Tuesday 26 March 2024

The Martin Armstrong Scam on Zero Hedge

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:

Zero Hedge, Russia, and the Business of Conspiracies

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 praises Martin Armstrong on Zero Hedge and puts his Clickbait that links to his blog on the Zero Hedge site wherever possible and as often as he can afford it.

Martin Armstrong's multiple 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.His other current sock puppet accounts that he is using personally are Francis MarxximusFrancis Marximus and Bingo99 (name change from Skip59 Apr 17 2024) , with a total of four accounts at a minimum.

Some of his affiliated other current most prominent shill accounts are BugMan, MoralsAreEssential, smacker and Sparehead. I don't know who is behind these others, perhaps Armstrong himself, other members of his Inner Circle or just paid trolls.

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, he publishes about four 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 one of his own comment with another one of the same nature 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 about 7 to 8 comments of this type, he stops this and sometimes writes other comments, typically copied from pro Russia propaganda sites or just some of his own  rants. He uses his other accounts to spread the load. The number of comments that refer to his blog pages may reach 15 a 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.

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 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".

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:

  1. The shills magically appear just in time when Armstrong needs them, just as sock puppets do
  2. The shills always post only AFTER Armstrong made his first comments as dustinthewind
  3. 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.
     
A recent example (illegal):


"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 two highlighted statements:

  1. 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.
  2. 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, 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.

 

Martin Armstrong 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 as Skip59 (Now profile name changed to Forest43 then Bingo99 then 10Penny) 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 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

Martin Armstrong's Agenda

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 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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The Martin Armstrong Scam on Zero Hedge

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...