Thursday, August 9, 2007

Foreign exchange scam !!!!!


A forex scam is any trading scheme used to defraud individual traders by convincing them that they can expect to gain an unreasonably high profit by trading in the foreign exchange market, which would be a zero-sum game were it not for the fact that there are brokerage commissions, which technically make forex a "negative-sum" game.

These scams might include churning of customer accounts for the purpose of generating commissions, selling software that is supposed to guide the customer to large profits,[1] improperly managed "managed accounts",[2] false advertising,[3] Ponzi schemes and outright fraud.[4] It also refers to any retail forex broker who indicates that trading foreign exchange is a low risk, high profit investment.[5]

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which loosely regulates the foreign exchange market in the United States, has noted an increase in the amount of unscrupulous activity in the non-bank foreign exchange industry.[6]

An official of the National Futures Association was quoted[7] as saying, "Retail forex trading has increased dramatically over the past few years. Unfortunately, the amount of forex fraud has also increased dramatically..." Between 2001 and 2006 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has prosecuted more than 80 cases involving the defrauding of more than 23,000 customers who lost $300 million, mostly in managed accounts. CNN also quoted Godfried De Vidts, President of the Financial Markets Association, a European body, as saying, "Banks have a duty to protect their customers and they should make sure customers understand what they are doing. Now if people go online, on non-bank portals, how is this control being done?"

The highly technical nature of retail forex industry, the OTC nature of the market, and the loose regulation of the market, leaves retail speculators vulnerable. Defrauded traders and regulatory authorities, can find it very difficult to prove that market manipulation has occurred since there is no central currency market, but rather a number of more or less interconnected marketplaces provided by interbank market makers.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Foreign exchange market !!!!



The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex markets currently exceeds US$1.9 trillion. Retail traders (individuals) are a small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or banks.

Market size and liquidity

The foreign exchange market is unique because of:

* its trading volume,
* the extreme liquidity of the market,
* the large number of, and variety of, traders in the market,
* its geographical dispersion,
* its long trading hours - 24 hours a day (except on weekends).
* the variety of factors that affect exchange rates,

Exchange-traded forex futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts. Forex futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, but only accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).

Average daily global turnover in traditional foreign exchange market transactions totaled $2.7 trillion in April 2006 according to IFSL estimates based on semi-annual London, New York, Tokyo and Singapore Foreign Exchange Committee data. Overall turnover, including non-traditional foreign exchange derivatives and products traded on exchanges, averaged around $2.9 trillion a day. This was more than ten times the size of the combined daily turnover on all the world’s equity markets. Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues such as internet trading platforms has also made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. [2]

Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 32.4% in April 2006.

The ten most active traders account for almost 73% of trading volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe, (2/9/06 p. 20). These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually only 0-3 pips. For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually $100,000.

These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100 / 1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000 / 1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e. 0.0003). Competition has greatly increased with pip spreads shrinking on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.

Online Top paying Casinos!! Casinos !!! Casinos !!


Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or internet casinos, are online versions of traditional ("brick and mortar") casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet.

Online casinos generally offer odds and payback percentages that are comparable to land-based casinos. Some online casinos claim higher payback percentages for slot machine games, and some publish payout percentage audits on their websites. Assuming that the online casino is using an appropriately programmed random number generator, table games like blackjack have an established house edge. The payout percentage for these games are established by the rules of the game.

Reliability and trust issues are commonplace and often questioned. Many online casinos lease or purchase their software from well-known companies like Microgaming, Realtime Gaming, Playtech, and CryptoLogic Inc in an attempt to "piggyback" their reputation on the software manufacturer's credibility. These software companies either use or claim to use random number generators to ensure that the numbers, cards or dice appear randomly.
Contents......

Learn Forex Trading - Learn This Essential Fact First To Succeed


In this article we are going to look at one essential fact you need to succeed when trading currencies. If you understand it, you can will be taking your first step to learning forex trading correctly and achieving forex trading success – the fact you must understand is:

The ratio of winners to losers hasn’t changed in 50 years - 95% lose and 5% win – So what you may say?

Well think about it:

The ratio of winners to losers has stayed the same and this is despite the increased power of computers in terms of data analysis and forex analysis programs, data analysis, better and more timely news sources and a huge amount of experts wanting to help you.

Doesn’t this fact strike you as odd?

All these advantages! Yet the bulk of traders still find their currency trading strategies lose.

Well there is a simple reason why and it’s an essential part of your forex education:

Forex trading is relatively simple and is as much mindset, as it is a good currency trading system, so learn the points below and you will be able learn forex trading correctly and succeed:

1. Simple systems work best

There is a temptation to devise complicated forex trading systems - after all computers can help you do it easily, but the fact is this will help you lose.

A complicated system has more elements to break – a simple system is best as it is more robust.

2. News is the enemy

Today there is a lot of news and it’s presented well - all those convincing arguments!

All great to hear or read but it will simply help you lose - news is discounted in seconds so it wont help you as the market looks to the future.

3. Volatility Has Increased

The volatility of currency trading has increased with faster communications.

This means you have sharper counter trend moves to deal with and the big challenge today is dealing with it – this has actually made currency trading success harder!

4. The myth of the expert

In today’s society we consult experts on everything, yet currency trading is one area an expert won’t help you.

The fact is success comes from within no one is going to give it you.

Many traders buy worthless e-books for hundred dollars or so and believe the hype and these guys can help – dream on.

They present great marketing copy and normally claim great success – with no substantiation whatsoever and never have a real track record to back up their claims, just a worthless simulated profit in hindsight.

If you want to win, ignore them and find your own way.

Trading the truth

The market price is always right, only you can be wrong and it moves as and when it wants to.

To win you have to create a set of rules to lead you to currency trading success, have confidence in them and the discipline to execute your trading signals.

Most people cant take responsibility for their actions, lose and blame the markets or others for their losses but in reality its their fault.

Most people simply dont have the mindset to win and thats as true today as 50 years ago.

You just need to learn forex trading the right way and this article has given you something to think about and a valuable bit of forex education.

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