Mark Shawzin Forex Investments
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Honesty
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Quality
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Cost
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Support
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Verified Trades
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User Experience
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Summary
Mark Shawzin, according to the SEC and State of California, is a long time investment hustler. Some of his prior convictions included a $6.3 million insider trading scheme, acting as an unregistered investment advisor, selling unregistered investment notes, an operating as an unlicensed and unregistered Forex merchant.
Since the 1990’s, the list of complaints and violations is as sad as a Thanksgiving dinner–with no turkey.
It would appear that the only turkeys are those that were unfortunate enough to trust this guy and invest in his various failed investment schemes. A long and sad list of Forex investment schemes spanning many years.
Avoid.
Thanks for reading today’s review of The Pattern Trader with Mark Shawzin.
Mark Shawzin claims to have worked for some of Wall Streets most prestigious trading firms including Merril Lynch, EF Hutton, Drexel Burnham, Oppenheimer, and Commodities Corp. In his own words, “They all wanted a piece of me.” He projects himself as some sort of Forex investment management guru. And he wants to manage your money.
But before you ‘pull the trigger’ on this so-called Forex investment guru that has claimed to turn $3k into $1.5 million in less than a year…there are a few things you should know. Let’s talk about Mark.
Much of the following information was taken from interviews and information provided by the SEC, the State of California Department of Business Oversight, Archive.Org, emails sent directly to TradingSchools.Org from past customers, and multiple review websites.
Mark Shawzin: The early days
According to the SEC, Mark Shawzin personally profited from a $6.36 million dollar insider trading scheme relating to Motel 6 stock. The SEC issued a permanent injunction against Mark and he was ordered to pay $3.2 million in illegally obtained profits.
According to Finra.Org, Mark Shawzin is not a registered investment advisor, nor are there any listed investment credentials. It would appear that whatever his prior claims of being the Vice President of Merrill Lynch, Vice President of EF Hutton, Vice President of Drexel Burnham Lambert, and Vice President of Oppenheimer are simply a figment of his overly active imagination. None of these firms, according to Finra.Org, has ever listed Mark Shawzin as Vice President.
After or during the SEC investigation of the insider trading scandal, according to the State of California Department of Business Oversight, investigators discovered that Mark was involved in yet another investment scheme with a company named Brewer Investment Group.
According to the SEC, Brewer Investment Group was charged with fraud for the sale of unregistered promissory notes. How did these investment notes perform? Not so well.
The complaint described this so-called investment as a “purely fraudulent investment” where at least 74 investors were enticed into investing $5.6 million dollars into a shell company located on the Isle of Man. Unfortunately, for those that trusted, they lost nearly everything.
Mark Shawzin: Forex Trading Riches
Truth be told, it’s hard compiling a complete list of all of the companies that Mark Shawzin has founded and then subsequently shuttered because of complaints and regulatory violations. Lets take a look a several that have mysteriously disappeared.
MarketWinningStrategies.com A now defunct Forex investment scheme where investors were enticed into opening offshore and unregistered Forex trading accounts. The pitch was simple, open an account and let Mark trade your account. Things apparently did not go so well. TradingSchools.Org received 3 consumer complaints alleging “churning and burning.”
What is “churning and burning?” According to the State of California Department of Business Oversight, this is exactly the activity in which they have received consumer complaints. So what is it? Let me explain…Mark tells a wonderful story of how much investors will earn trading his Forex signals. In the past, he has promised 100% annual returns. But the catch is that the investor must open a Forex trading account with his recommended Forex brokerage.
Once the account is opened and Mark obtains trading authorization to trade on the investor’s behalf, he allegedly begins to rapidly execute trades. Why rapidly execute trades? Because Mark is receiving the following financial benefit:
- A hidden commission on every trade that is executed.
- A percentage of the spread of every trade. For instance, the typical spread for a Forex account is 1-4 ‘pips’. Mark was not disclosing that he was receiving a percentage of the spread. According to the State of California. This activity is illegal in the United States.
- A 25% fee of any trading profits.
The presence of this undisclosed relationship clearly demonstrates a conflict of interest. The more trades that Mark can execute, the more he profits from commissions and ‘pip’ spreads. The State of California was not impressed and issued a Cease and Desist order.
How much has Mark Shawzin earned from various investment schemes?
It’s hard to tell. Over the years there have been many Forex investment companies that have appeared and then suspiciously disappeared. Some of these companies included:
ProTradeFX.com A now-defunct “Forex Asset Management Company” rife with online complaints and allegations of fraud.
FxQuantAdvisors.com Yet another defunct “Private Asset Management” company that promised big Forex profits and according to multiple online complaints; failed to deliver.
AxxiomTrading.com Yet another “Professional Forex Asset Management” company that promised 40% – 100% annual returns which failed to deliver and has been the subject of multiple online complaints.
MatadorTradingSystems.com A Forex asset management company this is currently promising 10% monthly returns and a one-time, upfront fee of $7,995 for some sort of “secret trading system.”
BullsEyeForexSignals.com An automated Forex signal service (now defunct) that promised huge gains, but only delivered huge losses to investors.
The re-occurring pattern
In my opinion, it appears that Mark is simply moving from hustle to hustle. Making big promises of investment riches, enticing unsophisticated investors into investing, and then quickly ‘churning and burning’ for quick profits. Why else would so many companies appear and then suspiciously disappear-like a fart in the wind?
And where is the proof that he turned $3k into $1.5 million in less than a year?
Where is the proof that anyone has ever earned 10% monthly or 100% annually from his various investment schemes?
He claims that he was the Vice President of nearly every major investment company in the United States. Yet, Finra.Org has no work history or registration for this guy.
The only thing provable and absolutely factual is that Mark Shawzin has developed a murderers portfolio of SEC and State securities violations dating back to the 1990’s. Is this really someone you want to trust with your investments?
Thanks for reading. And don’t forget to leave a comment below.
Jacqueline Homan,
Sorry to have heard of your story and the disabled situation of yourself and your husband. Props to you for doing the researching effort on finding reviews and testimonials exposing this fraud , particularly on your good luck and efforts on finding this site, tradingschools.org
As you’ve probably seen by now, Emmett has done hundreds of reviews, and exposed scores of these scammers. One of his earlier reviews summed up this charlatan snake oil business is “rotten to the core”. I’d seen a few fellow members on bikemike’s now futures.io, who weren’t vendors initially became indicator snake oil indicator vendors and fraudsters themselves some years later unfortunately. This whole trading business including retail trading is sordid and dangerous not just to one’s bank account, but to the spiritual stability, as I believe trading is tied to the deadly sin of gambling. So imo, it’s best to keep a stable head about this endeavor and always not delve into it as a sole life occupation and as a gambler.
That said, unfortunately, it feels like tradingschools.org seems to be done, or at least I’m not sure Emmett is going to update this site anymore. It sounds like he had to do a lot of this on his own and had to endure over fifteen or so lawsuits and assorted threats legal or otherwise by these fraudsters and criminals. I, including I’m sure several others will always be grateful for his and this site’s efforts in exposing a lot of these frauds , including legacy ones, a decent sampling reaching over the past decade and more, of course not covering myriad others, but a still a big representative dent and warning and learning example on confirming and facing the reality of these snakeoiler trading “education” and “products” fraudster vendors and fake gurus swindling the retail masses of prospective home traders.
If one looks at Mark’s site, there is “about” story BS blog about how it was mainly “Greg”, his brother and Ezra that got him embroiled in the insider trading mess. Yeah , right, it was just his brother backstabbing him, like a rat betraying and plea-dealing others in the gang. Then the continuing paragraphs of how he lost his trading mojo, with his “demise of trading psychology” supposedly because of scores of complaining comments from angry former subscribers which he described dropped off by 39%. Just the site spin blog as usual from a fraudster, because as Emmett exposed, it certainly wasn’t just that one time angry retailers felt defrauded paying for “patter trader”‘s “services”. Left over prior scam sites in the past over the years , similar MO as plenty of other traducation fraudsters. And of course fake actored or shilled comments on this very page, blaming “Greg” for the past SEC indictments that can’t be erased from history. Not surprising as usual, as in the past other reviews of other vendors when they only react when a tradingschools exposing review pops up for all to see.
So to sum up, the 99.99% of the rotten snakeoiler fraudster “industry” continues, and it’s very lucky you found this site and learned or confirmed suspicions that many of us former hapless seeking retailers learn sooner or later, and have been around the block enough. Heck, my past dummy mail has over 200 of past fraudster different vendors spam mail I looked at for information, or they got my email over the past twelve years. I keep it around in archive to look at it in just or remind myself how big and rotten this sordid traducation industry has always been and probably always will be as long as their is a retail available trading infrastructure.
