PipStop

Another prospective into the current economic crisis faced in the United States suggests a $1 Trillion, that's Trillion with a T writedown of Yertle the Turtle debt.

I think it's reasonable that our Clients or prospective Clients can expect to be fully satisfied in the experience they have with Trading Post.

We've always had a 10-day refund policy on course purchases, but looking at that I've long thought how archaic that is. We aren't here to take anyone's money and run. The culture is evolving here at Trading Post and in addition to pledging that we'll do all we can to ensure all Clients of our are 100% satisfied, we are stretching our course purchase refund policy to 30 days.

And I'm one to say that while we sold our course offerings for upwards of $2000 in the past, we're making a more comprehensive course offering (which is currently $599) even more competitive. For the price that we'll be settling on, you'll just have to stay tuned.

Yes, I will brag, no one comes close to delivering the foundational aspects of trading that we do for what you pay for it. It's fully self-paced and even if you just take a whiff of our Money Management module, you'll see how truly unique it is.

In the last couple of months a former moderator of Trading Post, Jason Deal has started his own service at www.pipsnipers.com. Perhaps this can be seen as a slight at Jason, but it isn't because of any animosity I have against him, because there is none. Rather, as I've thought about this and seen his initial interest of 500 people go his way (probably most out of sheer curiosity), and I wanted to share my thoughts on this and add my perspective.

Jason is providing a service that actively trades the GBY/JPY actively throughout the day. Yes this is the most volatile P/J. He calls it sniping, but at the 5, 10, 15, 20 pip level I still liken it to scalping ESPECIALLY when it comes to the P/J. 

I think Jason is truly trying to provide a service that will benefit traders. He also has unaudited documentation of trades that are taken with his service. In order to take advantage of this service, though, you need to essentially be readily available to take trades when they're called.

While this may work for some, this is not a one size fits all solution that perhaps it is made out to be. For many traders making multiple trades of 5, 10, 15, 20 pips in a day isn't as efficient as making 100 pips in two days on one trade.
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As an example, I'm subscribed to Rob Booker's signal service when it was $30 a year (a steal) but now it's $47 a month, which is still very reasonable. It's definitely a less time intensive, but also less hands on way of gaining trading support.  
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What would be at the center of the issue is how Jason's service was portrayed at the beginning, insinuating that thousands of pips can be made per month. Disclaimers notwithstanding, this is a

Making claims during any test period and building expectations on that is an extremely risky move. You don't have to a trading expert to know that managing, then fulfilling expectations almost never In a February newsletter Jason made the following comments:

"... Our test forum/site/trading room has been an immense success!

... And last but not least, in a market that is less than desirable, together, we have captured over 2200 Chart Pips in the 5 weeks we have been together!!! What a fantastic way to start our journey. The best trading months in 2008 are yet to come!!!

   We are upon the LAUNCH DATE (February 18th 2008)and wanted to inform you of the many choices you have that will fit ANY budget.  This room allows your trading to FUND its self!

Here is what you can expect from our paid service,

Secondly our first order of business day to day is to make pips! We will share with our members the details of each and every trade taken by the Pipsnipers Modsquad!!"

I hope you find trading solutions that are right for you - not because you've been convinced by any outside influences that it is right for you. You need to understand what type of trader you are, and what your goals are before you can truly have success as a trader. At the same time you have to set a solid foundation for yourself of solid Forex education.

Lastly, about a month ago I linked to a press release by the British Columbia Securities Corporation that warned self-directed investors of various scams being perpetuated through "communities" and "friends."

I've recently started a free subscription to Stocks, Futures and Options Magazine. I'd suggest all of you getting your own free subscriptions, too (If you live state side that is).

There is a healthy dose of Forex related articles and ads in the magazine, which is free because it relies on the advertising revenue, much like Currency Trader Magazine does - but with one BIG difference. Instead of delivering an electronic PDF copy of the monthly magazine, it is delivered straight to my mailbox in full glossy splendor.   

I just received my first copy (March 2008) and see that there is actually published by Wasendorf & Associates, Inc., which also controls Forex, Futures, and Options broker PFGBEST.com, which helps to explain the scale at which this publication is created. It also is interesting how other brokers have purchased ad space in the magazine, and how PFGBEST.com's ads have premium placement over the others'. Curious to say the least.

