Recently BBC Two aired a 2-part documentary series called Traders: Millions By The Minute. It purports to take a look at some professional traders as well as a few wannabees. I found it instead to be full of deceit entertainment show. I’ll list here the issues I found with the second episode, and I’ll write another article for the first one.
Charlie Burton is presented as belonging to the 10% of traders who are profitable. We are also told that his disciplined approach made him a millionaire. He pays £200/month for his forex charts. If he makes one successful trade in the morning banking around £1000 he’s pretty much done for the day.
What’s wrong with this picture? For starters, there’s absolutely no proof presented that he can trade profitably. There’s also no proof that he made the alleged millions trading. After looking him up on the internet, I found out that he’s running a company selling trading education for more than £1000 a package. Now, if he really is a millionaire, this surely seems the more probable way he became one.
I see two problems with his trading approach. Firstly, there’s no need to pay for charting software in forex. With the volumes, he supposedly trades, he should be getting the best charting for free from his broker. Secondly, I can think of no logical reason to stop trading just because you made a £1000 profit. Not only that it goes against the old and true adage ‘…let profits run’, but a professional trader trades the market, not the money.
Justin and Akil, 2 guys in their early twenties. One of them (Justin) has been trading forex for nearly 4 years, the other takes care of the admin side of the business. They manage now over £1 million. They drive in a Mercedes C63 AMG to the house of a Premiership footballer to pitch him to invest with them. They show him the profits they made in a few months’ old demo accounts. The footballer’s wealth manager gave him the green light to invest £100k with the duo. He’s convinced by their pitch and they shake hands.
Whoa, this is wrong on so many levels that I don’t know where to start. Let’s see, like before, there’s no proof of the supposed £1 mil under management. Actually, there’s no proof these guys even trade a live account. They are in their early twenties, don’t appear to come from wealthy families, almost 4 years of trading experience and already drive a Mercedes AMG? It sure sounds like a Ponzi scheme here geared toward a minority group (black people).
Anyone remembers Alex Hope?
Regarding the wealth manager’s approval for the investment, I like to think that he was somehow misinformed. Otherwise, he must be ranked among the most incompetent managers for considering doing business with those two clowns. I mean, seriously, giving money away based on a few months’ old demos?
Etoro social trading platform gets a few minutes of advertisement. You can follow ‘professional traders’ and copy their trades. One of the most popular is one Spanish guy, Malsolo. He has 5k copiers.
This is beyond a joke. I looked up the leaders, they all seem to sit on big losing positions, some of them over one year old. They’re quick to bank a profit, but when the market turns against them, they let the losses run. And they’re called ‘professional traders’?
Review of the first episode: here