Forex Scams: How To Spot Them A Mile Away

In recent years, investors have witnessed increased number of investment opportunities and offerings. While the complexity and success of these investment products vary, technological innovation has made the Forex market one of the fastest growth areas. Many of the leading Forex brokers reported up to 500% rise in the number of new retail customers. However, the growth of the Forex market has been accompanied by a sharp rise in foreign currency trading scams.

Many of these Forex scams are promoted on the radio, television, newspapers and the Internet. Investors who fall victim to these schemes, often lose all of their money. As an illustration, let?s examine the facts of a recent case involving Forex fraud and its consequences. W learned of a foreign currency trading opportunity through an infomercial on the radio. K, the owner of a Forex asset management firm, spoke during the infomercial, promising viewers significant profits with minimum risk. After seeing the infomercial, W contacted K, and later attended a seminar presented by K and his firm. The seminar was so convincing that W wrote a check to K for $100,000.

Several months later, W received statements (which were false) from K?s firm reflecting significant returns on his initial $100,000 investment. Thereafter, W attended another seminar and decided to invest more money. W took a loan and invested another $800,000 in K?s Forex trading operation. Short while after W?s second investment, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against K and his firm for engaging in a scheme to defraud investors. K?s firm?s assets were frozen, including the $900,000 invested by W. A receiver was appointed to distribute the remaining assets of K?s firm to defrauded investors. The assets were distributed on pro-rata basis with no legal preference given to any of the victims. Since K?s firm?s assets were not enough to satisfy all of the defrauded investor?s claims, W received only about $22,000 of the $900,000 he invested.

Since a whole book can be written on the various tactics and methods used by Forex scam artists, in this article, I will focus on the major warning signs that one needs to identify to avoid falling victim to Forex swindlers.

1. Promises of Little or No Risk

If you encounter a Forex firm that claims to have developed a foreign currency trading strategy that carries very little or no risk, stay away. The reason Forex trading can be very profitable is because it also carries a very high risk of loss. The Forex market is very volatile, and, without good money management, an investor can lose most if not all her capital within few days. Thus, individuals and firms who make claims that are far from market realities, as is riskless Forex trading, are really after your money.

2. Guarantees of Large Profits

Beware of firms that guarantee large profits in Forex trading. These so called ?guarantees? are mere ploys to entice investors and make them believe that their money is safe and that they will definitely make large profits. Such claims are simply untrue, because even the best professional traders cannot guarantee that they will make a profit any given day. The Forex market, as most financial markets, is very unpredictable. Hence, be suspicious of such claims and those who make them.

3. Employment Ads For Forex Traders

Many Forex trading firms use employment ads to attract individuals with capital to trade using their systems. The employment ads, which often appear in newspapers and on the Internet, state that a foreign currency trading firm is looking for individuals to teach them how to trade the foreign currency market using firm capital. Those who reply to the ad are convinced by the firm that they will make a fortune trading currencies if they participate in the firm?s training program. During the training process, which often occurs on a demo system, the novice traders are encouraged and told that their demo trading records show that have made significant profits, that they are ready to make real money and would very successful. Despite the firm?s assessment of the novice trader as a brilliant newcomer, no firm capital is provided to the trader, instead the excited novice is told to use her own capital to trade using the firm?s platform. In addition to various fees imposed on traders using the firm?s platform, the Forex firm makes money as an introducing broker. Each time the novice trader trades through the firm?s system, a good part of the spread charged by the broker is shared and goes into the firm?s coffers. After few months, the novice trader loses all of her capital and leaves. The Forex firm, having made money during the novice trader?s short stint, moves on to new traders eager to become rich trading foreign currencies.

4. Is the Forex Firm a CFTC or NFA Member?

Before you sign a check and give your capital to a Forex company, make sure you investigate the entity. Check to see whether the Forex firm, with which you want to do business, is registered with the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the National Futures Association. Many scam artists falsely claim that their firms are registered with the CFTC or the NFA to gain a perspective investor?s trust. Do not trust anyone, research the firm and the background of the individuals involved before parting with your hard earned money.

