Comment by Peter jcp on July 16, 2012 at 10:25pm

As mentioned in the article - Forex trading in the UK through spread betting is classified as "gambling" and therefore it is tax free. Once you become experienced you realize the manipulation in the market by the larger players and also by many brokers - who generally work against retail traders and use various methods to place the odds more in their favour.

The regulators all around the World seem to have missed for many years all whats been going on in the financial markets - and now its seems to have "shocked" them ( only about 7-10 yrs too late) 

During this next few years the proverbial will now hit the "fan" - with the Bank collapses and now all the manipulation of Libor Rates and now Oil Rates. The whole industry needs a "shampoo" from top to bottom - to sort it out.

After going through all the pain of learning the business and knowing most of the tricks employed - I think the majority of the potential traders in the UK just know its not easy and have been frightened off by all the scams that have been going on.

One full time trader replying to that article admitted that in the 6 yrs of trading he had hardly made any money and it had destroyed his life and family etc. Unfortunately out of every 10 potential traders we know only 1 or 2 will make it a worthwhile profession. 3 -5 yrs ago the industry mislead the public into believing it was simple and that like 40% of traders would end up multi millionaires.

Finally in the UK for it too remain as classified as gambling - over 75% of traders need to lose. I think the large players and the brokers will ensure that carries on - contrary to what ever they may say ;-)

Comment by Francesc Riverola on July 16, 2012 at 10:39pm

Thanks Peter jcp.... very informative comment!

Comment by Indy on July 17, 2012 at 7:54am

Hi there,

I have to agree with lisa on the evils of the nanny state and the current blame culture that seems to be all pervading nowadays.

If someone wants to risk real money without even going to the effort of googling what terms like leverage and margin mean then frankly they deserve to lose.

i would love to chat longer but I just bought a parachute on e-bay and i'm off to try it out. Never done it before but its just jumping out a plane right? how hard can it be.

Cheers

Indy

So wich cord do I pull?

Comment by Romano on July 17, 2012 at 3:20pm

They say they want to limit leverage to protect traders, what a BS. What trader dont know its own risk? If they wanted to protect them they would tighten brokers controls. They would make it centralized market(from central bank feeds) where volume would be real and timeframe above 1h would be same all around the world. Its simply they want to maintain control and manipulation over market and with cca 5 trillion in, its getting harder for them to do it. Bunch of retarded assholes and liars they are, screw them all.

Comment by Peter jcp on July 17, 2012 at 3:24pm

Nice analogy Indy - yes as you fall at over 120 mph - all you do is look for that bit of cord to pull - don't leave it too late - it cannot be that hard and I am sure if you do make it - and are able to do a few times you should be OK - i think ;-)

Yes also agree with Lisa about the nanny state and too much interference etc. However all counties have laws and regulations - ie like needing a driving licence to drive etc - so really if anyone is going to trade - they should at least take a simple test etc first to see if they understand the basics etc and are capable to either "win or lose" their money - and they understand the consequences etc.

PS Indy - make sure you have the parachute on before you jump - its so easy to forget things at times ;-)

Comment by Francesc Riverola on July 17, 2012 at 7:57pm

very nice discussion guys!

Comment by TradeTheRatios on July 18, 2012 at 4:21am

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/93a462f2-cd03-11e1-b78b-00144feabdc0.html...

The fault in this lies with the trader. If they refuse to use the amount of leverage that is offered them and trade within strict leverage, position size and equity limits, they cannot be taken advantage of by their broker. Yes, the road to parity will be volatile, it is exactly this volatility that can make trading very profitable for traders that do their research and trade within reasonable leverage and position size limits. If anything, the regulators need to crack down on brokers like PFGBest, MF Global and dozens of others for failing to adequately separate client funds from their own accounts, as is already required by many regulations, but apparently isn't very well enforced or audited by those regulators. Leverage is dangerous but so is trading. However, is someone is truly a "punter" and does not do the research they need to do to trade successfully, they will still blow up even at 10:1, they'll just do so a bit slower.

Comment by TradeTheRatios on July 18, 2012 at 4:26am

To Lisa's point, we really don't need any more help from the government. We've almost been helped right out of business in America already and all it's done is harm the US traders that actually know what they are doing. It hasn't prevented any brokers from harming us by breaking laws, it hasn't fixed the JPMorgan's of the world from taking $7 billion dollar losses we'll all be on the hook for again. We used to be able to trade at 200:1 IF WE CHOSE TO, we used to be able to use foreign brokers, we used to be able to trade gold speculatively but under all the "reforms" since 2008 the small trader has been systematically eliminated from having many choices in how we choose to run our businesses. A lot of business in America has simply gone away as a result and in other cases people break regs to go overseas and offshore, taking business that used to be allowed in America to other locales. It hasn't cleaned up the markets, it hasn't fixed a thing, it's just punished those of us that know what we're doing in the process.

Comment by Romano on July 18, 2012 at 9:10am

Oh and I forgot to mention HFTs they tolerate so yeah, they are liars.

Comment by Francesc Riverola on July 18, 2012 at 2:20pm

Michael Greenberg at Forex Magnates gives a big blow to Financial Times for this poor quality article... worth read it
I couldn't agree more...

http://forexmagnates.com/financial-illiteracy-leading-financial-new...

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