Mark Austin FTSE Service

[lplate]

I've tried Mark's service for a couple of months, and agree with anicx, I think.
It is no use piling up results or giving examples of good trades or bad trades.
A beginner is likely, I think, to get one - maybe two - winners per week by simply following an instruction. What can't be controlled is how much they actually make from it and how much they lose in messing up the losers. Different people will get wildly different results.
In other words, the service is not merely a set of instructions, nor is it a set of trading rules, but is a whole menu of instruction, trading techniques, interpretations, levels to watch, and hints of what to do. A beginner would actually find it a bit confusing, and would need, in order to make it a simple "10 minute system", to pick out one simple instruction. Otherwise, though, it should not be confused with the "10 minute's effort" genre of system, but would be usable for the first hour or sometimes several ensuing hours during the day.
Mark seems to have a very good familiarity with the mood of the FTSE; a good trader is likely to find his service a very useful companion and make a lot of money from it - even on days if Mark is wrong on, say, a directional call.
I dislike the services which give you one simple call (or not as the case may be), with no idea how it arose and no trading ideas to go with it. In contrast, Mark seems to put a lot of thought into the service so, if you are interested in finding something to trade at 7.50 a.m. onwards, have enough cash to support four or more parts to a position, and don't find the FTSE a slowcoach compared with Dow etc, it is well worth a trial.

 

[Rich1983]

I used his service for 1 month but didn't find it that good, I found that the emails in the mornings were arriving 2min before the Market opened and by the time I'd read them the Market had already kicked into action. Also in 1 month I only received one txt message for a trade which I didn't buy and it lost anyway.

 

[lplate]

There is some truth in what you say, and in all the other comments.
Today there was a simple trade and a couple of minutes to enter if you had your screens ready. I suspect it will be a winning trade, though not a bumper one. For the daytrader there are a couple of ideas for later on.
Taking yesterday as another sort of day, MA described almost exactly what turned out to happen. On the other hand, there was no simple trade offered, so a beginner or someone wanting simply an order to make in 10 minutes after 8.00 would have been disappointed. An experienced daytrader, though, could have put MA's bulletin to good use.
For me, though I am not a daytrader, I think why try to anticipate the FTSE myself, when I can buy the services of someone whose study seems far more astute than my own.
if the service lacks something, it is that you see the market setting up later in the day, wondering if you could take advantage, and wonder what MA would be thinking on the matter; sometimes you get a bulletin, and sometimes not. It is evening in Thailand, of course.
As I said, the service is different things for different people. As with many a thing in life, you don't know if it suits you until you try.

 

[deebee1]

hmmmm

 

[JakeUK]

The literature talked about making 2,000 points per annum just by following his text alerts.

During the three months I followed the service the text alerts were actually losing...heavily. He stopped upadating the number of points the service was making around this time.

I appreciate what some people are saying, the service could be educational, so could buying a few good books. The service should not be advertised as an easy to follow advisory service, it isn't.

If the guy was so good, he wouldn't have to mess around sending poxy emails and texts to punters. It's not like the racing tipsters who claim not to be able to 'get on' with the bookmakers hence needing to sell tips is it? I'm sure the ftse indices could absorb whatever wager mark was wanting to place.

 

[RS2OOO]

Thought I'd chip in here.

I've not researched Mark Austin's service in detail other than to say there are a number of subscription services emanating from ex pats in Thailand and it's difficult to put the jigsaw together to see if they are linked in any way.

However, every now and again, usually during the middle of the night when I can't be bothered to go to bed, I go on a personal mission to track down fraudulent sites and subscription services of which there are many. Off topic but as an example I recently uncovered a penny stock pump and dump ring, the result of which has me very close to pressing the short button on a U.S stock, ticker BVSN (just printed a 3 year high and up 314% in the last 3 Months).

