Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Trading Cults


Traditionally “cult” was a term used for any new religious movement. In fact it is applicable to all walks of life .Broadly it is a group of people intensely devoted to a person, idea, or a movement.

Do we have “Cults” in trading? Yes. I have seen many sites, blogs and forums showing cult behavior. Many of them were started with the noble intention of helping the new traders. Unfortunately most of them have become “cults” over time. If you closely observe, it is very easy to identify cult behaviors.
  • The Guru and his teachings are always right, and above criticism. They always glorify the leader. Guru remains a noble gentleman and always the loyal seniors deal with critics.
  • Members will be encouraged to confess all their faults and mistakes. They will make you inferior and guilty projecting the leader as a super human. You will never understand you are comparing your performance with something which is not achievable by a beginner.
  • The standard answer to your question is a quote from the leader. Members are expected to parrot those answers. Independent or critical thinking is not encouraged. Critical thoughts about the leader or the group are discouraged.
  • They make you believe that, what they are doing is of a higher purpose than what anyone else is doing. Others are just doing it for their own sake but Cult members are transforming, building, achieving and doing great things.
  • They will provide you a ready-made extended family when you join the group and you will start spending all of your spare time with other members, who are your new circle of friends and will never grow beyond this.
  • There are always a few cult members around who proclaim that it is all so wonderful. They rave about how wonderful this group and leader is, and claim they are all making great progress following the Master.
  • Sometimes the leader rewards a member with an open praise. Other members will flock to congratulate him and the poor guy feels as if he has achieved something great. Leader only rewards, it is the duty of the seniors to fix you.

You will not get the promised benefits from any of these cults. You just get used and abused. Finally you will become disillusioned and discarded. Avoid Cults like plague.


“It’s your life — but only if you make it so. The standards by which you live must be your own standards, your own values, your own convictions in regard to what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is important and what is trivial. When you adopt the standards and the values of someone else or a community or a pressure group, you surrender your own integrity. You become, to the extent of your surrender, less of a human being.”

Eleanor Roosevelt

4 comments:

  1. Good one.

    You can add this point too to the bulleted points list in this post.

    "If you ever criticise the mistakes of cult leader, and this is an one off event, firstly you will be treated like a fool, thereafter the cadre just below the cult leader(as you put it "seniors") will start to "correct" you and during this period the cult leader will pose that he is taking all criticisms with a smiling face and he treating you like an errant child. If you go on criticising the mistakes and go on pointing out the shortcomings of the cult leader and you persist with it stubbornly, the consequences will be dire against you. These consequences will be ranging from treating you like a traitor, constant ridicule, mental torture, expulsion, and in some extreme case even physical attacks. Oh! I forgot to mention - All these will be done not by the cult leader, but by the buffoons around him and during this period the cult leader will maintain a saintly pose."

    R. S. Iyer

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  2. Iyer Sir

    Very True. I have experienced it.
    Not only from trading cults, but also from other religious, political and business cults.
    Thanks.

    ST

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  3. Thanks for the chuckle.... may be the whole lot (cadre, seniors included) exist in a delusional world, unknowingly feeding the cult mentality of one another, until after losing a lot of money and months/years, light dawns and they disappear one by one. New ones enter the cult and wonder where have all the ungrateful seniors gone after making all that money, the cycle continues...Sigh! been there done that. lol :D Thanks for a great site ST!

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