Mishka Zena

Recently, in a newspaper article last week, Jamie Clark of Maryland, the founder of Clark.net,  was quoted in his e mail to Marvin Cooper, discussing about Marvin’s proposed moving to Panama.  ”The e-mail said that moving to Panama would allow Cooper to “resume the OPM (Other People’s Money) business without nasty headaches from those bastards from Wall Street and their cronies.” “   Panama plan in Ponzi case detailed | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

His comment made  some  commenters  in my blog question his role in this alleged Deaf scam.  Jamie Clark wanted to present his side.  Enclosed below is his post. The first part  has been moved below his second part as the second part explains his role with Marvin Cooper and BCI.  If people want to get more explanation in depth on the investment schemes and Wall Street, they can read the first part underneath the Marvin part.

Second part of his post:

Now about Marvin.

I first learned about Marvin via guys I just met at disc golf course last
summer (I think it was around last July).  Those two guys told me that they
invest the money with Marvin doing Forex short term/day trading and both said
they are earning nice income like 10% to 20% a month.

I said to myself, “Too good to be true.”  But I remind myself there are some
hot shot short term/day traders who could do more and of course they are rare
breed and may not last long (as markets always adapt to a trading system to the
point it is no longer worthwhile, remember the Turtles Trading System, see
Google for more info).

Then those same guys told me about Marvin’s Forex seminar last October in
Maryland so I showed up.  Those guys are “new agents” for Marvin. Marvin told
us his life story and how he got into forex.  He said that he bought $300,000
trading software from Russia.  Had to learn some basic Russia so he can
understand about trading via forums in Russia.  He said that trading software
from Russa won the top competitions in short term trading contest.  He told us
that he was doing very successful trading forex using his own money, his
relatives money and friends money.  So he wanted to expand his opeations into
real OPM so the public at large can invest in his fund via agents (7 agents in
USA that are “front” for Marvin).  He showed us the picture of 8 monitors/desk
in his house which he monitor constantly for trading.  He said he is like a
farmer who gets seeds in form of investments and gives back the investors the
fruits/veggies.

I did ask Marvin one question if his forex trading require margins or not and
he said it does not require margins.  (Remember this).

Trading with margins is VERY RISKY if one is not careful.  Trading with margins
can kill the account in no time.  So he is trading in cash market (i.e. no
margins) as he told me.

I talked with the guys (the same guys I met at disc golf course) who became
agent for Marvin.  They told me that they continue to get monthly income.  They
did check with lawyer to make sure they comply with laws/regulations for “hedge
fund” trading.  They learned that they don’t have to register with SEC et al as
long it is limited to 99 or less investors and cannot announce/advertise
publicly.

I talk with those guys quite lot and I feel that they know what they are doing
the best they can and I feel that they are trying to be integrity as much as
possible.  Since I only saw Marvin once in seminar and I just asked him one
question.  Those guys talk with Marvin a lot so I assumed that Marvin is like
those guys I start to know pretty well.

So at that time it sounded like Marvin has “(Good OPM biz) + (Good/consistent
trading results) = Success”

I thought investing in Marvin is a great way to earn steady stream of income
(but still always diversify our investments).

So I decide to wait until next year (2009) to follow up with Marvin.

Then in Jan 2009, the agent (the guys I met at disc golf course last summer)
said that SEC is investigating Marvin so he had to stop trading for while and
they said that Marvin told them he did nothing wrong at all and will be
resolved soon.  I say hmm…  I thought about Nick’s situation back in 1980′s
which Nick said (in his words) that he ran a honest OPM operations with great
trading success which Big Boys of Wall Street got so pissed off so like going
in bed with SEC/CFTC and have SEC/CFTC doing favors for Wall Street big boys by
giving Nick hell time to the point they finally shut down his operations and
even set him up for mail fraud that put him in jail for a year or two.  So I
thought not again.  SEC may be Bad Cop or yeah they can be Good Cop.

Then I finally contacted Marvin via VP sometime last month (Feb) so we chatted
for the first time. He told me that SEC is investigating him and he said he
done nothing wrong and he has no idea why would SEC investigate him.  I told
him that SEC can be Bad Copy by telling him the Nick’s example.  He told me he
is planning to move his OPM operations to Panama and already got a penthouse in
Ocean One condo tower in Panama City.  He told me he plan to get 5 traders
working for him that will cover different hours of trading (Forex trading is 24
hours and I think 5 or 6 days a week).  He asked me if I could come and help
set up and run his OPM operations.  I would love to run OPM operation one day
myself (doing based on long term fundamental analysis trading). So I thought it
would be good opportunity for me to learn the ropes of OPM operations.  Since
Marvin told me he did nothing wrong so I figure SEC is out to get him like SEC
did with Nick so I can understand why he is moving to Panama.  He said Panama
is one of 7 place in the world that supports fully banking privacy. If one
wants to invest money into his fund, one need to wire transfer the money (or
show up in person) to a bank in Panama then transfer the fund to his trading
account.

He said he plan to give back all of the original money to investors and then
close his USA’s operations then open new OPM operations in Panama. I told him
if he wants me to help/work with him, I want to see ALL of the money back to
investors and make sure he is fully resolved with SEC investigation, and get
best/top securities lawyer in Panama to help him set up OPM operations the
right way all the way.  I told him I want 100% honest business.  At that time I
assumed he has great trading success in short term Forex trading.

Then I sent an email to Marvin which SEC put in newspaper/news.  I am glad SEC
put words “Wall Street and their cronies” (That was Nick’s favorite phrase)
which they are actually are.  Look at Madoff and so many examples of “stealing
the entire wealth of three generations” no freaking kidding.

See the mess we are in now, thanks to Wall Street and their cronies and the
politicians in their pockets!  It is quite obvious.

In other VP conversation, he said that his trading software is set up very well
that a monkey could use it and still make tons of money.

So far no red flag except for “SEC’s investigation” which is, of course, a
concern.  That is why I want to make sure Marvin gets all of the money back,
resolve with SEC before he can start new OPM operations in Panama.

Only I can see “Good OPM biz” + “Positive Trading Success” first for some
length of time then I can give both thumbs UP.

Then SEC publicly announced Marvin’s case.  That is when I first posted about
Marvin in GallyNet-L and the possibility of SEC being Bad Cop and give the
benefit of doubt to Marvin.

Then I had some series of VP chats with Marvin which I start to get more and
more Red Flags (like Harry Markopolos with Madoff).

Marvin said that SEC agents entered his house without warning and took
everything (the papers, computers etc…) and frozen his accounts/trading
accounts/bank accounts etc.

Then he said he did borrow investor’s money and I told him that is no no. I
told him he cannot borrow investor’s money via trading account, that is no no.
He said he tried to find more info about OPM rules/regulations with SEC but
they are no help, but I told him that he should have gotten good securities
lawyer to help him set up OPM biz correctly.

I asked him about trading losses (the first time I hear that he lost money via
newspaper) and he said that it was due to exchange screw up beyond his control,
he blames on his forex trading company for mishap that resulted in losses..  He
said he was struggling with forex trading (he said he gets at least 85% success
rate in trading in his seminar last October).  So much for “a monkey could use
trading software to make money”.

He said he use investor’s money for company use which is big no no. At that
point I can see clearly that he ran a very shoddy OPM opeations that has a look
and feel of Ponzi scheme.

He said he was struggling with forex trading at times due to margins. Then I
remember he said his forex trading does not have margins back in October
seminar.  Couple of Red Flags waving.

He said he was losing interest in Forex trading as he said it takes too much
time (require to trade 24 hours) and he said he found another guy who wrote his
software that can trade far much better than his own softawre and only trade in
Dow and SP500 futures and he did try that software and gives him 99% success
rate in past 1-2 months (true? I don’t know as I got no proof).  He said of
different story about that same guy like he said that guy can trade Forex
worldwide and then later one he said that he can only trade Dow and SP 500
futures, hmm…  more Red Flags.

I also just find out more info like I heard a story where one investors did
asked Marvin to get his money back for couple of months and nothing has
happened.  I also find out that Marvin been asking some people to borrow money
for which I guess for lawyer or something.

So my due diligence with Marvin is over and the bottom line is that he ran a
very shoddy OPM operations which is strongly the look and feel of the Ponzi
scheme and he does not have good short term trading success.  To have a
successful trading fund, one must have both good solid OPM biz and positive
trading success; he has neither.  It is like a double whammy. Flat out two big
thumbs down!

My hope is that Marvin will be able to get all of the money back to his
investors in full.  That may require selling his personal assets such as
houses, airplanes etc.  So be it.  Remind to all others that running OPM biz is
no freaking monkey business.  Running OPM biz is a very serious business, no
funny business.

Here are some ideas: If you happen to find a hot shot trader who says he/she
can trade short term/day trade very well, produce some nice mostly steady
stream of income and you did get enough proof that this trader can do that
consistently.  Then you can set up your own account (i.e. forex account,
futures account or brokerage account) then you can wire some money you can
afford to lose all (it is speculation) into that account and it will be only
you can wire in/wire out the funds in that account.

Then you can make an agreement with that trader to have him take cut of the
profits from trading after the positions are closed.  Like maybe 30% of
profits.  Like if you put in $10,000 in an account then he makes $10,000 in
profit for total of $20k in a month then you can wire out $3,000 to that trader
for his share of profits.  You will have a contract that authorize that trader
to trade that account.

But then it is hard to find very good short term/day trader as he/she would be
in only 10% or so of all traders who can profit consistently.

So time to move on and seek out greener pasturs and land of happiness, respect
and integrity!

Quite a big picture after all.

    Jamie

 

 

First part of his post:

Here is the Big Picture.

Yeah, that is why we do due diligence (doing real homework) for any kind of
investments.  If we are satisified with due diligence and like the risk to
reward ratio and have a plan, then we make investments and “roll the dice” and
see what happens.  Of course, we need to diversify among our conservative
investments and diversify among our speculative investments.

When we invest our money into trading fund (i.e. hedge fund) and that trading
fund is an OPM if it involves many investors.

OPM = Other People’s Money

Here are the equations:

(Good OPM biz) + (Good/consistent trading results) = Success

(Bad OPM biz)  + (Good/consistent trading results) = Failure

(Bad OPM biz)  + (Negative trading results) = Failure

(Good OPM biz) + (Negative trading results) = Failure

Pretty simple.

What I mean by “Bad OPM biz” is running the shoddy OPM operations that does not
follow the letter of the law/regulations such as misuse the investor’s money
for other company/personal use, outright stealing investor’s money, pure ponzi
operations and things like that.

“Good OPM biz” is running OPM operations that follows all of the local/national
laws/regulations, use investor’s money strictly for trading purpose ONLY per
investor/fund manager-trader contract agreement. There are various forms of
inventives for fund manager/trader per the contract agreement.

We all want to have some of our savings to grow via investments.  I never met
anyone who does not like making money.

Money helps you to have the food, shelter and transportation plus extras.

So if we want to invest some of our money into fund, we want to make sure it is
a “Good OPM biz” and “Good/consistent trading results” and that is the ONLY
combination that results in long term success.

And as for trading, there are two main kinds of trading:

The first one is short term trading based on momentum of buying/selling, human
(trader) emotions and the like.  It is same as day trading.

The second one is long term trading based on fundamental analysis. Good example
right now is gold price at $930/oz which I think it is way too high because I
believe we are in long term depression and price of everything goes down as we
go through money contraction so therefore gold should go down to around $300 or
so by end of year or sometime next year.

Buying a stock that you think company will grow/expand their operations and
thus increase the profits in 5 years is good example of fundamental analysis
trading.  Buying a stock that you think it will go up in a week because you
think everybody will start buying it is good example of short term trading
based possible buying momentum.

Yes I tried some short term trading and what I find is that it does not work
too well for me.  Too much hit and miss kind of thing (far more misses).  Too
much guessing.  Have to sit in front of screen and try to trade based on
movements.  It is crazy and insane to do that.

So I stay away from short term/day trading completely and just focus on long
term fundamental analysis trading which is a LOT easier for me. It is like I
see gold being overvalued since we are going into long term depression so I buy
DZZ (an inverse gold ETN times 2, symbol DZZ) and then sit back and do other
things and wait for market to revert to the fundamentals of supply and demand
and the overall price level based on money supply.

Yes there are traders that can do short term/day trading successfully but that
is a rare breed.  What I understand, 80% of traders usually lose money and only
20% of traders make money.  To me, I think it is more like 90% of traders lose
money and only 10% of traders make money if talking about day/short term
trading.

Nice about consistent and successful short term/day trading is steady stream of
income.

With long term fundamental analysis, you have to put the money in to hold the
positions and wait for markets to finally revert to the real fundamentals which
can take quite some time like few months to some years. If you want steady
stream of income, that is not the way to do. (i.e. go find a job for steady
stream of income).

Nick (the guy I subscribe for financial/economy/market/political commentary)
only trade based on long term fundamental analysis trading and one of his
favorite quote is “Never trade against the fundamentals.”  I see the same thing
too so I just stick to this to make my life lot easier and avoid short term/day
trading myself.

But then if I can find a fund that does short term trading:

(Good OPM biz) + (Good/consistent trading results) = Success

then I would love to invest part of my speculative holdings into that fund for
nice steady stream of income.  Like if one can invest $50k into this kind of
fund, then it would bring $5,000 a month based on 10%/month ROI (Return on
Investment).  That is very nice because you could quit your day job with that
kind of income stream.

It is no surprise there are few very successful short term traders that use
some highly customized trading software to help them to trade with high success
rate.

So that is where I am.

end of post

Commentary:  Personally I am not familiar with the investment scheme, BCI, nor am I with Marvin Cooper.  I thought it’s prudent to give someone else a chance to present his side.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 6:55 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.