Revision

This was a very rough week for me – and I also felt a bit insulted when one of our long term subscribers suddenly completely lost it and started to point fingers. Can I really blame the guy? Not really actually – I myself have been running on fumes lately and the last two days of trading were just one of many ugly moments we had to endure in the past few months. However, I still wonder how after four months of juicy profits (please make yourself heard geronimo subs if I am bending the truth here) anyone would blow up in such a fashion after one admittedly bad day.

Now, I just received an email from a subscriber which I in the spirit of complete transparency decided to share with the rest of you – I think it is not only eloquent and very thoughtful – it’s also completely spot on in its reasoning and logic:

Mole,

As one of your customers I think its more professional to offer this feedback personally rather than publicly on the blog.

I am prompted to write because of your “public announcement” and other events of today. I am also writing because I value your service and opinions.

First let me say I am new to trading and so far its more of a hobby. You are one that I learn much from and respect. I offer evidence of your value to me by buying your product. No better way to demonstrate confidence in someone than by buying there service.

Any current frustration with Geronimo is not the draw down. Granted when trading 10 to 20 contacts the draw down is not pleasant especially when stopped out but its part of the game. I will take the high percentage that Geronimo delivers.

The issue that I and I believe many other subscribers are talking about now is the fairly recent inconsistencies with the blank alerts, the blank stop reminders, the system being down and getting manual alerts or information late, alerts that come while the market is falling off etc.

These issues erode a bit of confidence in the technology not in you or Eric. And that erosion of confidence can make it a bit hard to just play the odds, pull the trigger and trust the system. It seems to me that a bit more professional communication, an explanation of the problem and updates of what is being done to correct would alleviate many concerns. Thats customer service. Remember how frustrated you got with the Disqus response?

I believe I am a bit older than you and have been fortunate to enjoy considerable success and luck in many areas. What I have learned in both athletics and building several businesses is that leaders will always take the arrows. People love to shoot at you when you poke your head above the crowd. You have put yourself in (earned actually) a position of leadership and for many different reasons people will shoot at you. Much of the time its unfounded or just jealousy. A true strong leader does not quit or shrink from that. Time will prove him right.

What’s my point? Its a simple one; You are in a position of leadership. Many look to your leadership. Why let a few disgruntled comments derail you? Don’t stop posting the Geronimo results! Post them with pride……it works! The charts and stats will speak for themselves. Let the others squabble, bicker, trade insults and get offend and upset like teenage girls. A leader is above that and just lets performance and results speak for themselves. You have that performance with Geronimo, put it out there. Nothing will silence critics faster than hard evidence.

And why cut retail traders? Having built several companies I know the allure of the thinking that only dealing with “the big boys” seems so much easier. But the facts of most business are that the small customers form the base on which to thrive and grow. What happens when you have 4 or 5 big clients and one walks? You lose 20 to 25% of your business. Now as best I can figure you have around xxx subscribers to Geronimo. Thats $xxxx a month. Why would you throw that base away even if your main focus going forward are larger clients? Think an institution would not ask about blank alerts?

Perhaps I dont understand the world of blogging. I don’t understand the petty arguments I see at times and I don’t understand why you allow yourself to be drawn into that at times.

But I do know you offer a valuable service, I appreciate it and I back up my opinion by paying for it. I hope you don’t quit it.

Ok, I have said enough and maybe I will be banned or canceled (I hope not!) that’s your choice.

Thanks for listening.

Of course he has been banned AND canceled. Just kidding… 🙂

Now, I must point out that I believe that Eric and I have been bending over backwards in communicating any technical issues. Just a day ago I sent out a lengthy email explaining the situation to all of our geronimo subscribers – and Eric has been chiming in as well. But yes, in the past few days that dreaded empty alert bug has been rearing its ugly neck way too often and at the wrong time (as if there’s every a good one). But rest assured that Eric and I are working on the issue on both fronts and it will be fixed. I have added additional logging code into my strategy which hopefully will provide important clues next time this happens. The API I am dealing with is a bit complex and the bug is not in my code as far as I can tell – it has to do with the way the orders are being executed by NinjaTrader. Having been a software developer in another life I know how long it can take to fix some obscure bug.

In any case – I have decided to continue the Geronimo service ‘as is’ – both Eric and I realize that we’ll have to face some heat every once in a while, and I guess that comes with the territory. We both feel that we have been as transparent, fair, and forthcoming as humanly possible. And no, we won’t let one subscriber ruin it for the rest of you. We are even working on enabling alerts via chat clients (i.e. Yahoo/AIM/Google, etc.) – but our current focus is on fixing this bug.

And with that I present today’s ugly stats, based on the email alerts:

geronimo/ES: -12.25 (two trades – one completely stopped out – the other stopped out by the close)

That’s probably the worst day ever for Geronimo so far. And yes, we are keeping the stop logic as is – if we saw an opportunity to decrease the stops we would.

Have a good weekend.