SchoolOfTrade

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil anti-fraud enforcement action in the U.S.

District Court for the Central District of California charging Defendants Joseph Dufresne (a/k/a Joseph James) and Megan Renkow (a/k/a Megan James), both of Palos Verdes Estates, California, and their company, United Business Servicing, Inc.

(UBS), doing business as SchoolofTrade.com (SoT), with fraudulently marketing commodity futures trading strategies and systems. http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7464-16

It's been awhile. What are your current thoughts about SOT?

It's been awhile. What are your current thoughts about SOT?

I will not give my real name. I can report that after joining this scam artist's room, I have been thrown out with no recourse, because I kept asking questions about his fills.

Unfortunately for Joe, it is very easy to trace a person's location online, if you know security.

Bouncing your signal off a third party application site doesn't help. Joe should be careful about taking walks in his current area, because he can be videotaped, identified and exposed quite easily.

This needs confirming by someone (which should not be too difficult). I believe the two main individuals behind this scam at www.schooloftrade.com are :

Joseph Donald Dufresne , born Mar 25th 1981 of Tempe AZ. Last known address was 2475 Pecos Rd Chandler, AZ 85224. Prevously at 4278 Jasper Dr

Chandler, AZ 85226.

and his brother

Perry J Dufresne, Scottsdale, AZ.

So far,I had just one day in his room called sidewaysmarkets.com and after the day his recap showed no losers when i saw with my own eyes he had at least 3. The guy seems to purposely talk so fast that you think he is saying one thing yet he is saying another.

Also.....what trader can follow 4 or 5 different markets on an 89 tick chart and make good decisions? No one can do this in real life. You would have to have a heart attack in 3 months if you tried doing his method for a living it would seem. I cant prove anything from one day, but it smells like a scam to me.

So "sidewaysmarket.com SCAM" will hopefully come up soon for people trying to do research on this company. What a shame, with his energetic personality,this Joseph James owner of sidewaysmarkets.com could really help a lot of people if he would just stop all the smoke and mirrors and double talk. And I already saw a post where one poor guy said he paid $4000 for the course and then get booted out of the room for asking too many questions.If thats true, that sounds criminal to me! To join sidewaysmarkets.com you have to put up 4 grand up front.

Thats scary! They have no monthly memberships from what I can see. Also a red flag. I admit, myself included, anyone who has had to make one big upfront payment to get into any chatroom, prop room or supposed "educational trading room" has gotten scammed on the Internet.

I pray the attorney general and the CFTC, SEC and all law enforcement will start going after this co. and others who are suspect as well. Internet fraud in trading and investing is so ridiculously prevalent, we truly need a special task force of several thousand men to clean up the Internet. Our govt needs to get involved fast.

Being most of this is interstate and a continuing criminal enterprise, I would think that would involve the FBI and be a RICO case which federal law enforcement guys love to prosecute. So far all the scammers selling trading systems 10 years ago are all still in business from what I see.

http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7464-16

So since I'm a member and if anyone else is a member then if he is doing it in Sim mode then the way to check it is to have a live chart as long as it is not delayed of Meta Trader or something familiar while he is trading live.

I do it with my binary trading as I can watch the movement the market.

As I have joined his Full Time Membership and only have $600 left to pay it's a bit too late but since i have not used his indicators and have not traded then I have a good reason now to check if this site is genuine so at this point I am neutral.

It won't be too hard too check as JJ only does Crude, Gold and Mini Russell most of the time, but if you are mainly only trading 3 stocks would you not be well educated on the movement of the markets?

Or at the same time if you have joined and wanted to jump straight in then lose your money isn't that gambling?

So as I am a cautious person and not a gambler but I see him as an educated professional when listening to him.

So why not check on a live chart while he is trading with just a renko chart. If it is Sim Mode you will find out very quick the difference. So tho, what do you mean exactly by Sim Mode as no one has really questioned what it is? Thank you for the advance notice but checking is easy and did you gambler before you learn't anything is the other question.

