Hello,
I am entirely new to Forex trading and up to this very moment I have not made a single Forex trade. However, it has piqued my interest lately and I decided to spend some spare time writing some high frequency FIX over SSL code. I was hoping you guys could help me with a couple of questions I have. Forgive me if these questions sound entirely dumb. If they are more suitable on a different subreddit please let me know.
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1) Can I get a couple of resources (web-links/URLs) for historical currency pair data? What is the the best temporal granularity I can find in historical data? Seconds/milliseconds/nanoseconds?
2) Can I get recommendations for brokers that offer FIX trading? I found a somewhat popular platform with a $5000 minimum deposit but they do not permit registrations for US residents. Is this common? Any idea why? In addition, I came across a couple of VPS providers offering low latency connections to brokers often in the single digit milliseconds latency range. Are these guys legit? Anyone have any experience here?
3) In a low latency trading scenario, what is the typical duration for order execution? By this I mean the time period between placing a market order (FIX Tag 35=D) and getting a successful execution report(FIX Tag 35=8)? If this is a variable time period can you list the contributing factors? I have encountered some verbiage on broker sites warning that their demo accounts could offer more expedited order execution than real market accounts which might also have slippage(what is this?). I was hoping I could get actual numbers of typical expectations in a real market scenario under a variety of dependent conditions.
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Any answers I get would be every helpful and highly appreciated. Thanks!

Hiya, folks...! It's another wall of text from some random person who could be doing just about anything else except for this... Who's ready for some paragraphs from some stranger?
I know you'd rather be doing anything else, or maybe not haha.. But it does mean a lot if you do take the time to try to attempt to accurately type me... I will DEFINITELY NOT overthink it this time, and take your consideration FULLY to heart, and stop overthinking my MBTI type and live happily ever after! (Hahahahhaha...! ... ...)
...
Ok, let's begin!
​

• How old are you? What's your gender? Give us a general description of yourself.

I am a freshly 23 year old male that likes to do average Redditor bullcrap. Video games, memes, music, making my finger go up and down endlessly while staring at a glass LED screen with pixels on it while feeling like I've accomplished nothing. Just average stuff, I suppose. I'm not really that interesting tbh...
I work at home and I am just "vibing", as the kids say. I have some long term projects planned, but I'm at least trying to rest up from a really shitty 7 years that I've had back to back to back so... Nothing really insightful to write here haha..

• Is there a medical diagnosis that impact your mental/comportamental stability somehow?

Likely several... I had a very traumatic childhood that I constantly gaslight myself about like saying things like "it wasn't that bad, people have it worse" and much worse..
I disassociate from reality every 2.5 seconds, can't focus, have terrible insomnia, EXTREMELY low energy, mood swings, brain fog, random body pains 24/7, seventeen billion repressed emotions which don't help out anything else that I'm dealing with, memory problems, and I need caffeine to do the bare minimum of just about anything on most days, but some of that could be average American problems.
I've suspected I have some form as Aspergers, and probably A TON of mental illnesses, such as OCD, anxiety, depression, and maybe a personality disorder.

• Describe your upbringing. Did it have any kind of religious or structured influence? How did you respond to it?

