PipStop

The problem in those looking to trade Forex is companies like the one I received an unsolicited email offer from on Thursday. The company is called City Pips.

By looking at its slapped together website it's actually run by SolomonFX - the company that I was skeptical about at the Los Angeles Traders Expo last month.

Solomon FX has been in business since January 2007 and at the Expo the presenters mentioned thy have taught a paltry 100 traders. Now, they're obviously looking for a new cash stream on the back of a signal system that has been "performing" for TWO months!!!

I think who do these guys think they are?!? Pretty audacious and arrogant.

It's demonstrated by some of their FAQ answers:

How Much Can I Make?
Trading is a risk, and as such there is never a guarantee of profit, but the signals that you will be sent have been known to produce up to 1000 pips per month.

Pardon me? "They have been known to produce up to 1000 pips per month" - that's 2 months!

What if I have never done currency trading before?
Our Quick Start videos will show you the basics of Forex, help you get a broker, show you how to navigate a trading platform, and show you how to place trades when you get a signal. The videos are taught in easy to understand language, and will lead you through step by step.

I've said this before and I'll say it again - trading is NOT for everyone. How does money management play into this? What about trading psychology when a trade is experiencing a major drawdown? And the what abouts can go on and on ...

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The problem that I have with this, is that industry wide we have a management of expectations problem. Now those who are new to trading or heaven forbid are induced because this opportunity sounds so good are going to expect over 1000 pips a month every month - and how long can that possibly last?

Quite honestly if I was going to go for anything like this, I'd much rather go for Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg's BKTraderfx service, which has gaining over 1400 pips SINCE JANUARY - which is still a very good and manageable return.

That's my weekend rant.

Tomorrow I'll share some of my thought on a live trading workshop that was held here in Vancouver by Pierre Charlebois yesterday.

Or late, whichever way you look at it. It's currently 3:18 a.m. on the west coast of Canada and it's actually quite cool outside (I've had the window open) - 12C. It's time to get a few hours of sleep in before my daughter starts jumping all over me and poking her fingers in my eyes.

It's a fairly boring market night for me with cable moving within about a 30 pip channel for the past 20 or so hours.

But I have CNN running on the big screen in the background and am watching American Morning. There's an iReporter out traveling the country asking folks what they think of the whole presidential race.

The reporter was at a baseball game and was interviewing a particular gentleman somewhere in the South. Now this isn't an exact quote, but it's pretty close to what he said, when asked what he thought of Barack Obama's chances.

I'm a good old Southern boy, and I just can't see a black man making a change. The only black man making a change I've ever seen has had a cup in his hands.

Ahhh ... and CNN was nice enough to rewind it once because it's one of those, WHAT THE ... moments. What can you do but just shake your head? Sheesh, well I guess what we CAN do is to absolutely be intolerant of this stupid ignorance.

Later today I'll share some interesting thoughts including the progress of my space on the web.

I'm really not a big voicemail guy. Recently I've received heat for not picking up my phone for everyone who calls. Well, No. 1 I'm probably on the phone with someone else, but No. 2, if you leave a message, I will call you back (or better yet shoot me an email to call you). I would prefer voicemail being delivered to me in text/email form.

It's not that I dislike being on the phone - I'm on it a lot - I just like to be in a routine and schedule calls when I can.

++ MANY HOURS SPENT WATCHING MARKETS: I can imagine most would NOT consider this fun. Some openly admit it, however, and good for them. I know I don't necessarily, although it seems like I spend hours a day READING those who do ... what sense does that make?!?

++ TOP 10 CURRENCY TRADING TIPS: Everyone has their top tips for trading, and most it's all regurgitated stuff. It's done to draw attention, and Trading Post isn't immune from it either, I guess. It's redundant, but what's a few minutes?

++ FOREX BROKER THOUGHTS: Lately I had began thinking that Rob Booker was becoming a busy body has been. He's everywhere doing everything, and now spitting out seemingly mindless trading analysis, and he hasn't been sending me trading signals which I had previously subscribed to through him. All that said, most everything is forgiven because of a rather sober and insightful post he made on brokers.

++ BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND: Dear Pierre, this is a line from Stephen Covey, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People guru.

++ IDIOT WAVE 101: For all wave enthusiasts, Brett Steenbarger has something for you ...

++ RAGHEE IS NOT AN IDIOT ...: Far from it, but Raghee Horner was a blogging queen yesterday. Five posts in one day! I think it's a new blog, so I'm sure the vibe comes and goes with her. Hopefully she stays consistent with it. As far as PX90, Raghee? Mine has been on the shelf unused for a year now - I just find it easier to go to the gym - wherever I am.

++ NEWS AGGREGATION: Not to be confused with "aggravation." I'm going back to Steenbarger because he is one of the most prolific and relevant bloggers out there. And no, I did not steal his idea to put thoughts together this way. I just know this is the way I like to read things so I've figured it's how I will share things, too.

