Testimonials given by people using Martin Armstrong's Socrates. They are copied from internet sources, such as groups and forums, with source given, from users who are typically identified by aliases, not actual names.
Update: Martin Armstrong brags about hiring hundreds of paid shills to post fake positive reviews and feedback. See:
Armstrong returning to the Crime Scene (quote):
I have hundreds of people working for me creating YouTube accounts and other social media accounts posting positive reviews and feedback. I STILL GET fresh victims daily
The real user feedback is regarding their experience with Martin Armstrong's Socrates and other Martin Armstrong services such as electronic reports are collected on this page as follows, most recent testimonials first:
The typical case of a long time Socrates Victim
It is a typical example of many scam victims who were committed (and addicted) Socrates users for years until the system bled them dry. These victims make hundreds of positive comments in Armstrong's trading group, hoping that the community helps them to make consistent profits. They are rarely seen making negative comments because when they make them, these comments get deleted by the moderator and as members, they get evicted from the group.
group member Jorge Fernandez makes the defining comment in the following exchange on Mar 22 2024:
Jorge Fernandez have you made any money yet?
Jason M Rabe make some big then lose it back slow.
Later on Aug 10 2024, right after the eviction of two members and the deletion of their posts and comments he writes in this comment (link):
Mark Skupeika agreed! We can't be afraid to discuss ideas. That's how you grow. I don't understand the criticism from some but given today's environment, I'm not surprised. Deviate from the socially accepted thought gets you slapped down. The scientific method is life or it used to be. We are getting too close to Orwell's 1984. I'm glad there are still people here not afraid to think out loud and exchange ideas.
Now he is repeating a variation of the same mistake, trying the combination of Socrates with other tools which he thinks works better. Until perhaps a year or two later, his trading account will be 100% depleted.
He writes in this comment (link):
David Vanderhoov I found that trying to rely solely on Socrates was the problem. When used in conjunction with other tools it worked better.
This way, the myth of being able to make money with Socrates continues, that myth which is driven by those hopeful traders who are losing money with it.
Comment by Allen Abramian on Armstrong YouTube interview "Ross Clark: Markets, USD. Martin Armstrong: Neocons. Victor Adair: Interest Rates, Oil, Gold" on Mar 18 2023:
7th november he said he sees a low, totally wrong, he also said january will give sharply back lower, nothing got sharply lower, he is always speculating and when he is wrong he says socrates is always right. He tries to tie events to socrates turning points, panic cycles and the dates that socrates is predicting. Somehow he is right but most of the time wrong. Impossible to trade with.
Commenting on a Twitter thread of WEC attendee J. Livingston Gull LLC on November 14 2022 :
Martin Armstrong is compelling at first, then you follow him for a year or so and realize 2 things:
1) his models don't actually predict anything any better than other trading tools and
2) he has absolutely nailed the level of made-up complexity (fake ai) to draw in midwit$.
In the comments section of Armstrong's Zero Hedge promotion "It's Not Looking Good" - Martin Armstrong Warns There May Not Be A 2024 Election commenter IncidentalFinding writes on November 07, 2022:
Ah, the Ungreat One speaks.
As someone who gave him money for a couple of years, I can tell you that his much vaunted computer program (Socrates) is very good at predicting things after the fact. It’s quite human actually in this regard.
Save your money. Save face. Don’t take this guy seriously.
In: "The World (Again) According to Martin Armstrong" on Kerry Lutz's Financial Survival Network commenter EJ writes on September 29, 2022 At 2:58 am:
MHO, having observed Martin Armstrong for decades, he is, indeed, a tawdry con artist who, years ago, was likely turned into a low grade intel asset who was set up to operate as ye olde limited hangout. His time behind bars, which was the result of his own shady machinations, was integral to him becoming an asset. His release had little to nothing to do with any sort of legal victory over the Feds. No, I think it was much more likely the result of him taking a deal to serve as an asset in exchange for his release.And his service is a joke. I’m not sure where to start in describing how bad it is, but I defy anyone to trade effectively using anything he provides. Socrates is, indeed, a puffed up charade.
His summaries and blog posts, whether behind the pay wall or not are full of the most vague and ambiguous nonsense imaginable. Have you seen the questions he is supposedly being posed by supposed subs? Have you read the ludicrously fawning comments. It’s embarrassingly obvious that it’s a put up job, but a none too convincing one. Do you actually think central bankers are in anyway involved with with him or that they ever have been?
...
In: What does everyone here think of Martin Armstrong? commenter FakeHappy123 writes on September 05, 2022:
I have one friend that follows Socrates and Martin to a T. This friend is in financial ruin and consistently makes awful financial choices. I feel like AEC is a cult/scam that desperate people fall for. Anyone have that feeling too? I am a bit worried for my friend since he spends $300+/month on AEC but most of the time doesn’t have much to eat…...
User NestorK, Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion May 10, 2022
All you need to know is evident when comparing the Basic and Plus memberships ($15 vs $55). Lets see what you get for $55 with the Plus membership .. 1) +25 Bundled Summary Market Subscriptions (Generic info freely available online, USELESS!) 2) 5 Bundled Detailed Market Subscriptions (LOOK at them, USELESS!) Global - MSCI All Country World $ Index Global - MSCI Emerging Markets $ Index Global - MSCI World $ Index Global - S&P Global 100 Index Global - MSCI World $ Index Weekly Indicating Ranges section is not available in Basic's Summary Analysis (Also freely available online, USELESS!): Immediate Trend .......... bearish Short-Term Momentum ...... bearish Short-Term Trend ......... bearish Intermediate Momentum .... neutral Intermediate Trend ....... bearish Long-Term Trend .......... bearish Cyclical Strength ........ bearish Broadest Trend ........... bullish 3) Weekly Global Market Watch (Trailing indicator, USELESS!) Momentum - Trend - Long Term - Cycle Strength - S1 - S2 - S3 - GMW Weekly Pattern (New Pattern Forming, etc)
"Socrates works or DOES NOT WORK?", Sep 21, 2021, member u/NTC68
Sorry this comment was deleted a few days after it was posted - in one of Martin Armstrong's echo chambers, The reddit Armstrong Economics Fan Forum where only lies remain standing. However, it contains the responses which are not available in the archived version.
Here is the archived content: "Socrates works or DOES NOT WORK?", Sep 21, 2021, member u/NTC68 (archived without responses)
Recapitulating, to answer the moderator LateralusYellow, a reversal is not a reversal but a point of price pressure (resistance and / or support) where the market could go down or up.
Each market reacts to reversals differently.
Some markets don't align with the system. For this alone all Socrates markets should be open to subscribers without charging for any single market.
Reversals don't always reverse but can act as support or resistance. So is the trading decision discretionary based on experience?
You have to pay for a video course to understand, perhaps, how the system could be used.
Many times the reversals produce other completely opposite Same Time Reversal reversals, this further confuses the user.
Socrates' artificial intelligence fails to focus the market by pointing in a probabilistically acceptable direction, his comments are useless.
There is no noteworthy manual on the site.
Arrays are often wrong. At all levels of time.
There is no way to find a right method to trade the markets
It is not possible to reproduce a market performance relative to the joint Array and Inversions forecasting system.
If the market lateralizes, it loses on all the signals, nullifying any past gains and going into a strong loss.
None of the 427 members of this blog have so far posted a market performance or a credit note of the system.
With Socrates everything is the opposite of everything.
Not even its creator Martin Armstrong knows how to interpret it, often wrong predictions. In his private blog, he has never been unbalanced on a prediction, he remains very vague and when he is not wrong.
For years now: "Thank you for visiting Ask-Socrates.com. We are updating our site, migrating data and moving to a new infrastructure. There may be delays and discrepancies during this time. We appreciate your patience and understanding." - Patience has a limit when it comes to money.
The system does not have an automatic update of the market prices as many have. Updates take place after midnight and, again, they are not automatic.
Moral of the story?
From a long empirical study of the data I can say with extreme certainty that the system DOES NOT WORK !!!!!
Everyone draw their own conclusions, we are not in a Hollywood movie but in real life.
User garycohn, Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion July 14, 2021
You [Martin Armstrong] and your stupid myths ruined me completely. How does it feel to wake up in the morning knowing that everything around you is built on fraud? Your beach house, your ugly sports cars, your dog, your businesses, all the relationships to your so-called loved ones. Nothing was ever real in your life. You contributed nothing of substance to humanity. The damage you have caused is astonishing. You lied to your mother, to your father, your children, people that trusted you ALL THE TIME. Even to this day in age you prefer the shady path of lies and deception instead of just admitting to past mistakes because of fear you will be left out all alone. You maybe think it’s enough to admit to all of this in a letter found by your relatives after your death, sugared with all the money you left over for them, but it’s quite risky to think it will work out that way. .
Complaint Review: Ask-Socrates.com / Martin Arthur Armstrong - Wilmington DE
https://ask-socrates.com owned by AE Global Solutions, Inc. took my hard-earned money, the owner is Martin Arthur Armstrong. I only recently found out he is convicted felon who spent 11 years in jail for cheating investors out of $700 million and hiding $15 million in assets from regulators. Proof: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_A._Armstrong
This company told me that they had already provided me with the “service” on how to trade the U.S. stock market. But their service is NOT a personal service like a massage or a doctor consultation, they just offer subscribers access to their private blog written for all their subscribers. This is NOT a personal service. The bottom line is, the useless information they provided me with was completely way off. I feel cheated. Since I am not satisfied with their service, why should they be satisfied with taking my hard-earned money? On this basis, I hope to get back my entire $150.00. They charged a membership fee of $150/month. I stopped paying them after the first month. If they were any good, I'd be more than happy to continue paying them - forever.
"May Crisis", May 14 2021 member u/Valtras47
I was a subscriber for about 2 years. It's all bullshit. He keeps everything as ambiguous in his private blog as he does in the open one. I've never bought a report though. Not sure if there's more insight in those...