My upbringing is a very mixed bag overall. I would not say I had a typically "tragic" childhood (there goes me gaslighting myself LOL) because people have DEFINITELY had it worse than me. But I can't sit here and pretend everything I went through was "normal". To attempt to sum it up, I basically was a "gifted" kid who got good grades throughout school and maintained my image of being this perfect kid, but meanwhile in the shadows, I was just slowly dying inside and suffering from a lot of imposter syndrome (amongst other things), which I'd definitely would say is warranted because I was NOT cut out for anything in school and it showed. I basically faked my way through school, got burnt out EARLY but got mega burnt out by senior year, and basically started college with no plan but somehow still managed to graduate (barely) and just kinda end up where I am now.
As far as a religious upbringing is concerned, I definitely was heavily influenced by religion, in kind of a negative way (?) Religion and I have a VERY weird relationship. On the one hand, I guess I love my religious friends, the lessons I learned from it, and a lot of what it says, but on the other hand I can not ever be a part of one mostly because of some of the dogmatic thinking and extremely toxic aspects to it that people use to justify hate and violence, and that's not really my type of thing. Also, I used to be really kinda "uppity" or arrogant about my religion, and now I DESPISE seeing the same type of "holier than thou" attitude projected. It kinda irks me on the inside.
Looking back, my response to it all was a major polarity shift from one extreme, to the other, and now where I'm at, I can look back at both sides and take the good from both. What do I mean by that? Welllllll... I mentioned earlier how I can't stand the "holier than thou" type, and for a while, that was DEFINITELY me. I was REALLY into it and took it extremely serious. I wouldn't mind being called "lame" or "whack" for having my faith, but looking back, it really made my quality of life kinda worse because I did have those strong beliefs and those off-putting characteristics that ostracized me from my peers and some potentially great experiences. I grew out of this and then became an EXTREME atheist, and for a while, it felt freeing. I felt better, smarter, edgier, and just superior, but looking back, I was just cynical and a total asshole, and arguably worse than the "holier than thou douche persona" that I had growing up. Luckily, my extreme atheism phase kinda fizzled out after some other trauma that happened around the time I became an atheist, and now, I can respect religion and be open to it, the ideas, and the amazing things that come from it while also maintaining my independent thinking but not to the point of being "hur dur be skeptical and point out everything wrong with religion all the time and be an asshole for no reason to religious people", if that makes any sense.
As far as my relationship to the structure in my life.. It's kind of a mixed bag. I had a pretty suffocated childhood, and I wasn't allowed certain things, but I guess it wasn't really all that bad in the end, or at least as it could've been. Most of this was just protection from a single parent who just didn't want anything to me and wanted me to be the best I could be in life, and I can respect this and look back on some parts of my structured childhood with fondness. But I most certainly got sick of it all by the time I was almost finished with highschool and in a lot of my college career. I basically used to be Mr. Structured. I had everything organized, I was neat, clean, got everything done at the right time, all the good stuff. But my brain just got tired of maintaining that forever, because I was already pretty much bad at life, but I was forced to just continue faking everything until something happened. So, by the end of high school, I lost all of those characteristics and became extremely sloppy. But I really do blame that on being physically tired. Being as organized as I was was TAXING because of how I overdid it. And now, thinking back, a lot of my structuredness was just on the surface level, and it was me trying to live up to everyone's standards and be just on top of everything, all the time, at a VERY unhealthy level, and that's probably what burnt me out too. I was addicted to the image of being this extremely put together person who has their shit together, while not having absolutely any shit to get together because I was withering away inside faster than fresh cotton candy from the fair melts in your mouth when your mouth is dry.
So, basically to sum it all up, I was a really clean cut religious smart "gifted" kid who wasn't really that, at all (AND I still don't know who I am now tbh haha) and I got tired of putting on that image all the time and turned to a dirty neckbeard atheist cynic for a short time, and then balanced out to whatever the fuck I am now because I wear 238234 different masks for each and every occasion, but THAT'S a different story haha.. I look back at both equally cringey and horrible chapters of my life with some scorn for myself and the times, but overall a much more understand a balanced perspective, because I had to go through it all to be me, and I'm just glad I can be here now. I'd say I definitely liked moments from those chapters, but overall, I'm much happier where I'm at now, which is not nearly as anally obsessive at the concept of being structured and not nearly as hyper-faithful to my religion or just a total asshole piece of shit atheist.

• What do you do as a job or as a career (if you have one)? Do you like it? Why or why not?

