I had to publish this blog post as soon as possible. Welcome back, if you aren’t subscribed yet, please feel free to do so. Check on the sidebar for a subscribe button, enter your email address, click subscribe, check your email for a confirmation link (which may be in spam/junk folder). Click on the link to confirm your subscription and you’ll be get all new publications delivered to your email. You can also download the app which is now available on Google Play Store. Back to the business of today, which is about COVID-19 Forex scams that are on the rise.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all Central banks are resorting to cutting their Interest Rates to save their economies, most people are desperately in need of investments that can pay better returns. The drop in Interest Rates means less Returns On Investments (ROI) and less Interest on loans. Basically, lower Interest Rates makes borrowing more attractive and saving & investing less attractive. You can read more about how COVID-19 has affected the global markets on my latest blog post here. For that reason, scammers are having a field day targeting unsuspecting investors to invest in fake investment scams hidden under the Forex umbrella. The fraudsters are having it easy because when people hear the word Forex, they think of making quick buck or easy money (and that it is not the case at all).
Your smart phone is your ATM
The statement above has caused so many people to fall for anything that promises them high returns with just little effort . During this period of lock down, most people are bored, scared and panicking about the possibilities of loosing their jobs or being unable to save their small businesses after lock down. Most people are on their cell phones most of the time trying to find opportunities to make money online. Don’t be a victim, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, even during COVID-19. Don’t be fooled into believing that one only needs a smart phone to make money through Forex, there’s a lot of learning that needs to happen before one can make some money. I can also assure you that it won’t happen over night.
Be very cautious of cold calls
I have been getting a lot of questions regarding Forex investments where someone calls, sms’es or WhatsApps to present an “Investment” opportunity which promises incredibly high returns on a weekly or monthly basis. Some are even promising to double your investment in a week. The more you invest, the more money you make. Be very careful to never fill in any forms or agree to any verbal contract over the phone. I also get a lot of requests from people who are asking if I can trade for them (I don’t trade public funds, only my account). This has shown me that the level of desperation is very high and has inspired this blog post.
Be very scared if you are suddenly being head hunted by social media” fund managers”, you are likely to become a victim. I know for sure that I cannot guarantee the returns for myself even after so many years of trading the markets, I cannot imagine someone trying to promise hundreds of investors guaranteed profits, in most cases, those are just pyramid schemes hiding under the Forex umbrella. There’s a high possibility that NO funds ever end in a trading account, they just rotate money, paying new investors with old investors money until they run out of new investors which is when they collapse leaving many people bankrupt. DO NOT be a victim!
Investment websites
They make is so easy to fund and give you access to some dashboard where you can monitor your investment. Most of them pay you for recruiting more people and they usually have a very short lifespan. With the global Interest Rates drop, scammers are out here to use this opportunity to scam more people. Stay safe, stay at home, wash your hands regularly and also stay ALERT. DO NOT be a victim!
Thank you for stopping by and reading this post, please kindly share with anyone who might need this content, you might save someone from being scammed. I am not a financial adviser, I only share my experiences through this blog. For financial advise, kindly contact a professional.
After such a long time of not posting any content, I finally found an opportunity to do so. To the subscribers, welcome back. If you just stumbled upon this blog, welcome and feel free to click on the subscribe button on the sidebar and enter your email address to subscribe for new publications to be delivered to your email every time there’s a new blog post . You will receive an email with a confirmation link, click on it and confirm subscription. Please note that the email may be in spam/junk folder.
The world is faced with the global pandemic called Covid-19 also known as corona virus. This pandemic has disrupted the world’s economies and created huge volatility in the markets which can be very dangerous to most traders but can also bring trading opportunities to some traders who are able to keep up with all the breaking news. In this post, I am going to share how the virus has impacted the Forex markets. Most traders still believe that trading Forex is just about a smart phone and reading through some lines (which is far from that, we will discuss this some other time)
Central Banks During Covid-19
The impact of corona virus has called for Central Banks to re-look their Interest Rates to save their economies. Over the past few weeks, Federal Reserve Bank, Bank of Canada and other Central Banks had to call for an emergency Rate Cut meeting. To understand why such a move, you have to understand the advantages of having lower Interest Rates. I will list them out below.
1: What is the role and function of a Central Bank?
To set official bank rates used to manage inflation and exchange rates
To issue a country’s currency
To set targets and monitor economic data while they implement special tools.
2: Why would a Central Bank opt for lower interest rates?
To encourage borrowing : When the Interest Rates of a country is cut, it also means that the people who are borrowing from the banks will be paying less Interest on their loans. That will then encourage consumers and even big companies to borrow for spending and bigger investments.
