Cool Trader Pro Review: Robotic Stock Trading?
Cool Trader Pro was launched early January 2012 and is based in the US state of Florida.
For some reason the provided Cool Trader Pro corporate address in Florida appears to be rented virtual office space. In the company’s FAQ videos, reference is made to a “company headquarters” being located in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Heading up the company are co-founders Edward Barsano (founder), Cary Flanders (CEO), Sunil Wadhwa (President) and Nick Rausch (COO).
Edward Barsano is the creator of the software suite Cool Trader, which the Cool Trader Pro opportunity revolves around.
Cary Flanders appears to have a stock market and loan industry background:
Prior to CoolTraderPro , Mr.Cary Flanders is the Co-Managing Partner of Robotic Trading Systems LLC., where he is responsible for day to day operations and the development of Automated Capital Systems Hedge Fund.
Prior to Robotic Trading Systems, Inc. he was a partner in Help Arizona Realty where he oversaw the day to day operations of the buy, rehab and resell of short sale negotiated homes for Real Estate Investors.
Prior to Help Arizona Realty he was a branch owner of Great Southwest Mortgage (“GSM”), a residential loan origination office. In his tenure with GSM his branch closed and funded over $500,000,000 in residential loans over a 7 year period.
Nick Rausch also has a background in finance and robotic trading,
Nick Rausch is co-founder and managing member of Automated Capital Systems a private hedge fund located in Palm Beach, Florida General Partner and the Investment Advisor.
He has also served as a co-managing partner of Robotic Trading Systems, LLC (“RTS”) since April 2011.
Leaving Sunil Wadhwa to bring the MLM component to Cool Trader Pro, with a purported 25 year history in the MLM industry. In researching Wadwha’s MLM history, I’ve seen his name tied to Prepaid Legal, Amega Global, Bidify and the Trump Network.
Read on for a full review of the Cool Trader Pro MLM business opportunity.
The Cool Trader Pro Product Line
The Cool Trader Pro MLM opportunity revolves around the sale of subscription for the Cool Trade software suite.
Cool Trade is owned by “CoolTrade Inc”, of which Cool Trader Pro founder Edward Barsano is the CEO and President of.
The simplest way to map out this relationship is to consider Cool Trader Pro to be a marketing division of CoolTrade Inc, who also own the Cool Trade software.
As for the Cool Trade software itself, it’s marketed as a “fully automated trading” software suite. Here’s how Cool Trade is described on the official company website:
The automated trader starts by itself in the morning, picks the stocks (based on your rules) and loads them into your watchlist.
Using patent-pending technology, it then monitors the market and your trades, adding and removing shares as needed to scalp profits 100% on its own.
Not being a finance guy I can’t really comment on the viability of Cool Trade but it has been around since 2005, with the company claiming to count “thousands of traders in 35 countries” as subscribers.
I do note in the company FAQ that they state unless you have $25,000 or more in your trading account, you are limited to 3 “round-trip” trades (buying and selling stocks in a single day) in any five-day rolling period (SEC rules). How severely this impacts the profitability of Cool Trade subscribers I’m not sure, but it sounds pretty restricted (unless you have over $25,000 to play with).
Subscriptions to Cool Trade are sold via the Cool Trade website for $3990 USD a year.
Via the Cool Trader Pro MLM opportunity, Cool Trade software subscriptions are $3500 for the first year and $125 a month thereafter.
The Cool Trader Pro Compensation Plan
The basic premise behind the Cool Trader Pro compensation plan is that each sale of the Cool Trade software generates $1500 in commissions, either paid out directly to the affiliate that makes the sale or split amongst them and their upline.
Before we get into that though we’ll start off with the commission qualification requirements of the opportunity.
All Cool Trader Pro affiliates must pass up the commissions of their first three sales, or two sales if they purchase a subscription to the Cool Trade software suite.
This effectively means that Cool Trader Pro are using a 3up MLM compensation structure (the commissions on the first three sales are passed up and is required before an affiliate can earn commissions).
After a Cool Trader Pro affiliate has qualified for commissions, they are then paid out according to membership rank:
- Associate – $500
- Senior Associate – $1000
- Director – $1100
- Senior Director – $1200
- National Director – $1300
- Executive Director – $1400
- Vice-Presidential Director – $1450
- Presidential Director – $1500
Qualification for these membership ranks is determined via the use of a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of the structure with each personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
Each of these personally recruited affiliates forms a new “leg” and theoretically there are no limitations to how wide a unilevel compensation structure can be (how many new affiliates are recruited).
If any of the affiliate’s level 1 recruits go on to recruit new affiliates of their own they form level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team. If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates they form level 3 and so on and so forth.