Right now, I'm sorta half employed. I do trade a bit on the Forex markets from signals groups and make enough to help out my family, and buy myself things here and there. I'm only really doing this because I went through a really shitty 7 years and I just need time to myself to kind of figure out, A LOT (clearly, as you can see by reading this HORRIBLE reddit post LOL) and rest. I just like the amount of freedom I have, and the money. I really like the idea of me having money saved and ready for any emergency, or family member or friend. I just need money to help out, stay safe, and to have time for myself to rest and take care of my health, or just pursue all the hobbies I missed out on, and I'm totally fine doing this the rest of my life. I don't really need or want that much in life, and I've always kind of been like this. I just want things to be peaceful and simple, so that my mind can be at ease and to just have free time for myself and a solution for any random chaotic emergency that happens because my mind always thinks of the worst that can happen by catastrophizing literally everything ever in the world. So my "career" is just a means to an end, like I'm sure a lot of people's careers are, unless you happen to have a passion or something, which is also amazing.
I do like writing, and I do wanna finish my book. I daydream a lot about it, and sometimes that's much more fun than actually writing it, but I do wanna finish it, but I also want it to be absolutely perfect and plothole free, and much more. I also wanna do YouTube and Twitch, but I feel like I have a lot to do as a person before I can freely be on those sites as a full person/"influencer" (I have so many mixed feelings about having a full time career as an influencer and having my life under that much pressure and scrutiny, BUTTTTT that's a different discussion...), so I might pursue those slowly or just freestyle it for fun. Those were my big dreams as a kid, but growing up, I see that writing a good book is damned hard (worth it, but hard) and being a Youtubesocial media star is a different world entirely, and I don't know how I feel about it. Like, I know I'd never be a Shane Dawson (YIKES) or Cryaotic (EWWWWW) but to even just disappoint one person, or have any sort of fuckup, or.. I don't know where I'm going with this... Basically, everything I suffer from now would only be amplified by having a YouTube career, my people pleasing tendencies, my over obsession with being perfect for others/myself, my workaholic tendencies, my being hard on myself, my fear of fucking anything up, and my imposter syndrome, those would all go BRRRRRR if I got any decent success on YouTube, so... *Phew*
That's my weird relationship with my life, and where I wanna go with it. To be honest, I'd be happy where I'm at right now, because at the end of the day, as long as I'm healthy and my family is happy, I'm ok, but a part of me also wants to live out those big dreams like having my book be a thing and animated, and being a good YouTuber, meme maker, Twitch streamer, all the above at the same time but my insecurities are like "BWAHAHAHAHA", so I'm just like: -_- But I'll figure it out! Hopefully..

• If you had to spend an entire weekend by yourself, how would you feel? Would you feel lonely or refreshed?

Hm... Interesting question. Honestly, I'd never feel lonely on weekends by myself. Even when my friends are doing better things or aren't around, I don't really feel lonely I guess. Most of the time I have weekends alone, I feel pretty refreshed I suppose. It's kinda hard to tell haha.. This feels more like a circumstantial question where a myriad of things that are going on during the hypothetical week or just in my life/mind would determine this answer. Sometimes I just need that weekend to recharge and be alone and in my thoughts, or watching Netflix or being an absolute video game degenerate while dancing alone in my room and eating junk food. And sometimes, I like to be out and about with my friends, or just doing stuff. I probably lean more towards refreshed though, overall in a general sense.

• What is your relation with movement and your surroundings? For instance do you prefer a sport or outdoors event? If an outdoors event what is it? And why? If not what type of activities do you tend to engage in?

