Storm Financial Group

[Ijustnewit]

I commend your effort in trying to make some changes.
I was once very much that way inclined myself.
As a member of the Young Nationals and also of various agricultural organisations, I was actively involved in formulating policies and submitting them to state council, from where some of them were adopted as official policy of our orgnaisation. They were then submitted to government in the hope of convincing them to make changes.
To the best of my knowledge, none of our submissions were ever adopted as government policy.

These days I'm happy to admit I just go along with the system even though it contains many things I disagree with.
I try to avoid wasting my mental energy in ranting and fuming about them - I find it more productive to put that energy into exploiting the money-making opportunities the system offers me.

I'll decline your suggestion to go back through all your posts to see if you fell asleep at the wheel, since my comments in that regard were not directed at you specifically. They were used in reference to the situation where the alarm bells were ringing loud and clear, giving plenty of time for Storm clients and other stock market investors to convert to cash, or at least drastically reduce their exposure. If they heard or read the warning signals but still didn't take defensive action, or if they were unaware of the warning signals, then I see that as a clear case of falling asleep at the wheel.

Asleep at the wheel.I think not..More like we bought a expensive ticket for a flight that was doomed and .. A. Told that the pilot was the said to be an aeronautic wizard. B. Told the plane were flying in was the very best and had made many a previous succesfull flights C.Told that even after we had lost all our engines and were crashing to the earth "Just fasten your seatbelts , assume crash position" and just to put the icing on the cake,told " Don't worry you will survive! "

 

[Ijustnewit]

Asleep at the wheel.I think not..More like we bought a expensive ticket for a flight that was doomed and .. A. Told that the pilot was the said to be an aeronautic wizard. B. Told the plane were flying in was the very best and had made many a previous succesfull flights C.Told that even after we had lost all our engines and were crashing to the earth "Just fasten your seatbelts , assume crash position" and just to put the icing on the cake,told " Don't worry you will survive! "

Also before anybody can say "you should have done this, you should have done that" May they also suggest that the passengers on the Titanic should have gone out and got some swimming lessons as well?"

 

[Pindibog]

Also before anybody can say "you should have done this, you should have done that" May they also suggest that the passengers on the Titanic should have gone out and got some swimming lessons as well?"

Ditto, and that is their lives they have got on the line. All assume the captain is competent and if it does sink there would be evacuation strategies to get off the sinking ship so you do not drown! I bet majority of people don't know the fire evacuation procedure for there work building?

 

[tonzo]

Just a quick question tonzo, who was your advisor with storm?

Started with Stuart who i thought was reasonable then went to Dean and ended with Harry. Found Stuart to be reasonable when asking for redemptions but both Dean and esp Harry were harder to deal with.

 

[Glen48]

All is not lost with the Storm victims those who have to sell hopefully can sell at the top of the market wait a few years and buy back in once R E tanks, it a matter of trying to save as much as possible for the next 3 + yrs and waiting.

 

[bunyip]

Asleep at the wheel.I think not..More like we bought a expensive ticket for a flight that was doomed and .. A. Told that the pilot was the said to be an aeronautic wizard. B. Told the plane were flying in was the very best and had made many a previous succesfull flights C.Told that even after we had lost all our engines and were crashing to the earth "Just fasten your seatbelts , assume crash position" and just to put the icing on the cake,told " Don't worry you will survive! "

You believed and accepted all this flawed advice in the face of all the evidence to the contrary. Months before the real crash set in, the media was warning us every day of the impending disaster. The All Ords and other major world indexes were struggling, world economies had the staggers.....the warning signs were unmistakable.
As someone said in an earlier post, you'd have to be living under a rock in the Gobi Desert not to know what was happening.

You had time and opportunity to take defensive action. For whatever reason, you didn't do so.
Now you're wondering why people are saying you went to sleep at the wheel.

Part of the responsibility is yours.
You played the game and you lost.
Mate, put it behind you and move on.

 

[carey ramm]

a very good interview with storm founder on abc brisbane this morning

some hard questions and puzzling answers....

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2009/02/frank-discussio.html?program=612_morning

 

[Ijustnewit]

You believed and accepted all this flawed advice in the face of all the evidence to the contrary. Months before the real crash set in, the media was warning us every day of the impending disaster. The All Ords and other major world indexes were struggling, world economies had the staggers.....the warning signs were unmistakable.
As someone said in an earlier post, you'd have to be living under a rock in the Gobi Desert not to know what was happening.