Anyway, going through the various non-regulated UK based subscription sites I came across this one which isn't actually a subscription service but based on trust:

Trading Knowledge / Education & Advice From A Trader On How To Build A Good Income From The Markets

This is his linked in profile:

http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/dominic-nardone/1b/993/763

My research of this guy has consistently come up with good reviews and solid results and from what I can make out the reviewers have been genuine people from different IP addresses and locations. He gives you live entries and exits, then you pay him 30% of your profit through Paypal. The 30% I understand is based on taking recommended trade values of £3 per point, though he claims to trade his own positions at around £100 per point.
If a trade loses, you don't pay anything until you've recovered that loss and back to a profit.

I don't know the guy, never subscribed to a site like this and unlikely to do so either, but it's the closest I've ever come to thinking about trying something out. At the end of the day, I spend hours upon hours researching my day trades, much of that is wasted when the trade entry doesn't materialise, or it does materialise but I have to scrap the trade for whatever reason, something like this guys site would potentially save all those hours so I could concentrate my time on areas where I'm more competent such as swing trading.

I'd be interested to hear of anyone who's familiar with him. Don't read this as any kind of advert or affiliation. Other than online research I don't know the guy from Adam.

 

[lplate]

...He gives you live entries and exits, then you pay him 30% of your profit through Paypal. The 30% I understand is based on taking recommended trade values of £3 per point, though he claims to trade his own positions at around £100 per point.
If a trade loses, you don't pay anything until you've recovered that loss and back to a profit...

Yes it is off topic. Mark Austin looks independent and kosher to me, but that is not what is being discussed; it is the usefulness of his method.
(As for these % scams, think: 1. So he bills you whether or not you implement the trade? 2. Why doesn't the guy simply trade £101 per point, rather than ask you to trade the last £3?)

 

[RS2OOO]

(As for these % scams, think: 1. So he bills you whether or not you implement the trade? 2. Why doesn't the guy simply trade £101 per point, rather than ask you to trade the last £3?)

My understanding is that he doesn't bill you (he can't if he's not regulated). Theory is you are impressed enough with his service that you voluntarily pay the £1 based on the trust method that you entered the trade.

He doesn't trade £101 per point because if he's got around 70 subscribers (my estimate based on traffic stats I pointed to his website), and if 50 of those enter a position, he is effectively trading £150 per point which gives a greater return than £101 per point and of course, £50 of the trade is risk free for him.

When I have a couple of Week's off work and can devote time, I may try him out. His TA doesn't appear indifferent to my own, but would potentially save me hours of analysing potential day trade entries. That makes it well worth forfeiting £1 per point of profits, but I'm fortunate to also be in a position through my own trading experience to have a good idea as to whether the trade is likely to work or not right from the outset.


As for Mark Austin, although I've come to some dead ends when trying to research his service in detail (having not tried it out personally), this thread inspired me to do further investigation work. Thing is, I can't give absolute facts because I haven't obtained all information first hand.

The following are real figures based on an individual blindly following Mark's signals service (which is the core service) in 2011, however, they do not represent Mark's claimed returns because the lag between receiving the signal and entering the position nearly always mean you will not get the same entry as the signal recommendation:

January: net profit of +0.35% based on 2% risk per trade
February: net loss of -2.68% based on 2% risk per trade
March: net profit of +1.68% based on trading all signals on 2% risk per trade
April: net loss of -4.00% based on trading all signals on 2% risk per trade

In this particular case, even if you had managed to get exactly the same entries as Mark you would still have incurred a loss, albeit smaller. However, it must be stressed that this data has been obtained from a relatively short period of time and the results of which may not reflect overall performance and they do not reflect the recommended entry levels for practically all trades because those entries were unobtainable at the time of execution. Being in a live trading room may have avoided this.

In regards to other research, there are links between Marks site and other traders trading out of Thailand. These links may only be circumstantial or coincidence so I don't want to post the details here in order to avoid a potential libel situation, either way, the result of these links is not damaging to Mark's reputation.

Mark Austin's website is hosted by a different host to other Thailand based FTSE subscription services. If the hosts were the same I'd have alarm bells ringing.