BIG YIKES. I feel like a non human that doesn't belong on this planet or universe 99% of the time. I'm VERY slow, awkward movements, jittery, sometimes it looks like I was born yesterday with my grasp on physical reality, but yet, I do interestingly enough find myself loving to sweat and workout. I don't really have the coordination for any type of real sport, but I do like walks and I would run if I lived in an area where I could have a private or peaceful run where I would not be interrupted or seen by anyone because I look HIDEOUS running. I won't say I could never get into running at a professional or serious level, like with a group, but I'd just say it's more unlikely, for now. It sounds really exciting and interesting to be good at something physical, and I have always admired people who could do really sick stuff in sports, and I've always wanted to do it. But, right now, my uncoordinated ass will stick to just riding my exercise bike occasionally to burn off some restlessness and help me sleep betteperform better because working out makes my brain feel oddly stable lol. (I guess that's why I have such a fascination with physical stuff even though I am absolutely hopeless in most of it in the grand scheme of things)

• How curious are you? Do you have more ideas then you can execute? What are your curiosities about? What are your ideas about - is it environmental or conceptual, and can you please elaborate?

I don't know if I'd say I'm curious, I guess I just think a lot. Like, I'll see something or watch something and daydream about it all the time, making new ideas out of it in my head or creating something new with it, trying to take it a new level or understand it at a different level, if that makes sense. Like, I'll sort of mentally digest something and that's what gives me inspiration, or ideas. I take in everything as I go and make up new shit with it later on (LOL this sounds like regular human being talk, because everyone does this).
I would say I have a lot of ideas on everything. I daydream about random chapters in my book a lot, like full on scenes. I'll daydream about a new melody for a song I've never heard with lyrics, and I'll try to make lyrics in my head and extend the melody. I'll daydream about my interactions in life, and just how I could have responded differently, or maybe what the other person is thinking, or feeling, or stuff like I wonder if they're okay. I'll daydream about new memes I can make, or me in an interview (OMG MEGA CRINGE ROFL). I pretty much daydream about... Everything. And then I'll daydream about what I'm daydreaming about, and why I'm doing it, and it gets too meta at that point. (this could very well just be maladaptive daydreaming and NOT indicative of any cognitive function ROFL)

• Would you enjoy taking on a leadership position? Do you think you would be good at it? What would your leadership style be?

Nope, nuh uh. I am too much of a people pleaser and pushover. I'd be dead or betrayed before my first week is over. The thing about me is that generally, I feel like I'd be a terrible leader because I can overthink a lot, all the time, and I'd be slow to action and prone to analysis paralysis and extreme people pleasing tendencies. I can also be conflict avoidant, and just want people to be happy, so I'd let a lot of stuff slide that I maybe should not. Now, don't get me wrong, I can be firm and tough when needed, but eventually that'd be too much for me to bear, and I couldn't be in a position like that for long. I genuinely hope I never become a leader, because even when I'm looking back to five minutes ago, I can say that "ew, that's cringe bro", so I clearly have a lot of work to do before I have something that serious on my plate.

• Are you coordinated? Why do you feel as if you are or are not? Do you enjoy working with your hands in some form? Describe your activity?

HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHA. Funny question. But.. Yeahhhhhhh... No. I am NOT coordinated. I can barely walk in my kitchen without the fear of me accidentally turning wrong or moving incorrectly and just breaking something or knocking over everything in the kitchen. SOMETIMES I'm in James Bond mode, and it feels like I can do anything physical, and I feel aware of everything, my body, my surroundings, and I can actually move like a human being, but that usually doesn't last long. I can do just the bare minimum that an average human can do, but MUCH MUCH worse and at a greater cost of my energy, and my mental energy trying not to fuck anything up because I have literally just been sitting at times and barely move and knock over EVERYTHING somehow, because that's just how much my body was not meant to be on planet earth and I maybe should have been incarnated as a slug, idk.

• Are you artistic? If yes, describe your art? If you are not particular artistic but can appreciate art please likewise describe what forums of art you enjoy. Please explain your answer.