So you know what to do people. Check!!!

All,

I joined the advanced program back in February of 2010 after watching the room as a guest. I traded in the room with JJ every day for just over a year...until I launched another business which consumed too much time for me to focus properly on trading. Since then my visits to the room have been a bit sporadic just to stay in touch.

I have also traded Forex and Stocks since 1997. Unlike most of the commenters on here, I really know what I'm talking about regarding trading in general and SoT.

First, let me address the "scam" claim. My understanding when I joined was 1) that JJ would teach me his methods for trading price action based on technicals and order size flows and 2) that these methods work, period. I also understood very clearly that my success would be determined by MYSELF, not JJ. I was not *** enough to believe that I could shadow trade him, especially with the latency on a video feed from almost 2,000 miles way.

And regarding this "JJ better entry" issue, this has been addressed as well. Every different feed is going to vary slightly, especially with transmission latency. You need a very low latency connection to the feed in order to get in with the trap technique and a good level like he does. Also, he does have a bit on an instinct about pulling trigger where the entry level nets him a an extra tick or two...which can make a big difference. Either way, if you do your trade management as taught, the risk is pretty low.

All gains and losses over that year were clearly MY fault. JJ told us repeatedly to take a disciplined look at our own goals and situation to formulate and strictly follow a daily plan. JJ clearly demonstrated from day one how to use his methods to make consistent profits. I saw every winning and loosing trade he took, displayed there on the chart for over a year. So was I "scammed"? Absolutely not. Many on the internet love to throw this word "scam" around and few know what it means. I never paid him to be "honest" about his trades. I know he has been 100% honest in the way he has dealt with me and the market truths he has conveyed in the room. Beyond that, I don't care whether he trades sim or live. But I will say he told us on a number of occasions that he does not trade in the room to make a living for himself, but strictly to teach his methods. I think most people are just not very bright and expect to follow him like lemmings and avoid all the extremely hard work JJ puts into his analysis and trading. Of course it is possible he has been dishonest on occasion to get a little extra business jsut like about everyone else on the planet has...I can't say for sure. But I do know for sure that if you pay the membership money, follow the instructions in the course materials, ask for help on details, and execute the right plan without emotion, you will be successful. A "scam" is when someone was intentionally deceived into not receiving what they paid for; and with SoT, members do get what they paid for regardless of their trading results. Everyone should take a good look in the mirror.

Second, I do believe that JJ has become a bit of a victim of himself over the past couple of years. Things were much simpler in 2010. Back then there were the basic patterns and easy going trade decisions. The concept "700 bucks a day" was great in that there were not the extreme highs and lows you see today.

JJ does the mental work of 5 traders every day. I've never seen anyone else perform tasks at such a high level of output over time. So as he hungered for more, I believe he introduced too many additional systems and methods in a attempt to move forward and chase evolving markets. His original methods were solid; but since then it has seemed impossible for one person to perfect all the stuff he has available.

And so my assessment of the current situation is that people are overwhelmed and confused because they don't understand the big picture and the roots of his trading systems. They focus on the wrong priorities like whether he is live or sim, or whether he treats every loss or gain with the same attention. In my opinion he is spread way too thin with too many systems and too many members.

I also believe many (most?) members are guilty as they do not start with the very beginning of his core methods and stay on sim until they are making good, consistent, dispassionate trading decisions. Only then after time controlling your emotions and cutting losses early will consistent profits materialize.

All of these "I lost all my money in the first month or two" stories are irrelevant. That was their fault. If they did what they were instructed to do, they would have lost all of their SIMULATED money and decided TRADING WAS NOT FOR THEM during the free trial period. If you do it properly, nothing changes from sim to live...trading is the same. Emotional hang-ups regarding the switch to live are the fault of the trader, not the teacher.

So take this as you will - but my advice is to put the energy into learning to trade JJ's methods instead finding fault as if he is supposed to be inhumanly perfect.