Using this structure, Cool Trader Pro ranks its affiliates according to the following qualification criteria:
- Associate – join Cool Trader Pro as an affiliate for $149
- Senior Associate – make 2 personal subscription sales
- Director – make 4 personal subscription sales and count one from your downline, or make at least 2 personal subscription sales and count 10 sales from your downline (no more than 60% of counted sales can come from any one unilevel leg)
- Senior Director – make 6 personal subscription sales and count 4 from your downline, or make at least 3 personal subscription sales and count 20 sales from your downline
- National Director – make 9 personal subscription sales and count 6 from your downline, or make at least 3 personal subscription sales and count 30 sales from your downline
- Executive Director – make 12 personal subscription sales and count 13 from your downline, or make at least 3 personal subscription sales and count 50 sales from your downline
- Vice-Presidential Director – make 15 personal subscription sales and count 20 from your downline, or make at least 3 personal subscription sales and count 70 sales from your downline
- Presidential Director – make 18 personal subscription sales and count 32 from your downline, or make at least 3 personal subscription sales and count 100 sales from your downline
Director Fast Track
Cool Trader Pro affiliates are able to “fast track” their way to the Director membership rank by making three Cool Trade subscription sales within their first 30 days of joining the company as an affiliate.
Presidential Director Fast Track
Cool Trader Pro affiliates are able to “fast track” their way to the Presidential Director membership rank by either
- making 12 personal subscription sales and counting an additional 23 from their downline within 90 days of joining the company as an affiliate or
- having 3 unilevel downline legs (3 personally recruited associates) that have generated a combined total of 70 subscription sales (no more than 40% counted from any one leg) within 90 days of joining the company as an affiliate
Overrides
As mentioned earlier, each Cool Trade subscription sales made by a Cool Trader Pro affiliate generates a $1500 commission, even if the affiliate making the sale is not ranked to earn the full commission.
In these instances, the remaining commission is passed up to the affiliate’s upline.
As per the commission payouts above, the way this works is that the affiliate making the sale is paid at their commission level. Then the system searches their upline for a higher ranked affiliate and once found, they are then paid the remaining difference according to their membership rank.
If this found affiliate is not a Presidential Director paid out the difference between the affiliate making the sale’s commission and the $1500 total commission, the system then searches again for a higher ranked affiliate until eventually a Presidential Associate is found and the entire $1500 is paid out.
Eg. If a Director sells a Cool Trade subscription they earn $1100. If their immediate upline was a Presidential Associate they’d be paid the remaining $400 difference.
If their remaining upline was only a Senior Director, they’d be paid only $100 (the difference between $1100 (Director subscription commission rate) and $1200 (Senior Director subscription commission rate)).
The system would then continue to search for a higher ranked upline to distribute the remaining $300 commission left and would do so until a Presidential Associate was found.
This might happen directly if the upline of the Senior Director is Presidential Associate ranked or incrementally until a Presidential Associate is eventually found.
Cool Train Bonus
The Cool Train Bonus is paid out to the immediate upline (the affiliate who recruited them) of any affiliate who makes their first three pass up sales.
The Cool Train Bonus is paid out irrespective of whether the immediate upline is qualified for overrides and is paid out at $250 if the upline has a Cool Trade software subscription and $125 if they don’t.
Cool Code Bonus
The Cool Code Bonus is an additional commission paid out on the passed up sales of a new Cool Trader Pro affiliate.
To qualify for the Cool Code Bonus Cool Trader Pro affiliates must recruit 2 new affiliates who have reached the Senior Associate membership rank (passed up three subscription sales commissions).
The Cool Code Bonus is paid out as follows:
- Senior Associate – $100
- Director – $125
- Senior Director – $150
- National Director – $175
- Executive Director – $200
- Vice-Presidential Director – $225
- Presidential Director – $250
Presidential Director Generation Bonus
The Presidential Director Generation Bonus is a $300 bonus paid out on each Cool Trade software subscription sale made by Cool Trader Pro affiliates.
A “generation” within the bonus is defined as the sourcing of a Presidential Director within an individual unilevel leg.
Eg. As a Cool Trader Pro affiliate, the affiliates found after the first ranked Presidential Associate in any one of your unilevel legs are defined as your first generation. The affiliates between this Presidential Associate and the next are defined as the second generation and so on and so forth.
Using this system, any sales made by affiliates in these generations (up to six) pay out a commission as follows:
- 1st generation = $100
- 2nd to 4th generation = $50
- 5th and 6th generations = $25
Joining Cool Trader Pro
The affiliate joining fees for Cool Trader Pro are not mentioned anywhere on the website at the time of publication.
Further research however reveals Cool Trader Pro affiliates advertising the affiliate joining cost at $149 upfront and then $29.95 a month thereafter.
Update 28th February 2014 – Cool Trader Pro still do not disclose the cost of affiliate membership on their website, however further research reveals it to now be free to join and then $19.95 a month.
Conclusion
First and foremost I’m going to clarify that I’m no stock or finance expert and my knowledge in this area is extremely limited. With that in mind I can’t comment on the usefulness of the Cool Trade software itself, other than noting it’s been around for a while and appears to have enjoyed moderate sales success prior to the creation of Cool Trader Pro.