Russell Wasendorf Sr. the publisher of SFO and the president and CEO of PFGBEST.com authored a very honest and open article about regulation of Forex Broker Dealers in the United States.

In it he reviews some history and shares background of FX market regulation. He argues that raising adjusted net capital requirements for brokers is not necessarily the elixir to perfect regulation of Forex brokers.

He makes an argument that many are not willing to make publicly. Wasendorf states:

According to the most recent financial data published by the CFTC (as of press time), 78 of the 155 registered FCMs have net capital of less than $20 million. The suggestion that half the FCMs are somehow less legitimate because they are not big is an absurd assumption to me.

On Dec. 22, 2007, the adjusted net capital for Forex Dealer Members (FDM's) was raised to $5 million, and the talk is raising it further to $20 million.

Wasendorf makes the point that if we further reduce competition that we could end up seeing more North American business go abroad. In Europe, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority requires member FX dealers to have a net capital of approximately $72,500.

That's a scary number in my mind, there must be a happy medium between European and North American standards, but what this article did was make me think, and it a read for all in the FX industry.

It's another packed schedule for TP Tuesday and I'm excited about our lineup.

We have Lewis Evans of Left Brain Trading making his debut on TP Tuesday. We're working out an agreement with Lewis to offer his course through Trading Post. He has created what's dubbed the Absolute Fibonacci Framework, and according to Lewis no one in the world quite has created a way to use the Fibo that he has come up with.

It's definitely a full schedule and I encourage all of you to take part in any or all of the sessions. You don't need to pre-register and can drop in at anytime! We hope to see you there.

As I continue to think long and hard about how Trading Post can better serve its traders, I think of some pretty crazy ideas sometimes. More often than naught, the biggest obstacle I come across is time. I would love to pursue every idea that I think of or that is shared with me, but it's impossible.

So, I do the best that I can.

In December I elected to become the organizer of the Vancouver Forex Trading Meetup group. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Meetup.com, it's a website that brings people together for seemingly any popular to obscure interest.

True to blindness to some of those in our society, however, in the Vancouver market alone there are two other similarly sized Forex trading groups. One is a marketing group for FreedomRocks, which I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole because it purports to be a solution for EVERYBODY, when there truly isn't a universal solution for everybody.

The other is an independent marketing representative of a another Forex company called FX Innovations, which was based in Vancouver until a recent address change to a more hospitable tax situation in Florida.

My purpose for leading this group is not to make it a "Trading Post" group. The vision is to make it a top 3 Forex Trading Meetup group in North America by the end of the year. So I hope to take it from it's current membership of 74 to over 200 by the end of the year.

The purpose is to bring traders together and share information and experiences openly. We will invite guest presenters (as we did in February when we had Lewis Evans) and alternate that with months where we have our group members present. Trading is oftentimes a lonely endeavor, but it doesn't have to be.

What this experience will do for me as a partner at Trading Post is give me a first-hand feel for the trader experience first-hand.

It's been fun so far, and I'm looking forward to our third Meetup next Tuesday. If you're in the Vancouver area, I would encourage you to be part of our group and join our meetings. Even if you can't attend all meetings we're always uploading resource files that you'll have access to as a member of the group.

The best part is it doesn't cost anything to become a member.

I have enough topics to blog on about 10 different topics today, so I have to type and transcribe as quickly as I can.

Today I attended an all-day Search Engine Marketing workshop, and it's great to always get additional insight to help me do what I love better.

While we collectively work to do things better and deliver relevant products and services to you, there is also energy here to try to figure out how to get the word out in a more effective way.

I also learned that Canadians spend, on average, the most time online of anyone in the world at 43 hours a month. I'm one of those who skews that number far, far up.

I'm not sure if I'm quite "ready" to be back in the office two weeks after the birth of my second child, but I will be back regardless starting tomorrow.

I honestly didn't think about too much trading related - I was kind of busy being with my wife and newborn, and also bonding with my oldest daughter. I'm sure we'll go into a little bit of withdrawl being away from each other this week, but it will be good to get back into the swing of things.

So for those of you who have been wondering where I've been for two weeks, wonder no more, and hopefully I'll be better than ever.