Hi, just bought FMT & not yet used, and an FX virgin.
But I do have a lot of business, software and IP experience so thought I'd make a contribution.
I concur with sentiment re: Extended being promoted/sold - not on, and not in this Journal.
Thoughts:
1. Mark's transparency is rare & valued
2. Mark's 'tweaks', & communication is valued. A hybrid of a 'service', a mechanical 'system' and an EA all in one.
3. S180Group and Zulutrade sites' claim their ethos is similarly 'open' - help others benefit from proven expert traders' own trading, with disclosure of business model/interests (kick-backs from brokers). Claim longer term philanthropic objectives. Pirating FMT seems incongruous behaviour. Surprised no reply from S180Group to Mark's post but may be asleep. Actions could be through naivety, or am I being naive? They should 'stick to their knitting' - they either stick with the business model they describe, or if they want to sell software using their trading know-how, they legitimately build their own system, show their results and market it, not piggy-back off FMT's brand.
4. Point made that people will tinker and come up with better results for certain circumstances which may not stand the test of time, to me, is sage advice. FMT Extended only has live results for 10 weeks as far as I can tell. Mark has much more (over varied market conditions).
5. Point made that people in this forum (may) add value to Mark's product is valid, it's public domain. But FMT is Mark's intellectual property (certainly the brand), so to exploit without permission and even actively try to displace Mark's product ('you don't need FMT for FMT Extended') is not ethical, even if Mark is unable to prevent. People should not support it.
6. Suggestion that Mark and S180Group sort out amicably - even if naivety the cause, up to Mark (may not agree with the Extended version rules, and consider it has potential to damage FMT brand).
7. Suggestion - Forex Net Trap seems to have had the situation of 'variants' being developed by users' modifications. Their solution is a members only special interest group to which access is allowed only to those with proof of purchase of Net Trap. I understand that users' variants are openly shared within that group, and the developer can incorporate them into upgrades/updates (I'm not a member so not sure what goes on inside). The purpose of the private forum is to ensure that this collective experience/expertise is only available to those who have legit copies of Net Trap in order to support the developer so that continued development is possible. Someone sufficiently motivated here, or Mark, may like to look into this.
8. Ask S180Gp to remove links, if not cooperative, ask Trade2Win moderator. Surely Trade2Win can't endorse such behaviour?
9. General point - etiquette: 'idiot', 'fool' etc is unpleasant to read. Give each other the benefit of the doubt by default.