The Internet has paved the way for many new opportunities for retail investors. The Forex market is both exciting and fast paced. Investor?s who are careful and diligent are likely to avoid the perils of this market, and will profit from the growth and opportunities of foreign currency trading.

Please visit http://www.forexweek.com.

Three Important Forex Concepts For New Traders.

As you enter the world of Forex you will find yourself learning and using many new concepts that you may not have used or heard before.

Three of this important concepts that you must understand are what "Pips" are, What "Volume" is and what you do when "Buying" and "Selling Short". They may look more like four concepts but Buying and Selling are like the two faces on the same coin so we can consider them as a single concept.

Lets first introduce what Pips are. Maybe you have heard or read already how many pips a day you can make using some trading system. In short, currency pairs prices will go out to 4 significant digits. For example; if one currency pair is trading for 1.3451 then an increase to 1.3452 would be a "one-pip" increase in the price of this particular currency. This is an increase of one hundredth of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading. And depending the type of account you have, regular or mini, each pip will have a value of $10 or $1. So if you make 10 pips a day with a regular account you would have made $100 and with a mini-account $10.

Now we can talk about the Volume; trading Volume is a quantity that tells traders how much money is being traded at one particular moment. And the forex market is known by its high volume of trading during most of the time markets are open. Some times there can be spikes in the volume during some type of news breaks and during the time New York stock exchange is open. The volume of transactions in Forex, even in a slow day, will always be much higher than the volume traded in other large exchanges at their full capacity.

Now maybe the most obvious of the concepts. Buying refers to the acquisition of a particular currency pair to open a trade. Selling short refers to the selling of a particular currency to open a trade. When you Buy, you are expecting the price of the currency pair to increase with time, i.e., you buy cheap to sell high. In the case of Selling short, it looks a bit more complicated. Here the way to make money is to initially sell a currency pair that you think will lose value in a given period of time and then, once it happened, you will buy it back at the new price but now you can sell it at the previous greater price the currency had when you opened the trade, so you earn the difference in prices. I know it seems kind of tricky, but once you are in front of your trading station it will look much simpler.

Understand well these three concepts and you will start with solid steps you trading career.

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

Trading Forex To Advance Your Financial Position

Everyday, currencies are traded in an international foreign exchange market, otherwise known as the forex market, with the main marketplaces (otherwise known as bourses) existing in the world?s financial centes New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt and Zurich. Historically, the only way to participate was from the trading floor of one of these bourses, but today, people can trade forex from anywhere through a secure internet connection and a PC.

Today?s traders operate in a global network, taking positions in the market and making investment decisions based on either relative value between two currencies, or a particular currency?s actual price. Currency value fluctuations are constantly renegotiated through trading activity, and this activity, and the corresponding currency values are also indicators of the levels of currency supply. Forex traders have the aim of using the smallest amount of one currency, say the US dollar, to purchase another currency like the British Pound. If supply of the pound lessens in a busy market, it will cost more dollars to buy pounds, and the forex trader hopes to sell their pounds at a higher than their purchase price.

An example of market behaviour greater demand for the Euro might indicate a weakening supply. Low supply and increased demand will drive the price of the Euro up against other currencies like the dollar, until the price better reflects what traders are prepared to pay when short supply exists. Another way to look at this situation is this higher demand means it will cost more dollars to buy the Euro, which equates to a weakening of the dollar in comparison. Analysis of situations such as in this example forms the basis for a trader?s investment decisions, and they will purchase or sell currency accordingly.

This should be remembered, as while many see the foreign exchange market as the vehicle for converting their home currency while travelling abroad, many others choose to use the market to advance their financial position and secure their future.Jay Moncliff is the founder of http://www.goforexonline.info a website specialized on Forex Online, resources and articles. This site provides updated information on Forex Online. For more info on Forex Online visit: http://www.goforexonline.info

The Forex Market explained!

The word Forex is an abbreviation for The Foreign Exchange Market. This is the market in which all is bough and sold is money itself, which means that with certain currencies you can buy other kinds of currencies. It is the largest and most liquid financial market in the entire world. More than one trillion dollars exchange hands everyday on this market. It is a sea full of money with potential to make large and substantial profits. I explain on this article what Forex is all about and how it works.