"Re: Clarifying latest (Mar 10th) post by Martin", Mar 11 2021 member u/purplefishfood
I agree with all the critical feedback here. Evaporation of the slingshot is one that bothers me the most. How many times did he reinforce that same nonsense only to have it disappear. I have tried every tier of Socrates and it is an utter mess of information and not likely coming from any computer at all. The terrible formatting and consistent typos in the detailed reports are proof there is no computer at all. I respect the posts from LateralusYellow but really there is no way to learn to use this garbled presentation for any reliable forecasting. Sure when the market goes straight up for 10 years people start to think they are trading with some edge but its not from Socrates. You can get the same or better results from any pivot point model. Martin is a legend in his own mind and his presentations are always contradicting themselves. The pro tier of Socrates is garbage and the penny pinching special reports that also offer no insight are also garbage. He is not out to help any little guy, he is just another scam guru exploiting the market for personal profit.
"Re: Clarifying latest (Mar 10th) post by Martin", Mar 11 2021 member u/AdvancedOwl3516 : "Clarifying latest (Mar 10th) post by Martin", Archived (because deleted by Armstrong shills)
Totally agree, I did exactly the same, i have followed him for years now and am finally starting to realise I have been a fool. I have purchased a number of reports that have turned out to be the same old stuff he keeps repeating time and time again. The warning signs were there as early at the end of 2018 when I purchased the How to trade a vertical market report. The conclusion to that said, We are indeed in a PLATEAU move and would be moving straight on up. He blames Gates and co to cover himself that he got the March low incorrect and we missed the slingshot because he kept saying we would crash again. He got Bitcoin wrong, he said the property market topped 2015. The 2020 virtual conference was again a repeat of what he has been spewing all year. He creates the fear to keep us hooked. He got me hooked when he said he wanted to help the little guy, That was when he would say just buy the Reversals. The reversals are so complicated now,and there are so many different kinds I haven’t got a clue a which ones to follow. Same time,What if, superposition,major minor ? And exactly the same with the turning points so so complicated. The Private blog just confuses things even more. He now wants to charge a fortune to show us how to use Socrates by video blog 😂. The methodology for Socrates is so confusing. I think the easiest thing to do is avoid at all cost and just buy the dip and use Mac D, and stochastic along with moving average. it will save you a fortune and endless days of confusion.
"After six years, I finally gave up on AE.com", Mar 1 2021 member u/EvoGT308 : "After six years, I finally gave up on AE.com", Archived (because deleted by Armstrong shills)
I've spent thousands on his Socrates Pro subs over the years and as someone with Masters degrees in medical sciences and biology, I have no idea wtf any of those arrays and walls of text mean. They do not tell me anything if I should be buying or selling, and when. For someone who preaches time and price must always be looked at together, he has yet to actually do that himself. I have lost six figures now. I bought a ton of calls during the March 2020 crash and sold them in April/May when he said that we would revisit the lows, even break them before the "slingshot" move up. Well I entered 90% in to puts. I kept averaging down and waiting for it to happen since he said the June rejection off the monthly bullish reversal was the final nail in the coffin. Well, stocks declined for a couple days and then blasted off to new highs again. Instead of making 20,000% off my QQQ calls, I was left with a destroyed trading account. It's value is now $300. I am 27 years old and stumbled across AE in Jan. 2014 and became fascinated by all his works. Well, this is all I have to show for it. $0 and unimaginable missed profits. Today, I finally cancelled my subscription and hope to turn a new page. I already have grown my new $1000 portfolio into $3000.
"Armstrong lies", Feb 27 2021 member u/141TaskForce : "Armstrong lies" Archived (because deleted by Armstrong shills)
...
You see his business practice is no different than James Rickards or Peter Schiff and yet he constantly criticize everyone in his way, saying they are completely wrong and Martin himself is the only one who knows about everything. I am honestly sick and tired of his BS and lost fortune by following him in the past.
...
It is not about my personal revenge, it is about preventing the people from going into this sophisticated scam. There are many people who have tried using Socrates to trade markets and they have proved that it does not work. Its just simple pattern recognition at best and if you look carefully, some of the market reports written on Socrates are not written by the A.I. as Martin claims. There are so many flaws you can find if you just look for it. Humans make mistake and they have made plenty of mistakes thinking that we wont notice them. You may be able to lie to dozens of people, but you cannot lie to thousands of people. There are people who are much smarter than them and this is exactly why i need you guys to share your experiences to expose this entire scam.
