Influence of Affluence Screenshots

I saw this interesting tweet on my timeline where Sensibull guys proposed to become a neutral Rating agency for profit and loss screenshots posted by traders. The underlying need was to decipher between the ‘genuine’ traders who are making money Vs fakes who are there to sell their webinars.

The entire premise is to ‘save’ the ‘innocent’ retail from the clutches of predatory marketing piranhas. (Marketing/publicity received from this self-less act is a small incentive for them)

My first thought on the subject was, ‘Who is protecting who’. Anyone who gets influenced by shoddy marketing of blatant display of profit and loss statements cannot be termed ‘innocent’ to start with. In a court of LAW, not knowing a law is never exempted from punishment.

At best that retail participant is greedy and at worse a dumb sucker who would anyways get duped by someone else, like Warren says

A fool and his money find ways to part ways.

But my first thought was naive, it had an inbuild presumption that people are by and large rational.

Profit and loss screenshots or any screenshot showcasing affluence is a VERY POTENT AND POWERFUL tool. We wrote a BLOG covering WHY and HOW this works.

Rational human beings are a Rare species and everyone else has an external scorecard.

I ran a thought experiment on the subject and published this tweet.

The TWEET went VIRAL. Do you think that 188 people answered back just because they wanted to win a book. HELL NO, they answered because THEY HAVE A STRONG OPINION ON THE SUBJECT.

That is the kind of emotion Affluence screenshots generate!! They touch a raw nerve.

YOU CAN HATE IT, or LIKE IT, but YOU CAN NOT IGNORE IT.

Precisely the kind of combination a person seeking publicity seeks. In a population of 1000, only 3 would be indifferent to your LOUD effort, probably 800 will hate you but the remaining become your followers and future clients.

Social media has changed the playing field on its head. I think Robert Cialdini needs to update his book to incorporate this new world. The reach and potency is amplified manifolds. There are ONLINE CULTS now. Try and write a carb-friendly comment on a keto forum and before you know, you will be character assassinated.

My views on markets and screenshots are simple. I don’t want any joker on my timeline who is posting profit and loss screenshots. It doesn’t matter whether he is genuine or not, point is, he is too loud and that is a reason enough.

As for saving retail, Ed Seykota has said it the best,

Everybody gets what they want from the market.