However, it did not take much work to find that 1 particular online promoter of Mark's service shares an IP address with a promoter of another service that used to operate out of Thailand but was "closed down". This could simply be a case of an over excited individual who subscribed to both services and was happy with both services at that time, so it is not in itself solid proof of anything bad. In the event, the promoter publicly claimed to have ended their subscription with the other service but my research reveals they do still promote Mark's service. I don't think the promoter is based in Thailand, so no conclusive proof of anything untoward, probably just a circumstantial link based on an individual who tries out many services and belongs to different on line forums under different user names.

I also researched the OP of this thread who is an active supporter of Mark Austin's services, and my conclusion is that the OP is completely genuine but may have some kind of preferential terms with the service to which they subscribe. No hard evidence to be sure of this.

In conclusion, I can say that Mark is offering a genuine service and appears to work hard to make that service work for his subscribers. I would suggest that most of his longer term subscribers are happy with the service they receive. He has been around for a few years and is still running. He does not promote his services as heavily as he has done in the past which might suggest he is ticking over ok with his existing subscriber base. I can't get the figures of how many subscribers he's got, but his site receives an average 143 visitors per day.

His performance stats may be a little optomistic and probably unachievable to most subscribers (due to time lag, not sticking to the system, not being able to achieve the same entries and accounting for the spread of your particular SB company).

However, the price of his service is inexpensive and ultimately there's only one person who can make the judgement of whether that service will both fit in with an individual's life style whilst also being profitable, and that is you.

 

[Ross Spur]

<< He doesn't trade £101 per point because if he's got around 70 subscribers (my estimate based on traffic stats I pointed to his website), and if 50 of those enter a position, he is effectively trading £150 per point which gives a greater return than £101 per point and of course, £50 of the trade is risk free for him.>>

He's zero risk if he just lets his subscribers trade for him. What's the connection with ETX, though?

 

[RS2OOO]

The ETX connection is just an affiliation.

His earnings from the ETX affiliation aren't publicly available from what I can make out.

I was in discussion with an SB firm to affiliate with my own website to help cover my hosting costs and although my site is a personal diary as opposed to a commercial site, the potential earnings were so low it wasn't worth giving up the page space.

Depending on the deal he's negotiated I'd imagine he gets nothing per click, but maybe £5 - £10 for each sign up that's done via the link on his site. Based on the analysis I ran through his site traffic comparing new visitors vs returning visitors, I bet he only get's 1, maybe 2 sign ups per week.

When you click the ETX link on his site you get a new cookie in your browser with an expiry time, probably 30 days. Basically means if you sign up with ETX within 30 days of clicking the link on his site he'll get the commission.

The IG one on his site appears to be on very similar terms, but for some reason he pushes ETX.

 

[pboyles]

The ETX connection is just an affiliation.

His earnings from the ETX affiliation aren't publicly available from what I can make out.

I was in discussion with an SB firm to affiliate with my own website to help cover my hosting costs and although my site is a personal diary as opposed to a commercial site, the potential earnings were so low it wasn't worth giving up the page space.

Depending on the deal he's negotiated I'd imagine he gets nothing per click, but maybe £5 - £10 for each sign up that's done via the link on his site. Based on the analysis I ran through his site traffic comparing new visitors vs returning visitors, I bet he only get's 1, maybe 2 sign ups per week.

When you click the ETX link on his site you get a new cookie in your browser with an expiry time, probably 30 days. Basically means if you sign up with ETX within 30 days of clicking the link on his site he'll get the commission.

The IG one on his site appears to be on very similar terms, but for some reason he pushes ETX.

RS

As a matter of interest what sort of traffic would a site need to pull in a worthwhile sum on money? I don't have a site but this subject interests me.

 

[RS2OOO]

RS

As a matter of interest what sort of traffic would a site need to pull in a worthwhile sum on money? I don't have a site but this subject interests me.

Quite a lot.

And it drops significantly if you go through a period of not updating the site at least once per day, then it takes ages to build it back up.

From a revenue perspective based on ad-clicks alone, at first you get a few clicks but the more you build your traffic the more work you need to do to get the clicks because regulars suffer from "ad blindness".

