The Zero Hedge Site
For those who don't know the site, zerohedge.com is a somewhat difficult to describe in a sentence. In case you don't know it, I suggest that you read this article to get an idea (even though this article is somewhat outdated and I don't fully agree with it):
Zero Hedge, Russia, and the Business of Conspiracies
But here is what counts:
More than 25 times bigger: According to similarweb.com estimates, zerohedge.com has about 27 million visits per month compared with 1.1 million visits per month of Martin Armstrong's site armstrongeconomics.com
The Logical Connection between Armstrong Economics and Zero Hedge
Visitors of the Zero Hedge site are considered gullible and easily manipulated. Even though they may consider themselves seasoned critics because they have learnt to mistrust the authorities. But they have clearly not seen it all as I can show you with:
Martin Armstrong and his Socrates: The Conspiracy of the Cartel
Martin Armstrong wants to get as many of these people as possible to visit his own site where he runs his scam business. See:
Armstrong Economics - The Scam Business Model Exposé
For this reason, he aligns his own blog content with the content of Zero Hedge.
To exploit this alignment, he and his sock puppets and shills praise Martin Armstrong on Zero Hedge and he puts his Clickbait that links to his blog on the Zero Hedge site wherever possible and as often as he can afford to do it.
Martin Armstrong's Identities on Zero Hedge
It has been known by many for years that Armstrong's Zero Hedge main account is dustinthewind. I have verified this personally by style and timing analysis. You can browse his recent replies at his profile.
If you are more than irritated by what you see there, you may consider reporting this user at mailto:abuse@zerohedge.com
While my earlier analysis indicated that Franzis Marxximus is Armstrong himself, I think there is a high probability that someone else such as Armstrong's strategic adviser Ashley Warren operates this account.
Some of his affiliated other current most prominent shill accounts are BugMan, MoralsAreEssential, smacker, Thomas Malthaus and Sparehead. I don't know who is behind these others, perhaps Armstrong himself, other members of his Inner Circle or just paid shills and fanatic cult members. Read more about examples of these fanatics at:
Martin Armstrong's Premium Cult Members
The strongest indication of sock puppet presence is the average count of up-votes that Armstrong gives himself using his sock puppet accounts which is around 5 to 6.
The Sock Puppet Master's Smoking Gun
A good sock puppet master manages multiple accounts, each representing a distinct character, such as having odd style elements like double and triple punctuation and different times of the day when they post comments, or that religious character who quotes the bible. But there is one weakness in this one-man band system: If the master is out of action, then all his sock puppets are out of action as well. And this is exactly what happened during Hurricane Milton and in its aftermath at around Oct 10 2024. He was forced to evacuate and his property would have suffered some damage. He would have faced a power outage like two million others in his area.
During that time, between Oct 10 and Oct 13, there was no content on Zero Hedge by anyone that mentioned Armstrong. Caught!
Martin Armstrong's Daily Routine
To discover Armstrong's daily routine I had to analyze the timing of his activities which involved the recording of his publications over several weeks.
Every day, at around 4 to 5 am Eastern Time or even earlier, he publishes up to five pages on his own blog site. As I wrote earlier, the subjects of his pages are aligned with topics that are trending the most on Zero Hedge. What is trending there is easy to measure by the count of page reads and comments that are shown in the Zero Hedge summary home page.
Only minutes later, he selects matching 3rd party content on Zero Hedge and copies his blog pages, including formatting and links, as COMMENT into the discussion sections of the Zero Hedge articles. He often replies to his own comment with another one as continuation because of the 5,000 character limit for each comment. He effectively re-publishes 80% of his entire blog in the Zero Hedge commends sections every day.
This process takes him only a few minutes because he has access to
the HTML source format of his own blog pages. He might be using what
appears to be some copy and paste template that allows for easy
transfer.
After up to eight comments of this type, he stops this and writes other comments, typically copied from pro Russia propaganda sites or just some of his own rants. The number of comments that refer to his blog pages may reach 15 a day which typically the number of comments he makes per day.
Armstrong does not usually respond to other user's comments to his Zero Hedge pieces there using his main account dustinthewind. If at all, he uses his other accounts for this, effectively running a sock puppet show as observed elsewhere. For most users, this creates the illusion of depth and wider support of Martin Armstrong.
Depending on how safe he feels (my presence has made him feel unsafe), he reduces the number of marketing message and creates a balance with multiple messages that play to the tune of the general consensus. He does this simply to make his spamming activity less obvious. This approach secures his Zero Hedge account, an approach that he has refined over many years there and elsewhere.