I'd describe myself as artistic, even if I haven't drawn in years LOL. But let me explain... I do still have a love for it, I just haven't really been able to practice. In general, my art is just aiming for whatever is in my brain, and I don't have a solid style. I'm just going for whatever I'm going for in the moment. I prefer a mix of realism with some "quirks", if that makes sense. While I haven't drawn in a while, this is how I'd imagine I'd want my art to look nowadays. Pretty realistic with perfect everything, perfect features, perfect environment or whatever I'm illustrating or going for (perfect features on a person, all the hair strands drawn individually, etc), with a mix of my own little "spice", if that makes sense. Back in the day, my art was just trying to copy classic anime, and while I have no problem with that style, I just wanna kinda make my own style, even if that is hard to verbalize lmao.
Alright guys.. I would write more, but I'm sleepy and some of this is getting dumb/boring (as if it wasn't already LOL). I'm glad you made it this far, and thank you for reading and putting up with this actual garbage fire of a post. Please take care of yourselves during these crazy weird times, and I hope you are doing well. I look forward to reading you guys responses (if I get any LOL).
Stay amazing, and stay healthy :3

A Forex trader's success is often directly related to the Forex broker he/she chooses to conduct business with. If a trader chooses a broker who is unwise, unethical, and/or a combination of both, the trader could lose a substantial amount of money in the Forex market.
It can be very difficult to determine which Forex brokers are reputable until a trader has traded real money with them. However, by this time the trader may have lost the money that he/she has invested. Forex Brokers Reviews
Fortunately, there are online sites that provide informative Forex broker reviews to aid you in choosing the right firm for your trading needs. These sites have extensively tested the brokers' Forex platforms and trading conditions using real-money accounts and making real trades. This means that you don't have to invest your own money to determine whether a Forex broker is reputable and effective at handling your trades on the market.
Some of the criteria that such sites use in their reviews include the safety of a trader's deposits and the honesty of the broker. The trader can conduct his/her own online research about a specific trader via online forums, ask direct questions to the firm, and seek information from the proper authorities. One of the essential things the trader must learn about the broker is whether the firm is regulated by government authorities. Another is whether the firm uses state-of-the-art measures to ensure that the trader's personal information and account details will remain safe from unauthorized access. Sites that provide Forex broker reviews can quickly give you this vital information. forex broker review
A trader should also determine the spreads and commissions that the broker will receive when executing trades on the Forex market. The lower the level of commission the better it is for you. Any commissions over 3-pips in EURUSD trades should necessitate you finding another broker. There are quality firms that only charge 1-pip for EURUSD trades. It's important for you to find out the spreads and commissions that are charged by the brokers before deciding to employ them for your Forex trades. These are usually explained on the firm's website.
A trader should look for a broker that only requires a small initial deposit. At the same time, however, the trader should also consider leverage and minimum lot size as well. The trader should also choose a firm that provides many ways to fund his/her deposit, including wire transfers, credit cards, and PayPal transfers. Sites that provide Forex broker reviews will usually list the ways in which you can fund your accounts. Top Rated Forex Brokers
The trader should also find the right Forex trading platform to execute his/her trades. The platform should provide a comfortable and familiar interface to the trader and should also provide plenty of customizations options. The best way to find the right platform for you is to take it for a spin via a demo account, which most reputable brokerage firms now offer.
Visit Here - Most Trusted forex brokers

After a few...especially trying...interactions with unhappy ban recipients today, I thought it would be fun to share a little info on what moderators do to keep this place clean. :)
The forex industry is full of shady characters. Any industry sitting on the intersection of financial independence, work, and money, is bound to attract them. There are many reasons for this; the lower barrier to entry compared to other markets, the lack of public knowledge on the subject, and greedy human nature to name a few.
Moderating a subreddit dedicated to forex (or anything trading realted for that matter,) presents extra challenges beyond your regular sub. Marketers and scammers are super motivated, and MLM / referral marketing is extremely popular right now, which can turn everyday regular users into sources of spam.
How we currently tackle this problem involves technology (scripts, bots, and automod,) a mod review workflow, and some smart sleuthing when needed.
The mod team and our scripts aren't perfect though... but the few false positives we get are a very, very small fraction of all mod actions taken (~1%.) Unfortunately, that means some otherwise sincere members get handled roughly, and that can really suck.. I wish there was a better way, but the alternative is this place becomes a wild west and starts looking like your gmail spam folder.
That said, here's my personal stats for JUST the last 24 hours:

• Bans: 14 [edit: 16 now before day's end, two more responding to a 'where can I learn how to trade' post.]
• All mod actions (including bans, post and comment removal, etc..): 63
• Ban appeals: 2

And I'm just one of the mods. . .
So what scammer and marketing trends are we seeing lately?