Looking at the Cool Trader Pro opportunity from an MLM business point of view, several potential issues arise.
First and foremost is the marketing strategy used by affiliates and the greater effect this might have on Cool Trader Pro in the long-term. Despite the claims in the Cool Trader Pro FAQ that they “are not responsible” for any claims their affiliates make yada yada yada, the simple fact of the matter is that as far as the authorities go, they are.
All MLM companies are responsible for the conduct of their affiliates and time and “we can’t control what our affiliates say or do” defense has, to the best of my knowledge, never held up.
Why is this a potential issue?
If we look at what the Cool Trade software actually does and how the company itself markets it, there’s a huge potential for advertising the merits of the software on projected profit returns via use of the software.
Here’s a snippet from Cool Trader Pro themselves, spruiking an affiliate promotion during prelaunch (late 2011):
Rarely, if ever, does a technology come along with the possibility to immediately impact your financial future.
We are now at that moment. And you are one of the fortunate few being extended an invitation to witness the future first hand!
Imagine going to Vegas knowing you are coming home a winner. Imagine knowing your football picks were winners every weekend.
Now imagine the most genius programmer, the technology guru behind Microsoft, who after retiring with millions, spent the next 12 years dedicated personally to writing over 5 million lines of code to develop the most powerful program ever produced to help make you money.
Simply turn on your computer on Monday morning and begin to change your financial future!
And you don’t even have to be there! It does it all for you. A fully automated, robotic, money machine.
An “automated robotic money machine” you say? Despite not being explicit in guaranteeing an income or ROI, the tone and intended attraction of the marketing pitch is obvious.
Infact I even found at least two Cool Trader Pro affiliates publicly making the following claims
- Cool Trader Pro is a Stock Trading Robot that has been averaging about 5-10% each month for the past 7 yrs
- (Cool Trade) averages 5-10%/month, sometimes more if extreme volatility occurs…can trade both buy and sell sides
- Made 20% profit in 20 minutes on Flash Crash Day!
- The Power of the Cool Trade Pro Software is to Deliver Risk-Free Automated Performance on ANY of SIX Major Stock Markets While Yielding Consistent Returns of 5-10% Monthly
These claims were made in early December and are still publicly viewable today, despite Cool Trader Pro claiming to have a “compliance department”. Of importance is the fact that these claims aren’t being used to market the software subscription but rather the Cool Trader Pro MLM income opportunity itself.
With Cool Trader Pro affiliates running around the internet marketing the ROI potential of the Cool Trade software to attract new affiliates, when combined with the Cool Trader Pro compensation plan there’s a huge potential red flag as Cool Trader Pro affiliates are paid out on the subscription sale to newly recruited Cool Trader Pro affiliates.
One of the big challenges Cool Trader Pro are going to face is going to be maintaining a healthy affiliate/retail customer (non-affiliate Cool Trade software user) ratio.
With both the company itself and affiliates heavily marketing the ROI and income potential of the Cool Trade software, and the fact that affiliates earning commissions on the sale of the software to new affiliate recruits only heightens the probability that Cool Trader Pro is going to be mostly made up of affiliate software subscribers.
Along with these internal consumption issues, income projections, quoted ROI figures and guarantees are also big red flags.
Marketing aside, the My Trader Pro compensation plan also actively encourages affiliates to buy a software subscription themselves. Without a subscription new affiliates are looking at passing up three sales commissions (to either newly recruit affiliates or customers) before they can earn anything.
With the purchase of a subscription sale themselves though, affiliates drop this pass up to just two sales.
Furthermore the “Cool Train Bonus” is inexplicably halved if affiliates themselves do not themselves purchase a Cool Trade software subscription.
I can’t see any reason for this (three sales is three sales right?) other than to incentivize Cool Trader Pro affiliates to buy a Cool Trade subscription themselves.
I think the bigger problem here is that without an attached MLM opportunity, it’s easy to sell the Cool Trade software on the merits of being an automated stock trading tool.
Add an MLM income opportunity that pays out $1500 a pop on the sale of the software, regardless of whether your selling to retail customers or recruited affiliates and how the software tool is marketed becomes much more important.
To be honest I don’t really see how this sort of software could be marketed other than on the merits of its income potential and tracked past performance, which is a problem in itself. Not to mention the fact that if a new affiliate is sold on projected incomes, ROI and guarantees and then actually loses money – that introduces an entirely different set of issues again.
Are Cool Trader Pro affiliates going to be able to resist selling the income opportunity on the basis of projected ROIs and income via the Cool Trade software?
Current research and perusal of Cool Trader Pro affiliate marketing blogs and sales capture pages suggests “no”.
The potential for legitimacy is there in ultimately how many affiliate subscribers vs. retail subscribers Cool Trader Pro affiliates attract, but for now I’d be thinking long and hard about getting involved with the My Trader Pro MLM opportunity at an affiliate level.
