Hi All,

I found this thread when someone posted on the slack channel that I follow. Basically the channel where a few of us from WEC hang out and discuss the system. I'm also subscribed to his basic membership.

Spent the past week reading the last 20% of this long thread and thank all the contributors for sharing the light on MA and the system. I've also had my frustrations with the Socrates system. All the reasons have been well explained already, so no need for me to add. The net result, it is not usable for trading. I'm also disappointed because when I first learned of MA (from work colleagues), I was amazed at his story and naively got sucked into the hype, attending 2 WECs in Asia when he had them here. (was frustrated with that also because Day 1 was just blog recap day but I enjoyed meeting other like minded attendees and made friends). Naturally, like many, I was extremely interested in the so-called Dow sling-shot move. I missed the GFC opportunity to invest and plan to go all-in on the next, which is overdue in my view due to QE. Hence, that desire made me more excited about his call because it resonated with what I wanted for myself...

As for the private blogs, I do find them interesting occasionally but again, the results are mixed at best. I do copy them out to powerpoint, just to keep track of his calls but as you many of you know, the gaps between the reversals are often so wide that it not helpful.

For the public blogs, he does post interesting stuff once in a while and helps me to look at the world with a less than rosy lens so I continue to read them. Some of the blogs posting are completely bizzare to me at least, so I just shrug and move on.

Having said all that, I am still subscribed to his macro view on a few things (they haven't played out 100% but it seems to be heading in the direction he's been calling for but again timing is everything right?):

1. Euro bearishness and ECB/Draghi role in the bond market/debt consolidation issue
2. Rise of populist parties in Europe, eventually leading to a breakup of the EU (I first read about the immigration issues in Europe causing strain from his blog to be fair)
3. Next crisis to stem from the broken/zombie pension system which requires the magic 8% return to satisfy their future obligations as baby boomers start retiring and drawing down
4. Climate change - haven't made up my mind entirely on this one but it does seem that all the early research (Al Gore stuff) is baloney and I do observe increasingly extreme weather patterns globally

The reason I still subscribe to some of the above is because I do have a background in finance and currently work in markets. These issues do make sense to me and interestingly, never discussed formerly on wall street. I'm always a student of the markets and look to external views to supplement my wall street ones (and avoid group think).

Anyway, many thanks to all here who have opened my eyes. I'm going to start taking MA/Socrates with a tablespoon of salt from now on. Will keep my $15 subscription but no more conferences for me.

Cheers,
B