Dirk du Toit

[MickMason]

Hi Firefly

Thanks for your comments, I'm not sure I qualify as a mentor though, what I impart is merely common sense most of the time.

In regard to the book and it's author I have several issues that may be hard to put aside in order to offer an impartial review.

Firstly I find the sales tactics employed by the author and/or his agents to be no different than those used by the very people he decries so passionately, the marketmakers, system and ebook sellers, and what he calls 'marketing wizards'. If, as he suggests, they are not to be trusted......

Secondly, as far as I can tell the strategy is based around some form of averaging system ("Cost averaging and multiple entries") but is incomplete. The author says "I stand behind the content of Bird Watching and offer a proper mentor programme building on the basics described in Bird Watching", so is this book just a precursor to his mentoring program, required in order to make it in forex?

Thirdly, he regards this market as "...the least suitable of all the major markets for technical analysis...", something which I as a technical analyst would obviously strongly disagree with.

Having said that, there are a couple of things we agree on "....Simplicity of the system is one. A broad understanding of the markets is another....", but he admits himself that his approach to trading is discretionary, can discretion be written in a book?

I apologise if my post came across as flippant or superficial, the length of the book wasn't the issue, reading it on the understanding that it's not complete and requires mentorship (from the author) seemed just a little pointless somehow which is why I offered my copy to anyone in a better position to give it a fair hearing.

Out of interest have you read it? If so what opinion did you reach?

Regards


Mick

[firefly]

Mick, thanks for your comments.

I have read the book, actually more than read it. Pretty much marked it up, underlined, wrote comments in it, talked to others using it and talked to the author about it. You get the picture. Am I an expert about it? by no means. Do I, can I follow all of its precepts, by no means.

It has given me a certain inner peace about the market, specifically EurUsd. The methods are simple, like using fibonacci, but effective. I conjecture that there was a point in time where you decided that fibs worked well for you. Well enough to just ignore pretty much anything else that came down the road. While I am not at that point exclusively, I have dedicated a chart package to it and use some of the concepts in everything else I do.

My experience is shaped by my trading parameters which include not a lot of capitalization nor time to watch the market -- just before NY open and most of the Asian session.

The emphasis is on fundamentals. What is happening in the USA and in the world that continues to support the over all trend. It also is rooted in trading with the trend. Not ever taking a short trade in a bullish market. The definition of a trend is based on many months of price action, not daily or even weekly action. Everything else is noise. Retracements are opportunities to buy at a better price and letting the trend pull my long trades with it's momentum.

I also found that using a gridline method described in the book totally changed my trading and my understanding of price. Somewhere I once read that the best indicator of price is ... price ! This method makes that statement make sense. I set up my grid months ago and made a couple of minor changes over the course of time. It has given me direction for trading or standing aside. For these several months price has pretty much honored my grid lines by stopping there, bouncing off and returning...etc.

So for someone like me who cannot watch the market during its most volatile times BWILC has worked well. I can stand back and see the larger picture.

There is a lot more of course. But these are some of the ideas that ' fit ' for me.

Best of all, It changed my mental framework for trading.

Firefly

[patrick_fx]

Well I've finally managed to download the 54mb pdf!

Mick

Hi Mick,

Could you post a link of that 54MB pdf file?

Thanks

[MickMason]

I conjecture that there was a point in time where you decided that fibs worked well for you. Well enough to just ignore pretty much anything else that came down the road.

Some things certainly work better than others but there is merit in almost all indicators to one degree or another, Fibonacci just fitted my style and personality like a glove. Although I use Fibonacci exclusively in my trading I don't ignore new methods and strategies, it's interesting to read what others are doing.

The emphasis is on fundamentals. What is happening in the USA and in the world that continues to support the over all trend. It also is rooted in trading with the trend. Not ever taking a short trade in a bullish market. The definition of a trend is based on many months of price action, not daily or even weekly action. Everything else is noise. Retracements are opportunities to buy at a better price and letting the trend pull my long trades with it's momentum.

