philosophy I decided not to get involved with the challenge.

I suppose its like getting a hot tip from a punter on a horse race and then wind up backing a donkey, or a stock market analyst working for a prestigious brokerage firm maintaining a buy recommendation on a rapidly declining stock, all in the interest of the brokerage and their client, but little or no regard for the investors .

Don't get me wrong I am not averse to learning all I can about this amazing industry and that includes occasionally testing new trading systems.

Time Frame
This is round about the time "Power Break Challenge 2 started. It definitely did not sell out in 2 days as they claim the first challenge did. Four months later the emails still arrive daily urging me to join the challenge at a cost.

The Marketing
If nothing else I would call it a brilliant marketing coup. A possible $97,000 in sign up fees and $48,000 a month for the next 24 months all for a system that is freely available on the web.

The Results
To be fair the promos I receive about the challenge, indicate that it is on course to meet the target. Whether or not they make the final target remains to be seen and I wish those traders every success.

What prompted me to do this article though was the marketing methods, specially the last few emails I received regarding the challenge.

Extract from an e-mail sent to me.
The Hype

SECONDLY, I wanted to update you on the Challenge, and offer you a unique opportunity.
Due to various circumstances, we have a number of vacancies in the Challenge.


I have also had fund management companies contacting me who wish to use the Power Break system for themselves, and who don't want this open to the public at all. In fact they want me to pull this from the internet right now.

So here is what I have decided to do...
I am inviting a selected group of traders to join the Challenge to fill 100 vacant seats.

Then I am closing the doors the Challenge forever.
I am going to dismantle the website completely on *MONDAY14th JANUARY*
This means the Power Break Challenge will never be available to the public again.
I am dead serious about this.

*INSTRUCTIONS*
If you want to grab this genuine last chance offer to join the Challenge, then immediately visit the book website at
www.expert-forex-systems.com and grab your copy of the Expert ForexE-book. You must own the book to join the Challenge.

The Issues
More marketing splurb! My curiosity got the better of me so I decided to do a Web search to determine if the site had been closed down. Bingo! you guessed correctly. It is still up and running. Today is the 18th of January!! What happened to the 14th cut off date. Only 27 vacancies left, I seem to recall a similar number a month ago.

My second issue is with the "Supposed Fund Managers" who want you to stop marketing a system that is free for all on the web. What are they worried about?

Surely as traders they are aware that market movement is all about traders perceptions of what the price should be. The more traders who share the same perceptions the more likely the market is likely to move in a direction.

Why then would it be in yours or their interests or the interests of the traders who have purchased your system to suddenly limit the access to the system and only make it available to a few select fund managers. In this case " More is definitely better"

Fund Managers
Maybe they should not be managing other peoples money if they have to pay you for a trading system that takes 10 minutes a day to set up and is Freely available to anyone on the web.

All they need do, is a Google search, as I did, to see if the site had been closed down. Simply type in the words "Forex Power Break System" and they can find out exactly how your system is traded.

The Search Results
There are many references to the system, listed with Google, there is nothing unique about it, there are many similar systems traded each and every day by many traders around the world including a free system on this blog.

They do not cost $48 per month or $97 for an e-book and that's not to mention the possible residual income you would receive from new traders who sign up through your IB.

The Opportunity
There is no problem with you seizing an opportunity and making money out of it. I even believe it is a good system as I use a similar system very successfully every day.

Surely your results should speak for themselves and the testimonials from satisfied clients should help fill the remaining spots without resorting to the spam and bull dust about limited numbers, so called fund managers, and pulling the site off the web.

Conclusion
Surely your tactics are not doing anything to repair the already tarnished reputation of Forex Trading in our country. Your pressure tactics and spam have probably chased more potential clients than you realise.

Quote
Abraham Lincoln once said " You may fool some of the people all the time, and all the people some of the time , but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

5 comments:

DAILY STOCK PICKS said...

glad to see that some people have common sense as a simple ques to ask yourself is... if they will turn your 1000 into 80,000 in just 10mins a day, why do they need your $48/month; x 24months, that is only $1152, why would they waste more than 10 min/day on daily emails and emails plus daily correspondance for 2 years and they only make 1100/sucker, why would they bother when w/ $25,000, they would make 2,000,000 - they would need to get and email and hold on to 2000 people to make that when they could do it in daily 10 min sessions. right- nice work!!! go to www.platinumpicks.blogspot.com and get your free stock picks and make more!!!!!!!

Unknown said...

This follows almost anything you are asked to pay for on the Web. From selling Real Estate, to finding the right cure for poison ivy rashes. Some people do not know how to use the information that is right at their fingertips and would rather pay someone else. Don't forget what PT Barnum said. There is a sucker born every minute!

Anonymous said...

Great read and from one trader to another keep up the writings. Will be back often and dropping entrecards as well.

tradeswing said...

Any updates on how this is performing?

Anonymous said...

Update - The PBC has died... Not that I'm surprised because Andrew / James have their heads so far up their own backsides and I feel really sorry for the members who were ripped off.

E-mail from Andrew :
------------------------------
Dear Trader

It is with great regret that I must announce the closure of the Power Break Challenge. This may be only a temporary closure, depending on the results of my analysis and the demand for the service going forward.
Unfortunately, trading results have been poor since December 2007, and the run of three losing months has resulted in a project to re-examine the Power Break system under these market conditions.

Whilst people trading the system manually (who have been able to intervene to trail stops or take early profits) have done considerably better than the “stock” system, the Challenge was designed as a “set and forget” system for people could not, or didn’t want to watch the charts.

The poor results have led to the large majority of the clients withdrawing from the Challenge, and it does not make sense to continue the programme for a small number of loyal clients, especially as the performance of the system under current conditions needs to be re-examined .

Once again, I am saddened by this turn of events, and I really do hope that the Challenge can be resumed if and when the wrinkles get ironed out.

If you are still a member, please send your receipt to cancel@clickbank.com to cancel your subscription.

Finally, I have approached James to let you into his G7 Club free of charge for the duration of March. If you would like to take up this offer, simply email him at admin@forex-science.com with the words “Free March” in the subject line.

Best Wishes
Andrew

P.S. Of course you can continue to monitor and/or trade the Power Break system yourself in the interim period, in order to track results and perhaps apply your own exit strategy.