After combining these activities with the time gaps between them, my statistics indicate that Martin Armstrong as dustinthewind alone spends two hours every day trolling Zero Hedge.
Once he has completed his task, he moves over to the next (smaller) forum and performs a similar activity there as I already wrote in Exposed: Armstrong Economics in The Free Republic Forum. Of course, in between he has to service many other internet assets that host / mirror his content. See an extensive but not complete list of them in Affiliate Sites and Channels
Armstrong's Main Zero Hedge Articles
Zero Hedge publishes perhaps 50 articles per day, and I assume that this publishing space is up for sale. Once or twice per month, Armstrong gets his content published there. That content is often his interviews such as done by Interview host Greg Hunter. I guess that this business relationship further secures his comments account because Zero Hedge does not like to bite the hand that feeds it.
Armstrong's main articles are an integral part of his Populist Hot Button Topic Campaign. Read more at Campaign Structure and Operations. Because of this, it is quite predictable when his next Zero Hedge article will appear.
Armstrong's Illegal Activity in the Zero Hedge Comments Sections
Because all this has become very obvious to me, I gave Armstrong some challenges in response to these "comments" and his articles.
But as a professional trickster and liar he knows how to run the show and he is indeed well prepared.
He has multiple shill characters who come to the rescue as planned. Playing the numbers game, they form a small pack of dogs who defend him, creating the illusion of wider support. This tilts the balance in his favor because every challenger is outnumbered. They do not all go after the same challenger at the same time because that would be too obvious. They share the load and pop up here and there in isolation but in a coordinated way, often attacking the same challenger during the same day.
The striking circumstantial evidence of Armstrong's control of these shills is the following:
- The shills magically appear just in time when Armstrong needs them, just as sock puppets do
- The shills always post only AFTER Armstrong made his first comments as dustinthewind
- When I appeared to have overwhelmed or frustrated Armstrong, or when he was busy elsewhere, e.g. with an interview, most of his shills are absent as well which indicates that some of them are Armstrong himself or at least controlled by him.
"Francis Marxximus" at Zero Hedge Mar 3 2024 (emphasis added)
Advisor to many central banks. read him [Armstrong] for years and made money on his computer models. It would be shocking at times how correct his computer would be. No human could do that. You are out of Langley or a wall street banker, That is why you have a low -negative score.
This activity is illegal because of the following two highlighted statements:
- Martin Armstrong is by court order barred indefinitely from association with a financial adviser. The claim that he advised government financial institutions such as central banks is criminal because it entices Armstrong's unsuspecting scam victims to seek his financial advice which he is barred from giving, based on this claim which is a lie.
- Nobody has ever made money on Armstrong's "computer models" as claimed. Armstrong's "computer models" are sold under the brand name Socrates as a service. In fact, Martin Armstrong lost over $700 million trading based on the signals of these models. More recent track records are available here: Socrates Subscriber Testimonials as well as Socrates Long Term Past Performance Review and other sources such as at the Armstrong Socrates Repo. Again, it is illegal to claim financial benefits from computerized financial advice which Armstrong is barred by court order from giving.
The profile of this notorious sock puppet is at Francis Marxximus
The relevant public document is:
Conviction Injunction (from Armstrong's Supreme Court Appeal, emphasis added)
Former associated person with an investment adviser was convicted of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and commodities fraud and permanently enjoined from violating antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws. Held, it is in the public interest to bar Respondent from association with any investment adviser.Another example (same avatar but slightly different name):
"Francis Marximus" at Zero Hedge Sep 26 2022
How come every time I do a trade based on Armstrong's computer and make thousands on 1 day trades, people down vote me. But Not all. Then there is people like you that say his computer is a fraud. Yet Martin has hundreds of thousands of Subscribers to his Socrates computer.
On that page above there is a lively discussion between Armstrong shills who recommend Armstrong's subscription services. But the story does not end here yet.
Here is the next example. Martin Armstrong poses on Zero Hedge as a satisfied user with fake name "Francis Marximus". Please note when following the links to Zero Hedge, you need to scroll down to the comments section and wait a little. There might be access restrictions as well depending on how far back in time this conversation is. Francis Marximus starts the conversation as follows in the comments section of his Zero Hedge marketing page:
"Francis Marximus" at Zero Hedge Oct 3 2022
I got armstrong subscription and been reading him for all of 15 years. He said many years ago that all Pensions will fail going into the great crash and burn. Not just Europe. All his long term subscribers and readers will back up what I am saying.