on "Assets vs. Money with Martin Armstrong", Feb 25 2021 member Alexandra Städele
This is probably the most sophisticated scammer in the world. Oh yes, he has a lot interesting stories to tell, but at the end it all comes down as just another scam. This guy is crazy
@Branimir Todorov he scammed me out for several thousand dollars and his computer doesn't exist. Lately he's doing videos out of some strange nursing home. Armstrong is the most craziest man alive
"Dow Future", Oct 28 2020 member NTC68 (translated from Italian)
I would like to clarify that, at this moment, I have no open positions on the market, my comments are not dictated by emotion but on empirical observations of the system that I have been following for years without appreciable results compared to other more classic trading methods
Comment by jafo2me on "San Francisco Tech CEO Emails 10 Million Customers Urging Them To Vote For Biden"
Read it all TY.. Followed Armstrong for a long time but never subscribed and was constantly questioning his inconsistent predictions ... Thanks to you I now see my problem was believing in his BS story of being a genius programmer who refused to sell his software to the CIA.. What a sucker I have been although... at this point in time it is more a conclusion than an epiphany.. SB.. I fu^kin hate shysters.. Office in my hometown should have been the tipoff..
Comment by whitestork on Armstrong YouTube interview
@Anthony Corbett check https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/?m=1 they documented quite a few examples. My favorite two:
1) he often says China will be the financial capital of the world. He claims it will be "after 2032", some of his graphs show 2037. In 2010 he claimed it will happen in 2015. You won't hear about this mistake from him, he will instead say that his computer predicts everything to the day
2) Dow correction in December 2018. If you followed his advice then you missed out, because he specifically said that the low was not the low. He did exactly the same thing now in 2020, but still claims that he predicts everything to the day.
Have you ever purchased anything from his store? I bought a few reports. They are nothing more than aggregation of his blogspots, 90% of the content is about historical times. No tradeable information.
Have you attended WEC? I found a recording of May 2019 Rome WEC online, full 9 hours. It's just more of the same, he says the same things he writes about with some charts from Socrates to "back it up".
Speaking of Socrates, I was a pro level user for a few months. It's such a scam. It does not predicts anything. It's purposefully vague. The system has shows different values for it's indicators depending on which view you choose. On the next day it picks which values were correct and uses them as basis for the forecast, ignoring the incorrect ones.
Machine generated descriptions mention indicators and signals that were never generated. You will not notice any of this if you just read. But if you put everything on a chart in a systematic way, you will notice that it is all inconsistent and of very little, if any, practical value. All of that for a mere $150 per month + $25 per each additional market on a "pro" level. Quite a steep price for absolutely nothing.
I used to think that Armstrong was a genius attacked and almost destroyed by a despotical government, the great evil government. It took me a few years of reading his stuff and a few thousand dollars lost either on his stuff or making bad calls based on his useless advice to understand that I had absolutely no evidence to believe in his story.
All information that supports his claims comes from himself. If you start scrutinizing it, it will all fall apart. Anyway, I am not here to convince anybody. If you are happy losing money to him, that's your choice. I regret making that choice in the past and wish someone warned me, which is the reason why I am speaking up.
"Don't worry about missing this rally", July 14 member apmc329
Look the guy is an idiot...I've subscribed for years, which basically makes me an idiot...that being said if they, Martin and his "computer" is only right when the market goes his way and he says..."see i told you.." and when hes wrong....its " cycle inversion" so we get our teeth kicked in, with losses...and he says...."see i told you" ....bottom line is Martin and the computer are never wrong...we are just stupid.
Is Armstrong the greatest forecaster of all time??, July 13 member Jorgecaj
I was a pro subscriber. Those Bullish and bearish reversal are useless. I can beat socrates bullish and bearish reversals using simple trend lines on various time frames , attach fib pricing and and a touch of fib timing and his socrates will be beat every time. I lost so much money following him. He is too much of a fear monger. People make money on buying investments . You don't make money on a bad or good economy. He uses his talking points on a grand "reset" to sucker people into subscribing to his newsletter. What counts is if he right on his calls on the market. He has been dead wrong for the past 2 years. In my opinion his Socrates and any level membership is a waste of money.