You had time and opportunity to take defensive action. For whatever reason, you didn't do so.
Now you're wondering why people are saying you went to sleep at the wheel.

Part of the responsibility is yours.
You played the game and you lost.
Mate, put it behind you and move on.

Yes we will put it behind us and move on. I will live by your valuable advice and never whinge again,when i buy a dodgy meal and get food poisning or purchase a product that doesn't work i will totally just blame myself for being such a stupid consumer.

 

[vincent191]

All is not lost with the Storm victims those who have to sell hopefully can sell at the top of the market wait a few years and buy back in once R E tanks, it a matter of trying to save as much as possible for the next 3 + yrs and waiting.

I don't understand what you are saying?? Please explain.

 

[Glen48]

Each victim will be different however once house prices crash over the next few years victims could buy back into the market at a much reduced price..if they still want to buy a house and they have a job. I think once you are bankrupt it is all over in 5 yrs or less.

 

[Trevor_S]

All assume the captain is competent

While all of us I am sure feel some empathy and compassion for your plight, that assumption is incorrect, some of us have no faith in the "captain" ie financial advisors in general and Cassamatis in particular, whatsoever.

But you're right, lost of us put faith in the person behind the counter making our sandwich has some understanding of hygiene, that the person flying the plane knows what they are doing etc... but not with my money...

 

[Solly]

Has anyone heard anything further about the progress of financial licence for Ignite ?
I am curious to know who are the princples behind this. Of course there has been no discovered and published mpropriety by any parties at this stage. I know it may seem a little hard for some but all parties are innocent of any wrong doings at this point in time. Can this licence be granted in these circumstances?

 

[bunyip]

Yes we will put it behind us and move on. I will live by your valuable advice and never whinge again,when i buy a dodgy meal and get food poisning or purchase a product that doesn't work i will totally just blame myself for being such a stupid consumer.

I haven't suggested that all the blame is yours.
I haven't suggested that you should totally blame yourself.
I haven't suggested that you don't complain about the poor advice you were given.
I haven't suggested you don't take legal action. (although frankly I think it will be a waste of your money and time)

I said that 'part of the responsibility is yours'.
This statement is 100% correct whether you realise it or not.

I believe you'll get over this crisis and resume your life much more readily if you accept your part of the responsibility for what happened to you.
I speak from experience here, having once copped quite a sizeable financial kick in the teeth myself.

But it's your life - you handle it any way you choose.

 

[Monario]

Can anyone please advise on this?

My margin loan with macquarie was closed out, to my knoweldge on the 13th of janurary, the funds were drawn directy by them from my cash management account, also held with them.

Today I recieved a letter demanding a further payment.

" Following an unsatisfied margin call on your margin loan, an amount of #### remains outstanding.

We demand that you pay this amount by sending a cheque to this office within seven (7) days from the date of this letter."

WTF, they drew the funds out themselves, there were funds left in the account so its not like there was insufficient to pay, and now for some unkown reason they want more.

Can anyone please advise here?

 

[Jayan]

All is not lost with the Storm victims those who have to sell hopefully can sell at the top of the market wait a few years and buy back in once R E tanks, it a matter of trying to save as much as possible for the next 3 + yrs and waiting.

All the houses getting dumped from this mess could drag RE prices down in towns badly affected, Townsville & Mackay for starters. I have listed my unit 4 sale and hope to get out before that happens.

I've been tossing for awhile, Storm made my mind up!

 

[Glen48]

Best of luck, take the first offer and watch patrick . net to see when the turn around occurs in USA and give it a few yrs and we will be on the same path.

 

[Solly]

a very good interview with storm founder on abc brisbane this morning

some hard questions and puzzling answers....

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2009/02/frank-discussio.html?program=612_morning

Thanks for the link, I listened to this and I too believed that some of the answers were puzzling. The statement that "existing clients should have been out of the market on 1st Nov 2007", has me baffled. Does this mean also that the Storm badged Colonial/Challenger Funds should have been exited then? Would this have then make these funds unviable? I understand his opinion towards the Comm Bank but it makes me further question why the bank took this drastic action, they must have a defendable reason for it's swiftness.

When talking about the 'black swan' event, my belief is that the strategies that were in place didn't cover or make provision for a market shift or downward rate of change of this order. Maybe the event is more like extreme value theory which deals with the extreme deviations from the median, a bit like the probability of a "once in a 100 year" flood event. These events do happen so you attempt to build mitigation into your plans and processes. If you live on flood plain you put your house on stilts, just in case that big flood comes while you are living there. But what happened to Storm I believe will most likely show a series of events of varying magnitude that occurred in sequence or parrallel that has now lead to this result. It will be interesting to see the final findings of any investigations.