Regards,

Ethan

I read his morning blog each day, and I'll have to say that it has helped me in

my own trading. I have been a trader for a long time and I do believe JJ has made

some good calls about the markets. His morning blog has become my first read

before entering the market place. It's packed with info and I have done very well

following this blog.

In the long run, you have to create your own set of entry/exit rules, not to mention good money management. Never rely totally on someone else to totally trade for you.

If you are a bit skeptical about SOT, I would suggest to first read the morning blog and then watch the markets for a bit. This will give you an idea of JJ's knowledge of the markets.

Disclaimer: I'm not a member.

I have watched tons of the youtube videos they post and read the morning updates on the site. I think there is some good info about the futures markets, but the site itself, in my opinion, is a scam.

Five things make it pretty obvious.

1- How he seemingly never has a losing day. To anyone who trades, this is preposterous. Ask anyone who trades for a living, stocks, futures, options, etc. It can't be done.

2- I can look at the charts at the end of each day and easily be able to tell which trades he claims he took, because he will conveniently only take the ones that work. One note on this, he trades 4 contracts and takes 2 at 5 ticks profit, 1 at 10-12, and last a runner. But a couple times recently he's shown in his youtube video that on days where there has been a huge selloff on oil for example, he will somehow know to (beforehand) do something different, which is to get short early, then add a contract like 20 ticks lower, then add another, and another, and by the end he will say he made 100 ticks per contract and made a +$4,000 trade. Somehow he knew exactly when to add each contract as well. It just seems fishy how I never heard him talk about that strategy, but it pops up after a day when it worked perfectly.

3- What makes it obvious, and has been mentioned several times already: His so called trades. On his videos he says this over and over again, "Can you place a limit order? Because that's all you need to win with us. We call out trades well in advance with exact entries, stops, and targets." I did a two week trial thinking I'd make money easy. During the 2 weeks I never heard him call a single trade ahead of time. He uses vague language regarding entries, and anytime he actually did claim he got into a trade, it had already moved well in his direction by the time he mentioned it. I kept wondering what I was missing (Was I just not listening? Do members get special info?) Every time he said he entered long at 90.50, it was at 90.55 or higher by the time he disclosed his entry price. Also never saw a DOM or a trade log from the system.

4- The price for membership is clever. $4,000 is a lot of money for something like this all at once. They claim "our goal is to have you as members for life, not a monthly charge because sites that do that only want to take peoples’ money for a while, and they don't care if you come back." Think about that, it is completely backwards. If you have a service that works, you’d get much more business charging a small monthly fee (~$50). It’s MUCH easier to get $50 from 20 people for 4 months than it is to get $4000 from one person. Why the large one-time fee? Because they promote their website as this fantastic, can’t miss, easy to learn, extremely consistent method where you can make $1000/day. So obviously their information is very valuable, right? I imagine new traders get duped by this constantly with the dreams of getting rich. It seems great, until, of course, you realize it’s not even close to true. If he charged $100 monthly fee, people would be members for 2 months then quit.

5- Come on people, if there really was some kind of system or method for trading that worked as well as this one claims to, everyone would be using it, and then it wouldn’t (COULDN’T) work.

Overall I think there is some good info about the futures markets, but it would be infinitely more believable if they would post vids of losing trades, losing days, or mistakes made. Like I said before, anyone who trades knows you will never make money each and every day.

My Experience with SchoolOfTrade.com has been very positive for a few reasons.

First, the customer service I received was top-notch. I always get my calls answered and emails are quick responses. this was very important to me because I wasnt confident loading charts for the first few weeks and they really did a good job at answering all my questions and making it easy on me to start the correct way. made a huge difference.

Second, I love the trade room. I learn so much every day, I have fun, and I seem to be getting better by the minute while I listen to JJ talk about what he's seeing, etc. Very exciting place to be, and for an old-timer like me im trying to find someone to work with every day besides the dog :) Love the trade room, the education, and JJ has the energy of 100 people, really amazing stuff in my opinion and ive been to a million other trade rooms.

