This article is part of the series: “How to invest? Some advice to my sons”, by Lyubomir Lekov, founder of INVESTOR.BG and LEKOVI Foundation
A hundred or so years back people in Europe and America have been attracted and captivated by the “tricks” of numerous then famous magicians and mediums, showing almost impossible abilities. Talking with the dead, moving objects and all types of quackery have been leaving hundreds of naive loafers with their minds blown (and moneyless!). Nowadays it is not so easy to fool someone with such tricks and so the magicians have upgraded – the world now is full with financial jugglers capable to cast a spell on you in just a few minutes and make you run to them, with a credit card in your hand, begging them to enroll you for their “unique” fast money-making training. I have attended a similar event a week ago in London. I went there to hear and see one of the legends of the global financial frauds – Jordan Belfort aka The Wolf of Wall Street. Generally, I am fully aware the organizers of such events are mainly aiming to sell expensive trainings. However, I have decided it is worth to endure the aggressive sales in order to see the “real wolf”. What happened, though, got beyond my ideas of an ethical business. I was approximately 40 minutes late for the seminar (held on November 21st) – traveling around London always takes more time than expected. So I found myself in a huge hall with some 3000 – 4000 participants. I didn’t have enough time to go deep into the fascinating story of the former broker because just after my arrival, Jordan called upon the first guest lecturer – Greg Secker. He was presented with a bombastic video in which he flew in this own helicopter between shiny sky-scarpers and traded while piloting. The audience welcomed Greg with stormy applause even though most of the participants have never heard of him. Although he spoke in a very convincing and attractive way at moments he sounded strange because he included some really embarrassing comments about his ex girlfriend – and she was the person who gave him the idea for the school for investors! Greg gave graphic examples of his wealth and how easy it is for us to get so rich through Forex trading. I was heavily doubtful everything Greg said was true but obviously the audience wasn’t sharing my opinion. On the contrary, Greg’s misleading questions to the participants whether they want to make a lot of money and make it fast received enthusiastic approval. At some point I decided spontaneously to share my thoughts with the young man sitting next me – that the system for getting rich which Greg was advertising will inevitably inflict losses for everybody following it. It seemed to me the young man nodded in agreement. Right before the culmination we watched a video with an young blonde beauty who recently visited one of Greg’s trainings and right after it she started earning £30 000 per month. After that the Forex guru announced a price of £7000 for his three-day training. He added the places are limited and he will give us the chance, just for a short time, to enroll although he underlined we have to be fast enough otherwise we will lose the opportunity to get acquainted with his unique system for earning £30 000 per month. I have to admit – he was really convincing but I thought nobody will fall for it. The truth however was totally different and definitely was shocking to observe! After Greg counted to three people from each corner of the hall ran to the places where they could buy their ticket for the fast money-making training. Even the young man sitting next to me! It was fascinating that after the first wave of people running as fast as Usain Bolt, there was a second wave of “flying” candidates for the fast money-making training – they were obviously influenced by the fact that with all these people running around they are missing an unique opportunity. Gladly for them, there were enough available places for everybody. Why wasn’t I surprised! After this leading world expert two more took the floor – their trainings weren’t so expensive, though. The common thing was that all trainings were supposed to be held for three days. Obviously people like three day trainings. Andy Harrington was the second guest lecturer, presented as the leading public speaking expert. Andy managed to get the likes of the audience and made a spectacular show with someone from the public who didn’t know how to stand on the stage. With some advice from the expert the miracle happened – he was an entirely different guy just because he has been instructed to put his hands and feet the right way and was told to stand upright. Maybe this was the reason why hundreds of people wanted to enroll for a training at the price of £3000. Shaun Shelton, the last guest lecturer, told us how to make money (with a 16% yearly profit) at the USA real estate market. Again, he made a brilliant presentation and offered us to learn how to make fast money with a training costing £1780. At last the time has arrived for The Wolf to tell us the story of his life. There is no doubt that this man has an incredible talent to convince people and has put a lot of efforts to improve his sales skills. The moment when he explained what is hidden behind the movie scene, in which he sells penny stocks, was really strong. This was the scene when all the people in the office stare at Jordan Belfort and listen to him tricking a client of the phone. After we watched the scene he told us the movie reveals the situation absolutely truly but one specific detail was spared – the fact that before this phone call he had worked on his speech for two hours! This speech contained all the details he was about to tell the client on the other side of the phone. In general, The Wolf made a strong connection with the audience and he is undoubtedly very charismatic, a remarkable sales expert, who can teach everybody a lot. Of course, he ended the presentation with an offer for a 3-day seminar at the price of £3000, accompanied by all types of tricks – that he has a limited time and he can’t travel very often to London – so we shouldn’t miss this unique opportunity! The night after the seminar I decided to learn more about the lecturers. The truth is the world now is very different because one can easily read about the “world experts” on the web. I found two articles for the Forex expert Greg Secker in The Guardian and BBC where journalists tell in details the hardship they went through when visiting his trainings and how the participants felt deceived because they didn’t get what they have paid for. Greg, however, is having the ability to walk on the edge and nobody could tell him his activities are illegal. The situation around The Wolf of Wall Street was even more intriguing because the information in Wikipedia showed he received $1.2 million from the movie but has given his victims only $12 000. He has to pay them $110 million in total and so far has given them only $11.6 million, received after he had sold some assets before going to jail. At the seminar Jordan Belfort said now he is rich again and receive 7-digit payments from different activities. Inquiries show he didn’t pay his victims this year as well. This information is in a great contrast with the stories I have heard from Jordan Belfort. Despite his convincing moral statements that now he is a different person and had written his book because of his children, I couldn’t stop thinking of a saying – “A leopard can’t change its spots”. Alternatively said – “as long as there are fools, there will be dodgers as well” because there is no other explanation how such a practice is successful for years and people don’t draw a lesson from it.