Re: MA changed forecast again, June 21 2020
User diabolicmongoose writes June 24 2020:
I'm a little disgusted after reading this. I've been a pro-subscriber through this entire mess and neither the computer (nor MA) called for a mid-march bottom followed by a strong rally. I was still really REALLY hoping that he wouldn't sound like a fake, but this is just marketing 101 for him now. I've officially lost confidence in him.Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion June 09, 2020, 07:15:17 PM
I recently paid for several months of the Socrates PRO membership and during that time (beginning with MARCH 2020) I can confirm that Martin's PRO PRIVATE BLOGS indicated he was expecting a possibly deeper "correction" then what occured, and a shorter and less vigorous rally in the markets then what occurred. Moreover, the SOCRATES system is at best difficult for me to understand, and at worst a complete fraud. The constant PUSH is to get the subscriber to activate MARKET SUBSCRIPTIONS for every stock and ETF they own...so that you can receive these "reports" with the convoluted "forecasting" he makes available. At no time did I receive ANY forecast for TIME AND PRICE of any asset or index. In other words, if you are looking for a concise and operational forecasting service...this ain't it...and if you think that his service will enable you to be your own forecaster...all I can say, plop down the $150/month and give it a try. It's bullshit. Armstrong is no doubt a skilled marketer and self promoter, and I might add, certainly knowledgeable about a wide variety of economic, political, and historical topics. Whether or not he actually has a reliable forecasting system up and running and which he sells to "Institutions" is a debate for another time. Whether or not he makes that system available to the GENERAL PUBLIC who subscribe to this PRO version ($150/month) is in my opinion easy to judge...he does not. Notice that almost ALL of the so called financial "forecasters" do NOT publish an audited written record of the efficacy of their forecasts. There is obviously a reason for that. They don't want their record to be available for examination. In short, in my opinion, Martin Armstrong operates a predatory business to sheer the sheep. And he is a skilled practitioner. Beware.Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion - Cancelled my basic subscription this morning. June 01, 2020, 10:17:10 AM
I stumbled across Armstrong Economics a few years ago, not long after the Great Financial Crisis got going. I was trying to understand what on Earth was going on, and how the world economy got into this mess, and why the authorities didn't see it coming. His writing resonated with me and seemed to propose definite predictions and also claimed a good track record. I need to add it was never all consuming, and in the back of my mind I noted the major ECM turning points. I bought his Gold Report in 2014. Later on, I decided to subscribe to Ask Socrates. I was keeping my eye out for the PRIVATE BLOG - GOLD reports. I was/ am(?) waiting for the drop to $ 800, else to see that taken off the table. I stumbled upon this thread and also https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/ a couple of days ago. I had never managed to make sense of how to convert the forecasts into actionable trades, but I blamed it on my inability to comprehend, and kept telling myself that one day I would sit down in front of my computer and work through it all until it made sense. Or maybe upgrade my membership... Around page 273 of this thread is where I saw some quantitative accounts of an experienced trader's attempts to use the forecasting system, and finding it was neither easy, nor accurate. If an experienced trader can't make money out of it, then neither can I, never mind the underlying accuracy of the forecasting. I don't remember finding a single worked example in the documentation on the Ask Socrates web site. So I'm unsubscribed and will use other methods to focus on how to play gold and silver.Weekly Guidance May 26, 2020
More like that those who previously spent hundreds for reports like myself found out they were completely worthless.I am cancelling my Pro Blog subscription after 2 years May 23, 2020
Armstrong doesn't know more than anyone else. Save your money and make your own decisions.
I have been a subscriber to the pro Blog for 2 years now. Now, I respect Armstrong, I have learnt so much from him over the years and will continue to read some of his work. However during this market crash and subsequent rally Armstrong is been completely wrong.Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion May 31, 2020, 05:18:39 AM
At the start of March he said their wouldn't be a 20% drop then for the past 6 weeks he has been calling for a retest of the low while the market has rallied 36%. Lets not mention gold "which WASN'T ready for prime time" but has rallied hard over the past 12 months (I'm not a Gold bug or do I believe in Gold)
On top of this his main blog is now turned into a Zerohedge type blog with rants that are bordering on conspiracy theories. As I said at the start I has learnt so much from him over the years, I just wonder if he has lost his touch? Maybe he is to old now ? What ever it is I won't be following his or Socrates calls on the Markets they are too unreliable.
It is amazing how often martin armstrong is actually dead wrong. His predictions are just awful and completely wrong two thirds of the time, now that's hard to do.
As someone who has subscribed to Socrates in the past and bought the 2015 gold report (waste of $500), Armstrong's analysis is pure confusion. He uses it so he can point back to any vague statement and claim to be correct.
Armstrong is no better than anyone else. Do your own analysis and make your own decisions, because if you rely on Armstrong, you'll be disappointed.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion April 20, 2020, 11:40:56 AM
I was foolish enough to buy one of Armstrong's gold reports four years back and was a subscriber to Socrates for a few months. The Gold report was a complete waste. It was 90 percent about history. His benchmarks were meaningless and incorrect, and no matter what happened, Armstrong could point to some random vague sentence and claim something. Socrates was just as bad (only cheaper). The arrays were confusing as hell, usually never correct, and the directional changes never happened. In the summaries, there were odd spelling mistakes. Socrates is allegedly a computer that is never wrong, so how could it misspell simple words? Armstrong probably duped me out of $900 over 3 years. He should be in jail for being the biggest fraud in history. Also, still waiting for the collapse of the Euro he has been calling to happen for 4 years. You'd think Armstrong would have seen a 35 percent market decline coming from late February to late March. He didn't. On his own blog, one of his fake emails claimed he nailed the top of the market in January (which he obviously didn't as it peaked Feb. 19 or 20).