Third, most important....I have been profitable for over 6 weeks now almost every day. I wanted to wait to write my review until after I had experienced everything that JJ and SOT offers, but now im really excited for each day. I earned my initial investment back in 2 weeks of trading 1 contract and now im trading 2 contracts. I have only had 3 days over 6 weeks with a loss end of day, and the losses were only a few hundred dollars TOTAL, nothing like the old days of my trading when I would lose thousands, this method of cutting losses early might just be working lol.

I have been making money with JJ, and even though it required a little bit of work in the beginning I am SO glad that I joined. I attend the trade room every day, and im SO excited for the new members trade room next week.

I recently recommended this course to my brother so he can manage his IRA account, and I would encourage anyone looking to earn some money in the markets to join up too.

Hopefully I will see you some day in the members room. In the meantime I will be studying my patterns. have a good day everyone.

JOSEPH DUFRESNE is uncovered as the real man hiding behind the alias Joseph James at SOT.

Now, can anyone assist in tracking his California address down?

I’ve been a member for over 18 months with SchoolOfTrade.com and JJ, and I have continued to be impressed by how hard JJ works for us as members, how easy it is to ask questions and get support, and how well the Fast Track Method prepared me for my trading career.

I graduated college without any real direction when I met Joseph at SchoolOfTrade.com and I was impressed right away like I think a lot of people are. Not really knowing what I was getting myself into, I jumped in and started learning.

I made the rookie mistake that I think everyone makes, I tried to learn all of it at once, and ended up blowing my first account because I tried to scalp every move in the market, even as JJ reminded me over and over again to complete the ‘custom’ trade plan worksheet…I just never thought I needed a trade plan…boy I was wrong. I just didn’t realize how important it is to be patient for the best patterns at the right times of the day.

Fast forward 12 months later and I am making money almost every day. After I blew my tiny trade account, I had a private training with JJ and he reminded me of the Fast Track method ( I knew about it the whole time, but never took it seriously). After reviewing the fast track method I realized it wasn’t a bad idea to follow Joe’s plan, I tried to be a ‘bull in a chine shop’ and that didn’t work, now I needed to LISTEN to JJ…and off I went.

10 days to learn, 10 days on demo, and then I went back to a live account and what an amazing difference. Looking back on it now, I knew I had a trade plan that JJ gave me, why didn’t I use it? If I only knew then what I know now right?

I took my first 3 months on 1 contract with the fast track method, then moved to 2 contracts, and now a year later I'm trading 6-8 lots during the day, and even put my profits into the auto trader and have made money there as well. I guess I can say that in the end I'm the happiest trader in our live trade room most likely.

The team at SchoolOfTrade.com and JJ have dramatically changed my life, I cant even think of where I would be right out of college without the whole package. He provides me with daily discipline and motivation, even eating healthy has been something he rubbed off on me too :) On top of the ‘intangibles’ I'm making real money to pay my bills, and for that I am forever grateful.

I got an email from a friend of mine this week talking about how upset he was in another trading chat room for stocks. I told him he needs to go see JJ at the very least to get himself back on track…but I know he wont leave once he sees the value that I did.

Thanks for letting me share this with you guys. Hope it helps new people understand the value the I saw in this program. It may not be for everyone, but learn from my mistakes, if you put some effort into it, listen to what JJ is telling you to do, you’re going to do very well.

Email me if anyone has any questions, id love to share more.

You joined for only thirty days, then quit and never asked for help.

What happened is you blew your account on your own and are now

pouting.

90 days as a member,glad I joined and I wanted to provide my feedback as well.

I am indeed making money with this trading method, and I would indeed recommend it to a friend.

The real value is that JJ teaches me to fish every day (as he says) so that I can be a trader on my own some day. that is a huge value for me.

No, this is not a get rich quick, that needs to be assumed.

You will need to apply a LITTLE effort to learn first :)

Yes, you will need to learn how to use the information that JJ gives you.

