The publication was founded in 2001 by Russell Wassendorf, a prominent futures brokerage industry executive who ran a large futures brokerage called Peregrine Financial Group.
SFOmag primarily focused on the technical side of trading rather than the fundamentals. It’s become pretty rare in that regard. Today there are no popular publications for technical price-based traders. I think a few months ago he would get much more money from reading the 13F filing and the tea leaves of Elon Musk’s tweets.
Considering how many legendary figures in the trading community have contributed to SFOmag, it is truly a farce for them to close down in such a manner.
The magazine features notable contributors such as:
Larry Williams
Brett Steenberger
John J. Murphy
Larry McMillan
Jack Schwager
Linda Bradford Laschke
Tom DeMark
John Bollinger
Steve Nison
A venerable figure in the trading industry 10-15 years ago. All still pretty relevant. Even then, it’s almost unobtainable now.
Unfortunately the complete archive of the website doesn’t seem to exist anywhere.of wayback machine has archived some links, but they are very incomplete. Most of the magazine’s classic articles are in out-of-print physical magazines that may never see the light of day again.
However, long-time fans and simply curious traders can buy old issues of the magazine for fairly reasonable prices on eBay.You can also find copies of the out-of-print book series Amazon SFO Private Investor.
The series has several editions, including an Online Trading edition featuring interviews with Linda Bradford Raschke, John Carter, and William O’Neil. In addition, there is a trading psychology book with interviews with Van Tharp and Brett Steenbarger.
One of Linda Raschke’s 2005 SFO articles can be found on this website. here.
On the surface, you might think that SFOmag is just a melted ice cube. Analog publications in a world that has actively transitioned to digital. But the reality is much harsher.
In fact, SFOmag’s demise had absolutely nothing to do with the magazine’s profitability or performance.
As you know, SFOmag was owned by investor Russel R. Wasendorf Sr. He also ran Peregrine Financial Group, a leading futures brokerage firm. Perhaps SFOmag was a tool for building his Peregrine brand as a trusted futures broker.
However, Peregrine turned out to be a massive scam. The story of its bankruptcy was overshadowed by that of another futures brokerage, MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy months earlier.
Regulators have found that Peregrine does not have the capital to meet customer withdrawal requests. The company accepted customer deposits and did not deposit them with banks as required by regulators. Instead, CEO Wassendorf embezzled the deposit. The National Futures Association found $215 million in Peregrine customer deposits missing and embezzled by Wassendorf.
Wassendorf confessed to committing suicide outside Peregrine’s Iowa headquarters in 2012 and embezzling more than $100 million. deal book report:
Just nine days after the wedding, local police found the head of the company, Mr. Wassendorf, unconscious in a car behind the building. There was a tube running from the exhaust pipe into the car. An empty vodka bottle lay beside him. He left a suicide note suggesting financial crimes were committed.
Ultimately, Peregrine was forced into bankruptcy and closed down.Wassendorf is sentenced to 50 years in prisonwhich is effectively a life sentence at age 64.
It took me a while, but you look like a Peregrine customer got most or all of the money back.
Regarding SFOmag, Sold quickly at fire sale To TraderPlanet, a trading education site that has stopped operating the magazine.
The sale was announced via Twitter July 10, 2012:
