Just throwing my 2c in:
The initial group risked £250. We are all traders. I hope it was money we could all afford to walk away from. The second, and subsequent intakes, who paid more, were not traders, and perhaps deserving of our sympathy.
I really dont get FWs tirade about "naive" and "gullible", or sentiments about "we get what we deserve" or indeed "not feeling sorry for us"; we took a long-shot, it didnt pay off.
Nobody is asking for anyone to feel sorry for anyone.
It certainly turned into a mega-lulz. Whether Chris started with good intentions, but found himself out of his depth, or whether it was a con from the outset, we may never know.
We could deduce some of the above if we could access the IgIndex, ODL and Dukascopy accounts.
We could then deduce whether he traded at all, or just was poor at trading.
Its all over. I think. I mean, the pool was officially closed at least 3 times! And each time, by some bizarre logic I never understood, it got carried on.
As soap-operas go, this was top-class entertainment.
I wouldnt have missed it for the world. Full of cliff-edge endings, emotional turmoil, rumour, hearsay, etc.
I think I understand arabianights point of view now; as I understand it, he met Chris. maybe AN made an assessment of Chris ability, and used his considerable trading experience to get a measure of the man. I dont know.
If thats the case, I should have paid more attention to AN. Either way, my position has always been its just £250, no biggie.
FW is an altogether interesting party to this.
I wonder if FWs rather stern views, and deprecating opinions of his fellow pool members comes from the fact that he claimed to be owed for 3 shares, valued at £10,953.
FW was, without a doubt, messed about by Chris, and was eventually given a very, very, very small return, on the grounds that 2 of the 3 shares werent paid for. (This is a messy episode, and there may be other aspects involved)
I cant help feel FWs attack on everyone and everything is just a sublimation on him missing out on about £10,000. Ironically, if he truly believed it was a Ponzi scheme, he would have knowingly been taking other peoples money, rather than from trading profits.
That aside, I think FW was instrumental in finding the evidence of multiple inconsistencies, and deserves the credit for building a strong for it being not all that it was shown to be.
Interestingly, we are fighting amongst ourselves, and having back-biting exercises, rather than coolly focussing at Chris, who is at the centre of this fiasco.
The focus, should be on how Chris blew up, when, and why. It may be a useful post-mortem on the problems faced when trading.
If Chris never traded well to begin with, how has he been supporting himself? On savings? On an inheritance? On social benefits? Running up credit-card bills?
(this project has been going on since April/May)
anyway, as with all the best soaps, there may be more mega-lulz on the way.
As an aside, high returns dont automatically mean its the sign of a con:
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/first-steps/26947-making-money-trading.html#post365809
trader_dante had the phrase "2,154% in 14 weeks" in his signature, on his now famous thread.
EDIT: missed FWs last post above. funnily enough, re-inforcing my views.