Yes, it will take about 2 weeks to get earning with these methods.

With that said, I have had good results. I have had a few losing days, but my results are positive week to week.

I am using the auto trader flex strategy and using it to provide me with automated entries, and then I am taking profit on my own. I earned my enrollment fee back in the first 3 weeks of using the auto trader, pretty cool.

I also attend the live trade room, and I take the fast track trade calls. Again, you need to learn how to trade the fast track first, come to any of the daily trainings and JJ will show you, its not hard, but you do need to learn it.

I am using the fast track trade plan, and im making money with that today. last Thursday I took all of the Gold trade calls and made over 100 ticks on 2 contracts with those, which is my best day so far.

I make money with the trading methods provided by JJ and SchoolOfTrade.com, and it looks like there are a lot of others making money with this method too so congrats!

I would like to thank JJ and the SOT staff for making this all possible, im excited for tomorrow's trade room!

I can only speak for myself on this, but my experience with JJ and schooloftrade.com has been great.

For the record:

I AM MAKING MONEY WITH S.O.T TRADING METHODS EVERY DAY/WEEK/MONTH. ITS SAD THAT PEOPLE WOULD POST THESE LIES ABOUT SUCH A GREAT SERVICE THAT JJ AND SOT PROVIDES. I HAVE SEEN HIS TRADING STATEMENTS, I AM A MEMBER. THESE FOOLS POSTING ON THIS PAGE ARE CLEARLY NOT MEMBERS...ILL BET THEY WISH THEY WERE RIGHT ABOUT NOW!

JJ is a true professional who has committed so much time to me and other members' success I feel that I owe it to him to tell my story here too.

First, his education in his trade room is 100-times better than anyone else I have ever seen.

Seriously, this guy is superman in the way he calls trades, show us where to enter/exit/targets, and still makes sure to take questions and trade himself! incredible stuff, never seen anything like it before.

Second, he offers training EVERY DAY. So every day we get to ask questions and he shows us in his training room, that to me is such an advantage over other education I have tried in the past that is nothing more than a PDF and a trade room with poor trade calls and NO long term education.

Third, im making money almost every day with his trading methods.

It took me 3 weeks to take the time and learn to trade like him. Yes, I said it, i had to WORK a little to learn it, and im amazed at how many people on these forums are lazy looking for the magic trade-caller. I would much rather know how to trade on my own than be tied to a trade room every day, just my opinion. I am averaging over $3,000 per month on 2 contracts and I am very happy.

four, the auto trader has changed my life. I have been making money with the fast track method which he calls live in the trade room, but this auto trader is so cool. I downloaded the strategy, I used his templates, and I attended the trainings to learn how to use it. I used it demo for 10 days and then 90 days ago I started trading it live. This auto-trader takes the trade for me, and all i need to do is move my stop and profit target to where our trading plan tells me. Again, it took me 10 days to learn, i know, effort needed im sorry, but after I learned it was very easy.

Im retired, almost 65, and this is something that has really helped my lifestyle, and i would be happy to communicate with anyone who has any doubts this stuff works. Since the well never runs dry i would be happy to share my experiences with anyone interested.

IN response to the comments Written by RYAN_G g on September 13, 2011. I see that Ryan has started his own Professional day trading education website charging $500 for a lifetime membership. Does this site look to be developing into a perfect copy of SOT to anyone? His charts even have powered by SOT on them! Ryan insists he trades live but told me that he , and I quote

"just want a secure income on the side of my trading, as the thought of relying on my trading for the rest of my life scares me as it is such hi risk".

I found Ryan after he started a trading journal on big mikes trading forum quoting SOT as his background. If you search for RGFUTURES on You Tube and you will find him there.

IN response to the comments Written by RYAN_G g on September 13, 2011. Your opinions make perfect sense now!

Ryan has started his own Professional day trading education website charging $500 for a lifetime membership! Just search for RGFUTURES on You Tube and you will find him there. Does this site look to be developing into a perfect copy of SOT to anyone?

