# Reviews of Smart Markets Australia's index trading packages



## excelcalcs (3 April 2013)

hi everyone, 

Has anyone tried or investigated any of Smart Markets Australia's 
Index Trading Packages? Do you know how much these packages cost?

www.smartmarkets.com.au

Their website claims, "Smart Markets consistently hits a strike rate over 
70% of recommended trades being successful.". Add that to the claim of 
making 95% profit on winning trades, and the numbers look very enticing. 
Do you know how much these packages cost?  What might be the traps? 

I am considering investing in Index Trading, so would really appreciate hearing 
your views, suggestions, experiences, trading results and any other comments. 

I have contacted them, but haven't yet had a reply, but also want to get 
as much independent information as I can.  

hope to see lots of replies!  

thanks

Jen


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## sinner (3 April 2013)

Hi Jen,

I think when they claim a 95% profit on winning trades they are only talking about return on total amount risked, not return against your entire net worth.

e.g. You have $100, you risk $100, you can earn $95 on top of that with a 75% (advertised) probability of success, but you also can lose $100 with a 25% (advertised) probability of failure.

It sounds like they are using (long) options to carry this out when they say the trades have a "fixed price".

With this sort of return profile you would not want to invest your entire capital per trade, probably they recommend risking only a very small portion of it. 

e.g. You have $10000, you risk $100 (1% of total capital), you can earn $95 on top of that with a 75% (advertised) probability of success, but you also can lose $100 with a 25% (advertised) probability of failure. So when successful your return would be 0.95% (i.e. less than 1%) and when failure your return would be -1%.

The first trap is obviously that they quote their returns in a misleading fashion. Sure you could risk $10,000 on your first trade and potentially earn $9500, but you might also lose $10000 and never be able to trade again. A 25% advertised rate of failure means you could easily have 25 losing trades in a row for every 100 trades you take.


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## stockGURU (3 April 2013)

Red flags:

1. There are virtual offices available at the business centre that is their registered address, which means that they may not even have an office. Ask them if you can come in and meet them personally at their office. If they say no, run a mile!

2. Their website states that the company is Smart Markets Pty Ltd, yet there is no Smart Markets Pty Ltd on ASIC's business name register. There is a Smart Markets Australia Pty Ltd, but you have to wonder about a company that can't get their company name correct on their website.

3. None of the four staff mentioned on their "About Us" page have LinkedIn profiles or seem to be mentioned anywhere else on the internet. They may actually not even exist.

4. Of the four staff mentioned on their "About Us" one is said to have joined in "late 2010", while another "was promoted to GM at the start of 2011". Very strange that their website was not registered until February 22, 2012. Also, according to ASIC's records Smart Markets Australia Pty Ltd was known as "Sefer Pty. Ltd." before February 2, 2012. Yet staff were coming on board at Smart Markets Australia in 2010?

5. Their domain name registration info says the domain name was registered by Market Smart Pty. Ltd., which is registered in Everton Park in Brisbane. Why was the domain name not registered by Smart Markets Australia Pty. Ltd.? This one is in the "Things that make you go, hmmmmmm....." category.

This company reeks of dodgy.

Why not give them a call and post here what they tell you? I'd be very interested in knowing more. Also, ask them if subscribers place their index trades with Bet on Markets. My guess is the answer will be yes.

IMO, anyone who hands over money to these people has rocks in their head.


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## tech/a (3 April 2013)

sinner said:


> Hi Jen,
> 
> I think when they claim a 95% profit on winning trades they are only talking about return on total amount risked, not return against your entire net worth.
> 
> ...






stockGURU said:


> Red flags:
> 
> 1. There are virtual offices available at the business centre that is their registered address, which means that they may not even have an office. Ask them if you can come in and meet them personally at their office. If they say no, run a mile!
> 
> ...





Great stuff guys
I think we have found 

*ASF CSI*

Right here.


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## McLovin (3 April 2013)

https://www.smartmarkets.com.au/about-us.html

Hmmm...OK....

http://sd54.org/administratorphotos/

Karen and Ed look mighty familiar...

http://www.healthcarereview.com/2010/07/massachusetts-people-7/

Bruce Bornstein has left a career in radiology to become a successful investor...

http://www.ericksonwhitman.com/

And Phil Whitman has left his CPA practise to do the same...