I would also suggest you or any other newb or fairly to retail trading, to read other comments on other reviews and look for commentary on how these frauds do their myriad tricks, some of them even had set up dummy local dns networks to pretend they are showing statements from a broker! with their faked websites and the gall to post it to a “proof” video. Among so many other myriad tricks. example, ninjatrader replay reveals itself by updating by one second intervals, even though there are hacks to change the coloring and the lettering of the ninja dom to make it like ‘live’.
First, I’d like to thank you for your in-depth article on Mark Shawzin which saved my husband and I as struggling seniors from further misfortune in our lives which have already been extremely difficult.
Here’s my story: I’m a poor disabled and diabetic 55 year old woman with few to no income earning opportunities available to me (I have no income, no recent work history with references so no chances for a job I can do), who only had a very small amount of money in a trading account that is too small to qualify for margin for trading Options, equities and futures at nearly all retail brokerage firms in the US.
Last year, I had enough success to be able to take just my COVID stimulus check of $2400 and turn it into about $12K, which I used nearly all of it to buy a used car. My elderly husband and I, who have not been fortunate throughout much of our lives, needed a car for getting to medical appointments in rural northwestern Pennsylvania (I’m diabetic and he’s a heart patient) after a medical bankruptcy left us with just a crumbling roof over our heads and no vehicle (it was repossessed).
We were without transportation for getting medical visits for over 2 years until I was finally able to buy a used car cash on the barrelhead—as a result of trading Options with a small sum, turning it into bigger small sum to buy a used car in cash since we’re poor with no chance of ever having middle class careers and have ruined credit from the medical bankruptcy which means we couldn’t qualify for a car loan as a couple of poor struggling disabled seniors who will never have any job opportunities again. I had only about $1600 left to try to trade with after buying the car—not enough money to work with really, while the only household income is my elderly husband’s social security check of about $1100/mo (not enough for two people to live on).
Recently, I responded to an email invitation to watch a 2+ hour long webinar put out by two very young rich white guys, “Zack” and “Peter” from their company, CashWithCourses.com where they present this “opportunity” for people with some trading knowledge to make a steady middle to upper class income stream using their program and platform for publishing and successfully selling short e-books on Amazon that teach beginners and unseasoned traders about trading. It seemed like a great opportunity to earn an income for someone like me who is disabled, too old and too long-term unemployed for any employers to want to hire, and not tech savvy at all when it comes to online marketing and sales tools.
But a couple of red flags sprang up for me during the webinar. The first was when they made a couple of vague references to a guy named “Mark” and “The Pattern Trader”, when they explained that traders who’ve had the most profitable track record would be eligible for getting into their elite program where trader authors who are nobodies (like me) would be guaranteed the seal of approval from “Mark” and “The Pattern Trader” which would “close the authority gap.” (The authority gap is basically that people won’t buy from anyone not rich and professionally successful or famous.)
At the end of the webinar, “Zack” and “Peter” (who bragged about all the countries they’ve lived in and are moving to throughout the webinar), disclosed the cost of getting in on their program at different tiers.
The least expensive tier costs $3,500 and what you get is access to a couple of “group coaching sessions” but you’re basically on your own for navigating all the techie stuff for successfully launching your e-book on trading. The next level costs $9,800 where you get some one-on-one coaching. But their most expensive tier where their outfit does everything for you if you have zero tech and marketing skills, costs $50K and includes getting the backing for your book from “Mark”/”The Pattern Trader”, guaranteeing you success so you can “retire from trading” as your sole source for getting any money to live (which is not a stable, steady income source by itself).
“Zack” and “Peter” guarantee that you will earn at least $1600/mo if you get on board with their program. Why would anyone who has an “extra” $50K laying around want to invest it into a scheme where your only going to make less than $20K/year income? That sounds like throwing good money after bad.
So, I prompty began researching to try and find out who this “Mark” and “The Pattern Trader” was that “Zack” and “Peter” claimed would “close the authority gap” for a nobody like me. The very first hit that came up in my Google search of “The Pattern Trader” was Mark Shawzin, and I further Googled him and the first hit that came up in the search results was your site. I dug deeper and further. And the laundry list on this “Pattern Trader” and Mark Shawzin was incredibly long and still growing.