To make saving less attractive: When the return on savings are lower, most people would opt for spending money than holding on to it.
To weaken the currency: When the currency is weak, the country’s exports become more competitive and their imports more expensive which also encourages consumers to buy local because of the exchange rates.
To lower Mortgage loans: When mortgage loans holders pay less interest on their existing loans, they may be left with more money and that should increase consumer spending in the country.
3: Oil Prices
The oil industry is also greatly affected by Covid-19. When the pandemic started to spread, oil was already under a lot of pressure due the price war. Goods are not moving due to the lock-down in most countries. As a result, there’s less demand of oil. Even when OPEC agreed on cutting supply, it didn’t help much with the price because there’s less demand. To learn more about OPEC and what happens to oil prices when they cut supply, or when there’s over supply, you can read this POST. Travel and tourism is largely affected. Jet fuel is not being used because international flights are halted as well as domestic ones. There is definitely an oversupply of oil which makes oil prices to remain low.
How to take advantage of the current situation in the markets?
The first thing that you need to do is to stay away from anyone who claims to be predicting the markets and knowing exactly what’s gonna happen next, avoid such people. Stay updated with business news, breaking news and follow the Central Banks and key economic indicators. During this time of crisis, the key economic indicators such as employment change, unemployment rates and so forth, may also be inaccurate because some surveys collect such data on a door-to-door basis, which is impossible to access homes during lock down.
If you have been trading but you have never cared or were never interested in what really moves the markets, now is the time to learn. As long as you have invested your money in Foreign Exchange, you will be affected by economic crisis (whether you choose to believe in it or not). Just like when it is winter, it affects all of us whether we believe in winter or not. I know a lot of traders started to pay attention when Brexit happened in 2016. Should you wish to learn more about the markets other than just reading charts, feel free to contact me for private coaching. You can also use the WhatsApp feature on the sidebar for instant chat.
Thank you so much for stopping by and reading this post. To help more individuals access this information, kindly share with your peers and stay tuned for more information, weekly economic news and practical tips that you can use to improve your trading. Please live a comment below and tell me if you like the new look. I am in love with this new home, a big shout out to my designer for a job well done and a fresh look.
Central bank is a national bank that provides financial and banking services for its country’s government and commercial banking system.
What is the role and function of Central Bank?
To set official bank rates used to manage inflation and exchange rates
To issue a country’s currency
To set targets and monitor economic data while they implement special tools.
One of the special tools that is used by the central bank is Interest/bank rates adjustments. When the Central Bank sees a need to hike or cut their rates, they simply do so.
Why do Central Banks hike the Interest Rates?
When the economy is growing at a rate that may lead to hyperinflation (monetary inflation occurring at a very high rate)
Why do Central Banks cut the Interest Rates?
The Central bank may cut the Interest Rates to encourage people to borrow more money at a lower rate, be it for new houses or businesses. The aim is to also make saving money less attractive as the returns are lower when the rates are cut.
About Bank Of Canada
Bank of Canada’s Interest Rates is released 8 times per year. On the 22nd of January they’ll hold their first meeting of 2020 to decide on their Interest Rates which is currently 1.75%. Below is the Bank of Canada’s 2020 dates.
CPI stands for Consumer Price Index. It is the most watched economic indicator. It is calculated/released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is part of the Department of Labor.
What does CPI measure?
It measures the change in price of goods and services purchased by the consumers excluding investment items such as stocks, bonds, real estates and life insurance. In short, CPI measures the cost of living. The CPI is released monthly.
Why do we (traders) care?
Consumer Price Index accounts for the majority of overall inflation. Inflation is important to currency evaluation. As promised in the beginning of the year that I will publish the most watched economic news annual dates. I’ve already published Non Farm Payrolls annual dates. To get started with your yearly plan, check this post here.
Below is the United States Consumer Price Index 2020 schedule. Thank you for stopping by and reading this post. Please share with your friends and stay tuned for more.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!It’s 2020, a new decade. I am extremely excited. I feel honored to be given another opportunity to share more trading tips with you. This will be my 11th year of trading
Welcome back to all my subscribers and readers and thank you for sharing my posts and giving me a reason to publish new content. If this is your first time here, welcome, please feel free to subscribe by entering your email address on the sidebar, click SUBSCRIBE, wait for the confirmation email (it could be in the spam/junk folder) and click on the link to confirm your subscription.
One of the things that I always preach is that everything works better when there’s some planning involved. If you are trying to get into a daily routine, it starts with planning. Drafting a plan is not that difficult, but the most challenging part is to follow it through.