Based on my site which is not pushed as being a commercial site and is updated around 5 times a Week, I get around 1% click rate. It pays for the site's actual hosting and running costs, but doesn't come close to paying for the work I do and the time I spend on it. But, every site is different. Mine's just a diary so I can keep track of my watchlist from work etc without my posts being completely lost in a busy forum, and I do enjoy tinkering with it.

The way to do it is how Cobra has done it. I calculated his subscription revenue and it is eye popping. But he get's 50,000 NEW visitors per Month on top of his regulars, and probably around 3000 subscribers. I'd say he is one of the best out there though, he puts in a lot of hard work and it's taken him 4 years before being big enough to go subscription only and actually make real money from it.

Anyway, we really are going off topic now, and that's my fault, so apologies for that.

 

[Ross Spur]

The ETX connection is just an affiliation.

His earnings from the ETX affiliation aren't publicly available from what I can make out.

I was in discussion with an SB firm to affiliate with my own website to help cover my hosting costs and although my site is a personal diary as opposed to a commercial site, the potential earnings were so low it wasn't worth giving up the page space.

Depending on the deal he's negotiated I'd imagine he gets nothing per click, but maybe £5 - £10 for each sign up that's done via the link on his site. Based on the analysis I ran through his site traffic comparing new visitors vs returning visitors, I bet he only get's 1, maybe 2 sign ups per week.

When you click the ETX link on his site you get a new cookie in your browser with an expiry time, probably 30 days. Basically means if you sign up with ETX within 30 days of clicking the link on his site he'll get the commission.

The IG one on his site appears to be on very similar terms, but for some reason he pushes ETX.

The cynic in me always comes back to why anyone would bother with trying to make a few quid flogging/publicising/marketing, etc a system or method of trading that makes consistent gains. Why not just trade it and scale up?

 

[RS2OOO]

RS

As a matter of interest what sort of traffic would a site need to pull in a worthwhile sum on money? I don't have a site but this subject interests me.

The cynic in me always comes back to why anyone would bother with trying to make a few quid flogging/publicising/marketing, etc a system or method of trading that makes consistent gains. Why not just trade it and scale up?

Completely agree. That's always been my view too.

But, if Cobra is taking £300,000 per year for 3 blog posts a day, then one can see the attraction.

Plus, you don't have to be a skilled trader to be a good trading coach, and that attracts many traders into running subscription services too!

These are factors you need to consider before signing up to any subscription service including Mark Austin's.

Some people are leaders, others are followers. There's always going to be a market for followers.

 

[ip2012]

Quite a lot.

And it drops significantly if you go through a period of not updating the site at least once per day, then it takes ages to build it back up.

From a revenue perspective based on ad-clicks alone, at first you get a few clicks but the more you build your traffic the more work you need to do to get the clicks because regulars suffer from "ad blindness".

Based on my site which is not pushed as being a commercial site and is updated around 5 times a Week, I get around 1% click rate. It pays for the site's actual hosting and running costs, but doesn't come close to paying for the work I do and the time I spend on it. But, every site is different. Mine's just a diary so I can keep track of my watchlist from work etc without my posts being completely lost in a busy forum, and I do enjoy tinkering with it.

The way to do it is how Cobra has done it. I calculated his subscription revenue and it is eye popping. But he get's 50,000 NEW visitors per Month on top of his regulars, and probably around 3000 subscribers. I'd say he is one of the best out there though, he puts in a lot of hard work and it's taken him 4 years before being big enough to go subscription only and actually make real money from it.

Anyway, we really are going off topic now, and that's my fault, so apologies for that.

What's the Cobra service? I've searched but can't find it in google

 

[RS2OOO]

What's the Cobra service? I've searched but can't find it in google

It's in my blog roll.

 

[Paulwillia8]

Is anyone using Mark Austin service?
If so, is it producing any profit?
He seems to have been around a long time.

 

[sallyjt]

I have looked at this and i m trying to sign up with him now, but waiting for him to reply to tell me then next steps. How long have you been with him?

 

[diligaf]

He seems to have been around a long time.

So has gonorrhea

 

[Paulwillia8]

So has gonorrhea

lol