Rob

I had been in Lanto’s Discord from early 2023 until earlier this year. I defended him from naysayers in the group and on X, distilled his content into guides early on, and built the chatbot that new members used. This weekend’s fiasco confirmed conclusively what OGs had been flagging for some time. Fintwit prop firm influencers are “successful” through survivorship bias and volume, not edge. Buy enough independent attempts and pure luck eventually produces large winners, even when the underlying approach has little or no positive expected value once net on the portfolio is established. Those big runs are the ones that the public gets to see. The average guy in the audience is running 2, 4, maybe 5 accounts on average while paying discord fees to "learn how to trade" Recent public examples among many in the fintwit affiliate and influencer space: @dhesi_trades - 170+ accounts @thebrianstonk - 240+ accounts @lanto_trades - 819+ accounts 5-6 in eval or S2F fees on just one firm. Eventually something hits. The run gets screenshotted and turned into content that's used for the next 10 months of promotions for the group, or pushed in promo videos encouraging use of an affiliate code. The costs typically don't see the light of day. Screenshots get cropped (usually), account numbers are hidden, the actual PNL on the machine is kept private. The machine: 1. subscription fees, course sales, and affiliate commissions fund more accounts 2. more accounts make a big winner close to inevitable 3. the big runs, sell more subscriptions, courses, and garner more aff code use Repeat. The prop firm space is inherently dirty, relies on ponzinomics, and is unfixable; it's by design. But the affiliate and furu space - that props implicitly encourage - is dirtier. Fresh cash from courses, subs, and affiliate payouts keeps the account volume flowing so the occasional big payouts can be marketed as a skill taught to their followers. The trading can lose money, but the machine still wins, because the audience pays for step 2 of the machine. Now look at what's sold. Courses, discord subs, mentorships, and an implied promise to teach a skill to escape the rat race. Learn this IFVG. Take this unicorn. Manage your risk. Trade the system. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and use code DUMB. The average member can't play the volume game and nobody tells them that is in fact their mentor's game. I left for three reasons: the quality of members in the group declined after the TPT run-up and subsequent repeat promotions leveraging that run, OGs who asked questions were treated poorly, and some kept raising exactly the disclosure issues that surfaced this weekend. Buy enough attempts. Hide or minimize the cost. Market the winners as skill. Accept money from people who cannot realistically replicate the process. You can pick whatever word or phrase you want for this machine that is pervasive in this "industry." Mine is "fraud."