I still don't know where BT pulled their daily profit numbers
Out of their ass.
Well, their ass was pretty well tuned to some market movements, so the question is not answered so easily...
Not that it matters, or can be proved either way, but do you think they actually ever traded in anything?
There seem to be two basic ponzi models
1) Ones which are, from the get go, pure scams pretending to trade but solely designed to gain credibility and deposits until such a time as the admin take the money and run
2) Ones which start off as legit investments and 'go bad'. They have a core business which is real but unexceptional, which is then developed on by the owner for reasons of greed and hubris and becomes a ponzi. If you believe anything that Madoff says, for the first thirty years he was straight.
Hindsight is a great thing, but I followed BT quite carefully and came close to a dabble, luckily deciding not to.
The decider for me was I didn't believe that John Carley existed, there were too many inconsistencies in the story.
If he didn't/doesn't exist then I think BT must go in category 1.
Usually if you are trying to set up a legit investment you don't go and buy software that is marketed "Professional HYIP Manager"
I don't think there is any reason to believe the traded at all. When the placed closed, there was several days where if there where traders, they damn sure would have known why they weren't trading.. The fact that everyone was in a confused daze and had zero answers tell us that the whole thing stopped working tells us pretty much that everything is made up and the points don't matter..