His charts even have powered by SOT on them! Ryan insists he trades live but told me that he , and I quote

"just want a secure income on the side of my trading, as the thought of relying on my trading for the rest of my life scares me as it is such hi risk"

I learned to trade from JJ. Is he totally honest?

Probably not. But if you forget about his P & L claims and instead focus on the methodologies, you will learn one *** of a lot about day trading. I did.

I mean, come on people, grow up. Nobody is going to do it for you.

Just do the math:

JJ says, that it is possible to start with 2500$ per contract, to make 10K a month. Based on his sheet he is presenting every day and if you calculate this all thru you would be making???:

OVER 2000% per year!!!

...if you really think that you could make such returns, then you deserv it to loos money, that's all i have to say!

But probably the ones that start with his *** are newbys. And they are not at the stage of trading to calculate realistic returns. And exactly these customers are the ones that geht *** up!

- why is he not showing the results in NJT it self? NJT has, as you probably know, very good statistics implementet that immediately shows the results.

- why is he not showing hes superdome and instead manage hes trades thru a chart?

- why are the contracts he trades NOT SHOWING UP IN THE REAL TIME AND SALES WINDOWOWS??? (everybody can doublecheck that!)

- why is he not giving PNL statistic from hes broker?

I give you a hint how to make 2000% a year:

STAY AWAY FROM THIS GUY!!!

octagon

RYAN_G or JJ? , this post looks strangely like more propaganda from the SOT camp to me, so funny

"yes he might cheat a little, he might over excaudate his PnL" and you’re not asking for your money back then RYAN_G?

This is a garbage post in my opinion. Question for you JJ is simple, are you prepared to go stand in front of a Judge and try to defend yourself?

This is the real test for you JJ! We all know you will not!

right i have been a member for a year, i have not made any money trading. the money i have made i have lost.

i spot thing that JJ does wrong all the time, in how does he get the price, how has he confirmed his entry so early, how does he always beat my price ect

but at the end of the day of he is trading sim or live he had provided a trading service to teach and obviously sell his course

im only 23 and i have not been trading long, but i got a good head on my shoulders and when i look at his methods.

its makes sense!

yes he might cheat a little, he might over excaudate his PnL

but at the end of the day, his goal is to sell his courses and show how it works! His trade room is not for you to shadow. It’s to show you how it work and to teach you all the good stuff he knows! U cant blagg that

His course is worth so much more, if u can learn and understand it. You can take it and use it to fit your personality and make your own trading edged!

Its hard work but making good money always is!!!!!!!

I am basically there, I just need more exp in the markets because they are violent, fast and if it catches you slipping it will take your money, iv learnt that and I have no one els to blame but myself and my emotions!

Yes it has frustrated me I cant see his DOM ect, but like I said there is so much more to his course! Learnt it like the back of your hand and apply you thoughts and methods and take your own trades

That’s all I have to say

Loyd I have been flowing you for a while now and personally u need to sort you life out! U cant trade a method for a month and expect to make money and be a professional trader or everyone in the world would be doing it, some people will never be able to do it no matter what and some people it will be natural

As every one know`s only 10% of the people in the world actually make a living of doing this, so u really think its that easy to put your self in that 10% na I think no buddy

Get your head down and work hard like evey one els has had to pal and stop blaiming every one els!

JJ`s method will work if you apply it properly and you become a trader! Not a noddy like you obviously are

And people yeh this is coming from some one who has not made any cash yet trading this method!

But owww god I will soon 100%

Thanks JJ :-D see you in the room soon

I have tried his 2 week trial and I don't think he is a scam. He is simply giving a method that he uses and based on his method of trading, the tools he uses and the patterns he looks for all corespond with the info on his blogs and they make sence and have given good results from taking selective trades.

You do not have to follow his advice and you can do what ever you want.

You should learn the method then practice on a sim account for 1 month then tell me how you did! post here.