Is this stuff you learned from the book? Trends exist within trends, intraday traders tend to look at shorter time frames than monthly or weekly because although, for example, the long term trend may be down opportunities exist intraday to long. What a positional trader calls 'noise', an intraday trader calls opportunity, it's all relative.

I also found that using a gridline method described in the book totally changed my trading and my understanding of price. Somewhere I once read that the best indicator of price is ... price ! This method makes that statement make sense. I set up my grid months ago and made a couple of minor changes over the course of time. It has given me direction for trading or standing aside. For these several months price has pretty much honored my grid lines by stopping there, bouncing off and returning...etc.

That's excellent, you've found something which you can focus on, which you trust and which gives you the confidence to trade, that's important. I'm not sure what the grid is that you mention as I haven't reached that chapter yet. Price action is important I agree, but price alone is just....price. In order to speculate in the market we need to speculate where price may go. One way to do that is to compare current price to past price and project probable future price. If I showed you a chart with a single dot on it, current price, how is that going to help you project where price may go?

I'm up to page 50 and so far it's mostly been the author saying 'I'm going to tell you.....', but as yet nothing of any substance.



Mick

[MickMason]

Hi Mick,

Could you post a link of that 54MB pdf file?

Thanks

Hi Patrick

I have one copy of the book and am happy to give it to someone who is prepared to post a full and unbiased review in the books section, are you that person?


Mick

[DrForex]

Hi Patrick

I have one copy of the book and am happy to give it to someone who is prepared to post a full and unbiased review in the books section, are you that person?

Mick

I intend to comment fully later on what is fast approaching farcical status, MickMason.

Why do you say the download is 54MB?

Why don't you say that you have an illegally obtained copy? Why are you promoting further illegallities in this regard - completely disregarding the MoneyTec Code of Conduct that you should not do this if it does not come naturally to you (to viloate copyright)?

First you obtain an illegal copy (while you could just have asked for a reviewers copy) and then you want something beneficial in exchange for it, or is it to the benefit of MTec, that MTec can attract more customers, more advertising, more money ...

Why don't you have respect for my copyright and as such for my person?

Why if you said you are going to do an "unbiased" review, don't you do it?

Why if you say, you aren't going to read it, you then apparently read it?

Why if you say you aren't going to review it you apparently do review it?

Why do you say here that you will ask my permission before making excerpts and post them here and then you don't do it (ask permission)?

What is it that you want to achieve?

Legally obtained copies of BWILC has 236 pages (not 238 - unless you obtained it before July 2005) and the download is 2MB because it contains several pictures / graphics which contain a thousand words) each. (What was removed was a discount voucher for the mentoring at the end ...)

The reason for my reference that most anyone including readers of BWILC should consider mentoring is because of the notion created by marketing wizards that the ebooks or systems they promote are the full and complete answer. Buy it. Read it. Trade it. 1-2-3 you're a successful financially independent trader.

I don't want people to have that attitude towards BWILC (or any other book, you are most likely to be dissapointed and lose money in the process. I don't want you to lose money on my account. I want you to benefit from what I offer). While I don't think everybody has that attitude it is true that a lot of the material presented out there, many times not by the authors but by affiliate marketers, promote this fallacy. becasue they are Internet marketing wizards they are the most visible, you are likely to come accross them. That in itself is a problem. There is no way that you will be visible on the Internet if you wish you are visible without doing the right things to be visible. If you have an excellent product or service which I know I have and many many testimonials on which that knowledge is based and you want to make a difference you need to go about it in a systematic and professional way.

I do not make excuses that I offer mentoring, nor that I promote the fact that I do it in my book.

In my Inbox right now is an email with some comments from one of my mentoring clients:

* * * * *

Attached are my results for the year to date.

Summary for April 2006: -

Closed 23 positions, all winners at a total profit of $.... from 1211 pips
gain. Only one open position at the end of the month
trying to capitalise on the breakout currently up 78 pips.