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion December 31, 2019, 09:38:15 AM
This is my first post here, I am still trying to make Socrates work after 4 years & thus I am not being negative but these are valid points I wish MA would address
I have attended a number of WEC's since 2015 & am happy to give my impartial view on MA's calls so far:
Gold will go below $1,000 - so far wrong
EURO report delivered during a conference in Germany - so far incorrect
GBP - so far incorrect
Bonds - so far incorrect
HK$ peg to go in 2018 - incorrect
US$ to surge in 2019 - incorrect
DOW best market to buy in 2015 - correct
ECM turning point in 2015.75 was the peak in govt - correct IMO
Other points worth noting:
I notice that his calls tend to move further down the track each WEC
The Socrates training seminar is always looking at trades in hindsight
Nobody I speak to is able to grasp a sold trading protocol based off Socrates - this could be due to the way its taught or simply that it does not work in real time.
I was personally told at the WEC in 2015 that the "daily level CANNOT be used for trading when applying Socrates as it is just noise" - in the 2019 WEC we were told that it works over 80% of the time & the $ hit rate is much higher.
IMO most of the blogs are written by MA - the spelling is always poor & it is highly unlikely that the majority of attendees cannot spell.
Most of the questions on the blog start by saying how brilliant MA is for calling a low/high in a given market - the truth however is that he has not called any market low or high in real time
If Socrates is so perfect, why aren't we seeing hedge funds offer managed accounts to people?
I sum up by saying that Socrates is excellent at looking at data in hindsight & cycles of political change may be looked upon giving the reader further insight into the phenomena of the rise & fall of nations but that is it IMHO.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion February 14, 2020, 03:09:12 AM
I am so glad I happened on to this blog. I have been trying to figure out this guy’s ramblings for far too long. I got sucked in by the Forecaster movie - that’s a compelling story. I subscribed to his website and analyzed his posts (no easy feat) for the past year. I began to notice what appeared to be revisions in his historical posts to align with reality. I began to screen print his advice/predictions (no way to print otherwise) so I could compare. Yep - proved that. Have cancelled subscription.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion December 11, 2019, 01:47:03 PM
sometime reversal work, sometime it doesn't.
Most of the time they are irrelevant.
On my experience all Socrates information are useless especially Socrates reports which are totally unusable for trading. Reading those reports make you completely confuse and unable to enter any trade. Socrates is everything except AI as claimed by its seller. No buy signal/or sell signal nor direction. Buy/sell signal always appeared, miraculously, afterwards in MA blog
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion November 07, 2019, 04:50:22 PM
Thank you for exposing MA.
I read MA's blog for almost 10 years and was one of early subscribers to Socrates. I canceled my subscription earlier this year because of terrible trading results.
Martin Armstrong is a fraud and you will lose money following his advice.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion October 17, 2019, 05:47:34 AM
Thanks for this blog as it just saved me a few months of $15's when I googled!
I cancelled previously when all the reversal dates went wrong on the Euro & GBP then he tried to say its right lol and also it completely missed the Xmas low in US stocks which was a cycle move back upwards lol.
So I noticed the recent post on the sun spots where he has chopped the sunspots chart so you can't see where it came from but if you google image it its one of the first charts there. He attempts to make it look like his own chart by chopping the information on who produced it.
http://sunspotwatch.com/share/201407_wolfmms.jpg
Nice job here, hopefully people can google first and not be scammed. Finally the thing that gave it away for me was when they couldn't get my card to pay properly on the website lol so if he has this all swinging computer yet it cant take a payment....right lol and then someone from the middle east is trying to contact me for my 15$....... thanks again
Re: Martin Armstrong DiscussionJuly 05, 2019, 05:14:04 PM
Yes. I was honestly impressed at first by Armstrong because I had started following him after hearing of him by chance. Then the '18 January crash happened. That first impression had made a strong mark and thus I had defended Armstrong as much as I did. But then the usual losing calls that he claimed as winners, left field excuses, etc etc kicked in and my account couldn't handle it. Re-learned trading from scratch and never looked back.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion July 02, 2019, 03:47:54 PM
I bought the "2018 Year End report" which was very bearish on the DAX and DJI, I posted about this earlier.
Long story short, the money I lost would have bought me a nice car.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion June 28, 2019, 06:41:09 AM
Hi
First some background to myself.
I am 60 years old and have been a trader/investor almost all my adult life.
- Trading currencies at a major European bank
- Prop Trader at the biggest US Bank
- registered Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA)
- Trader/Investor
I have received 1990 the last paycheck form a company that was not owned by me.
Since then I paid my bills from trading profits (including bringing 2 kids up and through university).
Over the years I came accross and looked into most systems, approaches to trading, Gurus etc. Mostly out of curiosity and because it gets sometimes lonely infront of the computer (since I hold positions - mostly futures - for the medium term - e.g. weeks and months).
For several years I have employed a team of software programmers including mathematiciens and astrophysicists etc.
We have looked at most of the possible approaches to trading in the markets even "playing" with real AI.
After having followed the writings of MA and then having subscribed to SOCRATES including several markets in the PRO Version I have to conclude the following:
It has some entertaining value in regard of showing what has happened in the past (History in Economics and Markets).
In everything else in regard to trading it will not help you - I would even say it will confuse you. Stay away - run away - save your time and money.
