EXCLUSIVE | ‘Jordan Belfort made mistakes, he will teach you how to avoid same trap’: RagingBull CEO Jeff Bishop
“The story that you tell yourself is exactly what holds you back from being successful...” Jordan Belfort's words will hit you right in the chest and leave a longing desperation to walk on the path to success. Nicknamed the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, the former stockbroker and founder of Stratton Oakmont pled guilty to fraud and stock-market manipulation in 1999, and was sentenced to 22 months in prison. Now he has joined hands with RagingBull — a company that aims to simplify stock markets — in a one-time partnership on an exclusive product going into the psychology of trading.
In an official statement, RagingBull.com — founded in 2011 by Jeff Bishop and Jason Bond — said that Belfort would "share his favorite trading sectors" with retail investors and teach them how to "learn from your mistakes" and "take advantage of opportunities" in a series of videos. Belfort opened up about the stint in the same press release. "It was a no brainer for me to work with Raging Bull," Belfort said. "They're the only ones who are teaching trading with a real voice that you'd hear on the floor of Wall Street. The market has been flooded with new accounts and traders and a lot of them don't know what they're doing. 'Mind of the Wolf' is free, so there's no excuse for day traders to not take advantage of my lessons and learn what to avoid and more importantly, how to capitalize on opportunities."
With the 58-year-old motivation speaker — who penned his 2007 memoir ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ that was later adapted into the Martin Scorsese blockbuster 2013 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio — back at the forefront, many questions are swirling in the heads of market experts. Jeff Bishop, RagingBull CEO and Head Options Trader, spilled the beans on the partnership and how hoped it would pan out for the company in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).
Excerpts:
How did RagingBull, America's leading trading education publisher, decide to go ahead with the one-time partnership with Jordan Belfort?
There’s a record number of traders starting out for the first time. RagingBull teaches different trading strategies, but we thought Jordan could provide interesting insights from his long career, like how to have the right mindset and how to learn from mistakes.
In the RagingBull announcement Belfort said investors should "take advantage of my lessons and learn what to avoid and more importantly, how to capitalize on opportunities". Moreover, it has been reported his sessions will offer insights into topics such as "what it takes to be a trader" and "how to learn from your mistakes". Will he look back at his Stratton Oakmont days and the 1999 case in those sessions?
Clearly, Jordan has made some mistakes in his career. He has learned from those mistakes and will teach our members how to not fall into the same trap.
What has the response been after the announcement and is there any worry among customers due to Belfort's past criminal record?
Our members all know the Wolf of Wall Street, so we thought it would be beneficial for the rookies to learn from his experiences to become more successful traders in the long run. Many have been excited to learn from him.
The company clarified that Belfort will not give advice on specific stocks, companies, or investment strategies. How is the company planning to ensure that the lines aren't blurred while coaching amateur traders?
Belfort will not have personal contact with any of our members, will not be providing information pertaining to specific stock strategies, nor will he be managing anyone’s money. The ‘Mind of the Wolf’ product is where Jordan will share his learnings from his career as a trader on a more emotional level, so there is no way he would blur lines.
RagingBull has faced criticism over dozens of complaints on the Better Business Bureau, a consumer watchdog site, for excessive promotional emails and delays in providing refunds. Is there any truth to those complaints, specifically the fact that customers were asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement? What really went wrong while dealing with those customers?
A few Trustpilot links for specific RagingBull products have positive and mixed set of reviews. The review thread titled Jason Bond Picks read, "Start Option trading for a month now, thanks for giving opportunities to take a big step. It was a fairly large investment for myself. Surely it will get paid. Your educated guidance along with decades of experience will be of big help for me to learn the stock market. One day, will become a millionaire!" and another thread on BioTech Breakouts said, "Raging Bull sounds fantastic and Dollar Ace videos look really good but I have heard too many tales of late notifications and losers. So I tried Bullseye, 1 trade a week for a month for $20. Options tips were so out of date and was a waste of time and money. So I will not be spending $1499 for Dollar Ace."
As you can see, both rank our services as excellent. We are a growing business with tens of thousands of paying customers and millions on our email lists. We have an intensity with regard to our trading strategies and an intensity with our marketing, both of which have attributed to our successes and earned us a spot on the Inc. 5000 list for two consecutive years. If our members feel they are receiving too many emails they can opt-out or unsubscribe. But we find that the majority of our members love the constant communication from us. Part of our education is alerting our members when we make our trades so they can learn from the trading application of our strategies. For members that prefer less email, we just launched the RagingBull app where users can receive push notifications to free up their inboxes.
The company has clarified that it wasn't equipped to handle the complaints with their small staff at the time with a surge of day traders due to COVID. After hiring 20 additional staff, how were the complaints resolved, and are the customers satisfied?
Before COVID, our BBB ranking was a B, which plunged due to a shortage of customer service staff and a surge of interest in our products. Since we hired 20 new customer service representatives, our complaints have been resolved and we believe that most are satisfied.
How does RagingBull plan to expand after its partnership with Belfort? Could you shed light on the new strategies and plans that the company wants to implement in the near future.
As of now, the partnership was a one time deal. If interest remains high, we will look into how to collaborate with Belfort on more lessons.