I'm not a big fan of talk back radio, but I thought questiong EC about how many swimming pools he has in his house added no value. The taking of the $2mil was interesting, it is admirable that he is using his resources to get justice for the clients, I am eager to see what the results will be.

 

[cuttlefish]

I listened to it - it was an interesting interview - a bit less soft than some of the others we've seen. I agree about the swimming pool stuff adding no value.

What I heard was someone not willing to accept that their model was cactus and that was the primary reason their investors are stuffed. Conveniently blaming everything on the banks is just passing the buck. He has not implemented any kind of stop losses on clients portfolio's by the sounds of it. Thats excusable for an amateur but for supposedly professionally managed investments using retiree's homes it is not.

The comments he makes about Nov 2007 are simply about market timing - i.e. he's saying that everybody, with hindsight, would take everything out of the market at its peak.

I suspect that he has ramped up his investors leverage as the market plummetted - thinking he was doing the smart thing by increasing their holdings at the 'bottom' after a wave of panic selling. The second wave, in October or so, has caught him out completely.

Basically his investment model was leveraged knife catching ... but he seems unwilling to admit to any flaws in the model, or in the way he dealt with clients and the information he gave them.

Its seems from comments on here that Storm and its advisors gave assurances about the safety of people's houses etc. that were unrealistic.

Its quite likely the bank pulled the pin aggressively and inconsiderately - but he did take them to court - thats not usually the harbinger of a good constructive relationship.

 

[bunyip]

Cassamatis is clearly an idiot. Also a weakling, in that he won't admit he has any responsibility for what happened to his clients. In all his interviews he tries very hard to point the finger at someone else, while absolving himself of all blame....the true sign of a man of weak character.

He ducked and weaved and wouldn't answer the question when asked what up front fees he charged his clients.
He defends his actions of putting new clients into the market while the market was plunging, hiding behind the brain-dead excuse that you buy stocks when they're cheap. After a couple of decades in the market the poor incompetent fool still can't understand that it's suicide to buy stocks in a plunging market...what looks cheap one day will look a lot cheaper in a couple of weeks when it's dropped another 20 or 30%

He keeps repeating that this event was unprecedented. Rubbish....comparing this crash to 1987, the 87 crash was far more brutal with a 25% slump in one day, and an overall drop of similar magnitude to what the current crash has dealt up so far. The drop occured over about 3 months in 87, compared to 12 months this time.
Only a fool would fail to realise the possibility of 1987 being repeated.
What Cassmatis conveniently forgets to mention is that this time there were warning signs in abundance, giving him plenty of time to get his clients into cash before they got mowed down by the coming crisis. The fact that he failed to do so proves what an incompetent and greedy moron he really is.

He's a slimy bastard if ever I saw one. One of the Storm victims said Cassamatis makes his skin crawl. Well he makes my skin crawl too...and I'm not even a Storm victim.

 

[Wizard_73]

Hmmm, found this site/forum this morning.....read with a lot of interest. Ok, I also was a storm client, as was my friends, family, work mates. Word of mouth, the best advertising. Friends of ours were with storm for some 10 - 12 yrs, they had tried and tried to get us to join them many a time, my biggest fear was that if they ever went under, they would close up shop and disappear.........well guess what happened. What annoys me the most is my in laws (75, 70) owe the banks 35k. Retirees, after losing my father-in-law last year my mother - in - law has been left with debt. How does she pay this back short of selling her house???? I am lucky, I guess, that I am still young enough to recover and hopefully get back on my feet. Anyway, Storm wanted me to do another step in December....After ringing my FP, yep all is good, even though I was in a margin call...apparently...but hey not to worry. Thank god I did not go through with it....After all the previous posts I have taken the time to read this morning, this is what I feel. I don't care that it may or may not have been my fault, when I pay someone for a service I expect service. Be it a sparky,plumber whatever. Storm took substantial fees from me and what have they left me with in return??? People will read this and say "Why didn't you do something?" They are supposed to be the advisors, that's why we went with them in the first place...Anyway I intend to go to lawyers find out where I stand, because Emmanuel, if you are reading this, I am sorely disappointed in you, your company and everything you did. Wish I could take back the last 12 months. Oh, how frustrating is it when you are trying to ring your FP and told they are not allowed to talk to you.....what a frigging joke.