Exential Group – Managed Forex Accounts Scam

Exential Group – Managed Forex Accounts Scam

Update 03/01/2017

The perpetrator behind this Ponzi scheme, an individual called Sydney Lemos, has been arrested.

Update 24/10/2016

I was informed that a class action lawsuit against Exential is being prepared by the Giambrone law firm. All people interested should visit this page.

Update 25/07/2016

More than a year since this article was written, authorities have finally shut down the fraudulent operations of Exential Group. From Leaprate.com: Exential Group in Dubai Media City was ordered to cease trading on Sunday as the Department of Economic Development (DED) investigates complaints by clients that due payments had dried up.

Our managed forex accounts use short-term trends following methodologies to deliver exceptional profitability. Our specialised trading technology achieves average annual returns in excess of 100%with drawdown never exceeding 0.5% per transaction since inception in 2011. – Exential Group Advantage

If this sounds appealing and you have at least $20.000 – their minimum – to ‘invest’ with Exential Group, then you should read on before parting with your money. This company ticks off all the boxes of a classic managed accounts scam:

• it’s a faceless, nameless entity. Who is the owner ? Who are the traders, what credentials and experience do they have ? Who authorizes them to trade other people’s money ? No legitimate company would hide this kind of information
• the returns they supposedly achieve don’t resemble the distribution you’d normally expect from a trading account with 4 years history. For each month since January 2011 the  returns advertised vary between a low of +7% and a high of 11.4%. This easily makes the traders capable of achieving such lofty and consistent results the best in the world. Why haven’t we heard from them ? Why aren’t their names splashed on the front covers of magazines ? Because these are just numbers pulled out of thin air which couldn’t withstand any kind of scrutiny.
• third party verified results are in stark contrast to those advertised, with losses around ~50% in just a few days. The period covered is under one year, as opposed to the unverified four years of excellent results advertised.

• the strategy used, booking small profits and letting losing positions open in the hope they’ll come back is a recipe for disaster and a clear sign of their lack of expertise in trading
• they work with an unknown, opaque, offshore registered broker, FCI Markets, which raises doubts that the same persons are behind both these entities.

When presented with the above information, there are two things a person initially convinced by Exential Group’s advertising could do: 1. realize that it’s a scam and run in the opposite direction

2. say something like: ‘you can’t be right, I know or read of so and so who have been with them for some time and they made money’. This was the usual answer too when victims of Bernie Madoff were warned before his Ponzi scheme collapsed. It’s just the typical way a scam operates: some people have to make money in order to spread the word and allay fears of those who are a little bit more skeptic.

To conclude: don’t spend your money just because you like what you see and hear. Talk is cheap. Watch The Wolf of Wall Street movie if you need a reminder of that. Thoroughly check the facts before parting with your hard earned cash.