My confidence is growing and I want to start raising the stakes but I know the risks and want to ensure that my growth is steady if not spectacular.

Thanks again for the advice and support it is much appreciated. I cannot
believe how your approach has totally changed the way I trade and the
results it can produce.

* * * * *

I have more, but this one arrived today in my Inbox.

If you want to read a testimonal of someone who bought the book, didn't contact me in anyway except to send me that testimonial about his multi month success after reading BWILC, subscribe to my newsletter service and you will receive that testimonial via autoresponder in a day or two. You will also receive a link to download Part 1. (I have delayed the start of the actual newsletter service due to capacity constraints. Same reason why I have limited the number of mentoring clients I can take in.) You can rest assured that I am not an affiliate marketer of other services and the newsletter does not intend to simply promote products but will be content driven and will add over a long term immense value to everyone's endeavours in forex trading. About that I am very confident.

[MickMason]

Oh, and there it is, ....susbscribe, buy, enrol...right at the end of the book in the traditional marketing style of 'we've suckered you in and already got some of your money, now we want more of it'.

'Special Discount Offer!'.....'Enrol Now!!'.....

Why should the purchaser have to pay an extra $1000 for mentorship, they've just paid 70 bucks for the book, surely people can't be expected to accept half the story and have to pay extra for the ending!

"farcical status", yup, absolutely!

By the way, the book was given to me by a disgruntled purchaser who took great exception to having been ripped off, it's not an illegally obtained copy at all.

This is a snapshot of what's on page 225 and what you'll get for an additional thousand bucks, or more's the point what is missing from the $70 book you just purchased!


Mick

[MickMason]

I should add, as soon as someone steps foot into a public forum such as Moneytec with what appears to be the sole intention of promoting themselves and/or their merchandise they leave themselves open to critisism and comments. They have the choice of either defending their material in a rational way, or attacking the critic.

The trading methods outlined in your book, while unorthodox, are not unique. Averaging price has been around since the Ark in one form or another, averaging, grid trading, martingale, and lots of variations to them. You may have a novel way of averaging, I don't know, that was the purpose of reviewing your book, to find out.

The purpose of book reviews is to offer prospective purchasers' a preview of what they will be buying and the reviewers appraisal of it, reviews have little to do with generating income or advertising revenue for a website, not this one anyway. If an author is satisfied his book is a good read then (s)he is likely to welcome an independent review. On the other hand.......


Mick

[keris2112]

Hi all,
I just want to preface this post by saying that I know I have hardly any posts here (heck, this may be my first), but I've been lurking at Moneytec for a long time and I post a lot on other forums. Anyway...

I purchased BWILC about a year, so I don't remember a lot of the details, but, I do remember my feelings about the book after reading it. I thought they'd be appropriate in this thread.

As I was reading the book, I remember learning a lot about the forex market in general. I also remember feeling good about Dirk's ideas regarding trading and system development. As I progressed through the book, Dirk alluded to the 4X1 system that would be explained later. I eagerly continued reading, enjoying what I read, but looking forward to the 'system' part. He even tells you at the beginning of the book, 'Many of you are going to want to just jump right to the system at the back of the book. Please don't do that. Read the book from beginning to end to get a good foundation.' Ok, I didn't want to, but I followed his advice and didn't jump ahead (I wanted too).

I kept reading, getting closer and closer to the end of the book, and still no system. I was starting to wonder. Then, somewhere around page 200, the system. I eagerly read to the end of the book, soaking up as much as I could before the book ended. Finally, the book ended, and......



Utter Disappointment!!!

That was my first reaction.

A couple of days later, as I was mulling over things in my head, I realized that I had learned a number of important things in the book. But, for me, that still didn't make up for the disappointment I felt from the book. Here was my problem:

I purchased the book because I wanted to learn to trade better, but also because I wanted to learn Dirk's 4X1 system that he said he was going to teach us in the book. What I got was, in my opinion, a very cursory overview of his system. You can't trade his system after reading his book. When all was said and done, although I learned many things, I felt the book was one long advertisement for his mentorship program.

