SteadyOptions is an options trading forum where you can find solutions from top options traders. Join Us!

We’ve all been there… researching options strategies and unable to find the answers we’re looking for. SteadyOptions has your solution.

Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0

What Happened to SFO Magazine (SFOMag)? Stocks, Options and Futures Magazine


Remember SFO Magazine? Traders like Jack Schwager and Brett Steenbarger used to write for the publication before its swift shutdown in 2012. What happened. SFO (Stocks, Futures, and Options) magazine was a monthly financial magazine focused on trading and investing in stocks, futures, and options markets.

The publication was founded in 2001 by Russell Wassendorf, a notable executive in the futures brokerage industry who ran a large futures broker called Peregrine Financial Group.
 

SFOmag was mostly focused on the technical aspect of trading as opposed to fundamentals. Which made it pretty rare in that respect. There’s not really a popular publication today that caters to the technical, price-based trader. There’s much more money in reading the tea-leaves of months-old 13F filings and Elon Musk tweets, I suppose.

Who Wrote For SFO Magazine?

Given how many legendary names in the trading community contributed to SFOmag, it’s a real travesty they shutdown the way they did. 

The magazine featured notable contributors like: 

  • Larry Williams
  • Brett Steenbarger 
  • John J. Murphy 
  • Larry McMillan
  • Jack Schwager
  • Linda Bradford Raschke
  • Tom DeMark
  • John Bollinger
  • Steve Nison

A venerable who’s who of the trading community of 10-15 years ago. All still quite relevant. And yet almost none of it is available anymore.

Can You Still Read SFO Magazine?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like any complete archive of the website exists anywhere. The Wayback Machine has some links archived but it's very incomplete. Most of the magazine’s classic articles are within out-of-print physical magazines that may never see the light of day again.

 

However, old fans or simply curious traders can buy old issues of the magazine on eBay for pretty reasonable prices. You can also find copies of their out-of-print book series SFO Personal Investor on Amazon.

 

There’s a few editions of this series including an Online Trading edition, featuring interviews with Linda Bradford Raschke, John Carter, and William O’Neil. Further, there’s a trading psychology book featuring interviews with Van Tharp and Brett Steenbarger.

 

Linda Raschke has one of her 2005 SFO articles on here website here.

Why Did SFO Magazine Shut Down?

On the surface, you’d think SFOmag was simply a melting ice cube. An analog publication in a world that was aggressively pivoting to digital. But reality is much more grim.

 

In fact, SFOmag’s collapse had nothing to do with the profitability or performance of the magazine at all. 

 

You see, SFOmag was owned by financier Russel R. Wasendorf Sr., who also ran a large futures brokerage firm Peregrine Financial Group. Presumably, SFOmag was a tool to build Peregrine’s brand as a trusted futures broker.

 

But it turns out, Peregrine was a massive fraud. The story of the firm's collapse was largely overshadowed by that of MF Global, another futures brokerage firm that cratered just months prior. 

 

Regulators discovered that Peregrine didn’t have the capital to fulfill customer withdrawal requests. The firm had been accepting customer deposits and not placing them with the bank, as required by regulators. Instead, CEO Wassendorf had been embezzling deposits. The National Futures Association found that $215 million in Peregrine customer deposits were missing, embezzled by Wassendorf.

 

Wassendorf attempted suicide outside of Peregrine’s Iowa headquarters in 2012, confessing to embezzling over a hundred million dollars in a note. DealBook reported:

 

Just nine days after his wedding, the local police found Mr. Wasendorf, the head of the firm, unconscious in his car behind the building with a tube running from the exhaust pipe into the car’s interior. An empty bottle of vodka rested by his side. He left a suicide note suggesting financial crimes had been committed.

 

Ultimately, Peregrine was forced into bankruptcy and shut down. Wassendorf was sentenced to 50 years in prison, which is effectively a life sentence at the age of 64. 

 

It took a long time, but it looks like Peregrine customers got most or all of their money back.