When talking about the Forex Market the following questions arise.

1) How much money can I make at the Forex Market?
A lot, you can make a fortune!

2) Can I loose money at Forex?
Yes you do. In fact you can loose your entire portfolio just minutes after you start trading.

3) Is it volatile?
Yes it is. It is very volatile.

4) Is it risky?
Yes it is. It is very risky.

5) What is the leverage at this market?
The leverage is usually 100:1 on most firms but sometimes 200:1 and some firms offer up to 400: 1 leverage. This means that for every dollar that you have available for trading you can borrow up to 100 to trade. So with $1000 USD you can control $100,000 of currency. No other market gives you so much liquidity and so much leverage at the same time.

6) How did The Forex Market begin?
Currencies like dollars and sterling pounds were backed up by gold until 1971. After 1971 countries abandoned that norm and started to issue currencies as they pleased so the Forex market originated where central banks could exchange their home currencies for other country currencies. That ensured certain security for the banks in case their own currencies devaluated against the one they were exchanging it for. So if a bank sold dollars and bought sterling pounds and the dollar devaluated too much in relationship with the sterling pounds, the bank didnt loose money, because they had bought large amounts of sterling pounds. Do not confuse Forex with the money exchanging business. The money exchanging business dates back to thousands of years ago. People exchanged one kind of coin for another, silver for gold, etc. Today we exchange one currency for another through The Forex Market.

7) Why did nobody know much about Forex until recently?
Until a few years ago only the big guys could play this game. The initial requirement was that you could trade only if you had about ten to fifty millions to start. Remember that this was intended to be used by bankers and multinational corporations not little guys. Forex was widely opened to everyone on the 90s decade, a very few years ago. It is the number one market in many different aspects. It is the most liquid, largest and it is growing fastest than any other financial market in the world. It attracts many new investors because of its large leverage and low starting funding requirement. Some firms let you start with a mini-trading account which reacquires only $300 - $350 to fund your account and start trading.

8) How can I make lots of money on The Forex Market or how can I loose it all fast?
You can leverage your positions at 100:1. That means that if you start with $1,000 at full margin you can trade $100,000 of currency. Check this out. If you have $1,000 to trade and you want to buy euros for example, if the EUR/USD pair is at 1.32 and it rises to 1.33 in ten minutes you make a $1,000 profit in just ten minutes. You double your initial investment. But if you are wrong and the price goes down to 1.31 then you suddenly loose your entire investment. By just a 1-% change on the underlying you make a huge gain or a huge lost. Imagine that you are right on a long-term trade at 100:1 leverage and the pair change in value 20% favorably to you. If you traded $1,500 you would get around $30,000. This could happen in just one day, but at the same time if you are wrong and the market moves against you, you could loose your entire portfolio in 5 minutes. So you must be informed and you must know what you are doing if you want to make money on this market. High leverage and low initial funding requirement is what attracts many new and potential investors to Forex.

9) How can I start trading?
Forex trading is still controlled by an inter-bank system. There are no broker fees to pay and no commission. It is different to the stock market where you must pay commissions to the brokerage firm for every order executed. At Forex there is just a slight difference between the trading quote and the actual price of the currency. For example if you are trading the EUR/USD pair and the pair is trading at 1.3235 you will get a quote at 1.3237. You see the differences. That small difference goes to the Forex Firm through which you are trading. I personally believe that Forex encourage online trading more than any other financial market. Many individuals are self-made traders and trade from home or business offices. You just open an account with a Firm like Oanda, Refcofx, GFT or any other. There are many out there. Just choose the one that best fits your needs and interests. After you fund your account you will be able to start trading.

As you can see Forex is very interesting, profitable and at the same time risky. So people make fortunes and others loose their life savings. Information is the key. I just briefly described some aspects of The Foreign Exchange Market on this article.

If you want to learn more about the subject above visit the website bellow, which is full of valuable information that can turn you into a very wealthy person (courtesy of John Kaka). John has years of experience on subjects related to business, finance, wealth building, how to profit from e-books, the stock market, forex market, real estate, employment, true home based business opportunities, how to attract amazing wealth to your life, and everything related to money, business and finance.

John Kaka 2005.


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