Update 20th October 2017 – On October 6th Cool Trade Inc., of which Cool Trader Pro was the MLM marketing division of, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Ah, the eternal MLM chicken or the egg question…
Is the customer an affiliate, or the affiliate a customer?
Or in this case, is there an ultimate customer at all, when the comp plan clearly was steering everybody toward the affiliate plan (you’d be STUPID to do the annual 4K thing)?
The answer seems to be no.
I wonder who is their MLM consultant, or did the MLM guy just cribbed the package together from his previous ventures.
Well prior to the MLM introduction they do seem to have had retail subscribers. In an email promoting an affiliate recruitment drive sent out last December Sunil Wadhwa claimed Cool Trade had “~14,000 customers in 40 countries”.
Post MLM introduction though all I’ve seen is marketing of the Cool Trader Pro MLM business opportunity, largely focused on income projections and monthly average ROI percentages via use of the Cool Trade software.
I took a look at Cool Trader a few weeks back when a somewhat notorious ponzi pimp included it in the list of programs he was pushing. As best I can tell when you strip away the exaggerated claims made by some affiliates the software it’s self isn’t unrealistic.
The software doesn’t magically pick winning stocks for you but rather executes trades in stocks picked by you under a set of conditions you determine in advance. If the conditions you set are met by the market, a trade executes. If your strategy was appropriate you make money otherwise, you don’t.
Of course that doesn’t mean the person standing to clear a quick grand if they make a sale will sell it that way.
I did notice one point of interest about Cool Trade CEO Ed Barsano, on one of his websites he describes himself as “Series 65 qualified” which threw up a red flag.
A Series 65 license is the Uniform Investment Adviser Law Examination required in most US states for someone to act as an investment adviser. The use of the word “qualified” is non standard, you either have the license or you don’t and it doesn’t appear that Mr. Barsano has it but he did pass the test.
Why did someone study for and pass a significantly rigorous licensing exam and not get the license? (I love irony) Because while Mr. Barsano was studying the laws, regulations and ethics of investing he was also selling unregistered securities.
From the website of the Arizona Corporation Commission’s Securities Division:
http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000134001.pdf
Mr. Barsano and a man named Robert Stevens were selling shares of Cool Trader stock at no fewer than two seminars, but Cool Trader stock was neither registered nor exempt from registration. Also being sold at these seminars was an investment opportunity in Mr. Steven’s real estate “Project,” which turned out to be a shabby fraud:
http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000135972.pdf
The “Misrepresentations and Omissions of Material Facts” section is a hoot. I’m not sure I’d trust Mr. Barsano or some of the people he works with.
Thanks for pointing that out GlimDripper!
In the matter of the transcript you posted above (images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000135972.pdf), the judgment was against Stephens.
The reason Ed’s name appeared was the way the matter was captioned on the docket. It is a shame the way people try to twist things for their own gains.
Make sure that you get it right on your other website(s).
Glimdropper describes the software functionality pretty well.
The $25,000 restriction is because of the SEC definition and restrictions on “pattern day traders.”
I was a user years ago and haven’t looked at it recently. The premise of the software and the criteria for picking stocks to trade (at least when I used it) were pretty solid though getting any day trading auto-trading to work consistently is pretty difficult, as is ‘manual’ day trading where you are using rigid and tight stop losses (that you would need if you were trading large amounts of stock.)
Software that does a similar thing in regards to displaying stocks based on your criteria is worth a look at trade-ideas.com but it doesn’t auto-trade for you (which could be a good thing.)
It’s interesting that they’ve gone to this MLM structure; my guess is that it probably has something to do with business falling off due to there being fewer and fewer day traders out there.
The logic is no good. It’s obvious he couldn’t make a go in the real world so he had to go mlm. Think about it- why would anyone buy their forex or stock trading tools from an mlmer instead of shopping for the best deal on the market?
Trading robots CAN work, but the danger is that most of us don’t understand the basics of supply/demand in the market.
I recommend most people learn about point and figure charting. It’s the best way to get some real feel for what the market is doing, instead of just going with an indicator.
Pardon the lateness of this reply.
I’m sorry but what exactly did I twist? You are correct, the second link in my post above is the consent to judgement of Robert Stevens, the first link is the consent to judgement of Ed Barsano.
I’m not sure there was ever a question that the two orders are separate but you have my thanks in pointing that out. If anyone has any question as to why the cases were captioned as they are, a simple reading of the documents will provide their answers.
Trouble in paradise? First Wadhwa, now this:
cooltraderpro.us
What happened with Wadhwa?
I have thoroughly checked out Cool Trader Pro and the software. I have found it to be real and revolutionary.
I purchased the software and look forward to building a business helping others make profits and build their life again.
The banks and other investments don’t even keep up with inflation and from a marketing side most business opportunities have services or products that are new. This is proven and at a nice price point.
Wadhwa went bibi…..they raise more red flags than a beach during a Category 5 hurricane…
I haven’t been able to find any information on Wadhwa leaving Cool Trader Pro, other than noting they’ve replaced their “about us” page with an “information coming soon” page.