Paying the guys at “CashWithCourses.com” (webinar can be seen here: https://go.cashwithcourses.com/watch-the-training) and trusting Mark Shawzin or anyone affiliated with him to help me succeed at selling an e-book by “overcoming the authority gap” would be like trusting serial killer Albert Fish to run a daycare center!
Needless to say, I won’t be selling the used car I struggled through trades for a year to get right before Christmas in 2021 that my husband and I need for getting to medical appointments and the supermarket—just to get the money I would need to cough up to be able to pay for even the cheapest tier of the CashWithCourses.com program.
I’m really glad my researcher skills led me to your site (and to Valforex.com’s site exposing Shawzin as well) regarding Mark Shawzin and his string of trading and investment related companies.
Now you can add “trader education” rackets and e-book publishing and marketing scams to Mark Shawzin’s laundry list of rip-offs and predation on struggling people who are desperate for some basic economic security.
You state outright that Mark Shawzin had to pay $3.2m in illegally obtained profits yet the link you use as ‘evidence’ does not claim this at all. It mentions another person called Shawzin (Gregg) NOT Mark. Because there was no evidence that Mark was aware this was insider trading he was NOT fined or convicted and made only ~$120,000 out of the investment as also evidenced by your links despite your implication of him making millions from insider trading.
Mark is also NOT named in link to the Brewer group investigation you accuse him of.
I haven’t looked at anything else but given the first stuff I checked on contracdicts your claims I have my doubts.
Mark Shawzin the scum bucket is still peddling his fraud. He claims to make a mere 2 million in a few days whilst still pushing sales tactics for a few hundred bucks. If people believe that shit, then maybe they deserve to lose their money.
Hello Mark,
This is my fourth attempt and documenting, regarding my refund for 129$. I purchased the pattern trader on 5/19/2020. I lost money on the trade Mark sent out,
Pair: XAGUSD (spot Silver) To be clear, I don’t care for the loss. It was a -13,00$ loss
Entry Order: BUY Stop @ $17.51
Stop Loss: $17.25
Take profit: $18.87
My first attempt to collect a refund was not even 5 days ago after signing up. According to the Pattern Trader, 30 days money back, no question asks. Also, Mark has stated this in many of his videos surfing around the internet.
On 5/22/2020, I received an email from Pattern Trader support – Marian (Pattern Trader Support) but she did not mention anything in my previous emails regarding my refund.
May 22, 2020, 11:00:21 PM MST
Hi there,
That’s not a problem, although it’s a shame to see you go.
I have canceled your Pattern Trader subscription.
Don’t worry, you won’t be charged again.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Regards,
Pattern Trader Support
Please honor your 30 days refund policy no question asks. I would really hate to take this into legal matters over 129$.
If Mark makes 1000X in one trade, then why don’t you honor your refund policy? I am starting to feel I was scammed, and I hate feeling this way especially during these hard times with coronavirus when some unfortunate people are struggling financially.
Thanks!
Mark if you do not want to refund my 129$ that is fine, I will take the loss, but I feel it is my duty to share my story to as many sites as possible. Also, stop telling people 30 days money-back guarantee no question ask.
After taking a tour of the Pattern Trader, I have come to realize that hype is not what it seems to be. I can edit some numbers on photoshop to make it seem like there were my wins. etc.
If you such a GURU, why don’t you do weekly LIVE TRADES and put your money where your mouth is? Do not take our hard-earned money and sell it off as your wins. (MAIN REASON FOR A REFUND)
As a matter of fact, you can keep the 129$. The bad energy that is already attached to this situation I do not need.
I wish you all the best.
You guys need to be careful. If you can relate to this type of scam out there, please share.
PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW.
Did you get any reply from them after you asked them to honor the 30-day money back guarantee, no questions asked?
Mark Shawzin is the biggest scam artist on earth. I enrolled in his class they never send me any login info, however, I did get a whole bunch of nonsense pictures about how great of a guy he is. I try to contact the email he provided about my login info I get a whole bunch of automatic replies I try asking for my refund since he stated on his website he got a 90 days refund I didn’t get any reply from him or his team I had to get my bank involved
I’ve been mentored through Mark Shawzin’s education program for the last year. He is honest, open and has great insight into the market. Through using his strategies I have tripled my account! I am just a normal mum from Australia, not paid by Mark. He is not a scammer.
