GUILTY Case# 2012-043 | glittle56 vs www.gregssuccesssignals.com/

[glittle56]

Thank you all for your very informative comments. The reason I used a signal service in the first place was due to time constraints not due to greed. Also I have taken responsibility for my part as I have lost $12,000.
I made this complaint so that others would be aware of what Greg Stefaniak was doing and so they could make a better informed decision based on hindsight provided by me. When I increased my base lot to 0.3 lots I assumed that I was authorizing Greg to trade at this lot size. He was trading a base lot of 0.02 and I set the multiplier to 15. Nowhere had Greg stated that he would be leveraging the base lot by 24 times whenever there was a Counter Trend. I posted the email I received from Greg which was in answer to members worried about the DD. He said to not close any trades manually and that he knew what he was doing. By this, I took it to mean that he was trading to a specific plan and if I manually closed trades I would be interfering in that plan.
Obviously in hindsight I was wrong to believe him but at the time I didn't know that.
I was a fool to trust him and I would simply like Greg to explain why the trades I received were completely different to everyone else. I have not had anyone contact me to say they received the same trades. I posted the exact trades I received so everyone could compare them. If there was broker differences etc, I would expect some differences perhaps in the times that the trades were delivered but I would still expect the same trades to be sent to everyone. While I was receiving Sell trades in the GBPUSD rally, other people didn't receive one sell trade but buy trades only. I wanted an explanation for this.
I will trade for myself from now on as I haven't given up on my desire to trade.
But, if someone is offering one thing and delivering something completely different then they are receiving money by deception. I disagree with those members who have said he is just a bad trader, he is a lot more than that because he takes a monthly fee knowing that he is wiping out hundreds of peoples' accounts and that is criminal in my opinion. And then he has the cheek to place a 4 star FPA rating insinuating that his service is fully approved by FPA members. This is an insult and I can't understand anyone wanting to be associated with this person in any shape or form. I have complained to ASIC the Australian Securities and Investment Commission and they can't take any action because Greg is in another country. So if anyone who lives in Poland has had their account wiped out you would do everyone a favour by reporting Greg Stefaniak to the authorities.

 

[Boko Maru]

But, if someone is offering one thing and delivering something completely different then they are receiving money by deception. I disagree with those members who have said he is just a bad trader, he is a lot more than that because he takes a monthly fee knowing that he is wiping out hundreds of peoples' accounts and that is criminal in my opinion.

The bolded part I agree with entirely, but if that's what was actually happening, it wasn't clear form the evidence, and without doing exhaustive research on it, there's no way for me to know for sure, so I had to go with what was presented.

Although you seem to have learned a valuable lesson, when you say things like "I disagree with those members who have said he is just a bad trader, he is a lot more than that because he takes a monthly fee knowing that he is wiping out hundreds of peoples' accounts and that is criminal in my opinion", I still have to wonder. He didn't "know" he was wiping out anyone's account, and he didn't have to wipe out yours. You could have traded his signals on DEMO for a while at first, until you were 100% clear about how his signals and trading worked. And even if you traded them live, you could have traded tiny lot sizes for 6 months for example until being sure.

It's impossible to wipe out any account unless you over-leverage it. And unless you are sure about how a system, signal provider, EA, etc. trades, then you should never even come close to that point. I know you said he never told you he would trade such large sizes, but again, you could have tested him out on demo or tiny lot sizes for longer, then ramped up later after you were more certain of how his trades worked.

As for Greg, like I said earlier he does sound like a shyster, and I certainly wouldn't trust him at all, so good on you for alerting people to a bad service. But my understanding was we are voting on whether or not it's a "scam", and on that I had to vote per what was presented, and it just didn't seem enough for guilty. But sorry again, and best wishes in your future trading...