That is a lot to think about for now.

Is there even a versus in this?

Brian Solis who is a PR guy I follow wrote about "The Art of Conversation - It's About Listening Not Marketing."

And at what point is it too much listening and not enough actual DOING?

I do a lot of listening and that's not the hard part. The hard part is understanding what I'm listening to, internalizing it and acting on it - in a positive way.

Traders have varying (or should I say oftentimes dizzying - in a positive way of course) needs. For example what is one need you have as a trader right now?

Hands down, the best trading podcast that I've heard is Steve Croft's "The Mind of a Trader."

Sure I'm biased because I know Steve, and it's a Trading Post production, but if you disagree with me, please say so.

This week is a milestone for what we affectionately call MOT here in Vancouver.

The weekly trading mindset podcast has hit it's 50th episode and to coincide with that we have created a blog for it. From now on you'll be able to instantly access individual MOT episodes at the Trading Post website.

Much thanks to our New Media Developer Ray in getting this done, and slowly but surely we will see about getting past episodes posted as well.

This has over 500 regular RSS subscribers, and its episodes have been downloaded over 90,000 times. And it is flipping free.

Continue the great work Steve, and now listeners have a central place they can comment on individual episodes.

Well, get ready because I have a vast stream of thoughts right now, and I'm sure it will result in back-to-back-to-back-to ... well a few separate blog posts, anyway.

Getting to the positively negative thing.

I was on Facebook last night, where I was busy creating a separate profile so as not to mingle all my personal friends with trading world. I still have my name there but the full listing is Samuel Araki-tpfs, and there is a Trading Post logo as the picture.

We started a Trading Post Community group awhile back which was a closed group, but I'm going to create another one here later this week that will be open to all.

The unfortunate thing to me was in wading through the hundreds and hundreds of "Forex" groups, I can count the number of useful ones on one hand. The others are pretty worthless, and that gets those under educated sucked in and down the wrong path - because there is NO easy money in trading - despite the fact that there is a group billing itself as the "Easy Money" group.

And what has happened is the same people post on every wall, it seems, their pitch. Good for them, but what's good for traders? Surely not the cesspool (one of my favorite words - for some odd reason) of garbage Forex groups on Facebook.

More and more there are worthless pitches online. The easy thing is none of us really need to get our crap filter out if we understand that there is no "easy" path in trading consistently.

Sheez. I can't stand a) garbage, and b) people advocating "their" way as the "only" way to success.

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Getting back to social networking to finish.

It's something that I've personally been very bullish about for the past couple of years.

I have a LinkedIn Profile, although I've been meaning to fill it out with more details. I have, as I mentioned above, created a Facebook profile for the trading world - so now I join the 2 Facebook profile club (that isn't against Facebook rules is it?). I also have a Twitter account, which I have been playing with and will probably share in the coming months on PipStop.

I am also the organizer of the Vancouver Forex Meetup group, which is a testing environment of sorts for me to see what traders are looking for, why they're not successful as they could be, and why they are.

What these website do for me is keep me in tune with technology and people. And lo and behold, trading is made up of technology and people. It's finding the relevant aspects of both and helping to create solutions that I love.

I also author about six other blogs, and I've updated 4 of them already this week. And I'm not bragging. I just love to write.

And no, I do have a balance in my life and none of the others are trading related.

What social websites are you involved with?

And please, MySpace is so, yesterday.

Amidst all that was going on last week, I missed this, and I think many others did too, as I didn't see any other bloggers comment on it. Thanks to Robert who forwarded me this news today.

Last Thursday, Phillip Bennett received 16 years in prison for orchestrating the fraud that bilked investors of over $2.4 billion.

With our previous company I was around when the whole Refco situation blew up and it was not pretty. There were many blind traders not really realizing where they were putting their money.

The regulations surrounding brokers has improved, but in the United States at least none of investor funds are insured, while in Canada with the Canadian Investor Protection Fund funds can be eligible to be protected up to $1,000,000.

Too many times traders are focused on the wrong things. I've spoken with traders who want to find the best off-shore broker to do business with. The assumption is that one can then better shield trading profits from the government.

There are other Phillip Bennett's out there. It's just a matter of if you will be caught in the web of fraud or not. Just as in trading, there are no guarantees, but you can minimize your exposure to risk.

I hope many of you were able to take advantage of the holiday weekend to relax and recharge.

As I mentioned on Friday, this week, I'm sure I'll share a few things that are running around in my head, that some of you may be interested in.

In the meantime, I came across the following grid a week ago, and since I'm a numbers/stats guy, I love to look at things like this.

In terms of Internet broadband (if anyone is attempting to trade on anything less than broadband - you're crazy) penetration Canada leads the US, pecentage wise.