After a few...especially trying...interactions with unhappy ban recipients today, I thought it would be fun to share a little info on what moderators do to keep this place clean. :)
The forex industry is full of shady characters. Any industry sitting on the intersection of financial independence, work, and money, is bound to attract them. There are many reasons for this; the lower barrier to entry compared to other markets, the lack of public knowledge on the subject, and greedy human nature to name a few.
Moderating a subreddit dedicated to forex (or anything trading realted for that matter,) presents extra challenges beyond your regular sub. Marketers and scammers are super motivated, and MLM / referral marketing is extremely popular right now, which can turn everyday regular users into sources of spam.
How we currently tackle this problem involves technology (scripts, bots, and automod,) a mod review workflow, and some smart sleuthing when needed.
The mod team and our scripts aren't perfect though... but the few false positives we get are a very, very small fraction of all mod actions taken (~1%.) Unfortunately, that means some otherwise sincere members get handled roughly, and that can really suck.. I wish there was a better way, but the alternative is this place becomes a wild west and starts looking like your gmail spam folder.
That said, here's my personal stats for JUST the last 24 hours:

Bans: 14 [edit: 16 now before day's end, two more responding to a 'where can I learn how to trade' post.]
All mod actions (including bans, post and comment removal, etc..): 63
Ban appeals: 2

And I'm just one of the mods. . .
So what scammer and marketing trends are we seeing lately?

Content marketing - Infographics with instagram handles watermarked in them, or a blog-like post with a embedded links to their own site.
Personal/direct selling - trying to move the conversation out of public view, usually by taking things to DM, or promoting a 3rd party chatroom where the rules here no longer apply.
Shills - Fake accounts used to boost the credit of another user, or service. It's no coincidence that a user asking about 'ULRA PRO SIGNALZ' will quickly have 5+ replies by low karma, new users, saying how great the service is. [edit: here's an example I just caught..]
Fake P/L Porn - We see this quite often. It's easy to fake MT4 account statements and MT4 Mobile screenshots, and new users can't tell the difference so these posts will get a lot of undeserved attention. When people ask how OP made such mad cash, a sales pitch is usually coming right up.

Honestly, it can be really frustrating at times.. luckily the scripts we have in place make weeding out ~80% of these jokers quite easy and quick. Heck, we had one scammer who blew through 12+ accounts over the last few days trying to scam people but none of their posts ever saw the light of day thanks to the spam triggers I've written.
What motivates the mod team to keep this place clean? That's an easy answer: The majority of users here are new to trading. Making sure they aren't food for the wolves is important.
But even with all the measures we take, some bad actors still get through.
So here's where you can help: Use the report button! Anytime you see something that you think fits the descriptions listed above, or violates our sidebar rules, just report it. Even if you're not 100% sure, don't be afraid to use the report tool.. The worst thing that can happen is the mod team reviews and approves it, but the best outcome is you directly help keep this place clean and humming! :)
And the mod team is always looking to improve where it can: I've already talked about what we do to scrub away bad actors, but one place we could do better is education. The plan is to rewrite a good portion of the wiki to include the following sections:

Spotting scams and scammers
How to properly compare brokers and regulatory bodies
The real reason why your old high school friend wants you to sign up to IML, and 10 ways to politely tell him to pound sand
No, that hot instagram model won't sleep with you if you buy her online course
Why all signal services are trash and can die in a fire

(Titles above are a work in progress ;P)
Are you a good writer and want to help out with this? Think you can write up a killer wiki article on spotting scam artists? Message the mods and let us know!
Finally, a reminder, we are still interested in taking on more moderators and will be revisiting that very shortly. If you'd be interested, read through this post and reply accordingly: https://www.reddit.com/Forex/comments/h7ok6k/seeking_more_mods_recruitment_thread/

I have been reading all I can find on here and the internet for a good broker to start with and see the multitude of responses. I originally wanted to day trade stocks and made an account with TD Ameritrade but found that just didn't work with my work schedule. For the past couple months I've looked into forex. I had planned on funding my td account with the $2000 min after some more paper trading but see they won't allow accounts in Arizona which is where I plan to move soon.
So now back to looking at brokers I've made a demo account with IG and plan to do the same with Oanda and Pepperstone. Can any of you give experiences as a US trader and preferably with a smaller account? I like that pepperstone has mt5 as an option and if u went with them would probably use that over mt4. I hate to learn mt4 if it will just be slowly phased out.
What are your thoughts on all this?

https://preview.redd.it/1rf74ljv34l51.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=566235871ce22dd3078f0532dfb672bff6eb0707
The irony of financial markets is that this business that officially has got as much regulation as arms trafficking, has also got the same problem –- numerous illegal entities that evolve around the niche.
Scam brokers, funds recovery services that rob the robbed traders, HYIPs, “learn how to make millions overnight” trading courses and a number of other schemes all tend to exploit the weak point of human nature – the belief that there is the magic device with the “MORE MONEY” button out there, that someone can sell you.

A thief shouting “Thief!”

Considering the above there is a high demand in society for truthful and unbiased information about the market players. WikiFX claims to be the provider of such honest information about brokers but in fact, makes money by blackmailing brokers and promoting any company that offers to pay enough in their rankings.
WikiFX is a classic illustration of a thief shouting “Get the thief!” louder than anybody else in the crowd. The strategy works unfortunately and traders tend to trust WikiFx broker’s ratings without questioning what these ratings are based on and who sponsors this global brokers’ database.

Paving the road with some good intentions

Even the most horrible crimes against humanity were done under the cover of best intentions. Starting with the first crusades and ending with the holocaust. There are always some sound arguments, protected people and reliable methods.
Ask any trader whether each forex broker must be regulated by a third party? The answer will be “yes” with a near 100% probability and this answer is totally correct. Know-your-customer procedures and some unbiased third-party control are essential for maintaining the overall transparency of any business in a sphere of finance. This is the argument that WikiFX starts with when promoting its service and there is absolutely no point to argue. Starting with an indisputable truth is a good strategy to win the debate.
“The long-term presence on the market adds credibility”, – says WikiFX, and hears “yes” again.
“Don’t you agree that the longer the company is in the business, the better?”. “Sure”, – the trader agrees one more time.
The mission is completed. This is when the broker ranker can add any other criteria to their appraisal methods. Traders will tend to trust the service because they’ve agreed upon the most important criteria. The rest are minor details.
But what if the rest of the appraisal methods are not just minor issues? What if these details can be the means to manipulate the facts as much as they want to?

Can WikiFX appraisal criteria be trusted?

If we take a look at any broker’s WikiFX rating, we can see that the criteria of appraisal are the following:

The year of registration
Regulations
Market Making license
Software license

For example, this is what the top-rated broker’s summary looks like at WikiFX:
WikiFX Forex com example
https://preview.redd.it/t4ugtbt344l51.png?width=625&format=png&auto=webp&s=95fddf8434faf8938d1a3f18bbd5f1da2ceb47e4
Looks good. Really. Regardless of the attitude to this particular brokerage, the work seems to be done fine. All the regulators are listed below, the information on the used software, licensing, and years of operation is included.
But what if we take some other random brokerage with one of the lowest rankings at WikiFX?
NinjaTraderBrokerage WIkiFX Ranking
https://preview.redd.it/pgyqp0u644l51.png?width=631&format=png&auto=webp&s=eb268faac83608a494c31a39eb1621f7132e3520
This is where the truth reveals itself. Once again, regardless of the attitude to this particular brokerage this is really easy to find out what they do, what licenses they’ve got and what kind of software they use.
Suspicious clone? Seriously? If WikiFX staff cared enough to do any investigation prior to stamping that “Suspicious” mark on the brokerage, they would have seen that both domains, nijatrader com and ninjatraderbrokerage com belong to the same entity.
NinyaTrader whois data
https://preview.redd.it/2097lkw944l51.png?width=563&format=png&auto=webp&s=079cc4248b825a3cd941c6b691a67bb9769f4f7f
If they cared enough to collect information on the brokerage from at least one reliable source, like Investopedia or any other similarly known database, they would also have found out that the company not only provides the brokerage service, but also is known for its trading platform with advanced technical analysis tools. But the only trading software that WikiFX considers reliable seems to be MT4/MT5. They simply ignore the fact that trading does not evolve around MetaTrader products, no matter how good and popular they are. WikiFX lowers the score of any brokerage with custom-developed software. We can clearly see this with the above example.
Other criteria that WikiFX is proud to use for the broker’s appraisal are regulations. Using the same example let’s see how well they do the appraisal in this field. As you can see above, WikiFX used the “Suspicious Regulatory License” stamp for NinjaTrader Brokerage.
And here is what The National Futures Association, that NinjaTrader is registered with as a futures broker has on its record:
NFA regulation of NTB proof that WikiFX did not consider to be trustworthy

https://preview.redd.it/di8fwkdd44l51.png?width=629&format=png&auto=webp&s=2de618d5df26bd8fcca99c51a6030f4bdfa7f776
We can’t expect every trader to know that any futures broker that wants to operate on the US market must be a member of NFA. This is the requirement of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding the futures broker’s operations. But this is totally unacceptable for a broker ranking website, which WikiFX claims to be, to mark NFA-registered futures brokerage as non-reliable.
By the way, did you notice on the above screenshot that NTB has obtained the NFA license in 2004? Yet, this does not prevent WikiFX from claiming that the brokerage has only been providing its services for 1-2 years only, instead of the factual 16 years of operations.
We can long discuss the reasons that lie behind such selectivity of WikiFX but this random example clearly shows that any brokerage that provides access to non-forex derivatives trading or dares to suggest custom-developed software to its traders is in danger of receiving a negative review at WikiFX regardless of the factual reliability and regulations.

What lies beneath WikiFX selectivity?

WikiFX claims to have a team of professionals that are all involved in objective appraisal of broker’s services, licenses and used software. The methods used by these professionals remain unrevealed and as we see from the above comparison two similarly reliable brokerages can get any score from 1.0 and up to 10.0 at WikiFX, no matter what regulations they’ve got, for how long they’ve been in the business and what kind of software they use.
This is difficult to say what lies behind such selectivity with 100% confidence. The first thing that comes to mind is that WikiFX might be affiliated with some brokers. The hypothesis gets even more realistic if we try to understand who sponsors WikiFX.
There are no transparent built-in ads neither on the web-version of the website nor in its applications. There are no paid subscriptions for access to the database. This means that users sponsor the service with neither their attention to ads nor directly. Being the non-charity and non-governmental organization WikiFX can’t be sponsored with donations or a government. The only option that we have left is that brokers sponsor this ranking system directly, which automatically makes the whole system non-reliable and highly biased.
The only transparent method that we know WikiFX uses to collect money is sponsorship fees they collect from their offline events participants. Let’s have a look at the exhibitors of the recent WikiFX Expo in Thailand.
WikiFX Expo Exhibitors

TLC is a non-regulated investment platform that was founded in 2019
Samtrade FX is not regulated by any of the agencies that WikiFX itself lists as reliable
Forex4you is not regulated by any of the agencies that WikiFX itself lists as reliable
B2 Broker is a non-regulated broker
XDL FX is a non-regulated broker
VAT FX is a non-regulated broker
Six out of sixteen WikiFX recent expo exhibitors do not have proper legal status according to the “standards” of WikiFX itself. This fact does not prevent them from promoting the services of these companies at their offline events. This conspicuous fact tells a lot about the attitude of WikiFX to common traders looking for reliable partners. Reputation is nothing but a sale item for this brokers’ ranking system.

Murky & Murkier

So far we’ve only discussed the facts that anyone can check himself using free tools and sources.
It was not that difficult to discover that WikiFX uses non-transparent standards for brokers’ appraisal. It ignores the specifics of some brokerages lowering their scores due to non-standard derivatives they offer to trade or custom trading software. It also promotes non-regulated and non-licensed brokerages, which is 100% against the declared WikiFX values and mission.
The rumors are that this company was also noticed blackmailing brokers with the purpose of making them pay for better reviews at WikiFX. There are also some signs that indicate suspicious promotion of WikiFX platform through social media and Quora. Some of the WikiFX positive reviews also look highly suspicious. All of the above is a matter of further investigation.
Nevertheless, thousands of users keep relying on the information provided by this scam ranking system. It may even look like all these users are satisfied. WikiFX has got 4.5 starts at Google Play, which sounds good enough. However, positive WikiFX reviews use similar semantics and are also highly suspicious. Despite the high average grade, Google Play finds the following messages to be most relevant and brings them to the top of WikiFX reviews:
Google Play most relevant WikiFX reviews

https://preview.redd.it/kftutvcl44l51.png?width=532&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ccb74ee156388285a2fab711dd604945c04377c

You’ve got the facts now and it’s time to make your own conclusions.

Binary Options Review; Best Binary Options Brokers
We have compared the best regulated binary options brokers and platforms in May 2020 and created this top list. Every binary options company here has been personally reviewed by us to help you find the best binary options platform for both beginners and experts. The broker comparison list below shows which binary trading sites came out on top based on different criteria.
You can put different trading signals into consideration such as using payout (maximum returns), minimum deposit, bonus offers, or if the operator is regulated or not. You can also read full reviews of each broker, helping you make the best choice. This review is to ensure traders don't lose money in their trading account.
How to Compare Brokers and Platforms
In order to trade binary options, you need to engage the services of a binary options broker that accepts clients from your country e.g. check US trade requirements if you are in the United States. Here at bitcoinbinaryoptionsreview.com, we have provided all the best comparison factors that will help you select which trading broker to open an account with. We have also looked at our most popular or frequently asked questions, and have noted that these are important factors when traders are comparing different brokers:

What is the Minimum Deposit? (These range from $5 or $10 up to $250)
Are they regulated or licensed, and with which regulator?
Can I open a Demo Account?
Is there a signals service, and is it free?
Can I trade on my mobile phone and is there a mobile app?
Is there a Bonus available for new trader accounts? What are the Terms and
conditions?
Who has the best binary trading platform? Do you need high detail charts with technical analysis indicators?
Which broker has the best asset lists? Do they offer forex, cryptocurrency, commodities, indices, and stocks – and how many of each?
Which broker has the largest range of expiry times (30 seconds, 60 seconds, end of the day, long term, etc?)
How much is the minimum trade size or amount?
What types of options are available? (Touch, Ladder, Boundary, Pairs, etc)
Additional Tools – Like Early closure or Metatrader 4 (Mt4) plugin or integration
Do they operate a Robot or offer automated trading software?
What is Customer Service like? Do they offer telephone, email and live chat customer support – and in which countries? Do they list direct contact details?
Who has the best payouts or maximum returns? Check the markets you will trade.

The Regulated Binary Brokers
Regulation and licensing is a key factor when judging the best broker. Unregulated brokers are not always scams, or untrustworthy, but it does mean a trader must do more ‘due diligence’ before trading with them. A regulated broker is the safest option.
Regulators - Leading regulatory bodies include:

CySec – The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (Cyprus and the EU)
FCA – Financial Conduct Authority (UK)
CFTC – Commodity Futures Trading Commission (US)
FSB – Financial Services Board (South Africa)
ASIC – Australia Securities and Investment Commission

There are other regulators in addition to the above, and in some cases, brokers will be regulated by more than one organization. This is becoming more common in Europe where binary options are coming under increased scrutiny. Reputable, premier brands will have regulation of some sort.
Regulation is there to protect traders, to ensure their money is correctly held and to give them a path to take in the event of a dispute. It should therefore be an important consideration when choosing a trading partner.
Bonuses - Both sign up bonuses and demo accounts are used to attract new clients. Bonuses are often a deposit match, a one-off payment, or risk-free trade. Whatever the form of a bonus, there are terms and conditions that need to be read.
It is worth taking the time to understand those terms before signing up or clicking accept on a bonus offer. If the terms are not to your liking then the bonus loses any attraction and that broker may not be the best choice. Some bonus terms tie in your initial deposit too. It is worth reading T&Cs before agreeing to any bonus, and worth noting that many brokers will give you the option to ‘opt-out’ of taking a bonus.
Using a bonus effectively is harder than it sounds. If considering taking up one of these offers, think about whether, and how, it might affect your trading. One common issue is that turnover requirements within the terms, often cause traders to ‘over-trade’. If the bonus does not suit you, turn it down.
How to Find the Right Broker
But how do you find a good broker? Well, that’s where BitcoinBinaryOptionsReview.com comes in. We assess and evaluate binary options brokers so that traders know exactly what to expect when signing up with them. Our financial experts have more than 20 years of experience in the financial business and have reviewed dozens of brokers.
Being former traders ourselves, we know precisely what you need. That’s why we’ll do our best to provide our readers with the most accurate information. We are one of the leading websites in this area of expertise, with very detailed and thorough analyses of every broker we encounter. You will notice that each aspect of any broker’s offer has a separate article about it, which just goes to show you how seriously we approach each company. This website is your best source of information about binary options brokers and one of your best tools in determining which one of them you want as your link to the binary options market.
Why Use a Binary Options Trading Review?
So, why is all this relevant? As you may already know, it is difficult to fully control things that take place online. There are people who only pose as binary options brokers in order to scam you and disappear with your money. True, most of the brokers we encounter turn out to be legit, but why take unnecessary risks?
Just let us do our job and then check out the results before making any major decisions. All our investigations regarding brokers’ reliability can be seen if you click on our Scam Tab, so give it a go and see how we operate. More detailed scam reports than these are simply impossible to find. However, the most important part of this website can be found if you go to our Brokers Tab.
There you can find extensive analyses of numerous binary options brokers irrespective of your trading strategy. Each company is represented with an all-encompassing review and several other articles dealing with various aspects of their offer. A list containing the very best choices will appear on your screen as you enter our website whose intuitive design will allow you to access all the most important information in real-time.
We will explain minimum deposits, money withdrawals, bonuses, trading platforms, and many more topics down to the smallest detail. Rest assured, this amount of high-quality content dedicated exclusively to trading cannot be found anywhere else. Therefore, visiting us before making any important decisions regarding this type of trading is the best thing to do.
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Im a software dev and I like trading stocks so Ive decided to try my hand at forex. I did some research and it seemed like the US implemented the "hedging rule" as a result of 08. From what Ive read mql4 allows hedging, mql5 doesnt. However, none of the US brokers Ive found use mt5 and all the brokers that do deal with mt5 dont accept American clients.
Can anyone clear this up for me? Im not to sure where Im wrong in my research. It also seemed like mt4 might be phased out at some point so Id rather not learn that code base especially since Ive made a few bots in mql5 already.

Triton Capital Markets offers the incredible MT5 to its dealers, permitting them to exchange various resources, for example, on forex, fates, and, with adaptable just as no re-cites, no value dismissals and zero slippages.
A center advantage of the MetaTrader 5 stage is that you can exchange from anyplace and whenever from the solace of your cell phone and tablet. This empowers a broker to exchange their advantages of decision from any internet browser and any gadget. Moreover, the MT5 stage offers, exchanging signals and, and all the accessible devices and highlights can be utilized from a solitary incredible.
Here is the thing that to do to encounter the full intensity of the Triton capital Markets MetaTrader 5:
1. Training
As referenced above, MetaTrader 5 is stuffed with various highlights and exchanging assets, which are intended to upgrade your exchanging exercises. It is critical to find out pretty much all the highlights and their pertinence to guarantee that you are well prepared to exploit the full intensity of the stage.
From the accessible 7 resource class types, various exchanging devices, pointers, and graphical items, to 6 distinctive request types, numerous robotized systems, and market profundity, you may have the option to completely misuse the crude intensity of the MT5 stage if you set aside some effort to teach yourself on all the accessible functionalities of this natural stage.
Triton Capital Markets additionally has various instructive materials explicitly on the MT5 exchanging stage that are open for nothing in our ‘ area. Make certain to exploit the educational and amicable eBooks and recordings that disclose in detail how to exchange money related resources online proficiently.
2. Installation
Here are the base framework prerequisites for utilizing Triton Capital Markets MT5 on your PC:
Windows 7 Operating System or higher (64-piece framework suggested)
Pentium 4/Athlon 64 processors or higher (All cutting edge CPUs ought to have the option to help this)
If you mean to be a substantial client (For example, opening different outlines and using numerous EAs), you could think about increasingly incredible equipment choices
Follow the means underneath to download and introduce Triton Capital Markets MT5 on your PC:
3. Add Your Request
If you have just signed into your Triton Capital Markets MT5, it is presently an ideal opportunity to estimate the costs of your preferred resource.
There are a few different ways to put in a request on MT5:
Snap-on Tools on the Menu bar. At that point select ‘New Order’
On the Market Watch window, double-tap on the benefit you wish to exchange (you can likewise right-tap on your ideal resource and afterward select ‘New request’)
Open the Trading tab on the lower terminal and select ‘New Order’
Press F9 for a single tick exchanging on the outline of your preferred resource
At the point when any of the above alternatives is applied, the ‘Request Screen’ will spring up. The screen will have a tick graph on its left side and customizable request subtleties on the right. The tick outline shows the offer and asks costs, and along these lines, the constant spreads (the contrast between the offer and ask costs).
The request subtleties on the privilege are:
Image — This is the benefit you wish to exchange.
Request Type — You can pick between Market Execution and Pending Execution request types.
Volume — This is the amount (in part measures) that you wish to exchange, of the chose hidden resource. On a standard record, 1 part size is what could be compared to 100,000 units, which commonly implies that will be around 10 US dollars (USD) on most resources.
Stop Loss and Take Profit — You will have the option to join stop misfortune and take benefit orders on the entirety of your exchanges. Stop misfortune orders when the advantage value moves against you, while take benefit orders permit you to book benefits when the benefit value moves in support of yourself.
Remark — You can include any notes concerning any exchange of the remark segment. This is perfect for merchants that report their exchanging exercises.
Exchange Any Time and From Anywhere
The Triton Capital Markets MT5 stage likewise has a web form that is open on both portable and work area programs. There is likewise a downloadable versatile MT5 App that is good with both Android and iOS cell phones. This gives the accommodation and adaptability to exchange from anyplace. Besides, you can likewise sign in over the various stages utilizing single login certifications.
MetaTrader 5 — The Benefits of Trading with Triton Capital Markets
Triton Capital Markets is an honor winning and which furnishes brokers with all the devices, administrations, and highlights required to satisfy one’s full exchanging potential.
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Forex Broker Solutions
With USD 5 trillion trading volume per day, FOREX Market is world’s volume. Yes, you read it right, its USD 5 trillion a day! This is one-fourth of US GDP of $ 19.39 trillion. Such humongous is the Forex Trading Market. And why shouldn’t it be, after all we live in a globalized world where most of the countries trade with each other. And all these transactions involve one or the other currency. Investments are being made world over by one country to another and all these need transaction in Forex. Everyday billions of businesses located across globe transact with each other for their trade.
📷
https://preview.redd.it/fwr0upzlery41.jpg?width=900&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=52478a7024de0274d1c582a89aa0a413cf485310
All these parties and people need currencies every day and their buying and selling creates this huge FOREX Market. With the advent of technology, FOREX Trading has got widespread popularity. It’s quick, easy and can be a good source of income for traders.
While International Banks and Institutions create the largest part of volume, small time retailers participate in Forex Market too on day to day basis. People from every walk of life from different regions of various countries are actively participating in forex trading and making livelihood for themselves.
Forex Brokers play a vital role in bridging gap between these small retailer and the large forex market. Forex Brokerage Business can be extremely rewarding if done with proper planning and right tools. We at MT4 & MT5-Whitelabel provide the forex trading software and tools, consultancy for starting Forex Brokerage Business, Opening On Shore and Off Shore Business, Getting Forex License and Regulatory approvals etc.
We are going to share Step-By-Step Guide To Starting Your Own Forex Brokerage Business. And this blog is very first in this series.
Who is a FOREX Broker?
Forex brokering business provides currency traders with access to a trading platform that allows them to buy and sell foreign currencies. It’s basically a platform that connects forex traders (primarily forex retail traders) with global network of forex market at large. Forex Brokers are the gateway to huge Forex Market for the small time retails forex traders. Forex Brokers are the most important part of this glorious international financial market and here is the List of 15 Things Forex Brokers do for Forex Traders.

Open Account
Do the KYC
Take care of AML and other regulatory compliance to keep everything clean
Deposit and withdraw money with multiple options like Bank Account, Credit Card, Wallet etc
Keep the charges clear and transparent
Provide platform to place Forex Trading orders
Wide range of Currency Pairs
Provide leverage so that traders could take larger traders with lower capital
Liquidity which makes sure traders get in and get out from trader at their choice of price point
Quick Support and Query resolution
Tools to keep track of their trade, profit and loss, charges etc.
Freedom to trade as and when a trader wants not only this but the freedom to not to trade is essential too
Close the account whenever a trader wants
Share the news and events that may impact Forex Market
Keep on upgrading the systems and tools with latest versions

This is just a quick list that a forex broker does but there are more to this and we will discuss them in next blogs about forex broker. So stay tuned!
read more visit https://www.forexsolutions.com/who-is-forex-broke

Hello. Are there any Forex traders here? I’m interested to start a Telegram group for us - where we can discuss brokers, platforms, indicators and other related topics.
I’m not so interested in people who use eToro, I’m looking for people who are slightly more advanced than that, such as MT4 or MT5.
It won’t be a Telegram group for Crypto or stocks, just major forex pairs only (perhaps some exotics if we want.)

TL;DR - I will try and flip an account from $50 or less to $1,000 over 2019. I will post all my account details so my strategy can be seen/copied. I will do this using only three or four trading setups. All of which are simple enough to learn. I will start trading on 10th January.
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As I see it there are two mains ways to understand how to make money in the markets. The first is to know what the biggest winners in the markets are doing and duplicating what they do. This is hard. Most of the biggest players will not publicly tell people what they are doing. You need to be able to kinda slide in with them and see if you can pick up some info. Not suitable for most people, takes a lot of networking and even then you have to be able to make the correct inferences.
Another way is to know the most common trades of losing traders and then be on the other side of their common mistakes. This is usually far easier, usually everyone knows the mind of a losing trader. I learned about what losing traders do every day by being one of them for many years. I noticed I had an some sort of affinity for buying at the very top of moves and selling at the very bottom. This sucked, however, is was obvious there was winning trades on the other side of what I was doing and the adjustments to be a good trader were small (albeit, tricky).
Thus began the study for entries and maximum risk:reward. See, there have been times I have bought aiming for a 10 pip scalps and hit 100 pips stops loss. Hell, there have been times I was going for 5 pips and hit 100 stop out. This can seem discouraging, but it does mean there must be 1:10 risk:reward pay-off on the other side of these mistakes, and they were mistakes.
If you repeatedly enter and exit at the wrong times, you are making mistakes and probably the same ones over and over again. The market is tricking you! There are specific ways in which price moves that compel people to make these mistakes (I won’t go into this in this post, because it takes too long and this is going to be a long post anyway, but a lot of this is FOMO).
Making mistakes is okay. In fact, as I see it, making mistakes is an essential part of becoming an expert. Making a mistake enough times to understand intrinsically why it is a mistake and then make the required adjustments. Understanding at a deep level why you trade the way you do and why others make the mistakes they do, is an important part of becoming an expert in your chosen area of focus.
I could talk more on these concepts, but to keep the length of the post down, I will crack on to actual examples of trades I look for. Here are my three main criteria. I am looking for tops/bottoms of moves (edge entries). I am looking for 1:3 RR or more potential pay-offs. My strategy assumes that retail trades will lose most of the time. This seems a fair enough assumption. Without meaning to sound too crass about it, smart money will beat dumb money most of the time if the game is base on money. They just will.
So to summarize, I am looking for the points newbies get trapped in bad positions entering into moves too late. From these areas, I am looking for high RR entries.
Setup Examples.
I call this one the “Lightning Bolt correction”, but it is most commonly referred to as a “two leg correction”. I call it a “Lightning Bolt correction” because it looks a bit like one, and it zaps you. If you get it wrong.

https://preview.redd.it/t4whwijse2721.png?width=1326&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9050529c6e2472a3ff9f8e7137bd4a3ee5554cc
Once I see price making the first sell-off move and then begin to rally towards the highs again, I am waiting for a washout spike low. The common trades mistakes I am trading against here is them being too eager to buy into the trend too early and for the to get stopped out/reverse position when it looks like it is making another bearish breakout. Right at that point they panic … literally one candle under there is where I want to be getting in. I want to be buying their stop loss, essentially. “Oh, you don’t want that ...okay, I will have that!”
I need a precise entry. I want to use tiny stops (for big RR) so I need to be cute with entries. For this, I need entry rules. Not just arbitrarily buying the spike out. There are a few moving parts to this that are outside the scope of this post but one of my mains ways is using a fibs extension and looking for reversals just after the 1.61% level. How to draw the fibs is something else that is outside the scope of this but for one simple rule, they can be drawn on the failed new high leg.

https://preview.redd.it/2cd682kve2721.png?width=536&format=png&auto=webp&s=f4d081c9faff49d0976f9ffab260aaed2b570309
I am looking for a few specific things for a prime setup. Firstly, I am looking for the false hope candles, the ones that look like they will reverse the market and let those buying too early get out break-even or even at profit. In this case, you can see the hammer and engulfing candle off the 127 level, then it spikes low in that “stop-hunt” sort of style.
Secondly I want to see it trading just past my entry level (161 ext). This rule has come from nothing other than sheer volume. The amount of times I’ve been stopped out by 1 pip by that little sly final low has gave birth to this rule. I am looking for the market to trade under support in a manner that looks like a new strong breakout. When I see this, I am looking to get in with tiny stops, right under the lows. I will also be using smaller charts at this time and looking for reversal clusters of candles. Things like dojis, inverted hammers etc. These are great for sticking stops under.
Important note, when the lightning bolt correction fails to be a good entry, I expect to see another two legs down. I may look to sell into this area sometimes, and also be looking for buying on another couple legs down. It is important to note, though, when this does not work out, I expect there to be continued momentum that is enough to stop out and reasonable stop level for my entry. Which is why I want to cut quick. If a 10 pips stop will hit, usually a 30 pips stop will too. Bin it and look for the next opportunity at better RR.

https://preview.redd.it/mhkgy35ze2721.png?width=1155&format=png&auto=webp&s=a18278b85b10278603e5c9c80eb98df3e6878232
Another setup I am watching for is harmonic patterns, and I am using these as a multi-purpose indicator. When I see potentially harmonic patterns forming, I am using their completion level as take profits, I do not want to try and run though reversal patterns I can see forming hours ahead of time. I also use them for entering (similar rules of looking for specific entry criteria for small stops). Finally, I use them as a continuation pattern. If the harmonic pattern runs past the area it may have reversed from, there is a high probability that the market will continue to trend and very basic trend following strategies work well. I learned this from being too stubborn sticking with what I thought were harmonic reversals only to be ran over by a trend (seriously, everything I know I know from how it used to make me lose).

https://preview.redd.it/1ytz2431f2721.png?width=1322&format=png&auto=webp&s=983a7f2a91f9195004ad8a2aa2bb9d4d6f128937
A method of spotting these sorts of M/W harmonics is they tend to form after a second spike out leg never formed. When this happens, it gives me a really good idea of where my profit targets should be and where my next big breakout level is. It is worth noting, larger harmonics using have small harmonics inside them (on lower time-frames) and this can be used for dialling in optimum entries. I also use harmonics far more extensively in ranging markets. Where they tend to have higher win rates.
Next setup is the good old fashioned double bottoms/double top/one tick trap sort of setup. This comes in when the market is highly over extended. It has a small sell-off and rallies back to the highs before having a much larger sell-off. This is a more risky trade in that it sells into what looks like trending momentum and can be stopped out more. However, it also pays a high RR when it works, allowing for it to be ran at reduced risk and still be highly profitable when it comes through.

https://preview.redd.it/1bx83776f2721.png?width=587&format=png&auto=webp&s=2c76c3085598ae70f4142d26c46c8d6e9b1c2881
From these sorts of moves, I am always looking for a follow up buy if it forms a lightning bolt sort of setup.
All of these setups always offer 1:3 or better RR. If they do not, you are doing it wrong (and it will be your stop placement that is wrong). This is not to say the target is always 1:3+, sometimes it is best to lock in profits with training stops. It just means that every time you enter, you can potentially have a trade that runs for many times more than you risked. 1:10 RR can be hit in these sorts of setups sometimes. Paying you 20% for 2% risked.
I want to really stress here that what I am doing is trading against small traders mistakes. I am not trying to “beat the market maker”. I am not trying to reverse engineer J.P Morgan’s black boxes. I do not think I am smart enough to gain a worthwhile edge over these traders. They have more money, they have more data, they have better softwares … they are stronger. Me trying to “beat the market maker” is like me trying to beat up Mike Tyson. I might be able to kick him in the balls and feel smug for a few seconds. However, when he gets up, he is still Tyson and I am still me. I am still going to be pummeled.
I’ve seen some people that were fairly bright people going into training courses and coming out dumb as shit. Thinking they somehow are now going to dominate Goldman Sachs because they learned a chart pattern. Get a grip. For real, get a fucking grip. These buzz phrases are marketeering. Realististically, if you want to win in the markets, you need to have an edge over somebody.
I don’t have edges on the banks. If I could find one, they’d take it away from me. Edges work on inefficiencies in what others do that you can spot and they can not. I do not expect to out-think a banks analysis team. I know for damn sure I can out-think a version of me from 5 years ago … and I know there are enough of them in the markets. I look to trade against them. I just look to protect myself from the larger players so they can only hurt me in limited ways. Rather than letting them corner me and beat me to a pulp (in the form of me watching $1,000 drop off my equity because I moved a stop or something), I just let them kick me in the butt as I run away. It hurts a little, but I will be over it soon.
I believe using these principles, these three simple enough edge entry setups, selectiveness (remembering you are trading against the areas people make mistakes, wait for they areas) and measured aggression a person can make impressive compounded gains over a year. I will attempt to demonstrate this by taking an account of under $100 to over $1,000 in a year. I will use max 10% on risk on a position, the risk will scale down as the account size increases. In most cases, 5% risk per trade will be used, so I will be going for 10-20% or so profits. I will be looking only for prime opportunities, so few trades but hard hitting ones when I take them.
I will start trading around the 10th January. Set remind me if you want to follow along. I will also post my investor login details, so you can see the trades in my account in real time. Letting you see when I place my orders and how I manage running positions.
I also think these same principles can be tweaked in such a way it is possible to flip $50 or so into $1,000 in under a month. I’ve done $10 to $1,000 in three days before. This is far more complex in trade management, though. Making it hard to explain/understand and un-viable for many people to copy (it hedges, does not comply with FIFO, needs 1:500 leverage and also needs spreads under half a pip on EURUSD - not everyone can access all they things). I see all too often people act as if this can’t be done and everyone saying it is lying to sell you something. I do not sell signals. I do not sell training. I have no dog in this fight, I am just saying it can be done. There are people who do it. If you dismiss it as impossible; you will never be one of them.
If I try this 10 times with $50, I probably am more likely to make $1,000 ($500 profit) in a couple months than standard ideas would double $500 - I think I have better RR, even though I may go bust 5 or more times. I may also try to demonstrate this, but it is kinda just show-boating, quite honestly. When it works, it looks cool. When it does not, I can go bust in a single day (see example https://www.fxblue.com/users/redditmicroflip).
So I may or may not try and demonstrate this. All this is, is just taking good basic concepts and applying accelerated risk tactics to them and hitting a winning streak (of far less trades than you may think). Once you have good entries and RR optimization in place - there really is no reason why you can not scale these up to do what may people call impossible (without even trying it).
I know there are a lot of people who do not think these things are possible and tend to just troll whenever people talk about these things. There used to be a time when I’d try to explain why I thought the way I did … before I noticed they only cared about telling me why they were right and discussion was pointless. Therefore, when it comes to replies, I will reply to all comments that ask me a question regarding why I think this can be done, or why I done something that I done. If you are commenting just to tell me all the reasons you think I am wrong and you are right, I will probably not reply. I may well consider your points if they are good ones. I just do not entering into discussions with people who already know everything; it serves no purpose.

Edit: Addition.

I want to talk a bit more about using higher percentage of risk than usual. Firstly, let me say that there are good reasons for risk caps that people often cite as “musts”. There are reasons why 2% is considered optimum for a lot of strategies and there are reasons drawing down too much is a really bad thing.
Please do not be ignorant of this. Please do not assume I am, either. In previous work I done, I was selecting trading strategies that could be used for investment. When doing this, my only concern was drawdown metrics. These are essential for professional money management and they are also essential for personal long-term success in trading.
So please do not think I have not thought of these sorts of things Many of the reasons people say these things can’t work are basic 101 stuff anyone even remotely committed to learning about trading learns in their first 6 months. Trust me, I have thought about these concepts. I just never stopped thinking when I found out what public consensus was.
While these 101 rules make a lot of sense, it does not take away from the fact there are other betting strategies, and if you can know the approximate win rate and pay-off of trades, you can have other ways of deriving optimal bet sizes (risk per trade). Using Kelly Criterion, for example, if the pay-off is 1:3 and there is a 75% chance of winning, the optimal bet size is 62.5%. It would be a viable (high risk) strategy to have extremely filtered conditions that looked for just one perfect set up a month, makingover 150% if it was successful.
Let’s do some math on if you can pull that off three months in a row (using 150% gain, for easy math). Start $100. Month two starts $250. Month three $625. Month three ends $1,562. You have won three trades. Can you win three trades in a row under these conditions? I don’t know … but don’t assume no-one can.
This is extremely high risk, let’s scale it down to meet somewhere in the middle of the extremes. Let’s look at 10%. Same thing, 10% risk looking for ideal opportunities. Maybe trading once every week or so. 30% pay-off is you win. Let’s be realistic here, a lot of strategies can drawdown 10% using low risk without actually having had that good a chance to generate 30% gains in the trades it took to do so. It could be argued that trading seldomly but taking 5* the risk your “supposed” to take can be more risk efficient than many strategies people are using.
I am not saying that you should be doing these things with tens of thousands of dollars. I am not saying you should do these things as long term strategies. What I am saying is do not dismiss things out of hand just because they buck the “common knowns”. There are ways you can use more aggressive trading tactics to turn small sums of money into they $1,000s of dollars accounts that you exercise they stringent money management tactics on.
With all the above being said, you do have to actually understand to what extent you have an edge doing what you are doing. To do this, you should be using standard sorts of risks. Get the basics in place, just do not think you have to always be basic. Once you have good basics in place and actually make a bit of money, you can section off profits for higher risk versions of strategies. The basic concepts of money management are golden. For longevity and large funds; learned them and use them! Just don’t forget to think for yourself once you have done that.

Update -

Okay, I have thought this through a bit more and decided I don't want to post my live account investor login, because it has my full name and I do not know who any of you are. Instead, for copying/observing, I will give demo account login (since I can choose any name for a demo).
I will also copy onto a live account and have that tracked via Myfxbook.
I will do two versions. One will be FIFO compliant. It will trade only single trade positions. The other will not be FIFO compliant, it will open trades in batches. I will link up live account in a week or so. For now, if anyone wants to do BETA testing with the copy trader, you can do so with the following details (this is the non-FIFO compliant version).

Account tracking/copying details.

Low-Medium risk.
IC Markets MT4
Account number: 10307003
Investor PW: lGdMaRe6
Server: Demo:01
(Not FIFO compliant)

Valid and Invalid Complaints.
There are a few things that can pop up in copy trading. I am not a n00b when it comes to this, so I can somewhat forecast what these will be. I can kinda predict what sort of comments there may be. Some of these are valid points that if you raise I should (and will) reply to. Some are things outside of the scope of things I can influence, and as such, there is no point in me replying to. I will just cover them all here the one time.

Valid complains are if I do something dumb or dramatically outside of the strategy I have laid out here. won't do these, if I do, you can pitchfork ----E

Examples;

“Oi, idiot! You opened a trade randomly on a news spike. I got slipped 20 pips and it was a shit entry”.
Perfectly valid complaint.

“Why did you open a trade during swaps hours when the spread was 30 pips?”
Also valid.

“You left huge trades open running into the weekend and now I have serious gap paranoia!”
Definitely valid.

These are examples of me doing dumb stuff. If I do dumb stuff, it is fair enough people say things amounting to “Yo, that was dumb stuff”.

Invalid Complains;

“You bought EURUSD when it was clearly a sell!!!!”
Okay … you sell. No-one is asking you to copy my trades. I am not trading your strategy. Different positions make a market.

“You opened a position too big and I lost X%”.
No. Na uh. You copied a position too big. If you are using a trade copier, you can set maximum risk. If you neglect to do this, you are taking 100% risk. You have no valid compliant for losing. The act of copying and setting the risk settings is you selecting your risk. I am not responsible for your risk. I accept absolutely no liability for any losses.
*Suggested fix. Refer to risk control in copy trading software

“You lost X trades in a row at X% so I lost too much”.
Nope. You copied. See above. Anything relating to losing too much in trades (placed in liquid/standard market conditions) is entirely you. I can lose my money. Only you can set it up so you can lose yours. I do not have access to your account. Only mine.
*Suggested fix. Refer to risk control in copy trading software

“Price keeps trading close to the pending limit orders but not filling. Your account shows profits, but mine is not getting them”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
* Suggested fix. Compare the spread on your broker with the spread on mine. Adjust your orders accordingly. Buy limit orders will need to move up a little. Sell limit orders should not need adjusted.

“I got stopped out right before the market turned, I have a loss but your account shows a profit”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there differences in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
** Suggested fix. Compare the spread on your broker with the spread on mine. Adjust your orders accordingly. Stop losses on sell orders will need to move up a bit. Stops on buy orders will be fine.

“Your trade got stopped out right before the market turned, if it was one more pip in the stop, it would have been a winner!!!”
Yeah. This happens. This is where the “risk” part of “risk:reward” comes in.

“Price traded close to take profit, yours filled but mines never”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there differences in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
(Side note, this should not be an issue since when my trade closes, it should ping your account to close, too. You might get a couple less pips).
*** Suggested fix. Compare the spread on your broker with the spread on mine. Adjust your orders accordingly. Take profits on buys will need to move up a bit. Sell take profits will be fine.

“My brokers spread jumped to 20 during the New York session so the open trade made a bigger loss than it should”.
Your broker might just suck if this happens. This is brokerage. I have no control over this. My trades are placed to profit from my brokerage conditions. I do not know, so can not account for yours. Also, if accounting for random spread spikes like this was something I had to do, this strategy would not be a thing. It only works with fair brokerage conditions.
*Suggested fix. Do a bit of Googling and find out if you have a horrific broker. If so, fix that! A good search phrase is; “(Broker name) FPA reviews”.

“Price hit the stop loss but was going really fast and my stop got slipped X pips”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there differences in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
If my trade also got slipped on the stop, I was slipped using ECN conditions with excellent execution; sometimes slips just happen. I am doing the most I can to prevent them, but it is a fact of liquidity that sometimes we get slipped (slippage can also work in our favor, paying us more than the take profit would have been).

“Orders you placed failed to execute on my account because they were too large”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. Margin requirements vary. I have 1:500 leverage available. I will not always be using it, but I can. If you can’t, this will make a difference.

“Your account is making profits trading things my broker does not have”
I have a full range of assets to trade with the broker I use. Included Forex, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies. I may or may not use the extent of these options. I can not account for your brokerage conditions.

I think I have covered most of the common ones here. There are some general rules of thumb, though. Basically, if I do something that is dumb and would have a high probability of losing on any broker traded on, this is a valid complain.

Anything that pertains to risk taken in standard trading conditions is under your control.

Also, anything at all that pertains to brokerage variance there is nothing I can do, other than fully brief you on what to expect up-front. Since I am taking the time to do this, I won’t be a punchbag for anything that happens later pertaining to this.

I am not using an elitist broker. You don’t need $50,000 to open an account, it is only $200. It is accessible to most people - brokerage conditions akin to what I am using are absolutely available to anyone in the UK/Europe/Asia (North America, I am not so up on, so can’t say). With the broker I use, and with others. If you do not take the time to make sure you are trading with a good broker, there is nothing I can do about how that affects your trades.

I am using an A book broker, if you are using B book; it will almost certainly be worse results. You have bad costs. You are essentially buying from reseller and paying a mark-up. (A/B book AKA ECN/Market maker; learn about this here). My EURUSD spread will typically be 0.02 pips or so, if yours is 1 pip, this is a huge difference.
These are typical spreads I am working on.

https://preview.redd.it/yc2c4jfpab721.png?width=597&format=png&auto=webp&s=c377686b2485e13171318c9861f42faf325437e1

Check the full range of spreads on Forex, commodities, indices and crypto.

Please understand I want nothing from you if you benefit from this, but I am also due you nothing if you lose. My only term of offering this is that people do not moan at me if they lose money.

I have been fully upfront saying this is geared towards higher risk. I have provided information and tools for you to take control over this. If I do lose people’s money and I know that, I honestly will feel a bit sad about it. However, if you complain about it, all I will say is “I told you that might happen”, because, I am telling you that might happen.

Make clear headed assessments of how much money you can afford to risk, and use these when making your decisions. They are yours to make, and not my responsibility.

Update.

Crazy Kelly Compounding: $100 - $11,000 in 6 Trades.

$100 to $11,000 in 6 trades? Is it a scam? Is it a gamble? … No, it’s maths.

Common sense risk disclaimer: Don’t be a dick! Don’t risk money you can’t afford to lose. Do not risk money doing these things until you can show a regular profit on low risk.
Let’s talk about Crazy Kelly Compounding (CKC). Kelly criterion is a method for selecting optimal bet sizes if the odds and win rate are known (in other words, once you have worked out how to create and assess your edge). You can Google to learn about it in detail. The formula for Kelly criterion is;
((odds-1) * (percentage estimate)) - (1-percent estimate) / (odds-1) X 100
Now let’s say you can filter down a strategy to have a 80% win rate. It trades very rarely, but it had a very high success rate when it does. Let’s say you get 1:2 RR on that trade. Kelly would give you an optimum bet size of about 60% here. So if you win, you win 120%. Losing three trades in a row will bust you. You can still recover from anything less than that, fairly easily with a couple winning trades.
This is where CKC comes in. What if you could string some of these wins together, compounding the gains (so you were risking 60% each time)? What if you could pull off 6 trades in a row doing this?
Here is the math;

https://preview.redd.it/u3u6teqd7c721.png?width=606&format=png&auto=webp&s=3b958747b37b68ec2a769a8368b5cbebfe0e97ff
This shows years, substitute years for trades. 6 trades returns $11,338! This can be done. The question really is if you are able to dial in good enough entries, filter out enough sub-par trades and have the guts to pull the trigger when the time is right. Obviously you need to be willing to take the hit, obviously that hit gets bigger each time you go for it, but the reward to risk ratio is pretty decent if you can afford to lose the money.
We could maybe set something up to do this on cent brokers. So people can do it literally risking a couple dollars. I’d have to check to see if there was suitable spreads etc offered on them, though. They can be kinda icky.
Now listen, I am serious … don’t be a dick. Don’t rush out next week trying to retire by the weekend. What I am showing you is the EXTRA rewards that come with being able to produce good solid results and being able to section off some money for high risk “all or nothing” attempts; using your proven strategies.
I am not saying anyone can open 6 trades and make $11,000 … that is rather improbable. What I am saying is once you can get the strategy side right, and you can know your numbers; then you can use the numbers to see where the limits actually are, how fast your strategy can really go.
This CKC concept is not intended to inspire you to be reckless in trading, it is intended to inspire you to put focus on learning the core skills I am telling you that are behind being able to do this.

Wanted to know if there are any forex traders in this sub with a good recommendation on a forex broker. Aim is to be day trading with minimal spreads through a reliable broker and a decent platform. MT4 preferred for it's analysis options.
There are lots of brokers that are a scam and for major brokerages it's easier to be in the US/Europe to get decent support. I heard of a couple of local brokerages regulated in AbuDhabi and wondered if anyone has some experience in this.

First my expectations:
I've been looking at iML as a way to get a 'mentored start' with forex trading- As well as to get access to take a look at what kinds of trades some more experienced traders are making- in order to add that to my own fledgling market exposure. I had also hoped that if I could identify when one of their traders was making a very obvious good move I'd be able to mirror the trade, and make a bit of profit. I stepped in fully prepared to withstand all their bro-hype making it very clear that I would never involve myself in their bullshit pyramid recruiting. My two goals were to see if my education could be expedited, and to make enough to pay off the monthly fee.
Here's what I got: Immediately my "mentor" sent me a plan that I was to follow (without skipping ahead) listing my progression through their forex education program.
The first 30 days (which cost ~$220) was learning forex trading basics buy watching a series of 5-10 minute PPT presentation videos introducing you to forex trading for 1 hour each day. and it seems like good information, but as far as I can tell it doesn't seem like anything you couldn't learn for free. I fully expect babypips to have all the same information and probably presented in much clearer terms.)
The next 30 days (~$190) is tuning in to live or recorded videos to watch iML traders analyzing charts and trading, probably showing how they use stop losses, draw trendlines etc. At this point we are directed to consult our mentor to choose a non U.S. regulated broker that will let us use the leverages used in the strategies they employ, and then start a demo trading on metatrader.
The next 60 days (2 months x $190) is continuing to demo trade while subscribing ($15 monthly) to the swipetrades app (which seems to me like mirror trading (basically you look at trades other iML people [of your choice] have made and swipe left to reject, swipe right to copy all the trade info -entry points, stop losses etc- for pasting into MT4) and continuing to watch the iML TV traders. You are also supposed to subscribe to the super bro-powered harmonic analyzer at this point (another $15/month) which you hook up to your MT4 account and set up alerts or something, but apparently you have to leave it ruining on your PC at home all day? I'm seeing that a lot of new recruits keep complaining in the group chat that they can't get their computer to stay awake and ensure they get their mobile alerts. (Any chance having their "harmonic analyzer" running 24/7 while your away could be sketchy?)
After these 4 months of education and practice that cost you ($850-$910) you may fund your account and begin trading.
Observed cons: -Well... The whole thing is a con if you ask me. Can any of you tell me any one thing I've mentioned that you cannot access for free elsewhere? -You have to pay $190/month for the privilege of subscribing to a $60/month service. That's pretty well bullshit. -CONSTANT STREAMS OF BRO TALK, ENDLESS BRAINWASHING ABOUT HOW GREAT iML IS, AND THE iML "FAMILY." -generally no "negative" attitudes/messages are allowed in the iML Telegram chat rooms. This pretty much just means that they don't appreciate it much if you talk too much about any losing streaks you may be on, or (more probably) if you notice you're making consistent losses by following any particular iML trader. In my opinion the fact that this was mentioned at all is a huge strike against any potential transparency about how this all actually works out for the average recruit.
Pros: In actually digging the idea of a very active forex chatroom where people comment on their predictions for what's going to happen with which pairs, and how previous trades turned out for them where you get mobile notifications when traders post. If it was treated more professionally in a more mature crowd, without all the pretention of "family" (the truth is we're ALL competing here), and the bro talk, and with the disclaimer that you're responsible for your own risks, this could be a great learning tool. If there is something similar out there that I'm unaware of, if love to hear about it.
Anyhow that's my $0.02. Now I'm off to go cancel my account and get my refund. Cheers!
TL;DR: they're an obvious scam, not worth your time.

stock market

What's the Stock Market? full guide.

The inventory market refers back to the assortment of markets and exchanges the place common actions of shopping for, promoting, and issuance of shares of publicly-held firms happen. Such monetary actions are performed by way of institutionalized formal exchanges or over-the-counter (OTC) marketplaces which function underneath an outlined set of laws. There may be a number of inventory buying and selling venues in a rustic or an area which permit transactions in shares and different types of securities.
Whereas each phrase - inventory market and inventory alternate - are used interchangeably, the latter time period is usually a subset of the previous. If one says that she trades within the inventory market, it implies that she buys and sells shares/equities on one (or extra) of the inventory alternate(s) which are a part of the general inventory market. The main inventory exchanges within the U.S. embrace the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq, the Higher Different Buying and selling System (BATS). and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). These main nationwide exchanges, together with a number of different exchanges working within the nation, type the inventory market of the U.S.
Although it's known as an inventory market or fairness market and is primarily identified for buying and selling shares/equities, different monetary securities - like exchange-traded funds (ETF), corporate bonds and derivatives primarily based on shares, commodities, currencies, and bonds - are additionally traded within the inventory markets.

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Inventory Market

Understanding the Inventory Market

Whereas right this moment it's potential to buy nearly every part online, there's often a delegated marketplace for each commodity. For example, folks drive to metropolis outskirts and farmlands to buy Christmas bushes, go to the native timber market to purchase wooden and different obligatory materials for house furnishings and renovations, and go to shops like Walmart for his or her common grocery provides.
Such devoted markets function a platform the place quite a few patrons and sellers meet, work together and transact. For the reason that a variety of market individuals is large, one is assured of good worth. For instance, if there is just one vendor of Christmas bushes in your complete metropolis, he could have the freedom to cost any worth he pleases because the patrons gained’t have wherever else to go. If the variety of tree sellers is massive in a standard market, they must compete in opposition to one another to draw patrons. The patrons can be spoiled for selection with low- or optimum-pricing making it a good market with worth transparency. Even whereas buying online, patrons examine costs supplied by totally different sellers on the identical buying portal or throughout totally different portals to get one of the best offers, forcing the assorted online sellers to supply one of the best worth.
An inventory market is an identical designated marketplace for buying and selling numerous sorts of securities in a managed, safe and managed the atmosphere. For the reason that inventory market brings collectively a whole bunch of hundreds of market individuals who want to purchase and promote shares, it ensures honest pricing practices and transparency in transactions. Whereas earlier inventory markets used to situation and deal in paper-based bodily share certificates, the fashionable day computer-aided inventory markets function electronically.

How the Inventory Market Works

In a nutshell, inventory markets present a safe and controlled atmosphere the place market individuals can transact in shares and different eligible monetary devices with confidence with zero- to low-operational danger. Working underneath the outlined guidelines as acknowledged by the regulator, the inventory markets act as primary markets and as secondary markets.
As the main market, the inventory market permits firms to the situation and promote their shares to the wider public for the primary time by way of the method of initial public offerings (IPO). This exercise helps firms increase obligatory capital from traders. It primarily implies that an organization divides itself into quite a few shares (say, 20 million shares) and sells part of these shares (say, 5 million shares) to the wider public at a worth (say, $10 per share).
To facilitate this course of, an organization wants a market the place these shares may be offered. This market is offered by the inventory market. If every part goes as per the plans, the corporate will efficiently promote the 5 million shares at a worth of $10 per share and acquire $50 million value of funds. Traders will get the corporate shares which they will anticipate to carry for his or her most well-liked length, in anticipation of rising in share worth and any potential revenue within the type of dividend funds. The inventory alternate acts as a facilitator for this capital elevating course of and receives a charge for its providers from the corporate and its monetary companions.
Following the first-time share issuance IPO train known as the itemizing course of, the inventory alternate additionally serves because the buying and selling platform that facilitates common shopping for and promoting of the listed shares. This constitutes the secondary market. The inventory alternate earns a charge for each commerce that happens on its platform in the course of the secondary market exercise.
The inventory alternate shoulders the accountability of making certain price transparency, liquidity, price discovery and honest dealings in such buying and selling actions. As nearly all main inventory markets throughout the globe now function electronically, the alternate maintains buying and selling techniques that effectively handle the purchase and promote orders from numerous market individuals. They carry out the worth matching operate to facilitate commerce execution at a worth honest to each patron and sellers.
A listed firm can also supply new, extra shares by way of different choices at a later stage, like by way of rights issue or by way of follow-on offers. They could even buyback or delist their shares. The inventory alternate facilitates such transactions.
The inventory alternate usually creates and maintains numerous market-level and sector-specific indicators, just like the S&P 500 index or Nasdaq 100 index, which give a measure to trace the motion of the general market.
The inventory exchanges additionally preserve all firm information, bulletins, and monetary reporting, which may be often accessed on their official web sites. An inventory alternate additionally helps numerous different corporate-level, transaction-related actions. For example, worthwhile firms might reward traders by paying dividends which often comes from the part of the corporate’s earnings. The alternate maintains all such data and will assist its processing to a sure extent.

Features of an Inventory Market

An inventory market primarily serves the next features:
Truthful Dealing in Securities Transactions: Relying on the usual rules of demand and supply, the inventory alternate wants to make sure that all market individuals have instantaneous entry to information for all purchase and promote orders thereby serving to within the honest and clear pricing of securities. Moreover, it also needs to carry out environment-friendly matching of acceptable purchase and promote orders.
For instance, there could also be three patrons who've positioned orders for purchasing Microsoft shares at $100, $105 and $110, and there could also be 4 sellers who're keen to promote Microsoft shares at $110, $112, $115 and $120. The alternate (by way of their pc operated automated buying and selling techniques) wants to make sure that one of the best purchase and greatest promote are matched, which on this case is at $110 for the given amount of commerce.
Environment-friendly Value Discovery: Inventory markets must assist an environment-friendly mechanism for worth discovery, which refers back to the act of deciding the correct worth of a safety and is often carried out by assessing market provide and demand and different components related to the transactions.
Say, a U.S.-based software program firm is buying and selling at a worth of $100 and has a market capitalization of $5 billion. Information merchandise is available in that the EU regulator has imposed a wonderful of $2 billion on the corporate which primarily implies that 40 % of the corporate’s worth could also be worn out. Whereas the inventory market might have imposed a buying and selling worth vary of $90 and $110 on the corporate’s share worth, it ought to effectively change the permissible buying and selling worth restrict to accommodate for the potential adjustments within the share worth, else shareholders might battle to commerce at a good worth.
Liquidity Upkeep: Whereas getting the variety of patrons and sellers for a specific monetary safety are uncontrolled for the inventory market, it wants to make sure that whosoever is certified and keen to commerce will get instantaneous entry to position orders which ought to get executed on the honest worth.
Safety and Validity of Transactions: Whereas extra individuals are vital for environment-friendly working of a market, the identical market wants to make sure that all individuals are verified and stay compliant with the required guidelines and laws, leaving no room for default by any of the events. Moreover, it ought to make sure that all related entities working out there should additionally adhere to the principles, and work inside the authorized framework given by the regulator.
Help All Eligible Kinds of Contributors: A market is made by quite a lot of individuals, which embrace market makers, traders, merchants, speculators, and hedgers. All these individuals function within the inventory market with totally different roles and features. For example, an investor might purchase shares and maintain them for long run spanning a few years, whereas a dealer might enter and exit a place inside seconds. A market maker gives obligatory liquidity out there, whereas a hedger might prefer to commerce in derivatives for mitigating the danger concerned in investments. The inventory market ought to make sure that all such individuals are capable of function seamlessly fulfilling their desired roles to make sure the market continues to function effectively.
Investor Safety: Together with rich and institutional traders, a really massive variety of small traders are additionally served by the inventory marketplace for their small quantity of investments. These traders might have restricted monetary information, and will not be totally conscious of the pitfalls of investing in shares and different listed devices. The inventory alternate should implement obligatory measures to supply the required safety to such traders to protect them from monetary loss and guarantee buyer belief.
For example, an inventory alternate might categorize shares in numerous segments relying on their danger profiles and permit restricted or no buying and selling by widespread traders in high-risk shares. Derivatives, which have been described by Warren Buffett as monetary weapons of mass destruction, aren't for everybody as one might lose far more than they guess for. Exchanges usually impose restrictions to forestall people with restricted revenue and information from entering into dangerous bets of derivatives.
Balanced Regulation: Listed firms are largely regulated and their dealings are monitored by market regulators, just like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the U.S. Moreover, exchanges additionally mandate sure necessities – like, well timed submitting of quarterly monetary stories and instantaneous reporting of any related developments - to make sure all market individuals grow to be conscious of company happenings. Failure to stick to the laws can result in the suspension of buying and selling by the exchanges and different disciplinary measures.

Regulating the Inventory Market

An area monetary regulator or competent financial authority or institute is assigned the duty of regulating the inventory market of a rustic. The Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) is the regulatory physique charged with overseeing the U.S. inventory markets. The SEC is a federal company that works independently of the federal government and political strain. The mission of the SEC is acknowledged as: "to guard traders, preserve honest, orderly, and environment-friendly markets, and facilitate capital formation."

Inventory Market Contributors

Together with long-term traders and brief time period merchants, there are a lot of several types of gamers related to the inventory market. Everyone has a singular function, however, lots of the roles are intertwined and rely on one another to make the market run successfully.

Stockbrokers, also called registered representatives within the U.S., are the licensed professionals who purchase and promote securities on behalf of traders. The brokers act as intermediaries between the inventory exchanges and the traders by shopping for and promoting shares on the traders' behalf. An account with a retail dealer is required to realize entry to the markets.
Portfolio managers are professionals who make investments portfolios, or collections of securities, for purchasers. These managers get suggestions from analysts and make the purchase or promote choices for the portfolio. Mutual fund firms, hedge funds, and pension plans use portfolio managers to make choices and set the funding methods for the cash they maintain.
Investment bankers characterize firms in numerous capacities, comparable to personal firms that wish to go public through an IPO or firms which are concerned in pending mergers and acquisitions. They care for the itemizing course of in compliance with the regulatory necessities of the inventory market.
Custodian and depot service suppliers, that are establishment holding prospects' securities for safekeeping in order to reduce the danger of their theft or loss, additionally function in sync with the alternative to switch shares to/from the respective accounts of transacting events primarily based on buying and selling on the inventory market.
Market maker: A market maker is a broker-dealer who facilitates the buying and selling of shares by posting bid and ask costs together with sustaining a listing of shares. He ensures adequate liquidity out there for a specific (set of) share(s), and income from the distinction between the bid and the ask worth he quotes.

How Inventory Exchanges Make Cash

Inventory exchanges function as for-profit institutes and cost a charge for his or her providers. The first supply of revenue for these inventory exchanges are the revenues from the transaction charges which are charged for every commerce carried out on its platform. Moreover, exchanges earn income from the itemizing charge charged to firms in the course of the IPO course of and different follow-on choices.
The alternate additionally earn from promoting market information generated on its platform - like real-time information, historical information, abstract information, and reference information – which is significant for fairness analysis and different makes use of. Many exchanges will even promote know-how merchandise, like a buying and selling terminal and devoted community connection to the alternate, to the events for an acceptable charge.
The alternate might supply privileged providers like high-frequency trading to bigger purchasers like mutual funds and asset management companies (AMC), and earn cash accordingly. There are provisions for regulatory charge and registration charge for various profiles of market individuals, just like the market maker and dealer, which type different sources of revenue for the inventory exchanges.
The alternate additionally make income by licensing their indexes (and their methodology) that are generally used as a benchmark for launching numerous merchandise like mutual funds and ETFs by AMCs.
Many exchanges additionally present programs and certification on numerous monetary matters to trade individuals and earn revenues from such subscriptions.

Competitors for Inventory Markets

Whereas particular person inventory exchanges compete in opposition to one another to get most transaction quantity, they're dealing with menace on two fronts.
Darkish Swimming pools: Dark pools, that are personal exchanges or boards for securities buying and selling and function inside personal teams, are posing a problem to public inventory markets. Although their authorized validity is topic to native laws, they're gaining a reputation as individuals save massive on transaction charges.
Blockchain Ventures: Amid rising reputation of blockchains, many crypto exchanges have emerged. Such exchanges are venues for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and derivatives related to that asset class. Although their reputation stays restricted, they pose a menace to the standard inventory market mannequin by automating a bulk of the work completed by numerous inventory market individuals and by providing zero- to low-cost providers.

Significance of the Inventory Market

The inventory market is among the most significant parts of a free-market economic system.
It permits firms to lift cash by providing inventory shares and company bonds. It lets widespread traders take part within the monetary achievements of the businesses, make income by way of capital gains, and earn cash by way of dividends, though losses are additionally potential. Whereas institutional traders {and professional} cash managers do get pleasure from some privileges owing to their deep pockets, higher information and better danger taking skills, the inventory market makes an attempt to supply a stage taking part in subject to widespread people.
The inventory market works as a platform by way of which financial savings and investments of people are channelized into the productive funding proposals. In the long run, it helps in capital formation & financial progress for the nation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Inventory markets are very important parts of a free-market economic system as a result of they permit democratized entry to buying and selling and alternate of capital for traders of all types.
They carry out a number of features in markets, together with environment-friendly worth discovery and environment-friendly dealing.
Within the US, the inventory market is regulated by the SEC and native regulatory our bodies.

Examples of Inventory Markets

The primary inventory market on the planet was the London inventory alternate. It was begun in a coffeehouse, the place merchants used to satisfy to alternate shares, in 1773. The primary inventory alternate in the USA of America began in Philadelphia in 1790. The Buttonwood settlement, so named as a result of it was signed underneath a buttonwood tree, marked the beginnings of New York's Wall Avenue in 1792. The settlement was signed by 24 merchants and was the primary American group of its type to commerce in securities. The merchants renamed their enterprise as New York Inventory and Alternate Board in 1817.

Bitcoin has surged to all time highs, Who created Bitcoin, and why?
The creator of Bitcoin is officially a name, “Satoshi Nakamoto” – very few people believe that it was a single male from Japan. In the early days of Bitcoin development this name is associated with original key-creation and communications on message boards, and then the project was officially handed over to others at which point this Satoshi character never appeared again (Although from time to time someone will come forward saying they are the real Satoshi Nakamoto, and then have their posts deleted).
Bitcoin could very well be the ‘one world currency’ that conspiracy theorists have been talking about for some time. It’s a kill five birds with one stone solution – not only is Bitcoin an ideal one world currency, it allows law enforcement a perfect record of all transactions on the network. It states very clearly on bitcoin.org (the official site) in big letters “Bitcoin is not anonymous” :
Some effort is required to protect your privacy with Bitcoin. All Bitcoin transactions are stored publicly and permanently on the network, which means anyone can see the balance and transactions of any Bitcoin address. However, the identity of the user behind an address remains unknown until information is revealed during a purchase or in other circumstances. This is one reason why Bitcoin addresses should only be used once.
Another advantage of Bitcoin is the problem of Quantitative Easing – the Fed (and thus, nearly all central banks in the world) have painted themselves in a corner, metaphorically speaking. QE ‘solved’ the credit crisis, but QE itself does not have a solution. Currently all currencies are in a race to zero – competing with who can print more money faster. Central Bankers who are in systemic analysis, their economic advisors, know this. They know that the Fiat money system is doomed, all what you can read online is true (just sensationalized) – it’s a debt based system based on nothing. That system was created, originally in the early 1900’s and refined during Breton Woods followed by the Nixon shock (This is all explained well in Splitting Pennies). In the early 1900’s – there was no internet! It is a very archaic system that needs to be replaced, by something modern, electronic, based on encryption. Bitcoin! It’s a currency based on ‘bits’ – but most importantly, Bitcoin is not the ‘one world currency’ per se, but laying the framework for larger cryptocurrency projects. In the case of central banks, who control the global monetary system, that would manifest in ‘Settlement Coin’ :
Two resources available almost exclusively to central banks could soon be opened up to additional users as a result of a new digital currency project designed by a little-known startup and Swiss bank UBS. One of those resources is the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system used by central banks (it’s typically reserved for high-value transactions that need to be settled instantly), and the other is central bank-issued cash. Using the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) unveiled today, the five-member consortium that has sprung up around the project aims to help central banks open-up access to these tools to more customers. If successful, USC has the potential to create entirely new business models built on instant settling and easy cash transfers. In interview, Robert Sams, founder of London-based Clearmatics, said his firm initially worked with UBS to build the network, and that BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, ICAP and Santander are only just the first of many future members.
the NSA/CIA often works for big corporate clients, just as it has become a cliche that the Iraq war was about big oil, the lesser known hand in global politics is the banking sector. In other words, Bitcoin may have very well been ‘suggested’ or ‘sponsored’ by a banker, group of banks, or financial services firm. But the NSA (as we surmise) was the company that got the job done. And probably, if it was in fact ‘suggested’ or ‘sponsored’ by a private bank, they would have been waiting in the wings to develop their own Bitcoin related systems or as in the above “Settlement Coin.” So the NSA made Bitcoin – so what?
The FX markets currently represent the exchange between ‘major’ and ‘minor’ currencies. In the future, why not too they will include ‘cryptocurrencies’ – we’re already seeing the BTC/EUR pair popup on obscure brokers. When BTC/USD and BTC/EUR are available at major FX banks and brokers, we can say – from a global FX perspective, that Bitcoin has ‘arrived.’ Many of us remember the days when the synthetic “Euro” currency was a new artificial creation that was being adopted, although the Euro project is thousands of degrees larger than the Bitcoin project. But unlike the Euro, Bitcoin is being adopted at a near exponential rate by demand (Many merchants resisted the switch to Euros claiming it was eating into their profit margins and they were right!).
And to answer the question as to why Elite E Services is not actively involved in Bitcoin the answer is that previously, you can’t trade Bitcoin. Now we’re starting to see obscure brokers offering BTC/EUR but the liquidity is sparse and spreads are wacky – that will all change. When we can trade BTC/USD just like EUUSD you can bet that EES and a host of other algorithmic FX traders will be all over it! It will be an interesting trade for sure, especially with all the volatility, the cross ‘pairs’ – and new cryptocurrencies. For the record, for brokers- there’s not much difference adding a new symbol (currency pair) in MT4 they just need liquidity, which has been difficult to find.
So there’s really nothing revolutionary about Bitcoin, it’s just a logical use of technology in finance considering a plethora of problems faced by any central bank who creates currency. And there are some interesting caveats to Bitcoin as compared to major currencies; Bitcoin is a closed system (there are finite Bitcoin) – this alone could make such currencies ‘anti-inflationary’ and at the least, hold their value (the value of the USD continues to deteriorate slowly over time as new M3 introduced into the system.) But we need to pay
Here’s some interesting theories about who or whom is Satoshi:
A corporate conglomerate
Some researchers proposed that the name ‘Satoshi Nakamoto’ was derived from a combination of tech companies consisting of Samsung, Toshiba, Nakayama, and Motorola. The notion that the name was a pseudonym is clearly true and it is doubtful they reside in Japan given the numerous forum posts with a distinctly English dialect.
Craig Steven Wright
This Australian entrepreneur claims to be the Bitcoin creator and provided proof. But soon after, his offices were raided by the tax authorities on ‘an unrelated matter’
Soon after these stories were published, authorities in Australia raided the home of Mr Wright. The Australian Taxation Office said the raid was linked to a long-running investigation into tax payments rather than Bitcoin. Questioned about this raid, Mr Wright said he was cooperating fully with the ATO. “We have lawyers negotiating with them over how much I have to pay,” he said.
Other potential creators
Nick Szabo, and many others, have been suggested as potential Satoshi – but all have denied it:
The New Yorker published a piece pointing at two possible Satoshis, one of whom seemed particularly plausible: a cryptography graduate student from Trinity College, Dublin, who had gone on to work in currency-trading software for a bank and published a paper on peer-to-peer technology. The other was a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, Vili Lehdonvirta. Both made denials. Fast Company highlighted an encryption patent application filed by three researchers – Charles Bry, Neal King and Vladimir Oksman – and a circumstantial link involving textual analysis of it and the Satoshi paper which found the phrase “…computationally impractical to reverse” in both. Again, it was flatly denied.
THE WINNER: It was the NSA
The NSA has the capability, the motive, and the operational capacity – they have teams of cryptographers, the biggest fastest supercomputers in the world, and they see the need. Whether instructed by their friends at the Fed, in cooperation with their owners (i.e. Illuminati banking families), or as part of a DARPA project – is not clear and will never be known (unless a whistleblower comes forward). In fact, the NSA employs some of the best mathematicians and cryptographers in the world. Few know about their work because it’s a secret, and this isn’t the kind of job you leave to start your own cryptography company.
But the real smoking Gun, aside from the huge amount of circumstantial evidence and lack of a credible alternative, is the 1996 paper authored by NSA “HOW TO MAKE A MINT: THE CRYPTOGRAPHY OF ANONYMOUS ELECTRONIC CASH”
The NSA was one of the first organizations to describe a Bitcoin-like system. About twelve years before Satoshi Nakamotopublished his legendary white paper to the Metzdowd.com cryptography mailing list, a group of NSA information security researchers published a paper entitled How to Make a Mint: the Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash in two prominent places, the first being an MIT mailing list and the second being much more prominent, The American Law Review
The paper outlines a system very much like Bitcoin in which secure financial transactions are possible through the use of a decentralized network the researchers refer informally to as a Bank. They list four things as indispensable in their proposed network: privacy, user identification (protection against impersonation), message integrity (protection against tampering/substitution of transaction information – that is, protection against double-spending), and nonrepudiation (protection against later denial of a transaction – a blockchain!).
It is evident that SHA-256, the algorithm Satoshi used to secure Bitcoin, was not available because it came about in 2001. However, SHA-1 would have been available to them, having been published in 1993.
Why would the NSA want to do this? One simple reason: Control.
As we explain in Splitting Pennies – Understanding Forex – the primary means the US dominates the world is through economic policy, although backed by bombs. And the critical support of the US Dollar is primarily, the military. The connection between the military and the US Dollar system is intertwined inextricably. There are thousands of great examples only one of them being how Iraq switched to the Euro right before the Army’s invasion.
In October 2000 Iraq insisted on dumping the US dollar – ‘the currency of the enemy’ – for the more multilateral euro. The changeover was announced on almost exactly the same day that the euro reached its lowest ebb, buying just $0.82, and the G7 Finance Ministers were forced to bail out the currency. On Friday the euro had reached $1.08, up 30 per cent from that time.
Almost all of Iraq’s oil exports under the United Nations oil-for-food programme have been paid in euros since 2001. Around 26 billion euros (£17.4bn) has been paid for 3.3 billion barrels of oil into an escrow account in New York. The Iraqi account, held at BNP Paribas, has also been earning a higher rate of interest in euros than it would have in dollars.
The point here is there are a lot of different types of control. The NSA monitors and collects literally all electronic communications; internet, phone calls, everything. They listen in even to encrypted voice calls with high powered microphones, devices like cellphones equipped with recording devices (See original “Clipper” chip). It’s very difficult to communicate on planet Earth in private, without the NSA listening. So it is only logical that they would also want complete control of the financial system, including records of all electronic transactions, which Bitcoin provides.
Could there be an ‘additional’ security layer baked into the Blockchain that is undetectable, that allows the NSA to see more information about transactions, such as network location data? It wouldn’t be so far fetched, considering their past work, such as Xerox copy machines that kept a record of all copies made (this is going back to the 70’s, now it’s common). Of course security experts will point to the fact that this layer remains invisible, but if this does exist – of course it would be hidden.
More to the point about the success of Bitcoin – its design is very solid, robust, manageable – this is not the work of a student. Of course logically, the NSA employs individuals, and ultimately it is the work of mathematicians, programmers, and cryptographers – but if we deduce the most likely group capable, willing, and motivated to embark on such a project, the NSA is the most likely suspect. Universities, on the other hand, didn’t product white papers like this from 1996.
Another question is that if it was the NSA, why didn’t they go through more trouble concealing their identity? I mean, the internet is rife with theories that it was in fact the NSA/CIA and “Satoshi Nakamoto” means in Japanese “Central Intelligence” – well there are a few answers for this, but to be congruent with our argument, it fits their profile.
Where could this ‘hidden layer’ be? Many think it could be in the public SHA-256, developed by NSA (which ironically, was the encryption algorithm of choice for Bitcoin – they could have chosen hundreds of others, which arguably are more secure):
Claims that the NSA created Bitcoin have actually been flung around for years. People have questioned why it uses the SHA-256 hash function, which was designed by the NSA and published by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The fact that the NSA is tied to SHA-256 leads some to assume it’s created a backdoor to the hash function that no one has ever identified, which allows it to spy on Bitcoin users.
“If you assume that the NSA did something to SHA-256, which no outside researcher has detected, what you get is the ability, with credible and detectable action, they would be able to forge transactions. The really scary thing is somebody finds a way to find collisions in SHA-256 really fast without brute-forcing it or using lots of hardware and then they take control of the network,” cryptography researcher Matthew D. Green of Johns Hopkins University said in a previous interview.
Then there’s the question of “Satoshi Nakamoto” – if it was in fact the NSA, why not just claim ownership of it? Why all the cloak and dagger? And most importantly, if Satoshi Nakamoto is a real person, and not a group that wants to remain secret – WHY NOT come forward and claim your nearly $3 Billion worth of Bitcoin (based on current prices).
Did the NSA create Satoshi Nakamoto?
The CIA Project, a group dedicated to unearthing all of the government’s secret projects and making them public, hasreleased a video claiming Bitcoin is actually the brainchild of the US National Security Agency.
The video entitled CIA Project Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin a CIA or NSA project? claims that there is a lot of compelling evidences that proves that the NSA is behind Bitcoin. One of the main pieces of evidence has to do with the name of the mysterious man, woman or group behind the creation of Bitcoin, “Satoshi Nakamoto”.
According to the CIA Project, Satoshi Nakamoto means “Central Intelligence” in Japanese. Doing a quick web search, you’ll find out that Satoshi is usually a name given for baby boys which means “clear thinking, quick witted, wise,” while Nakamoto is a Japanese surname which means ‘central origin’ or ‘(one who lives) in the middle’ as people with this surname are found mostly in the Ryukyu islands which is strongly associated with the Ry?ky? Kingdom, a highly centralized kingdom that originated from the Okinawa Islands. So combining Nakamoto and Satoshi can be loosely interpreted as “Central Intelligence”.
Is it so really hard to believe? This is from an organization that until the Snowden leaks, secretly recorded nearly all internet traffic on the network level by splicing fiber optic cables. They even have a deep-sea splicing mission that will cut undersea cables and install intercept devices. Making Bitcoin wouldn’t even be a big priority at NSA.
Certainly, anonymity is one of the biggest myths about Bitcoin. In fact, there has never been a more easily traceable method of payment. Every single transaction is recorded and retained permanently in the public “blockchain”. The idea that the NSA would create an anarchic, peer-to-peer crypto-currency in the hope that it would be adopted for nefarious industries and become easy to track would have been a lot more difficult to believe before the recent leaks by Edward Snowden and the revelation that billions of phone calls had been intercepted by the US security services. We are now in a world where we now know that the NSA was tracking the pornography habits of Islamic “radicalisers” in order to discredit them and making deals with some of the world’s largest internet firms to insert backdoors into their systems.
And we’re not the only ones who believe this, in Russia they ‘know’ this to be true without sifting through all the evidence.
Nonetheless, Svintsov’s remarks count as some of the more extreme to emanate from the discussion. Svintsov told Russian broadcast news agency REGNUM:“All these cryptocurrencies [were] created by US intelligence agencies just to finance terrorism and revolutions.”Svintsov reportedly went on to explain how cryptocurrencies have started to become a payment method for consumer spending, and cited reports that terrorist organisations are seeking to use the technology for illicit means.
Let’s elaborate on what is ‘control’ as far as the NSA is concerned. Bitcoin is like the prime mover. All future cryptocurrencies, no matter how snazzy or functional – will never have the same original keys as Bitcoin. It created a self-sustained, self-feeding bubble – and all that followed. It enabled law enforcement to collect a host of criminals on a network called “Silk Road” and who knows what other operations that happened behind the scenes. Because of pesky ‘domestic’ laws, the NSA doesn’t control the internet in foreign countries. But by providing a ‘cool’ currency as a tool, they can collect information from around the globe and like Facebook, users provide this information voluntarily. It’s the same strategy they use like putting the listening device in the chips at the manufacturing level, which saves them the trouble of wiretapping, electronic eavesdropping, and other risky methods that can fail or be blocked. It’s impossible to stop a cellphone from listening to you, for example (well not 100%, but you have to physically rewire the device). Bitcoin is the same strategy on a financial level – by using Bitcoin you’re giving up your private transactional information. By itself, it would not identify you per se (as the blockchain is ‘anonymous’ but the transactions are there in the public register, so combined with other information, which the NSA has a LOT OF – they can triangulate their information more precisely.
That’s one problem solved with Bitcoin – another being the economic problem of QE (although with a Bitcoin market cap of $44 Billion, that’s just another day at the Fed buying MBS) – and finally, it squashes the idea of sovereignty although in a very, very, very subtle way. You see, a country IS a currency. Until now, currency has always been tied to national sovereignty (although the Fed is private, USA only has one currency, the US Dollar, which is exclusively American). Bitcoin is a super-national currency, or really – the world’s first one world currency.
Of course, this is all great praise for the DOD which seems to have a 50 year plan – but after tens of trillions spent we’d hope that they’d be able to do something better than catching terrorists (which mostly are artificial terrorists)

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-Tight Spreads- 500X leverage and leveraged crypto pairs
-Commission at just $2 per lot, lowest from our list of brokers
- No Verification Anonymous Account Opening
- Accepts US clients, Canadian Clients and is NON ESMA
- Live Chat Support 24/5 (unusual for a Crypto Broker)
- Trust Factor – 5/5 stars
Con –
MT4 Missing. The broker argues that since Meta Quotes will not be updating MT4 and all ultimately MT4 brokers will have to transition to MT5 so they decided to offer MT5 only. More of their business decision not a Con per say. [Update: Coinexx is now offering MT4 platform to traders]
Scam Alert – NIL
PS: the review is based on facts collected from internet as well as other forums and after testing the broker's live account by our moderators. Let us know what you think about the broker in the comments below and/or if you hold a different view that what has been said above.
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Breaking News: Coinexx acquired FinPro Trading.

What does this mean for FinPro Trading traders?
You will continue to trade on the same MT4 trading terminal that you are currently using at Finpro, with your existing MT4 login ID/Password. The commission charges will continue to be the same while the spreads will become better than what they used to be at Finpro.

TurnkeyForex is a pure ECN broker who offers the MT4 for trading CFDs. The instruments offered are Forex, Commodities and Indices. Apart from offering very tight spreads, the broker offers one of lowest commissions we’ve come across from a Fx Broker - $2 per 100 k on a round trip. You can trade on an ECN, standard STP, Islamic and Micro account with them. While demo testing, the moderators were impressed with the execution and trading conditions.
There are multiple bonus offers that turnkey forex offers with one being commission free trading for a month. You can find more details on their website
What Stands Out - Low Commissions - Tighter Spreads-Responsive customer support -Leverage 400X -Accepts US clients, Canadian Clients and is NON ESMA -Trust Factor – 5/5 stars (as per website reviews)
Scam Alert – NIL
PS: the review is based on facts collected from internet as well as other forums. Let us know what you think about the broker in the comments below and/or if you hold a different view that what has been said above.

Evolve market is based in Island of St Vincent and the Grenadines. They offer trading in Forex, indices, commodities and crypto currencies. Forex , indices, & commodities on MT4 & MT5. The broker offers great spreads and allows you to trade on a zero commission and Pro account types. The zero commission account offer STP spreads with no commission on top and the pro account offer 0 pip spread with a commission of $3.5 pe lot. The broker allows you to only deposit & withdraw in BTC and LTC The broker has variety of payments methods for its clients including Bitcoin and XRP.
What stands out?
-No minimum Deposit
- Anonymous Trading Account
-Leverage 500X leverage on Fx and 50X in Cryptos.
- Spreads
- Accepts Canadian & is NON ESMA
- No withdrawal fees
-Trust factor- 4.5/5
Cons-
-No Chat or phone support. And the ticket support is not very responsive.
Scam alert- NIL
PS- The review is based on facts collected from internet as well as other forums and after testing the broker's Demo by our moderators. Let us know what you think about the broker in the comments below and/or if you hold a different view that what has been said above.

Valid and Invalid Complaints.
There are a few things that can pop up in copy trading. I am not a n00b when it comes to this, so I can somewhat forecast what these will be. I can kinda predict what sort of comments there may be. Some of these are valid points that if you raise I should (and will) reply to. Some are things outside of the scope of things I can influence, and as such, there is no point in me replying to. I will just cover them all here the one time.
Valid complains are if I do something dumb or dramatically outside of the strategy I have laid out here. won't do these, if I do, you can pitchfork ----E
Examples;
“Oi, idiot! You opened a trade randomly on a news spike. I got slipped 20 pips and it was a shit entry”.
Perfectly valid complaint.
“Why did you open a trade during swaps hours when the spread was 30 pips?”
Also valid.
“You left huge trades open running into the weekend and now I have serious gap paranoia!”
Definitely valid.
These are examples of me doing dumb stuff. If I do dumb stuff, it is fair enough people say things amounting to “Yo, that was dumb stuff”.
Invalid Complains;
“You bought EURUSD when it was clearly a sell!!!!”
Okay … you sell. No-one is asking you to copy my trades. I am not trading your strategy. Different positions make a market.
“You opened a position too big and I lost X%”.
No. Na uh. You copied a position too big. If you are using a trade copier, you can set maximum risk. If you neglect to do this, you are taking 100% risk. You have no valid compliant for losing. The act of copying and setting the risk settings is you selecting your risk. I am not responsible for your risk. I accept absolutely no liability for any losses.
*Suggested fix. Refer to risk control in copy trading software
“You lost X trades in a row at X% so I lost too much”.
Nope. You copied. See above. Anything relating to losing too much in trades (placed in liquid/standard market conditions) is entirely you. I can lose my money. Only you can set it up so you can lose yours. I do not have access to your account. Only mine.
*Suggested fix. Refer to risk control in copy trading software
“Price keeps trading close to the pending limit orders but not filling. Your account shows profits, but mine is not getting them”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
* Suggested fix. Compare the spread on your broker with the spread on mine. Adjust your orders accordingly. Buy limit orders will need to move up a little. Sell limit orders should not need adjusted.
“I got stopped out right before the market turned, I have a loss but your account shows a profit”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there differences in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
** Suggested fix. Compare the spread on your broker with the spread on mine. Adjust your orders accordingly. Stop losses on sell orders will need to move up a bit. Stops on buy orders will be fine.
“Your trade got stopped out right before the market turned, if it was one more pip in the stop, it would have been a winner!!!”
Yeah. This happens. This is where the “risk” part of “risk:reward” comes in.
“Price traded close to take profit, yours filled but mines never”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there differences in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
(Side note, this should not be an issue since when my trade closes, it should ping your account to close, too. You might get a couple less pips).
*** Suggested fix. Compare the spread on your broker with the spread on mine. Adjust your orders accordingly. Take profits on buys will need to move up a bit. Sell take profits will be fine.
“My brokers spread jumped to 20 during the New York session so the open trade made a bigger loss than it should”.
Your broker might just suck if this happens. This is brokerage. I have no control over this. My trades are placed to profit from my brokerage conditions. I do not know, so can not account for yours. Also, if accounting for random spread spikes like this was something I had to do, this strategy would not be a thing. It only works with fair brokerage conditions.
*Suggested fix. Do a bit of Googling and find out if you have a horrific broker. If so, fix that! A good search phrase is; “(Broker name) FPA reviews”.
“Price hit the stop loss but was going really fast and my stop got slipped X pips”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. I use a strategy that aims for precision, and that means a pip here and there differences in brokerage spreads can make a difference. I am trading to profit from my trading conditions. I do not know, so can not account for, yours.
If my trade also got slipped on the stop, I was slipped using ECN conditions with excellent execution; sometimes slips just happen. I am doing the most I can to prevent them, but it is a fact of liquidity that sometimes we get slipped (slippage can also work in our favor, paying us more than the take profit would have been).
“Orders you placed failed to execute on my account because they were too large”.
This is brokerage. I have no control over this. Margin requirements vary. I have 1:500 leverage available. I will not always be using it, but I can. If you can’t, this will make a difference.
“Your account is making profits trading things my broker does not have”
I have a full range of assets to trade with the broker I use. Included Forex, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies. I may or may not use the extent of these options. I can not account for your brokerage conditions.
I think I have covered most of the common ones here. There are some general rules of thumb, though. Basically, if I do something that is dumb and would have a high probability of losing on any broker traded on, this is a valid complain.
Anything that pertains to risk taken in standard trading conditions is under your control.
Also, anything at all that pertains to brokerage variance there is nothing I can do, other than fully brief you on what to expect up-front. Since I am taking the time to do this, I won’t be a punch-bag for anything that happens later pertaining to this.
I am not using an elitist broker. You don’t need $50,000 to open an account, it is only $200. It is accessible to most people - brokerage conditions akin to what I am using are absolutely available to anyone in the UK/Europe/Asia (North America, I am not so up on, so can’t say). With the broker I use, and with others. If you do not take the time to make sure you are trading with a good broker, there is nothing I can do about how that affects your trades.
I am using an A book broker, if you are using B book; it will almost certainly be worse results. You have bad costs. You are essentially buying from reseller and paying a mark-up. (A/B book AKA ECN/Market maker; learn about this here). My EURUSD spread will typically be 0.02 pips or so, if yours is 1 pip, this is a huge difference.

These are typical spreads I am working on.

https://preview.redd.it/8qk052gvrw721.png?width=589&format=png&auto=webp&s=5fc779675dde2f260a79d7c58520245885a271dc
Check the full range of spreads on Forex, commodities, indices and crypto.
Please understand I want nothing from you if you benefit from this, but I am also due you nothing if you lose. My only term of offering this is that people do not moan at me if they lose money.
I have been fully upfront saying this is geared towards higher risk. I have provided information and tools for you to take control over this. If I do lose people’s money and I know that, I honestly will feel a bit sad about it. However, if you complain about it, all I will say is “I told you that might happen”, because, I am telling you that might happen.
Make clear headed assessments of how much money you can afford to risk, and use these when making your decisions. They are yours to make, and not my responsibility.

Trader’s Way is based in Dominica and offers Forex, Commodities and Indies on MT4,MT5 and cTrader. You have choice of 4 accounts with them with no minimum deposit requirement. They offer both fixed and variable spreads and the commission and leverage vary according to the account you choose. The lowest commission being zero and leverage being 10X is and the highest commission being $2.5 per 100k and leverage 1000:1, respectively. The broker stand out in the list of payment methods they offer clients for deposits. However, there are heavy fees on depositing and withdrawing with them.
What stands out?
Minimum deposit only $1
High Leverage
Platform Choice – MT4, MT5, cTrader
Multiple deposit and withdrawal methods
Accepts US, Canadian and is NON ESMA
Trust factor- 4/5
Cons-
Poor client support
High Deposit and withdrawal charges
Scam alert- NIL
PS- The review is based on facts collected from internet as well as other forums and after testing the broker's Demo by our moderators. Let us know what you think about the broker in the comments below and/or if you hold a different view that what has been said above.

Hello! I'm an experienced stock & options trader but am relatively new to Forex. The reason I sought out forex to add to my current trading patterns was the ease of automation. My two passions are trading and computer science, so I became very interested in MetaTrader when I discovered it several months ago. I made an account with Forex.com and have been messing around with MT4 and EAs which I've come to enjoy. I've already made tons of trades using EAs and am constantly learning new things. My EAs got my meager $50 initial deposit to $85 in a couple of days so, obviously, I was inclined to add more. Big mistake. It was too perfect, something was wrong. Enter: Market Maker brokers! It seems I've been duped, which was my fault for being foolish and not digging deeper before giving them money. I'm fairly confident that I've been betting against them and now it's cost me a couple hundred buckaroonies. Oh well.
Anyway- now I'm looking at other brokers such as ATC Brokers who claim they're STP, but that still leaves the potential for Market Making. Also looking at FastBrokers, and plenty of others. My question is: should I continue on this route and cross my fingers, or should I abandon spot forex as a US resident? I see sooooo many good reputable true ECN brokers in Australia, etc but sadly they aren't options for me.
I hear good things about futures currency trading, but I have yet to explore that.
Is there any method for automating forex futures trading? Is that reasonable? Should I still pursue spot forex? Should I try another broker? Should I just go back to stocks & options and accept it? ~~Should I kill myself?~~ I'm kind of at a loss as to how I should proceed, so any opinions are welcome. Thanks :)
TL;DR Any worthwhile spot forex brokers for US residents that don't bet against you and/or can I automate futures trading somehow.

Pre-ICO: Stockus: Fantasy Trading Blockchain Platform
Stockus Crypto Summary
Hi everybody! I’m happy to introduce the Stockus Project to you. It is a new and exciting project on which our team is working on now. The main ideas and its realization are explained further. It will be nice if they are interesting for you.
Stockus. Fantasy trading platform based on the blockchain technology.
Our goal is to create a leading financial simulator based on open ledger technology in order to provide participants with a reliable, transparent trading platform and opportunities to earn large cash prizes. Stockus – is a fantasy trading platform based on smart contracts. Participants place trades individually or in teams. The application allows users to enrol in various tournaments and earn cash rewards without an initial investment of capital.
Gaming Capital Globally
The online gaming industry is rapidly growing, with figures indicating total earnings of 99.6billion USD in 2016 alone. This is an impressive amount; however it pales in comparison to the size of the financial markets. The daily turnover of the Forex market amounted to 5.1trillion USD in 2016. Approximately 10-15 million individual market participants actively trade on Forex worldwide with the total volume generated by retail traders being equal to 293billion USD daily. Statistics show that the average starting capital of a retail trader is somewhere in the region of 700 USD. Within 4 months of trading 97% of all retail traders lose their initial investment and leave the market. The amounts that such traders lose on the currency market amount to tens of millions of dollars annually.
$10 against $700
Our approach differs substantially from the business model of the classic broker. There are two fundamental pillars on which Stockus was built. The first one is that exchange trading for the retail participant is comparable to a game, where players place bets on the direction of the market. And the second one is the players prefer to pay small-one off buy-ins for the chance to win large cash prizes in tournaments as apposed to putting large deposits at risk on leveraged trading accounts. There is clearly a drastic difference between a trader who suffers the loss of their entire deposit of $700 whilst trading on Forex, and a player who buys into a trading tournament for $10 with the chance of winning a massive prize. That same $10 deposit would get the trader nowhere on the Forex market, whereas on Stockus he stands to win thousands of dollars without the requirement of a large investment upfront. Our approach is light years apart from the business model of a traditional broker in the sense that it aims to protect the trader without limiting their gains. Traders are now faced with the choice of trading on the market with a high degree of risk or playing Stockus with limited risk whilst maintaining their earning potential. This is a new opportunity to trader and we believe that they will chose in our favour.
Equal odds of winning
The probability of winning in a fully subscribed Stockus tournament is approximately 3-3.5% which is roughly equal to the chances of turning a profit whilst trading on the Forex market. However $10 gets you nowhere on a forex brokerage account, whereas in Stockus you can enter a trading competition and stand to win tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars with the same amount. The benefit of Stockus is that each player has a limited loss, but gets an equal chance to win large prizes. Fantasy trading – the Stockus platform is designed to be a direct competitor to traditional brokers by attracting a large number of participants. There is no sense in funding a leverage forex account and risking the entire deposit when the trader can enter a tournament and win fantastic amounts of prize money in a variety of competitions. The development of trading skills and ability to collect large gains solely with the merit of experience and knowledge is the main advantage of Stockus. Millions of players with the ambition, aptitude and skill will be able to compete for the large cash rewards with limited downside. In the past such individuals were faced with a choice between financial markets or betting games. Now, such players have an innovative alternative in the form of Stockus.
How to become a millionaire
Stockus is a financial simulator based on a social media platform which allows any player to participate in a tournament of their choice. If a certain trader prefers a short-term, high frequency game, they can join a daily tournament with large prizes. If, on the other hand, the player is more partial to a long term, trend-based approach, the weekly or monthly tournament is more suited to this style and the prizes can reach astronomical levels. It is crucial to note that the size of the prize is not restricted, which means that the more players buy into the competition, the higher the winning pot. The payouts for larger tournaments can potentially reach six figures or more. The game consists of the following: Professional tournaments which will constantly increase in number. A small buy-in amount is paid to enter the tournament and compete against other traders. The winners immediately receive a payout to their account balance. Friendly tournaments which allow anyone to participate free of charge. The main purpose of these trading challenges is to educate new players and allow existing users to refine their strategies in preparation for the professional games. Decentralised challenges which users can host independently by selecting their competitors and forming a private league. Team tournaments allow players to team up with other traders and compete against each other in groups throughout several rounds.
Players or teams who lose their initial capital have the option to buy back in and continue trading. As opposed to leveraged trading, where each loss is a direct hit to the capital and savings of the trader, Stockus allows players to continue trading for as long as they wish. Players have the ability to improve their chances by purchasing leverage, analytical tools and other extras for additional payments. Members of the Stockus community can exchange feedback, tips and trade ideas with each other. A referral program encourages players to invite their friends. The main attraction for most traders will be the professional tournaments. During the development of our tournament system, the team drew a lot of inspiration from the structure of the competitions held by the fantasy trading platform FanDuel. The capitalisation of FanDuel as an organisation is in the billions, and the platform’s phenomenal success along with hundreds of thousands of members testifies to the scalability and potential of such a model when applied in a different area.
The Principles of Platform Monetisation
Stockus aims to monetise fantasy trading by applying a small commission on each buy-in as well as charging additional fees for bonus features such as refunding, leverage, analytics, etc. Each player can purchase extras in order to improve their chances of winning and gain an edge over their competition. Additional initiatives such as referral programmes and promotions allow players to help others and earn additional tokens for their efforts.
Testing the game
Stockus utilises a unique trading platform which our team modelled around the popular MT4 trading software. This proprietary platform allows players to trade stocks, futures, currency pairs and options in real time on a broad selection of global venues. The Stockus model was throughout several beta rounds hosted on the Facebook developer platform in order to enhance the software and improve functionality. This testing base also allowed us to confirm the viability of the concept and saleability of the offering. This period allowed us to gather valuable data on user preferences, as well as collect feedback and verify the validity of the game concept. Users actively participated in the trading tournaments and purchased additional features in order to boost their chances of earnings a prize. We saw a healthy amount of competition for the prize spots, with many players repurchasing funds or unlocking leverage to get the upper hand on their rival traders. Our developers also expanded the capabilities of the platform during this time, adding several different tournament types as well as options trading during the testing phase. We have now developed a completed version of the game based on the results of these extensive tests, which we are excited to bring to your attention.
Blockchain as a foundation for trust
Stockus is innovating by allowing all types of traders to compete in tournaments with limited risk and on equal terms. Ethereum allows us to create smart contracts which automatically determine and verify the outcome of each trading tournament, as well as paying out the rewards to the winners. The principles of crypto can be used to process and distribute the gains from the various tournaments in an efficient and transparent manner. This solution is optimal due to its security and scalability as the number of players and competitions grows. Unlike a typical brokerageplatform, the entire infrastructure of Stockus is built on blockchain, making the setup robust and secure. One of the toughest challenges we faced during the beta testing phase was gaining the trust of the players. Some users raised concerns regarding the authenticity of the tournament results and likelihood of an actual payout. The blockchain addresses such concerns and puts any doubts to rest due to the transparent and objective manner in which the smart contracts will determine winners as well as the final payout of the prizes. This transparency creates an element of trust amongst users and enhances the eligibility of the tournament series. A second challenge addressed by the blockchain infrastructure is raising the required funds and launching the game within a period of 3months. An ICO offers a priceless opportunity to meet our targets and achieve the ultimate objective of building a trading simulator which will offer an innovative and groundbreaking alternative to the traditional forex trading approach. A third argument in favour of an ICO and the blockchain solution is the ability to issue our own tokens, which will essentially act as a cryptocurrency derivative within our game. These tokens will have a value versus Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies which is directly dependent on the popularity and success of the game. Should the demand for ingame services and tournaments continue to increase as we expect, so will the value of the tokens in relation to other currencies.
Stockus Tokens
Stockus tokens are an integral component of the Stockus economy and ecosystem. Owners of these tockens will have access to the following services: - Participation in trading tournaments - Act as witnesses and judges in the trading tournaments - Receive rewards and prizes in the competitions, promotions and tournaments - Purchase additional services and bonus features - Hosting tournaments - Receive referral rewards for inviting friends The tokens play a key role in the economic processes at play in the Stockus environment. These tokens can be purchased in the application, received from other players, won in a tournament, or as a reward for acting as witness or judge in determining the results of a competition. Additional tokens can also be received as a reward for inviting friends to play. Tokens can also be acquired through the preliminary offering of Stockus tokens via Ether (ENT). The Stockus interface will also integrate third party trading solutions such as Shapershift and Coinbase for those users who do not already hold ENT. The initial offering of Stockus tokens will take place in the form of a preliminary ICO. Anyone can subscribe to the offering in exchange for ENT or other cryptocurrencies such as BTC or STEEM. We plan to offer 5,000,000 of our tokens at a rate of 300 tokens for 1 ENT.
Tournament Result Verification
The decentralised tournament verification system is an elegant and robust solution for all users as it prevents any manipulation or abuse of the competition results. All token holders will be able to act as witnesses or judges when determining the winners of each tournament, allowing the public to verify the results via open ledger technology. Should a single participant disagree with the results, an independent confirmation of the tournament results is established by the witnesses. If the conclusion regarding the winners of a tournament is unanimous and there are no disagreements between participants, no added verification via witness is required and the system automatically processes a payout.
Stockus ICO and Development plans
The bulk of raised capital will be directed at the following: - Development of 2 professional tournaments: the WFT (Weekly Fantasy Tournament) and DFT (Daily Fantasy Tournament). These will be completed in 3 months. - A promotional campaign which will ensure that the userbase reaches critical mass and the project becomes sustainable by increasing the prize amounts in the WFT to the order of tens of thousands. - The development of a social network within Stockus, which would allow players to exchange opinions, experiences and advice, as well as form trading societies and teams. - The development of a mobile version of the trading application. - Development and production of at least one new trading competition every 2 months. The game should have at least 6 different tournament types by the end of the first year. The Stockus development team is pleased to present our project for your review and assessment. We hope the summary has made a positive impression and look forward to your support and feedback.
Thank you in advance for your time and attention.
Stockus Developers
tl;dr New blockchain platform allowing fantasy trading, limited capital at risk for the chance to make substantial amounts of money. Project currently under development, ICO later in the year, feel free to ask any questions!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StockusProject/ Website: www.stockus.io Twitter: https://twitter.com/stockusproject

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