The old saying, if something looks too good to be true....

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a new follower on my Twitter account going by the name of Little Miss DayTrader. I usually don't follow day traders as its not my interest, but having looked at her blog and some of her tweets I decided, more out of curiosity than anything to follow back. I'm not a big Twitter user, don't always follow back if only because the number of tweets can get too much in that you struggle to sort the wheat from the chaff, but something stood out about this new follower that suggested one way or another there was a story here.

First, here was a young woman who supposedly had been an analyst for RBS, who had traded for many years on her own account and who seemed to have a decent enough knowledge about the market. I even re-tweeted one of her early blog articles on trend trading which seemed well written and worth reading.

However, something didn't quite sit right about Miss DayTrader (MDT). From the start she claimed not to really be a day trader, but interested in the bigger market moves. Her "system" seemed to be based around moving averages over different time frames, how price would bounce off these or fail under them. She talked of chop zones and had a thing about how stops of the retail traders would be deliberately taken out before price would then bounce. Fib numbers were also introduced, some charts had indicators on while others didn't and you needed to be able to interpret candles as well. Her system seemed to be a mishmash and not as simple as first suggested. It suggested that anyone trying to copy it might just need some help to get it right. Early on there was no suggestion that the help would come at a price.

As time went on however, most of her trades seemed to be of the day trade, very short term (i.e. a day or less) variety, although she would often have a go at the scalpers and the "let's make 10 points quickly" type trader, even though she seemed to be doing a lot of this herself. Her trades supposedly time stamped, although as she seemed to send out lots of tweets, only her hard core followers that read every one might believe that she was on to something. I didn't read them all, mainly because they were relentless, about a thousand tweets in a few days, I couldn't be bothered. The question was, what was all this leading to, what was the pay off?

After a few days the first cracks began to appear, firstly due to the fact that Twitter suspended her account, apparently for over following or over Tweeting. MDT promptly set up another account and tweeted and followed just as much.

But now we get to what MDT was probably all about. On her blog a post appeared which suggested that she had received many requests to set up an online trading room, where real time trades could be had. She proposed to do this, but could only do so at around £75 a month, but with a full refund for any months when there was a loss. Oh she seemed to suggest that a couple of hundred points a week was easy to make, so losing months weren't likely. However, the original trading room idea was quickly dropped as she said it wouldn't fit in with her life at this time. It would be back to just blogging and Tweeting apparently.

What happened next was the sting in the tail and some well respected people seem to have fallen for it. MDT began contributing a daily market analysis to Spreadbet Magazine's blog on their website. Not only that, she appears to have got an invite to be part of the opening of Zak Mir's new trading cafe which goes live on 14th August. Zak Mir is also the new editor of Spreadbet Magazine and one assumes that he must have been impressed by all the technical analysis that MDT was posting on both Twitter and her blog to have made such an offer. The truth was that MDT wasn't all that she seemed.


Before "she" was exposed however, her blog tried to set up her own trading room again, on the basis that time is money and she shouldn't give what she knows away for free. The difference now was that she looked more credible. Unknowingly, Spreadbet Magazine had provided that extra degree of credibility as had being part of Zak Mir's Trading Cafe concept. It would appear that some people on Twitter did sign up to MDT's private feed account, her blog had outlined how much it would cost, about £85 a month now, which considering the offer was for an increase to 300 points a week profit seemed a bargain! Things were about to blow up though in MDT's plans.

Over the weekend, another trader on Twitter, Johan Hakon had been doing some investigating of his own into who MDT was. It's important to say that MDT had not been hiding behind her Twitter name, Little Miss Day Trader did actually have a name as well, "Natasha Wallace". Furthermore, not only did her Tweets talk about trading, but also about her life, complete with the occasional picture. Trouble is, the pictures that were posted were not of Natasha Wallace, but had been lifted from a fashion and beauty blog written by Celina Clausen. Natasha Wallace didn't exist, accept it would seem as a further front for whoever was responsible to give a name that looked credible alongside the Little Miss Day Trader tag.

http://lookbook.nu/look/4538787-Herve-Leger-Coat-Herms-Belt-Givenchy-Bracelet

Much of the story and pictures can be found here.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/home-trader/146016-mr-spread-betting-back-careful-everyone-65.html#post2171536

So, who is/was Little Miss Day Trader? Most of what I've written above is from memory as "her" Twitter accounts have been closed and the blog taken down. Spreadbet Magazine posted that they were the victim of a scam as was Zak Mir and have also removed all the MDT posts from their site. No doubt Twitter, Blogger and Spreadbet Magazine have this evidence of "her" internet tracks, but for the most part you will now find very little of MDT's existence on the web.

http://www.spreadbetmagazine.com/blog/spreadbet-magazine-has-been-the-victim-of-a-scam.html/

Given the number of tweets I do wonder if MDT was just one person. Whoever did it seemed to have a reasonable level of knowledge about trading and the markets, their downfall was that they probably never thought that anyone would latch on to an relatively unknown fashion and beauty writer based in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This scam was certainly more elaborate than your usual badly worded email from Nigeria offering to put millions in your bank if you only provide your bank details. Unfortunately it would seem that some fell for it and did pay up, they may only be finding out now that the Little Miss Day Trader "service" doesn't exist at all and whoever did it is planning their next little venture.

As always if something seems too good to be true then it probably is. People have always fallen for the temptation of a scam, especially the ones that seem to promise riches for little hard work. The investing and trading game has its share of these and none of us should be surprised at that. As always Do Your Own Research and Buyer Beware applies.