Why did he leave? He seemed to be the MLM face of the company so that’s no small loss business wise.
Why not contact the guy doing the business? He made his contact information public and should have the inside story.
Doubt he would risk his financial investment on gossip or false accusations. Something needs to burn in order to create smoke.
Doubt the shills posting here will give you the real story as they spew corporate mantra out of fear or self-preservation.
I’ve been a user for about two months. I trade long only in an IRA.
The software has been profitable. This may be a function of the bull market, but I’ve been making a few hundred dollars a day on average. I don’t run the software if the market looks negative on a given day.
One big advantage is that it helps solve the common problem of hesitating before taking a position.
The profitability makes up for many sins of course
There are reliability issues.
Support is not very timely.
The programming and interface is almost amateurish considering that Ed is being marketed as a programming genius – its almost as if the designer doesn’t understand windows.
The scalability is dubious, I have a very substantial account (at least considering the comments about 25K above) and I’m not sure it can be used to make more than the few hundred a day. Candidate stocks to trade are selected by a screen, and it is difficult to imagine selecting candidates with enough volume to make trading over five hundred or so shares at a shot (all orders are market) profitable.
Still I’m on track for paying for the thing. If it keeps making money I’m happy, unfortunately I’m not sure I will be rich.
As far as the software is concerned:
http://www.meetup.com/NYC-Algorithmic-Trading/events/106550102/
Mostly written in V.B. Visual Basic 6.0 runtime files continue to be 32-bit only and all components must be hosted in 32-bit application processes. Must run XP “compatibility” mode from Vista onwards. Needs constant updating, testing and recoding from server end in addition to following MS recommended updates on client’s end.
To: Mike McCurdy
You have not used Cool Trade in awhile.
Brashly, I ask: what are you using (if anything)? Back in 1998 – 2000 I experimented boldly with the biggies: Tradestation, Equus, MetaStock all with mixed results. I think after two years I mostly broke even (except for my margin losses). Has anything really improved?
With the huge multiplication of “me too” sites such as “Top Ten reviews” that really don;t review anything (they just collect key and adwords), getting 3rd party accurate information is a challenge.
The holy grail is net profits with satistically limited risk. I am certainly open to ideas, but not paralyzed by analysis. Dart boards still don’t work, either. Thanks.
Hurricane Chantal Fizzles…….warnings still in effect……∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂
I’m a big believer in due diligence. Your web site list co-founders Cary Flanders and a Nick Rausch as co-owners of a “very successful hedge fund”.
Your very successful hedge fund co-owner Cary Flanders is named as a defendant in some seven civil court actions in Maricopa County Arizona, Utah etc ∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂
Meanwhile: Discover RV sold me a 1995 Ford F250 truck from their lot in El Mirage AZ. for $14,000 cash. I was informed that i would have the title the next day. This was Jan.14th. 2002. After repeated calls to the manager requesting my title i was instucted to call the companys attorney in Washington state. The attorney for Discovery RV informed me that the money i had paid had been stolen by the manangers of discover RV, and they were sorry, but no title.
I contacted the Arizona DMV who directed me to the Arizona Attorney Generals office. From them i learned that Discovery RV had ripped-off 13 people in this manner to the tune of $400,000. at this point I am out $14k, have a truck i cannot use because i cannot register it, or get plates. No one at DMV or AZ attorney gen. office will tell me anything. It is like it all dropped into a black hole.
∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂∂
Case Number: CV2002-003290 Judge: French, Colleen
File Date: 2/19/2002 Location: Northeast
Case Type: Civil
Party Information
Party Name Relationship Sex Attorney
William G Beattie Plaintiff Male Don Crampton
Patsy Ann Beattie Plaintiff Female Don Crampton
Discover R V Inc Defendant None Pro Per
Cary Flanders Defendant Male Pro Per
Your other very successful; hedge fund co-owner Nick Rausch shows as the former owner of “Prime Time Lending”, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, AZ and “MJM Capital Group” yet another Arizona real estate scam. What’s the name of that “very successful hedge fund”
As for you Chris, you show as a “Global Resorts Network Distributor” selling vacations at timeshares.
My free advice, this is a scam from a group with a history of scams.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Here is a quick review of my experience using the program.
I am an affiliate, but not done much about promoting it and not a single sale/convert is the result. I’m not in it for the MLM but if people do want to sign up through me I wouldn’t say no 🙂 I would be a pretty rubbish upline regarding technical issues or constant motivational updates.
Wether the MLM deal is good or bad I have no idea.
(Ozedit: Then I’m going to stop you there, this isn’t a software review site)
How much money would it take you to STAB your best friend in the back???????? I just found out It doesn’t take much for this Nick Rausch character to do it. …it’s not defamatory if it’s the truth.
Why hasn’t anyone mentioned Automated Capital Systems??? The same people are involved…. These guys are busy!!!!!!