MA and SOCRATES is praying on the so called" HOLY GRAIL" seekers - people who think somewhere there is a that MAGIC Indicator, System, Approach or Guru - and if they only knew that secret - they would be successful in trading and strike it rich.
Sorry to disapoint tem: that magic bullet is not out there for sale.
But a lot of snake oil salesman are out there who claim they have this "secret" for you to buy.
At least some of them have a good understanding of markets and trading gut feel - so they do not too much damage to clients .
But MA and SOCRATES: one of the worst sites I came accross. He is a fearmonger. There is always some major crazy thing supposed to happen in politics or the markets and you need to buy his services to be able to survive that.
And do not forget. MA lost a huge fortune for clients and went to jail for that. He is prohibited to manage money, give advise ore wor in managing money - or he goes straight back to jail. I would even call him the Bernie Madoff of bullshitting investors.
He now predicts a bottom of the ECM in January 2020. And we had a high in September 2015. The forecast was for slowing economy and deflation etc etc. And we should be in a depression in Europe.
I can tell you, here in Europe in general buiness is booming, prices in everything (services, real-estate etc) are going up and we have almost full employment. Yes there are in certain industries some problems (Cars re. Dieselgate/switch to electro cars) and not every student who studies "greek art" finds a job in his field - but he finds a job in some field.
And now in regard to the coming turn next January:
- today his approach gives no clue what will happen. Will there be a high, low, or in what what market to expect it. So nothing for you to prepare.
But MA will come out next march and claim that this and/or that happened in January and how wunderful his model is. WTF
If you did not make a lot of money in the markets over the last 5 years then let go.
Take your funds and place them with some Robot advisor in your area that diversifies the funds in the different asset classes and does some rebalancing from time to time - will cost you around o.5 % pa. And enjoy live.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion June 22, 2019, 12:29:36 PM
Sadly I too put my hand up and admit I too was hooked by a ConmanSame user later: Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion July 28, 2019, 04:24:06 AM
Finding this site opened my mind to the reality that I wasn’t that stupid after all
To those of you who still think MA/ Socrates works, I say the majority are never wrong
But it doesn’t really matter it’s not my money your blowing
Lastly why doesn’t MA get on here and prove us all wrong with real-time trade on say the Dow
He’d have more subscribers than his system could cope with
But alas he can’t.
All MA is doing is trying to leave his Socrates system so his kids or other family members can continue to fleece the sheeple who believe that this system actually works. Ive tried the Pro version with another poster on here whose very well schooled in the trading game and plain and simple it doesn’t workRe: Martin Armstrong Discussion June 22, 2019, 06:25:03 PM
The penny finally dropped for me when he posted in late December or very early January
DO NOT GO LONG!!! well no further comment required on that statement..
He is a Dud Dude who makes his money pulling the Socrates scam
So something really unexpected happened yesterday.Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion June 20, 2019, 02:16:17 AM
I posted a couple of weeks back about how MA had not only missed the market runs from Dec/Jan and the most recent but that he was also bearish in his commentary immediately prior. The most recent run is more damning for him as he specifically called for a decline after the weekly bearish reversal was elected. Since then we're back near all-time highs and his most recent blog (yesterday) makes zero mention of his failure...
I try to be reasonable with most systems and ask for feedback on my interpretations because there are nuances and learning curves and often as a user I might see something which wasn't what was really communicated. So I went to them and asked how I should interpret how MA categorically failed in calling two incredible trading opportunities, why he doesn't clarify his position on them, and how Socrates in pumping out contradictory numbers (in the weekly vs daily reversals).
The initial email was just rebuffed with a one-liner - "always trade the numbers - MA will have a blog shortly on this".
I went back more aggressively pointing out that people are paying for a service and deserve more than lazy hand off. I pointed to the fact there are two different sets of numbers that point to two very different directional trades - so which is accurate?
In their next response (I debated on whether I should share this in full but feel that the main points are enough):
Firstly, after the standard 'trade the numbers' reminder there was a follow-up comment which surprised me. "Do not trade the verbiage or what someone says..." Wait a second, did MA/Socrates own team just tell me to not trade MA's commentary? Strange, because this is the guy who has access to the best forecasting platform known to man, and he's always correct, but I'm told to NOT TRADE THE COMMENTARY... Why is his commentary valuable then?
Apparently, even his team know that he's full of BS and that you shouldn't trade based on his blogs... So that answers Question #1: Is MA able to personally forecast accurately and share that honestly with other investors. Answer: Evidently not - even his own team's advice is to not trade on it.
Secondly, the person went on to blame me for 'investing emotionally' and not putting on a stop... To paraphrase - you messed this up so it's your fault. Well, that's an incorrect accusation because I hadn't mentioned how I had traded. After seeing what happened in Dec - I've taken very lightly anything that came from MA. Post the weekly reversal being hit I had traded both long and short for different time periods...
