Re: Mark Cook's Fax

[Marcelo Martinez <marcelom@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bill:

I appreciate your candid account.

> 
>         I used Mark Cook's faxes

Did you use the fax as a tool and trade yourself ?

I have been thinking for six months of trying this route  , but the
price is a little steep. In additon , during this time I have been
following his weekly "free" commentary and predictions , and I will
compare that with actual market action the week following. He did
predict some macro market turns , but I'm going to quantify that. Based
on this info, I will make the decision to try the fax for the minimum
amount of time and trade it myself.


  There were long idle periods and when he did
> trade my account he promptly lost 30% ! in just two trades. Troubled, I
> cancelled the account. Of course he said the money was only really lost
> because I didn't have the commitment to really risk it all.


I'm really surprised at this statement since he stressed the point at
Future's '97 that you should only risk a maximum of 40% , afterwhich you
can't really recover.  


>         The one real problem I had with Mark was his inability to show any
> results in writing or a sample account. He even got very vague about
> giving me references as he said these were big guys who didn't want to
> be bothered with that stuff. He talks a Greeaat Game with lots of
> dropped references to people for whom he rapidly quadrupled and
> quintupled their money, but acted insulted when I tried to probe for
> some verification. He also said he was 1 quarter from a 5 year winning
> track record which Norm Zadah says still has never been accomplished by
> ANY options CTA.

I am also a stickler on track records whatever they way be. There is a
troubling discrepensy between what he told you , and the image he
projects, and articles that have been written about him. I did ask him
at the conference what is his winning percentage , and he really did not
answer me, hmmmm... So is he real or not ?

I E-mailed him for previous copies of faxes so that I could check them
against the market, and there was no response.

I will let you know if I receive new information.

Marcelo