I mostly agree with semiopen. I’ve been using CoolTradePro for about 3 months. Our results have been modest. Y
I agree with semiopen’s review. I’ve been using CoolTradePro for about 3 months. My results have been a modest loss but with promise in the right market.
My results (and everyone’s) depend entirely on the trading program and conditions that are set, and on the reliability of the program. CoolTrade strategies are highly customizable, although not for a rank amateur to easily understand. The system does come with pre-loaded strategies for newbies to try out.
My issue with CoolTrader is the crashing, conflicts and unreliability of the program. As semiopen points out, the software looks amateurish, and that seems to reflect the underlying programming as well.
I’ve had to make numerous technical support calls. The system won’t start automatically as it’s supposed to, or when it does start then crashes. It won’t start the broker interface as it’s supposed to, thus requiring babysitting in the morning. I’ve taken to calling it “Crueltrader”.
If they improved the software reliability and startup issues I could recommend it, but there are too many hair-pulling issues (especially for the price they want to charge) to recommend Cooltrade.
I’ve been trading full time for 13 years, and have good knowledge of trading systems and software packages.
If anyone thinks that off-the-shelf “systems” like those promoted by CoolTrade can consistently make money, then they need their head examined. There’s a sucker born every minute.
I have decided to stay away from this purchase. I can’t help but get the feeling Mr Barsano has left himself very exposed.
Best wishes all.
I’ve been using cooltraderpro for two months now. Both my friend and I have made modest losses. We paid over $6,000.00 for this piece of crap program and are now paying the consequences.
Also, Cool trader pro will not refund your money nor work with you to back up their claims of consistent profits. It’s all a sham.
I agree with Rick, and despite having sort of got my original money out of it, depending on how one looks at the tax issues. I also have to agree with Dave Martin’s comments. It is a mental deficiency that caused me to buy it – fortunately I can live with this – but it has to rank as one of the ten dumbest things I’ve done as a trader.
I think the software will generally make money if it is run on days that the market is strong. However, commissions are a real issue.
I use Interactive brokers and set up an account at TD Ameritrade to run it with the $1000 promotion and 300 free trades. They charged me regular commissions by mistake for a few weeks and my account wasn’t profitable until they backed out the commissions.
Theoretically, commissions at TD are negotiable with the extra volume the software generates, but I doubt they can be good enough to make money. There is an old half price deal they used to have but that doesn’t seem like enough to me.
I also traded at IB where the commissions give one a fighting chance to make money. However the software has a defect where it doesn’t register sells when eliminating positions at IB at end of day. These have to be handled by a manual procedure which is quite time consuming and irritating.
Technical support amazingly didn’t think this was a bug, the whole point of the thing is that it is supposed to run unattended.
This was several months ago and I might download a new version one of these days to see if they have fixed this. At the moment though, I’m just glad the experience is over.
I opened an account with $9925 in it At the end of Sept. 2013 It is now worth 7785. Was told that I should easily make 7 to 10% a month by using the system… Not Quite!
Had plenty of technical issues and it was all my fault. What a bunch of BS. I guess if you have 25k and by the blue chips you may have a chance.
To be clear,
are you saying you sent $9925 in “CASH” and you now have an “ACCOUNT” worth $7785 ??
IOW, they have the money and you have numbers on a screen.
Thank you to all who took the time to write and review this trading system.
I got a call about it tonight, but the hard sell always throws up red flags for me. Told the salesman that I WOULD NOT make a decision without further research. You all told me just what I needed to know.
It helps so much when people share their experiences, good and bad! Thanks again.
Thank you all for your comments!
I do not feel I have the expertise to cope with the situations described.
Funny how reputable brokers make this available.
supposed “new” comp plan? Too f’en long for me to watch. Maybe someone has time I’m headed to the Admirals hockey game with the family.
(Ozedit: Video link removed, offline as of 28th February 2014)
1 hour to explain comp plan, bloody hell.
I’ll flag it for review and put out an updated post on the comp plan. Either later this week or next.
I watched 14 minutes before I had COMPLETELY lost interest.
Communication will normally work better if it starts from an overview viewpoint rather than from the details. Starting from the details typically mean they will like to draw the attention towards the details, e.g. “best details first” types of ideas, or “build up the excitement” ideas, or any other type of idea.
Ideas like that can be really boring when you’re familiar with most of it and don’t really need all those details.
As far as I could see (14 minutes), the compensation plan is relatively unchanged. They have probably added a component or something later in the video, e.g. a free electrical toothbrush or some other “exciting” component. “Personally recruit 12 distributors and get a free toothbrush as a bonus gift”.
When I go through it I’ll see if they’ve added anything significant. If not then I’ll just leave an update here.
I went to watch that comp plan video today and note it’s been pulled offline.
Visited the Cool Trader Pro website to look at the comp plan and observed only some minor changes to
– the affiliate fee (free to join and now $19.95 a month) and
– the Senior Associate rank qualification criteria
That’s it. Hardly warranted a completely new compensation plan review so I just made the minor updates.