It's disappointing that people who followed MA's commentary and Socrates reversals are not given an explanation of what happened and why they have lost money from that... Instead, they are accused of messing it up because of emotions and poor trade management. Answer for Question #2: Does MA and Socrates ever get it wrong? Answer: Yes, we've got countless examples of that but don't count on MA/Socrates to admit it. Rather it's the users who f*#k things up by following the commentary/data. It's much easier to blame the investor who's using your system... World class service...
Lastly, the email suggested that we took out a bullish reversal (at 25,885) which was the short stop point (a 1,000+pt stop - you wouldn't be trading for long with that type of system) and it's possible that we may have very well peaked yesterday and that I should go and read MA's latest blog on it... Hang on, I was just told not trade based on his commentary and apparently Socrates reversals/arrays aren't accurate soooo... Help me understand why I should form an opinion based on these factors that the market has topped??? Heaven help me, the idiocy is killing me...
1) MA's own team don't believe his commentary and suggest users shouldn't trade from it. 2) Socrates doesn't accurately forecast and the users are the idiots for screwing up trades by following it.
Case is unequivocally closed... This is a sham run by a con.
Okay case closed on Armstrong LOL.
I cancelled services last week actually. More confusing than anything...not helpful with trading unfortunately. It was like being married to a bad trade. Hoping and wanting Socrates to work, but I didn't. Nothing should be that difficult to understand with "what ifs" and "inversions" and whatever...Anyways thanks to this board I can now save $200+ USD a month to invest in other methods. There are more trader mined cyclical analysts and highly effective services out there. Some will argue to not trade other's systems...well, what was everyone goal with Socrates?
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion June 08, 2019, 05:31:30 AM
I have been Socrates subscriber for many years since the service started, including the more recent Pro level. I have also kept record of thousands of Reversals on the Daily, Weekly and Monthly level. I have back tested them all. Even under consideration of the most sophisticated but complicating "Superposition Events" where Reversals are negated by signals that come out of the blue even as acknowledged by his staff, my back tests across all these signals reveal that the accuracy is 50% which is worthless. So they are effectively random signals, although they are based on logic as they are trend following signals that are positioned near support and resistance values. I have also back tested about 100 instances of another daily level signal "False Reaction" that catches a bounce on a daily level that appears to go too far back up from the previous temp high. It failed in roughly 50% of the cases.
When confronted with these issues, Armstrong staff has a simple strategy which is backed up by the overwhelming ambiguity of the system: They basically say that following the reversals is just not enough, one has to consider all the other factors and signals such as timing, energy (which is a mysterious signal). So there is no computerization in spite of Armstrong's AI claims.
So not only as others posted does one need to dig deep into the details to get information - more so the fact is if you do that then you just waste more time to find out the inevitable that such technical systems simply do not work regardless of their complexity. I can say that because I have followed their advice and then the system still fails.
Armstrong claims that he is the inventor of Capital Flow Analysis. For this analysis, the Socrates service has provided from day one a geographic heat map that shows current and projected capital flow daily, weekly and monthly, projected and previous. So one would expect that this prominent feature, which is on the member home page, is at least of some value. But unfortunately, every school kid with some JavaScript knowledge can check out that the logic behind it is bogus (has been for years). If you care, get a trial membership and check out the JavaScript links. The animation effect of changing capital flows between current and projected on the same daily level comes from the error that the script swaps between weekly and daily data where you think it is both on the daily level. It is a fraud, completely bogus. The complicatedness is overwhelming, and the server back-end script that writes these automated reports produces a lot of conflicting garbage.
Re: Martin Armstrong Discussion March 28, 2019, 04:09:44 PM
Hi, I am a subscriber of Socrates pro level. I am here to warn any of you who are going to use his product so that you don't have to suffer the same fate as me. I have subscribed his Socrates for four months and it has been a disaster. Let me explain why.
1. I tried to contact his team as the system charge me twice!!!. No response!!! I think his support team is the worst ever. I sent them many emails asking questions, try to get my money back, etc but no response.
2. Socrates does not provide a clear buy or sell signal. The manual that they provide does not give me a clue. It does not explain everything. Many of the points and tools are miss out. The manual gives you advice that you should look for everything to align (global market watch, Socrates analysis, forecasting array, reversal etc). I have been using this system for four months now and it never happens.
3. Socrates does not combine everything into a simple buy or sell signal. Instead, you will see the analysis give conflict explanation about the market.
4. Many of you who have been following him on his blog will always see his writing about "Reversal". I have seen many of them "daily reversal", "weekly reversal", "monthly reversal" generate the wrong signal many many times!!! Do not rely on the reversals alone!!!
5. For those who are curious about his private blog that you have to pay about 150 dollars a month to see it. I can tell you that he rarely post about buying or selling. He is not always right. I have seen many of his prediction went wrong and I think that has caused many losses for his subscribers.
If you have any question please feel free to ask.
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See also:
Comments on Socrates Forecast Arrays
Monthly Reversal Failures December 2018
Weekly Superposition Event in the DOW October 2018
Quarterly Superposition Event in Gold 2015
Socrates Long Term Past Performance Review
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