• Content marketing - Infographics with instagram handles watermarked in them, or a blog-like post with a embedded links to their own site.
• Personal/direct selling - trying to move the conversation out of public view, usually by taking things to DM, or promoting a 3rd party chatroom where the rules here no longer apply.
• Shills - Fake accounts used to boost the credit of another user, or service. It's no coincidence that a user asking about 'ULRA PRO SIGNALZ' will quickly have 5+ replies by low karma, new users, saying how great the service is. [edit: here's an example I just caught..]
• Fake P/L Porn - We see this quite often. It's easy to fake MT4 account statements and MT4 Mobile screenshots, and new users can't tell the difference so these posts will get a lot of undeserved attention. When people ask how OP made such mad cash, a sales pitch is usually coming right up.

Honestly, it can be really frustrating at times.. luckily the scripts we have in place make weeding out ~80% of these jokers quite easy and quick. Heck, we had one scammer who blew through 12+ accounts over the last few days trying to scam people but none of their posts ever saw the light of day thanks to the spam triggers I've written.
What motivates the mod team to keep this place clean? That's an easy answer: The majority of users here are new to trading. Making sure they aren't food for the wolves is important.
But even with all the measures we take, some bad actors still get through.
So here's where you can help: Use the report button! Anytime you see something that you think fits the descriptions listed above, or violates our sidebar rules, just report it. Even if you're not 100% sure, don't be afraid to use the report tool.. The worst thing that can happen is the mod team reviews and approves it, but the best outcome is you directly help keep this place clean and humming! :)
And the mod team is always looking to improve where it can: I've already talked about what we do to scrub away bad actors, but one place we could do better is education. The plan is to rewrite a good portion of the wiki to include the following sections:

• Spotting scams and scammers
• How to properly compare brokers and regulatory bodies
• The real reason why your old high school friend wants you to sign up to IML, and 10 ways to politely tell him to pound sand
• No, that hot instagram model won't sleep with you if you buy her online course
• Why all signal services are trash and can die in a fire

(Titles above are a work in progress ;P)
Are you a good writer and want to help out with this? Think you can write up a killer wiki article on spotting scam artists? Message the mods and let us know!
Finally, a reminder, we are still interested in taking on more moderators and will be revisiting that very shortly. If you'd be interested, read through this post and reply accordingly: https://www.reddit.com/Forex/comments/h7ok6k/seeking_more_mods_recruitment_thread/