I counter this this as "ThoughtSplitter" at Zero Hedge Oct 3 2022
You are a shill. Nothing could be further from the truth.
See:
Socrates Subscriber Testimonials
and for you:
Martin Armstrong The Hyper Shill
He responds:
"Francis Marximus" at Zero Hedge Oct 3 2022 (emphasis added)
Been reading Armstrong for many years. You are a friend of the bankers. They hate him.
If the subscribers hate him so bad, how come he has 150,000 subscribers to his Socrates?
I have made quite a bit of money off of his Socrates pro.
I can't help if a lot of simpletons don't understand trading.
I respond as "ThoughtSplitter" at Zero Hedge Oct 3 2022
Hello Martin Armstrong. You ARE Martin Armstrong because nobody should know that number 150,000 except you, even while it is a lie (because if it was true then you would not be broke). You can't have it both ways - posing as a user and at the same time being the operator of that business and not be broke.
Did I fail to say you are schizophrenic? You have been running a sock puppet show for the last 40 years. Every man and his dog knows it.
Another user Nosey_Parker responds:
Nosey_Parker at Zero Hedge Oct 3 2022
Wow, MA just got ass rapped on ZH
User Nosey_Parker concludes later:
Nosey_Parker at Zero Hedge Oct 3 2022
This comments section is the best one for a while. Evidence points to the actual Martin Armstrong coming on here to hawk his wares and shout down the debunkers is brilliant.
The question remains......
If these guys are so good at predicting the markets why do they need to go on shows like USAWatchdog.com to sell their 'secrets' for $50 a month?
Greg Mannarino seems like a nice guy but then begs for $5
Jim Willie is another, supposedly this super successful trade but always in need of a handout.
If I was some kind of nostradamus, I'd make a million or two then buy a nice house by the sea and carry on making a few hundred thousand a year 'working' a few hours a week, not lowering myself to go on Greg Hunter to hawk a crappy self published book or to beg for $10
From the example above you can see that I can identify Martin Armstrong without any doubt, catch him, get him to expose himself, with only TWO messages AND get confirmation from a third party. Because he is a schizophrenic liar.
The Zero Hedge administration deleted the above comments made by user Francis Marximus, comments that were the last ones made from this account. You can see in the profile Francis Marximus on Zero Hedge that there are no new messages after Sept 2022. Apparently the account was disabled promptly.
However, Martin Armstrong (or his shill), true to his stubborn and intransigent style, created a new account with the same features. See the new user Francis Marxximus which appeared with the same profile picture icon on Nov 11, 2022 (please note the double x in his new name). It still has the same shill role.
An even earlier example (again illegal) where he used his first account (now deleted) with name "Francis Marx" with the same avatar:
I apparently annoyed him as "LetMeAskThis" at Zero Hedge May 15 2020
Check out this decades old scam:
armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com
He responds:
"Francis Marx" at Zero Hedge May 15 2020 (emphasis added)
Not this crap again.
I've made a lot of money off his computer.
You bankers really hate him.
This multi year engagement shows that he is not just an occasional paid shill or a cult follower but a core member of Armstrong's inner circle.
An Armstrong shill prays to God to save his Zero Hedge Sock Puppet Account
Another of his sock puppet shill characters making similar claims is Skip59 (renamed 3 times to Forest43 then Bingo99 then 10Penny since Apr17 2024)
Since he keeps renaming his profile to evade detection and to flush previous messages from his profile, I record the last messages that he sent before his renaming and trivial replies:
His desperation can be seen in the following message:
Martin Armstrong Shill Skip59 on Zero Hedge on Wed, Apr 17 2024
I don’t know why your so bitter towards Martin Armstrong but I’ll continue praying 🙏 that you get over it..!
When Armstrong starts praying then that usually means that I must have done a few things right. You can still see this message when clicking on the link. And nothing could make it more obvious that the account holder is Armstrong himself or a close associate because who else would pray to save his Zero Hedge account?
Why doesn't Martin Armstrong stop?
Faced with my exposé and my relentless campaign, one could expect that Martin Armstrong suspends his activities at Zero Hedge to avoid a complete meltdown of his business. But he did not stop. Here is my attempt of an analysis of
which partly explains why he didn't act as expected. If there is in fact anything that can explain his actions.
Read more at:
Exposed: Armstrong Economics in The Free Republic Forum
Martin Armstrong The Hyper Shill