I don't mean any disrespect for Dirk, I'm just being honest, and expressing what I felt after reading the book. If he had shared all the details of the 4X1 system in the book so that I could potentially trade the system if I chose to, I would have been completely happy with the book. If, after doing that, he advertised his mentorship program for those interested in gaining a further understanding of the subtleties of the system, that would have been fine. But, in my opinion, you can't trade the system after reading the book. You NEED the mentorship. Entries and Exits were presented in a very ambiguous manner, and, although I understand the median grid concept, and even believe that it is a good idea, I can't trade it, because the subjects of entries, exits, and money management are so vaguely covered.

Again, I don't mean any disrespect. I just thought I'd give my year-old 'review' of the book. It's not that the book didn't "deliver". There was a lot of good info. But, to me, it just Over Promised and Under Delivered.

Just my honest review,
Keris

[MickMason]

......I purchased the book because I wanted to learn to trade better, but also because I wanted to learn Dirk's 4X1 system that he said he was going to teach us in the book. What I got was, in my opinion, a very cursory overview of his system. You can't trade his system after reading his book. When all was said and done, although I learned many things, I felt the book was one long advertisement for his mentorship program....

Thanks for the review Keris, I think it's important for people to be aware of the things you mentioned.

My copy remains unclaimed so it seems his book is not that popular, but if anyone wants it then just email me at mickmason@hushmail.com and I will send you the download link.


Mick

[faure]

I love how Mick is burning Dirk despite the fact that he was too lazy to actually read the book. Classic !

[MickMason]

I love how Mick is burning Dirk despite the fact that he was too lazy to actually read the book. Classic !

lol, I'm a speed reader and read it twice, it's a sales pitch is all.

1st third is "....in this book I will tell you....."
2nd third is a biography of the author
3rd third is promoting his mentoring program

And to top it all off a discount voucher off his $1200 course.

I can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear!

Too funny....

Mick

[faure]

I have actually read the book, and like a lot of books it's not the "answer" BUT there are a few gold nuggets hidden in there. All I'm saying is you can't slate the book because you don't like the idea of someone selling something. Look beyond the cover and you might surprise yourself, the mind is like a parachute...

[MickMason]

I have actually read the book, and like a lot of books it's not the "answer" BUT there are a few gold nuggets hidden in there. All I'm saying is you can't slate the book because you don't like the idea of someone selling something. Look beyond the cover and you might surprise yourself, the mind is like a parachute...

I have absolutely no objection to people selling things as long as there's some value in what they are selling. As you know yourself there are so many scams around, signals, courses, books, mentoring, anything that the gullible are willing to buy the scammers will try and sell.

I looked beyond the cover and read the book, twice. I couldn't find very much in it that isn't offered right here in these forums.

Consistently profitable trading consists of just a few major elements, none of which were covered in this book. The main message seemed to be "....you can't possibly be profitable without my help.....", the intention was obvious.

We are all entitled to our opinion, what I have posted is mine, it is of course your prerogative to disagree.



Mick

[keris2112]

I have actually read the book, and like a lot of books it's not the "answer" BUT there are a few gold nuggets hidden in there. All I'm saying is you can't slate the book because you don't like the idea of someone selling something. Look beyond the cover and you might surprise yourself, the mind is like a parachute...

faure,

I agree with you completely about finding the gold nuggets in the different books I've read. Most books, too me, over promise and under deliver. This could have just been another book that did that. My two biggest problems with BWILC were that Dirk "promised" that his book was different, and that in the end, his system, which he talked so highly about all thoughout the book, wasn't really tradeable without the mentorship.

If Dirk would have just give a good, solid explanation of 4X1, that was tradeable, then I would have felt that he under promised and over delivered. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. So again, I learned a lot, and even found a few of those gold nuggets, but in the end, I was still disappointed.

Just my humble opinion,
Keris