Thank u all for the time u have taken to share your personal experiences and the research done on the owners and company making my decision about purchasing this Product. It has given me a realistic picture of the time and level of experience with investments and computer know how that is involved.
I can chk this off my list. Thank u all for caring enough to share
Appreciatively.
My apologies for my previous incompleted comments posted prematurely. Convinced me more about my impatience with technology is a high risk fscfor with this program.
10/23/14 Joined and bought the program around 1.5 years ago. Tried to set it up and have it run by itself with a computer I purchased just for Cool Trader. After 5-6 months with $15,480 invested, it lost money.
Then Nick Raush one of the CEO’s of cool trader, had his own company “Robotic Traders” that would manage my money for a “discounted” 1% fee and monitor the funds on their own servers daily, so they could tweak the programs.
I then put $125,000 into an Interactive broker account. Nick spoke about conservatively averaging 20-30% by the years end.
Now close to a year letting him manage the $ with the cool trader program effecting trades and supposedly scraping off profits daily and weekly, I am down over $1,000 in one account and $12,000 in the other, and have liquidated my positions today.
If I would have simply remained in mutual funds the last 1.5 years, almost anyone had made gains in the marketplace.
Learned my lesson.
Ouch. That’s one expensive lesson.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi Dr. Bob – I would like to hear more about your experiences. Although you have losses, they are not huge relative to $125k. Do you think that the losses are in part due to the down market or do you really feel that CoolTrade stinks?
I am genuinely interested in your story. I use a in IT and can see you this tool would be an asset like an auction sniper for eBay.
If you’re like me you will have issues with..
1)Reliability
2)Technicalities
3)Relativity… there are day trade restrictions, shorting restrictions, minimum investment restrictions, governmental and international money transfer issues, etc
3)Need to have several programs and computers in order to be diversified
4)Serious market risk
5)The guy I bought it off of is a scam-artist
6)Worked well with a demo-account for 6 months, but then the market reversed, and never went back in that direction, which means you lose all your money until it comes back if ever, and you lose what you could have been making had the position not been trapped.
7)Is not a one time purchase, since if it works and you keep it, you are essentially paying 100/month minimum to renew.
8)A single error, or confluence of errors can really mess you up, especially in a market crash, if it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to
Miami Vice. Go get a application for a duplicate title. Fill it out and send it in. If the vehicle is not stolen they will send you a brand new title in the mail for a small fee of usually under $20. Hope this helps. 🙂
Hate to say it folks, if it looks like a duck…..lol
I’m glad I finally found a site with some real feed back. I was getting more and more suspicious when I couldn’t find a blog or forum with a bunch of reviews raving about the product.
Just another company packaging bs and promising profit from selling the product not using it. Definition of a pyramid scam.
Hold on Nelly. What happened to Cool Trader Pro? Did the truth finally catch up to their b.s.?
Lol…looks like the duck has flown the coop….or is trying to change into a new scam with a new name….some of the players are the same…..
*****************BE FOREWARNED******************
cooltraderpro.net is now:
I know, I know. Just one last thing before I go.
Found this little gem floating around out there. Been there for a while……
You haven’t been hacked buddy. You have been scammed by C.T.P. and all the crooks that run it.
For newbies, just read some of the prior posts on this site.
Always amazes me on how long people hold onto the hope that everything is going to end up ok.
R.I.P. for CTP
Looks like they ran with the loot….lol…..still, same bunch of crooks…..how many lawsuits were left behind???
cooltraders123.wordpress.com
So they ditched MLM but still offer the platform.
Guess those dodgy affiliate link redirects back in December weren’t a co-incidence then.
My mother just informed me that she bought Cool Trader Pro (for 3 years of use) for $3500 2 weeks ago and. She also is an agent with a log-in to their training site and was told she makes $800 of a sale.
I could not find the link they promise to download CoolTrade so I just emailed them. She paid through PayPal which has buyer protection.
SHE thinks it is not a scam because, if it were, they wouldn’t have given her online training webinars (which are probably not really LIVE at all) or spent so much time with her on the phone.
She says they told her that MLM marketing was not suitable for their product so they stopped doing that.
They told her that it will make her 1 to 2% PER MONTH on trades.
HOWEVER, the comments here indicate that the commissions paid to TD ameritrade etc. EAT THAT GAIN UP? Is that correct? And taxes?
Were the negative comments about software glitches and crashing and compatibility issues about an old version or about the current Cool Trade Pro?
So… everyone “almost” breaks even or loses a couple thousand?
I saw an article from June 2013 that says that High Frequency computer trading is no longer lucrative.
Does it work in the current market?
I would REALLY appreciate it if someone can tell me if I should contact paypal to get her money back ASAP!
PLEASE HELP! Thank you!
After watching 5 training videos and taking notes about Limit Orders, Stop Loss, Trailing Stop, Shorting, ETS, 50 & 200 day moving average, 12 &26 day EMA, MACD, etc…
I am VERY interested in getting into trading WITH SMALL AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO LEARN (even in a MANUAL mode) because I love numbers and am very analytical etc… In fact, I have always had “a feeling” that I would be good at stock trading.