You go Mark, keep pushin, bring Emmett down! I cannot wait until you sue him, and it all comes out. Discovery will be great! Of course, it works both ways, and all your skeletons will be let out of the closet. But if you are so sure of yourself — like your comment above suggests — this should be easy, right? Hmmm, on 2nd thought somehow I don’t think your lawsuit will ever happen…
Yeah right. If you told me it was nice weather, I’d look out the window to check.
http://www.dbo.ca.gov/ENF/pdf/2016/Axxiom%20Forex%20Advisors.pdf
Here’s a recent Cease and Desist from 2016
I am sure the state of California has this all wrong, right Mark? In your rebuttal to Emmett, please include rebuttal of the facts in this Cease and Desist order… Nice work CARLOR
Mark, truth-be-told I don’t really care too much about your past. Compared to me, you are a pretty tame creature.
However, you leave a healthy trail of ridiculous failed ventures. As do I.
I would be more than happy to draft a new review. It costs you nothing. We can start fresh…
The most important thing I look for is some sort of verifiable performance. If you can so this, then you will get a great review.
Furthermore, I recommend that you publish a rebuttal to my review. I will publish it on the front page. AS-IS. You can say whatever you like. I like an open debate. And there is plenty of room for me to be wrong.
Keep your post to 750 to 2000 words. Its a fair deal for everyone.
My feeling is the only money this guy is making is coming from his gullible customers not his market ‘prowess’. His calls to stick with his ‘method’ for a full year must be a desparate attempt to welsh the poor souls. Obviously he knows that what he ‘predicts’ is poor random and quick churn of burnt customers would not line his pockets otherwise.
This is exactly true. He gets 1000 people to pay 5000. Thats 5 million. then gives signals that are less that par at best. A scammer. He shut down his face book page because were calling him on the BS.
Mark Shawzin is a deluded scam artist chancer. he lost 39% of his members money overnight and then criticises them for being pissed off. What a cunt.
This story of Mark Shawzin the Patterntrader on this website is realy bullshit and simply not true, he is not related to any brooker, and is a very integer person in my opinion and teaches a very reliable Trading system and risk management for all his followers all over the world, you can check this out while enjoying his free webinars and Youtube demonstrations
Ik speak from my own trading experience with him. They are very positive
What is he paying you to give a recommend??
It is NOT BS. Were you born on mars. Do your research brah. Its all there.
I followed the man’s strategy and made a satisfying amount of money just to be honest
Hard to believe this article having no feedback here in almost three months to verify any of the negative claims against Mark Shawzin. I call B.S. on these claims.
You can Google various California and s.e.c. documents to verify these claims.
Thanks for your legwork on this guy. Any Forex signals, indicators, and/or Robots you recommend?
Trading schools.org Reply to Steve
@ Steve, I’ll leave it up to Emmett to decide whether he’ll allow this post with the links. I can give you some information on some EAs that I am testing in real accounts with a small amount of risk capital. Here are the links to my test accounts.
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/saroq61/rt-gbpjpy-15-min-trend/2323584
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/saroq61/rt-gbpjpy-30-min-consolidation/2323586
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/saroq61/rt-gbpjpy-1-hr-breakout/2323587
https://www.myfxbook.com/members/saroq61/rt-chfjpy-1-hr-trend/2323589
Under the “General” tab you’ll find the site where I bought the EAs. I recommend that you buy his ebook. It’s $3, obviously a teaser to drive people to his site but he has a very interesting take on risk management and he changed my mind on the subject.
Another guy who has a successful/profitable EA is Staffan at https://www.upordown.eu/ He’ll give you the EAs for free if you link a live account from ICMarkets to his introducing broker number. He gets paid from them but it doesn’t cost you anything.
I get nothing from these recommendations, just a warm feeling in my heart.
“Under the “General” tab you’ll find the site where I bought the EAs. I recommend that you buy his ebook. It’s $3, obviously a teaser to drive people to his site but he has a very interesting take on risk management and he changed my mind on the subject.”
Couldn’t find the ebook. I’d appreciate some more refined directives.
Thanks
I found the ebook: http://roulettetrader.com/thank-you
What a bunch of uneducated assholes in this so-called Blog.
There are too many falsehoods and defamatory statements here
concerning Mark.
He is not Bernie Madoff, assholes, and if you beg to differ, send me an
email so we could set up a meet for a civil discussion and find how much
all of you believe your own bullshit because you are all pieces of shit.
Mark is a good man who I have made a lot of money of and I don’t use
his broker!!!
Get a life and move on, or prepare for a voyage to Neptune.