Over the past few years of engaging with traders, I have noticed that most traders do not plan for their trading day, week , month and let alone the whole year. I have also realised that it is because of how most traders are viewing their trading accounts, most traders view it with the same eye as they view a cash slot machine and therefore, they see no need to plan. You may learn a thing or two from this post regarding that.
I always find it easier to plan ahead and that works perfectly fine with how I personally trade. I believe though that however you trade, you can always plan. Do things differently this year. Below are the 3 things that you can include in your planning.
”Different doing, different having”
1.Market hours
This should be on top of your list. The markets are open 24/5 (24 hours, 5 days a week) but this does not mean that every hour is a good hour to trade any instrument. After realizing that most traders are not even aware of that, I published a market hours blog post to help traders to avoid sleepy markets or trading an instrument in a wrong session. Know the sessions that will work out better for you (according to your daily work/business schedule) and plan around that. While you are still at that, you also need to know which currencies to trade during that specific session. You may like this post here.
2. Have your own watch list
This one might be a bit tricky to do a long term plan on because the markets are focusing on different things at different times. You can however do a weekly plan (it works perfectly for my preferred method of trading). Having a watch list should also go hand in hand with understanding when is the right time to trade those currencies on your watch list (refer to the blog posts mentioned above).
3. Know when not to trade, its OK to have an off day
I personally do not trade any currency when it’s country is having a bank holiday because the volatility is likely to be abnormal, read more here.
We (my mentees and I) will do the planning together. If you wish to be part of my mentorship program, registration is still open, you can check all details here. Thank you for stopping by and reading this post. Kindly share with your peers and help one more trader to plan. Stay tuned for more tips.
Hello readers, welcome back. I have been operating on a very tight schedule lately. I finally got a chance to share one more tip here. Today’s topic is about the importance of unlearning in order to learn.
About 10 years ago, I embarked on this journey of learning how to trade. At first, I did not really think that there’s so much that I would need to learn. For me, just like most people who are starting out, it was just all about learning how to place a trade, buying the latest robot and learning a gazillion strategies. All of that was really fruitless. I was just too busy but less productive and it all seemed normal at that time.
After loosing so much money trying to find the way that would work best for me, I was challenged by the fact that I needed to unlearn a lot, it wasn’t easy at all, but it had to be done and I am so glad that I finally managed. Below are the few things that I had to unlearn.
Following every Forex group
One of the biggest mistakes that most traders do is to follow every social media group in search for more knowledge, which makes it very difficult to focus especially when you have your own trading plan that you are trying to follow and stick to.
I used to be that person who was everywhere on social media groups as long as I would see the word “Forex” I would definitely follow or join the group. I did that a lot when I was trading without any trading plan, but I continued to do that even when I had just done my own trading plan which I never followed of course due to being all over social media groups.
I would be on the right track for the day but as soon as I logged in to those groups, I would follow all the gurus who were claiming to be the best. I would literally place all their trades from their posted screenshots. I continued to make losses until I had to put a stop to it by leaving all those groups. That was the first thing that I had to unlearn. Learning how to trade is not easy in this kind of a setup as it can bring so much confusion.
Being glued to my screen all day and night
This was the most difficult one. For some reason, I felt like I needed to struggle and to have sleepless nights because that made me look like I knew what I was doing and I was smart (I know I sound silly right now, but this is a true story). When I finally learned that I don’t really have to stay up all day & night babysitting trades, I stopped. It wasn’t easy though, but I managed with the help of a good mentor.
Most of my mentees are faced with this challenge. Just 2 weeks ago, I had a weekly coaching session with one of my mentees (I do those with live traders every Fridays) and we were trying to sort out such issues for her. “Even when I am driving, I would open charts to see what’s going on” ~ Mentee. This particular mentee is struggling to unlearn those habits of being glued to her screen. She is definitely working on it though and I am positive that she will overcome as long as she is willing to and put in the work that is needed.
Trading more brings more money
OK, on a daily basis I used to place a minimum of 30-40 trades because I actually believed that the more I traded, the more money I would make. It was the total opposite though. I had to unlearn that but what made it more difficult to unlearn was the fact that everyone I knew seemed to be doing the same thing and it seemed very normal to me.
The sooner I unlearned that, the sooner I started to relax more, became less grumpy and I was able to think straight (it’s not easy to think straight when you have so many open trades at once which are keeping you on your toes).
I believe that if we can manage ourselves better, we can definitely manage our finances better. It starts with us. One of the things that I focus more on, on my training and mentorship program , is trading psychology which is basically about how one can manage his/her emotions and so forth. Learning a certain trading strategy is the easiest part, but implementing it is a case of will and strength.
Thank you for stopping by. If you find this post valuable, kindly share with your peers using share buttons on the sidebar. Should you need any private assistance, don’t hesitate to contact me.
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