Jon Markman 🛸
@jdmarkman
In 1992, Wall Street vultures scammed my widowed mother. She almost lost $1.5 MILLION until I saw her being targeted. So I spent the next 30 years exposing Wall Street's tricks. Here's how I won 2 Pulitzer prizes revealing their schemes: 🧵
It started with a phone call. After building a successful business in LA, my father had just passed away. Within months, aggressive brokers from a major Wall Street firm targeted my mother. But what they did next made my blood boil...
They almost convinced her to invest $1.5M (most of her savings) in high-risk, high-commission products. These investments were completely unsuitable for a widow in her 60s. Within months, she would've lost 70% of her money. Watching how little they cared broke something in me.
I was an editor at the Los Angeles Times at the time. That experience made me investigate Wall Street's predatory practices. What I discovered was far worse than I imagined:
A web of systematic exploitation designed to prey on vulnerable investors. First, their favorite weapon: The Pump & Dump scheme.
They quietly buy up cheap, thinly-traded stocks. Then they aggressively promote them through social media, paid content, and mass email campaigns. Once the price skyrockets, they dump everything - leaving people holding worthless shares. But that's not all...
Their second favorite trick: Affinity Fraud They target religious groups, ethnic minorities, and other organizations. They exploit trust networks and use respected community leaders to unknowingly spread their schemes. But the most sinister part is...
These schemes often go unreported because victims are embarrassed to admit they were fooled by someone they trusted. The FBI has documented over 1,000 cases of affinity fraud between 2015-2020 with over $1 BILLION in total losses. But they don't stop there...
The regulatory system is rigged against regular investors. The SEC's budget is just $1.9 billion to oversee a $100 TRILLION market. Many experienced regulators leave for higher-paying Wall Street jobs. So the technological gap between regulators & scammers keeps increasing.
That's why you must protect yourself. Research shows investors who spend at least 5 hours researching investments are 73% less likely to get scammed. But research alone isn't enough. You need to watch for these specific red flags:
Red flags to look out for: • Guarantees of high returns (82% of Ponzi schemes) • Pressure to invest quickly (76% of affinity fraud cases) • Unregistered investment products (91% of microcap fraud) • Claims of "exclusive" opportunities or confusing strategies
Here's the most important lesson I've learned in investing: 97% of stocks are junk. Only 2% of stocks over the last 100 years created >50% of wealth. That's why they create fancy terms and confusing products. Speaking of which...
Remember my mother? She was almost fooled to lose her savings because of those vultures. But her story helped expose countless schemes and protect thousands of investors. The lesson?
Money demands clarity, not opinions. If you don't understand an investment, don't buy it. If someone's pressuring you, walk away. And NEVER trust anyone who says they have a "guaranteed" way to beat the market.
The truth is - most investors are fighting a rigged game. But you don't have to be one of them. After 30 years of investigating Wall Street's darkest corners, I've developed a system to spot the 2% of stocks that create real wealth. Let me explain...
It's not about complex strategies or insider connections. It's about having a proven framework to: • Identify genuine opportunities • Avoid common traps • Build lasting wealth This is exactly what I teach in my weekly newsletter.
Every Friday, I share: • Market analysis that cuts through the noise • Specific opportunities I'm watching • Historical lessons that matter today • Warning signs to protect your wealth
Want to learn how to spot the 2% of stocks that create real wealth? Join 9,000+ self-reliant investors who receive my FREE weekly insights. Click here to subscribe to my Friday email: Get it free: https://landing.markmancapital...
Thanks for reading! I'm Jon Markman: • Founder & President of Markman Capital • Award-winning investor and market strategist • Passionate about turning market trends into action Follow @jdmarkman for more insights. Repost for your network! 🔄
Video credits: YT link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... YT link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... YT link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=my7... YT link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... YT link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts...