Who writes this stuff?

Rubbish in Rubbish out!

PIGs tend to have a bad reputation, but in a market full of deception it can pay to have some loyalty on your side. Truth in Trading, sometimes it hurts, but in the end you will thank us.

All our content is bespoke and unique to our team of writers. What you will read below is almost a state of play as to where the retail trading market is right now. FXPIG is a beacon in the darkness of poor execution, slippage and bad advice.

Yesterday the dollar went down. Then it went up, but eventually it finished lower again. Today it will go up but then probably go down a bit before, who knows?

The FX retail market suffers from masses of content being written by people who are unqualified to give an opinion about anything, let alone to interpret the reasons for currencies to move as they do. It takes knowledge, experience and sound judgement to analyse Financial Markets. Knowledge of the interaction between the elements. Experience of having sat and traded when the markets are flying and sound judgement to understand when to listen to people who have “done it all before”.

I read articles now by people I wouldn’t trust to look out of the window and tell me whether it is raining or not.

Why is this allowed to happen? It’s simple. Attracting and retaining clients is often a numbers game. Content, whether that is cutting edge market analysis or the type of blurb in the first two lines of this rant, gets into the client's inbox and means the first mission is accomplished. The fact that as soon as the client sees it he hits delete is neither here nor there.

No Substitute for experience.

I have several contacts and several thousand followers on Social Media. I spend a couple of hours each week reading what people write and if they stand out, good or bad. I have developed a list of those that are good or give me a perspective if haven’t considered (this PIG is never too old to learn!)

Others simply amuse me. When I look at their profiles they have a typical format. Half a dozen jobs all as a junior broker, no idea about where the market is headed from a fundamental point of view. A cursory knowledge of technical analysis. Well, they know what SMA and MACD stand for but often have no idea of application.

The other day I was chatting to a contact who had just posted an article to his feed that I had clicked on to. The article was a link to a well-known site that publishes articles from all types of people involved in the market. In fact, I sometimes contribute but since I write bespoke content I rarely have the time.

Anyway, this article was written by a direct competitor of his firm and the page it was on was surrounded by adverts from other competitors all of whom have various offers and bonuses.

I challenged him about it and simply said “we are confident that our offering is sound and that our clients are aware of the competition” Sound enough to allow you to advertise competitor’s product? Hmmmmm!

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is!

How many serious traders believe that the Holy Grail is contained in a seminar being held in the City of London or in New York, Milan or any other City where they can be attracted.

Let me say that there are some seminars out there that are genuine but they are not in the majority.

Seminars fall into two categories; Paid and Free. Paid seminars tend to have a “name” as presenter and the presentation is slick and fast moving. You are given access to an EA, a “bot” or some fancy trading tool the results of which are often manufactured (oh yes, they do that) and they pay no attention to the adage that past performance is no guarantee of future profit. It is in all the handouts you are given but you will be told how easy it is to make money trading. No one mentions the 90/90/90 rule. Google it, it’s scary to inexperienced traders but a dose of reality helps.

I wrote a blog on this site a while ago where I mentioned that sex sells. Look at the landing page for a number of these seminars, invariably there is a picture of a pretty girl with a chart behind her on a screen ostensibly explaining some technical trading idea. The front row is peopled by, mostly men, with the figurative tongues hanging out transfixed by this beauty pointing the way to Financial Paradise.

Trading can be rewarding

• Keep your eyes open.
• Use Common Sense.
• If it seems too good to be true it generally is.
• A relationship with a broker needs to be based on trust not gimmicks or rewards.
• Use a dummy account to get a feel of what you are doing.
• Manage your risk. No more than 3% of your capital in any one trade.
• There are no sure things.
• Run your profits and cut your losses not the other way around.
• Keep learning. No one knows it all.