So, IS THERE a GOOD program to use that doesn’t cost $3500 or should I just sign up with TD ameritrade and do it manually?
I would REALLY appreciate it if someone can tell me if I should contact paypal to get her money back ASAP!
PLEASE HELP! Thank you SO MUCH 🙂
My mom DOES NOT have $3,500 to lose… she would have to default on her credit card!
Gratefully, Matt!
CTP is a bulls**t scam run by crooks. Buy and “maybe” sell isn’t an investment strategy. You are taking on tremendous risk and don’t even know due to their bulls**t accounting.
Your reports are useless as they only show profit and not mark-to-mark profit /loss on total positions.
This is the scam that “affiliates” show to newbies/chum.
Also, their “no refund” policy sets it up as ponzi/pyramid scheme. They take in cash up front and never have to payout refunds or even offer a review period. What legit provider does this? NONE.
Imagine the cash they made-$3,000/$4,000 a pop, cancelled the MLM business, didn’t pay out refunds or commissions and just walked away from all the bullsh**t.
Reason you don’t see much negativity about them is that most people feel stupid and cheated by them. They are embarrassed to report this to authorities, families or friends.
All the “good” things reported are shills, employees at “headquarters” or fake identities made up by the owners/employees. Internet can make you look bigger than you really are.
7 Robo Advisors That Make Investing Effortless – Forbes:
forbes.com/sites/robertberger/2015/02/05/7-robo-advisors-that-make-investing-effortless/4/
“Jack Hirshout” appears to be a an astroturfer plant. He or she attempted to leave additional flattering comments under a different name, with a completely different backstory.
I’ve as such removed all comments by this individual, including replies.
That’s EXACTLY WHY they WOULD spend so much time with her on the phone… They can squeeze $3500 out of her for less than a hour’s work and some crappy Youtube videos.
Even if they have to split it couple different ways it’s still a good payday, and make her feel NOT cheated.
Search “The Verge Syndicate” which should take you to “The Verge” website’s article on this syndicate of online scammers who has a clique of such scammers whose only job is to squeeze money out of old and sick people who can’t afford to lose money in hopes of making more.
They have a boilerhouse full of these cold callers who will offer discounts, additional training, bonus seminars, etc. etc. just to keep you on the line and give them your credit card.
Thanks to K Chang for the link.
These CTP clowns wish that they were as slick as the Syndicate boys….
theverge.com/2012/5/10/2984893/scamworld-get-rich-quick-schemes-mutate-into-an-online-monster
What a bunch of whiners! You can’t blame cool trade for losing money. Blame the strategy you pick!
I’ve been simulating For 1.5 years and have never lost.
I’ve manually closed trades and some have come behind But that’s why you have to test strategies to find something you like or works!
If you are worried about a measly 4 grand then get a job a Walmart and don’t take any risks.
You won’t gain a thing being a depressing negative user.
Wait, does that mean you’ve been paying $4K for nothing?
Neither have I. I have been simulating investments for several years, and I have never lost anything. 🙂
Wow, never would have joined Cool Trade Pro don’t like MLM! Tim is right!
you have to test, although 1.5 years is way too long. Be conserved in the be early stages. Use Dow 30 with a low stop loss. they have worked out the bugs and no complaints.
The last correction made the trader alot of money. The biggest problem is GREED you want to make too much money too soon. IT WON’T HAPPEN!!
Be smart and pick a strategy that doesn’t take a lot of risk. as for cool trade pro I have heard nothing but negative comments and they sound like crooks.
don’t like the comp plan and would have never joined. but they are now giving the company a bad name. hope is all works out for you mlmers.
I used CoolTtade for almost two years with poor results, and then I dropped it.
First of all, the software is OLD, dog slow, and a major bloatwear memory hog. Because of this, it crashes often, even on a high-end machine.
The strategies one can build rely upon fundamental analysis primarily, and the most rudimentary of indicators. There are no advanced indicators or methods like Fibonnaci, Channeling or trend lines.
The software is so slow, that a rapidly moving market will blow past your stop loss, causing you to lose a LOT more than you expected.
The customer support SUCKED, and the user forum was dead.
It takes MONTHS of strategy testing to get a reasonable outcome. Most strategies require a lot of cash just to make a little cash. The built-in strategies are simplistic and mediocre at best.
CootTrade used to charge $39 per month 4 years ago. That’s right – you read me correctly. THIRTY-NINE DOLLARS PER MONTH. I couldn’t believe Ed is now charging $3,990 up front for a yearly subscription just a few years and no real improvements later!
Ed had a heavily revolving door because most people couldn’t make it work, and they dropped the program.
SAVE YOUR MONEY! DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THIS PROGRAM AT THIS PRICE! You will be wasting the first several months trying to get it to go live with some profit.
You knew it would end up like this…lol…..
Thanks for the heads up!