 

[glittle56]

Without becoming argumentative, I just have this final thing to say about the matter. From the postings on the FPA site, Greg Stefaniak is fully aware of the fact that his service is wiping out peoples' accounts and yet still today he is accepting peoples' money for the same service and not delivering what he has promised on his sales website. Greg has the opportunity to answer all allegations about his service and he has chosen to remain silent. In my view a "Scam" is an activity that is designed to knowingly take peoples' money via deception and/or failing to deliver what the purchaser has been promised. If Gregs Success Signals is not taking monthly fees via deception then what else would you call it? If he had no knowledge of the results of his members accounts caused directly by his trading signals then that would be different but that is not the case. If he shut down the service due to its poor performance he would demonstrate a conscience but that is not the case either.
I have paid a heavy price for my part in this and I accept that responsibility. I have also succeeded in alerting others to the facts of how GSS has caused a great deal of misery. Whether he has permission to continue doesn't really change anything because unethical people will continue to rip people off anyway.
As many of the good and honest members of this forum have pointed out, it is buyer beware and I agree totally to trade for yourself and take the responsibility for your own results.
I thank everyone for their objective input and now I am going to let it go and move on. Good trading to all.

 

[Boko Maru]

Thanks for sharing your experience here. Differing definitions of "scam" aside, at the very least you probably saved others from some heartache, and put Greg on the road to out of business. Sorry for your painful experience again...may the future be much brighter

 

[Trader Gaz]

I came across this interesting thread as I too was a subscriber to Greg Stefaniak's signals.

So my experience was that I had an account with $1000 and was instructed to trade only the default settings of 0.01 lots in his EA which I did and left everything alone and in Greg's control.

Within two weeks he had consumed enough margin and open losing trades to warrant a margin call, on this $1000 account, however I funded the account some more after hearing from Greg that 'all was in control and I had no need to worry' - he re-iterated that the minimum lot size should be as default and I should change nothing. I followed his instruction to the letter.

No settings on this EA were further changed and yet Greg continued to open more and more micros that were far too much for my account size and eventually racked up some $-3,200 in open trades with a margin requirement of about $4,500 thus a total equity draw down of $7,700. Inevitably the margin call came and the account was liquidated. Overall losses were $4,500 which includes the already closed losing trades before the margin closure.

Thus I know at first hand, even with the lowest lot size possible no reasonable account would have survived his trading style that was irresponsible and reckless. I doubt many would have topped their accounts up like I foolishly did. I with hindsight should have realized the trading was wrong and take the initially $1000 loss. (Hindsight's a great thing of course) but all along Greg reassured me ' he knew what he was doing and it would all come good and that I should not worry!

So on completely default and instructed settings all accounts following his instruction and account size would have been blown. His combined micro lots were close to the equivalent of I standard lot and I agree that a $10k and 2% max risk is needed for sensible and carefully managed trading with this amount and of course more would be better. ( I now trade one 0.1 lot per $10k).

The constant trading against the trend ie buying a collapsing EURUSD and GBPUSD was bizarre and even though I asked Greg about this, I assured me all was well and I continued to see counter trend trading.

I am a person who gives such people the opportunity to speak up and thus I shall await to see if Greg voices himself in this forum, else its a black and white a very 'Guilty' serious scam charge. I also accept I should have done more due diligence and perhaps be less gullible to such scams.

 

[along]

Greg is a gambler. A good trader only need 1 trade to strike. to protect others I vote guilty....

 

[eshapard]

Guilty.

"Greg's" trades varied widely from one person to another. This shouldn't happen with a trade mirroring service, which is what Greg claimed this was.

This points to Greg having sold a fully automated EA, not a mirroring service. Selling one thing and claiming it's another is a scam in my book.

 

[csloh]

Pharoah, Is it safe to assume that you have sent Greg an invitation to explain what has happened? It has been over a week since your last post and there has been no feedback at all. Rather than me jumping to conclusions, can you please let me know what is happening. Thanks

agree; do not think there is sufficient info to judge yet.

 

[claretblue]

You pay a professional to act like a professional. It is very easy when your are gambling OTHER PEOPLES MONEY. Guilty . . . . . .just.

 

[Aldo Colombo]

Did he at least refund the fee??