Scam much?


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## skc (3 April 2013)

McLovin said:


> https://www.smartmarkets.com.au/about-us.html
> 
> Hmmm...OK....
> 
> ...




Lol. This is comedy gold! I was wondering why those guys looked American. Not only did they change careers they also changed their names for a new start...

It reminds me of a skit by the Chasers who decided to respond to those African scaming emails and asked the scammer to send a photo of herself. What got sent back was the 3rd photo if you google-imaged "African woman".


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## excelcalcs (3 April 2013)

Wow!  

Thank you all so much for such quick replies and research. 
I am very impressed, and thorougly illuminated! 
The fake photo's tell it all, don't they.

McLovin, please tell us how found those matches!

stockGURU, yeah, will certainly try to get some answers out of them 
and will put another post here - stay tuned... btw, I'll copy some of 
the questions I had emailed to them below, though I now hardly expect 
convincing answers. 
And yes, they recommend Bet on Markets - that's problematic??

How do whoever's behind Smart Markets get away with this sort of stuff? 
It would be hilarious except for the poor innocents who get fleeced.

So, how can we help in bringing these fraudsters to account before they 
do more damage? Is there any point in reporting them to ASIC? 

Fortunately, I was not even close to investing money with anyone yet, 
and am very grateful for all the accumulated wisdom and knowledge that 
you've shared with this forum newbie!  

Thanks! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Could you please tell me:
- the yearly price of each of the packages
- the average number of trades per week for each index
- the percentage of profitable trades over the last 12mths for each index
- the average % profit/loss for winning/losing trades for each index
- the longest run of losing trades for each index
- your recommended minimum starting trading account balance
- your recommended % (or $) trade size
- are all trades completed within a trading day, or, if not, what is the
     longest expected period?
- are there ever multiple concurrent/overlapping trade alerts issued for
     the same index?
- an estimate of other trading expenses such as brokerage
- how many currently registered clients do you have?


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## stockGURU (3 April 2013)

excelcalcs said:


> And yes, they recommend Bet on Markets - that's problematic??




It was very predictable. These scams fleece you two ways. Firstly, they fleece you with their outrageous upfront fees, usually $10,000 and up. Then they take a cut of the revenue you generate for Bet on Markets as they are a Bet on Markets affiliate and all client accounts will be set up underneath them via a special affiliate link.



excelcalcs said:


> How do whoever's behind Smart Markets get away with this sort of stuff?




Because the authorities and the regulator (ASIC) have no power to do anything about it. There are dozens of these scams operating right now in Australia under different names. Often the same people are involved. Do some searching on names like Regent Markets Pty Ltd. People are getting defrauded of large amounts of money and the reason these scumbags continue to do this is because they know that the chances of getting caught and prosecuted are slim to none.

However, these threads can hurt them if people Google the company name before parting with their money. This thread is already the #5 result for "Smart Markets Australia" on Google.



excelcalcs said:


> So, how can we help in bringing these fraudsters to account before they
> do more damage? Is there any point in reporting them to ASIC?




I tell you what, try reporting these scammers and post in this thread the response you get from whoever you report it to. There will be excuses and buck passing galore. Meanwhile, ordinary Aussies are getting ripped off daily and huge sums of money are disappearing into the hands of scumbags, such as those behind Smart Markets Australia.


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## McLovin (3 April 2013)

excelcalcs said:


> McLovin, please tell us how found those matches!




http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/images/searchbyimage.html

As skc said, they looked so American as soon as I saw I knew they were either stock images or they'd been ripped from another wesbite.


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## CanOz (3 April 2013)

stockGURU said:


> It was very predictable. These scams fleece you two ways. Firstly, they fleece you with their outrageous upfront fees, usually $10,000 and up. Then they take a cut of the revenue you generate for Bet on Markets as they are a Bet on Markets affiliate and all client accounts will be set up underneath them via a special affiliate link.
> 
> 
> 
> ...




this is really disgusting...i was sort of wondering what was going on as well, with so many scams around lately...

I think you could make a living out of hunting these f*** wits :rocketwho.

CanOz


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