 

As for SFOmag, it was quickly sold in a fire sale to trading education website TraderPlanet, who ceased operations of the magazine.

 

The sale was announced via Twitter on July 10, 2012:

 

sfomag.PNG

What Is SteadyOptions?

Full Trading Plan

Complete Portfolio Approach

Real-time trade sharing: entry, exit, and adjustments

Diversified Options Strategies

Exclusive Community Forum

Steady And Consistent Gains

High Quality Education

Risk Management, Portfolio Size

Performance based on real fills

Subscribe to SteadyOptions now and experience the full power of options trading!
Subscribe

Non-directional Options Strategies

10-15 trade Ideas Per Month

Targets 5-7% Monthly Net Return

Visit our Education Center

Recent Articles

Articles

  • Covered Calls Options Strategy Guide

    Covered calls have always been a popular options strategy. Indeed for many traders, their introduction to options trading is a covered call used to augment income on an existing stock portfolio. But this strategy is more complicated, and riskier, than it looks.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 223 views
  • How Options Work: Trading Put And Call Options

    Learning how options work is a key skill for any trader or investor wanting to add this to their arsenal of trading weapons. It’s really not possible to trade options well without having a thorough grounding of the mechanics of what these derivatives are and how they work.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 410 views
  • Protective Put: Defensive Option Strategy Explained

    The protective put (sometimes called a married put) strategy is one of the simplest, but most, popular, ways options are used in the market. Here we look at this defensive strategy and when and how to put it in place. Options provide investors and traders with an extremely versatile tool that can be used under many different scenarios.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 641 views
  • The Surprising Secret to Proper Portfolio Diversification Revealed

    During a discussion about my trading system, the question arose regarding the ability to exit positions entirely and mitigate substantial drawdowns during a crash-style event. This particular circumstance has caused concern about the effectiveness of the trading method. The common response to such concerns is often centered around the concept of maintaining a properly diversified portfolio.

    By Karl Domm,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,396 views
  • Options Trading Strategy: Bear Put Spread

    Options can be an extremely useful tool for short-term traders as well as long-term investors. Options can provide investors with a vehicle to bet on market direction or volatility, and may also be used to collect premiums. A long options position is simple to use, and has defined risk parameters.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,353 views
  • Market Chameleon Trial Offer

    We are pleased to announce that Market Chameleon is offering SteadyOptions members a 2 week free trial for their premium tools. Market Chameleon is a premier provider of options information, using both stock fundamentals data as well as options analytics to provide better insight for those who wish to make informed investment decisions.

     

    By Kim,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,481 views
  • Where Should You Be Investing Your Money?

    Everyone should be investing. After all, there’s no better way to increase your retirement savings and boost your spending power than by putting your money to work. Many people believe that investing is something that only wealthy people or financial experts can do, but that’s not the case.

    By Kim,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,361 views
  • Options Trading Strategy: Bull Call Spread

    The bull call spread is a simple strategy that can be used by novice options traders to bet on higher prices. Options can be an extremely powerful tool in the trading arsenal of those that know how to use them, and long options positions can be used to bet on a market rise or decline, with limited risk and potentially unlimited profit potential.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,523 views
  • Stock Option Strike (Exercise) Price Explained

    The option strike price (also known as the exercise price) is a term used in options tradingOptions are derivatives. These financial instruments are ‘derived’ from another underlying security such as a stock, and give the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell the underlying at some point in the future.

     

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,751 views
  • Mastering the Art of Options Trading: Tips for Small Accounts

    Growing a small trading account with options can be a challenging task, but it is definitely achievable. When I began my journey in trading options, my goal was to double my small account every three months. However, I quickly learned that taking excessive risks without proper risk management would only lead to starting over again and again by adding new funds to my account.

    By Karl Domm,

    • 0 comments
    • 2,437 views

  Report Article
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0


We want to hear from you!


There are no comments to display.



Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account. It's easy and free!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now

Options Trading Blogs Expertido