OrangeJackass wonders why there are so many broke-ass people, if FOREX robots such as FAP Turbo were so drop-dead simple to use.

Executive summary for busy surfers:

Fap Turbo is a scam! ALWAYS DO YOUR HOMEWORK, BOYS AND GIRLS.

Okay, now the details:

If your only knowledge of Forex relates to safe sex*, then hop over to WikiPedia for a hype-free introduction. Be sure to look at the Forex Scams page, as well!

Welcome back.

Here, we’ll discuss a classic scam compounded by a factor of two:

1. Complex Investment Simplified with Indeciperably Complex Software
2. Indeciperably Complex Software Decoded with Expert Guide

Complex Investment Simplified with Indeciperably Complex Software

from the Fap Turbo Sales Page http://www.fapturbo.com/

Investment is not easy. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission tries to protect wannabe investors from themselves by limiting their access to complex investments. Unfortunately, the rules only apply to private investments.

Software developers like to automate the drudgery of investing. With Forex, you spend all your time watching market fundamentals and making judgement calls (sort of like deciding whether to hit or stand in Blackjack).

Now, humans need sleep and trying to stay awake to manually trade foreign currencies probably gets old fast. To help these people lose money invest more efficiently, software called forex trading robots were created.

These beasts automatically generate trades based on arcane formulas. Because nobody understands them, the sales pitch includes something unique to the Forex industry: backtesting. Back-testing is supposed to prove that, had you owned this robot at some previous point in the past, its settings (called parameters) would have executed trades on your behalf and would have made a specific profit.

There are a bunch of them out there. One blog, FapTurboScamProof, focuses on Fap Turbo:

Yes Fap Turbo went crazy early January, unfortunately I started Fap Turbo late December so I can’t tell how it performed before this period. But I trust what you are saying and I have also read this in the private forum. In my case, Long Term lost over $1000 (had a post onthis as well in this blog) so I believe it is not effective right now. Scalping had good trades, except for yesterday with a minor loss. Also in the forum people claimed that Long Term is not profitible. I am also trading two currencies (EurGbp, EurChf) since again I read that the others currencies right now are not profitable. It seems you are more experienced than me in Forex and with other forex robots currenty in the market. For sure as you correctly pointed out, these settings must be continually tweaked and monitored to reflect latest market trends, and for sure is not something for beginners. My question then is, is the time spent, experementing with the robot, possible losses,etc, are they worth it? Or is better off learn some forex skill and trade normally like experts do?

emphasis added

Wait! There’s more:

I’ve been optimizing all the longterm parameters on fapturbo for a while now, and got to a set that gave absolutely no loss against a backtest for Nov-Dec08 and a $27k net profit – profit factor: 0, expected payoff: 186.09. And not so bad results for the whole of 2008 ($640k (pf3.77,ep671.54)), but some losses (fair enough).

However, it’s not all good news because those parameters that seemed impossibly-good, were in fact that, and fell flat on their face from 11 Jan 09 onwards. Last week is just when I happened to put fapturbo on my live account, so now i’m in a big loss (am too worried it will completely blow my account). Backtesting shows the big gain of $27k gets blown in Jan too, so forward and backtests seem to tally which is a good thing, bad thing being those parameters that I thought were great will blow the account if something untoward happens in the market.

My hunt for the holy-grail of parametrs was in vain, because there is no such thing – unless you sit and tune these things day in day out AND watch the fundamentals of the market, this and most other robots will be useless. I’ve tried out a whole host of other robots, decompiled them, studied their code to see if they are bogas or not, and I am yet to find one that can stand the test of time.

emphasis added

Indeciperably Complex Software Decoded with Expert Guide

From WordPress to Excel, World of Warcraft to eBay TurboLister, there are books, forums and courses dedicated to helping software users become experts – or, at least, competent. This is legit. We can’t all be good at everything.

Because expert training is a common expectation, folks who create guides for bogus software perpetuate the confusion about that product’s legitimacy.

There is an e-book on ClickBank called the Fap Turbo Expert Guide. Its sales pitch includes these questions:

Dear FAP Turbo Trader,

I have some important questions for you so please answer honestly …

• … are you making as much money as you should be from FAP Turbo?
• … do you know which currency pairs are the most profitable?
• … are you using the correct settings for maximum profit?

What the hell? Shouldn’t these be part of the software Help File? It’s one thing to create a guide for advanced techniques. It quite another to supplement short-comings in the software that purports to make money easily for its customers!

Folks, this goes right in the file cabinet with all the other “If it’s too good to be true …” scams.

* Forex is (was?) a brand of condoms. Do you see the irony in this? By the way, I did not know this tidbit, which extends the irony even further:

There is one thing I like about this program, it has a sense of humor. … In many parts of the web the word “fap” is slang for masturbation, in that light “Fap Turbo” is the most honest name for this scam possible.

From a comment at scam.com

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We decided to opt out of GDI Twitter Secrets.

While we refuse to call it a scam, we will say that it is not for us.

Being an affiliate marketer means picking niches that are profitable to you.

Not only that, you must be willing to put in the effort to market the products.

GDI and the acme-people-search just don’t pass our litmus test. You can read more on this here: Affiliate Marketing is Sweet! (Part 2)

Do you have a stronger opinion about GDI? Voice it here!

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Image courtesy of enagic.com

Enagic is a company using multi-level marketing to sell water ionizers under the brand name Kangen.

Image courtesy of waterionizer.org

According to waterionizer.org, the Kangen brand is over-priced. Of course, as the factory-direct distributor of a competing brand, Jupiter Ionizers by Emco Tech, the folks at waterionizer are supposed to point this out.

But wait! there’s more!

Image courtesy of hydrogenfriends.com

This site has an interesting statement that appears to diminish the health claims of all manufacturers of ionizers:

The problem with these home electrolysis-ionizers (besides cost, non-portability, and dependence on electricity!) is that the water is literally created so slowly that the hydrogen is gone by the time the water is ready to drink. And, if you are fortunate enough to afford the very best, the water must literally be consumed immediately (within a minute) or the hydrogen disappears- it is the lightest element known to man after all. This makes it impossible for most to consume enough hydrogen-rich water throughout the day, even if one owns an electrolysis-ionizer. &ellips; &ellips;It is important to realize that the incredible results of these machines documented in medical facilities involves a committed patient drinking directly from an INDUSTRIAL GRADE machine ALL DAY LONG! For active people, this would be quite a challenge with your typical Jupiter or Enagic machine even if they did make the water fast enough to preserve the hydrogen.

Talk about drinking from a fire hose!

We have no idea whom to believe. So, help us out and join the discussion!

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