Complaint Review: Market Trader's Institute Inc. - Lake Mary Florida

Let me describe myself first: I am a 73 year old 100% disabled veteran. 

1. I received a call from Will Goldenburg who, with his sales pitch, got me interested in their education on 7/16/2010.

2. I asked about access to their track record. Mr. Goldenburg lied and said I could not access it until after I paid for their service. Note: I later found this to be false. The track record we discussed is clearly available on their website home page. (Dishonest)

3. I asked Mr. Goldenburg about his experience in his own trading account and what return he was getting in his Forex trading. He said, "between 20 and 40% per month". (May be dishonest. Would need to see his account statements to be sure)

4. Feeling convinced this was the right thing to do, I opted to buy the Ultimate Trader's Package. This was on Friday, 7/16/2010. I used my debit card to make the $1,000 payment.

5. Mr. Goldenburg cited the experience of their "Earn While You Learn" program. He would say how many "pips" per month of trading they accomplished. He said they were worth $10.00 per pip and this is what I based my decision on to go for their training.

6. On Saturday, I accessed the MTI Home Page and discovered that their "Earn While You Learn" track record was available to anyone accessing the web page. I then spent the better part of Saturday and part of Sunday analyzing their results.

  a. Their traders were trading 24 hours a day, so it would be impossible to mimick their trades.

  b. Each trade result indicated the + or - number of pips and the accumulated total for the month. This looked good until you read the disclaimer that stated "****SPREADS/COMMISSIONS NOT TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT IN THE ABOVE RESULTS****". When the 'spread' is taken into account the results are drastically reduced, some months showing losses. Mr. Goldenburg discussed the number of 'pips' in the 'track record' as being the what the account would earn at pip times $10.00.

  c. It was during this analysis that I realized that my small account of $3,800 could not trade at that level, even though Mr. Goldengurg said that I could. A net drawdown of 380 pips would wipe out my account.

  d. Conclusion: 

   1) Mr. Goldenburg lied when he told me I could not access their track record until I paid the fee.

   2) Mr. Goldenburg misrepresented the track record by citing the results posted and not mentioning that the spread was not included.

   3) If MTI's professional traders could not make a decent profit, how could I expect to.

7. On Sunday, 7/18/2010, I sent an email which was titled, "Order #101218 Notice of Cancellation", I which I described the reasons. I requested the return of my $1,000 and cancellation of the contract I signed under false pretenses.

8. I followed up this email with a letter to Mr. Jared Martinez and Will Goldenburg citing in more detail why I was cancelling.

9. I then made numerous phone calls and described my problem to anyone who would listen. The person I talked to the most of Tad Devan. After a ton of calls, Mr. Devan told me they were going to refund my $1,000. I ased for confirmation of that decision, but it was never given. It eventually became evident they were not going to refund the money.