Well fellow members of the Water Buffalo Lodge, it looks as if our Grand Pubah is getting a little tired of always picking the short straw and drawing "Forum Duty" as he is now responding to new people in the following manner.

Posted: 8/30/06 10:54 am



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On 8/30/06 Southpaw wrote:
Tamtam, thanks for all the insight, I will stick around of course.....I'm not going to lose on the few stocks I have purchased (I can't stand to lose). BUT, I only deposited $250 which I'm sure isn't enough to worry over on either side. The issue is that I used to be a bookmaker and know tons of people that would be interested in this type of thing if they would think it is secure and legit. From my 1 week experience I see many things that I consider flaws and that would make me question whether I would endorse this site. If I understand this process correctly this is clearly the biggest 'flaw' and one that I wouldn't accept on any level. ASM claims, claims, claims that they are trying to copy true financial markets but their IPO process proves otherwise.

I have a slogan for them....if they want to lure customers based on honesty.

'ASM offers the most realistic online sports trading markets today, unless it is in our best interest not to!!!'

At least that is honest, some people might even prefer that instead of finding out later.
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You have a background as a bookmaker and joined
ASM 1 week ago.

With all due respect, I do not feel that you
are entitled to lay judgement at this early
stage in your experience.

Chris

This will strengthen the herd in no time I'm sure.

seems that Chris like debating, that's why he formed the forum and started to debate about USAs future.
But looking on his debating technique I can't see he was qualified for the debate team in school.......and that angers him.

Can't see what he's winning with such comments to his customers.

Haha once again, Chris never ceases to amaze me. Once again, it forces we the traders to ask: "Has a CEO ever in the history of online startup businesses made it a point to go OUT OF HIS WAY TO ANTAGONIZE HIS OWN CUSTOMER BASE?" Answer: No lol. Unbelievable.

Unlike some others on here, I think ASM is headed in the right direction, I think the VA tender offer will be approved, and I think this site is ready to go big time after another year. That said, Chris' completely assenine behavior has got to stop. It's rude, childish, and only serves to make the symbol of all of ASM (the CEO) look like an angry, insecure, and untrustworthy man. He's got to calm down, show some restraint, and if he is to let the forum exist in the first place to allow users to voice their opinions and frustrations...then he should realize that involving himself in petty fights (especially with NEW users) only means bad advertising for the company.

This statement is kind of contradictory Philly, don't you think? How can you say the CEO of the company is childish but the company's moving in the right direction? Because you want it to? He's not going to change. As long as people agree with him, everything's fine. You're incompetent if you disagree though. Doesn't matter who you are or what your education level may be. Anything negative "isn't an intelligent comment". Plus, the main focus is new IPOs! Not improving what they have. Doesn't make much sense to me.
I don't think they ever had a clue on what they were doing to begin with. Otherwise, you wouldn't have seen so much trial and error and so many excuses made, asking for help from traders. I mean c'mon.

I also say there's no way the magazine article comes out. Chris told us to watch the newstands for it in March. Now it's this month. Next they'll say we're targeting March madness again, next March and buy them another 6 months. I wonder how many times that delay will work? I think there's a few it will work indefinately on. lol

BTW, could you explain the VA tender offer in detail for us? Is it a series of documents? Something that's been submitted to somebody? Has it been submitted? Who all is involved (names of ASM staff, govt. officials, etc..) and how will we know when it's a success? What exactly is the offer?

Yes, Vess, my statement is contradictory. Most human beings are. I think Chris ignores every single rule of social conduct for how to operate a business in dealing with his customer base and customer communication. That said, I do think he's intelligent, manipulative, driven, and the kind of guy that knows how to get things done.

If, and it is a big if, but if ASM IS legalized as an official financial exchange in the U.S...then any flaws of ASM, be it from too many IPO's, too high a plundering rate, not enough traders, crappy communication between management and the userbase...all these things will not matter because the single biggest hurdle ASM needs to overcome will have been shattered. The U.S. recognizing this as a legit financial institution means that ASM will have all the time in the world to fine tune, further improve and tweak any details they need. This is a pattonted system, and even if the 13,000 is a ghost number, with an active trader base of 500 people (which, sadly, is probably what it is lol as youve pointed out before)...that is enough in place that with one giant marketing push (google, magazine, tv commercials) a flood of people will join. It seems obvious that the plan is to have the audits finishing and the move to the U.S. in the works as the first priority before a wide scale marketing push; that might split a lot of people's opinions, but there is certainly logic to getting some foundations in place before luring in new traders on a big scale.

If you've read any of my posts you'll know I'm very neutral in my opinions about ASM. I think any number of forum posters are more adequately eqipped to run the day to day business of how Chris interacts with the customer base and marketing; however, for better or worse, Chris is the boss here, it's his idea, in two year's time he's accomplished a remarkable feat, and while I think he has some insecurity issues with not being able to hear any criticism in the slightest without an anger bomb going off in his head, I do think his is intelligent and capable of making the connections in the sports and legal world he needs to make, and knows how to put people around him that know their stuff in order to make this work.

Vess, you could certainly be right about each and every last point youve made, I'm not taking anything away from your concerns, they are all very legit and worry us all. This could be a giant pyramid scheme and we're all being taken advantage of. Maybe there IS no pending magazine article (although the fact that quite a few traders are going to be contacted via telephone might be our first sign of proof that such a thing exists)...maybe the "legal team" and "support" and "marketing epartments" are all completely fictional and made up...maybe if this whole thing bombed Chris would be the first to take off and run with whatever money he managed to get. All of the above could certainly true, and not I nor any other trader on ASM has the access to Costa Rica to prove otherwise.

However, I've already made enough money on here in a very, very short amount of time (I'm still only a rookie that's been here two months, despite my rapid fire posting haha) to prove to me the concept is good enough, and Chris' drive is good enough, to hang around for the wait and see how well this thing goes. I, and I hope you as well, hope you're wrong in your accusations. If ASM does well, despite the ABSURDITY of the deadlines constantly being pushed back, and mishandling of customer accounts (which, yes, I'm sure would violate any number of US laws)...it simply means a lot of money for you, me, and all the other traders out there that have found out about ASM before the international public does.

And, lastly, GO PHILLIES! (I think that by me saying that, a lightning bolt will zap Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley in the next 24 hours, such is the luck of Philadelphia sports. If my Phillies work the entire city up in a playoff frenzy for the wildcard spot, after being mediocre or up and down all season...AGAIN...and then get close only to just miss out on the wildcard in the last 5 games of the season AGAIN...for the FIFTH YEAR IN A ROW...I swear I will f**cking lose it lol).

They contacted some of us asking for contact information in the spring. Chris e-mailed me himself stating that he passed my information on to a reporter from said magazine - and I was never contacted.

Does that mean that it doesn't exist or won't happen? No, not at all. But asking for traders' phone number should not in any way be an indication that something will.

Exactly. Good call my man