A friend of mine was contacted via Linkedin by a member of PROCRYPTOFX!!!!!!! I decided to investigate a bit and... Well, this happened.
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Welcome to our site, if you need help simply reply to this message, we are online and ready to help.
hey there, I would like to know a bit more about the company
It seems this tool is not working as intended
is it?
Hello
Your name please
why do you need my name though?
no offense, but I find you asking for my name straight away a bit weird
I am not registered in your website yet
We need to know who we chatting with
isn't a potential customer enough for you?
You welcome
So how can we be of help to you please
so I've seen you've been running since 2013 but I've never heard of you before
and I've seen you're registered in the UK
is that correct?
Yes that's correct
do you offer both cryptocurrency trading and forex trading?
Yes
any guarantee on my funds?
if I ever deposit?
Sure
We have an Auxiliary trading decoder we connect to our clients trading account
what does Auxiliary trading decoder mean?
It's a software used in trading
how does that software protect me in case the platform goes bankrupt?
I am asking since I read a lot about exit scams
That software prevent your account from losing trade
kind of a stop loss?
I am not talking about that kind of protection here
Yes
I am asking about the company liability
I mean
I understand
And your funds is 100% safe and guaranteed
Okay
I expected a more detailed answer here, no offense
I have provided you the answers you need
What other questions did you ask please?
as a customer worried about how the funds are guaranteed, this answer makes it look like you deliberately don't want to go into detail on the matter
again no offense, it is a big red flag to me
don't you think so?
We are the trading company and you don't expect us to give you our secrets of how we make our profit
I have never asked for that, and it's obvious how trading companies make profit
All you need to be worried about is your profit
I am asking which authority guarantees my funds
it's not that much of a deal, is it?
additionally, the question is answered in your regulation tab, something that you should be aware of to begin with
It's our duty to always protect our clients and their profit
Okay
your duty should be to provide customers with accurate information, and in this case the information I asked for is disclosed in your own website (red flag n2)
now my follow up question, if you don't mind
the FCA (yes, the answer I was looking for) is an UK authority, and I am an European citizen
how would Brexit affect my protection?
I am a bit worried since you are registered in the UK, and you state "As an investment firm authorised by a regulator of an EU Member State, Procryptofx Limited is allowed to offer its services on a cross border basis to the EU Member States that permit the provision of our services in their jurisdictions and we are duly registered with their respective competent authorities"
if I am not mistaken, no deal has been reached yet between the UK and the EU on the matter
could you guarantee the safety of my funds in the event of a hard Brexit?
hello?
are you there sir?
Yes
Your funds is safe
Talking about the UK and the EU
If they have any issues that does not mean it would affect your funds in the company
Okay
I see you are skeptical about this
skeptical? don't you thing these concerns are legit?
ok, I'm taking your word
one last question if you don't mind
are you actively recruiting?
I might have been contacted via Linkedin by a supposed procryptofx recruiter
What's the name of the person who referred you to us?
hold the line pls
Am waiting
Are you there
yes sir
trying to get the conversation
it looks like it vanished
just gimme a minute
she was a woman speaking on behalf of your company
but I am trying to get the name
Am waiting
thanks for your patience
We are always here to give you the best
her name is XXXXXXX
I see
She's one of our account manager
I see
thanks for letting me know
no more questions from my side
You welcome
So when do you intend to get started with us?
I'll create an account on the weekend!

Creating a blog couldn’t be easier and yet more complicated in 2020.
There are so many different things to think about, and yet so many different platforms you can use to streamline the process.
Understandably you’ll already have an idea of what you want to write about, I, unfortunately, can’t help you with that, but what I can do is show you how you can set up a killer blog that will drive readers to your website.
We’ll take you through what you’ll need to get started, our five steps to setting your blog up, the best blogging platforms to use, how to get your blog discovered, and the do’s and don’ts of blogging.
But first, we need to establish what type of blog you want to set up.

What type of blog?

Firstly you’ll want to have a goal in mind. What are you aiming to achieve through your blog?
Do you want to pull in more users to your sales pages by writing about your brand, to increase its publicity?
Do you want to build a blog that promotes brands and products from other companies?
Or do you just want to set up a blog documenting your travels around the world?
In order to pick the right software for you, you’ll want to have a grasp before you start of how big this blog is going to be, whether you’re going to monetize it, and what type of blog it’s going to become.
For example, if you’re planning on building an affiliate blogging programme, where you promote other brand’s products and call readers to action to but the products, you’ll be writing a lot of content and will benefit from having a more comprehensive blogging system with lots of plugins to promote sales.
But if you’re looking to just set up a personal, or a personal brand blog talking about yourself and your brand, you may not perhaps need as many comprehensive features as you would if you were building an affiliate blog.
You may also want to build an online portfolio of your work, which could require an entirely different piece of blogging kit, as opposed to the traditional blog that hosts articles and journals.

What you’ll need to get started.

There are 3 key things you’ll need to get up and running.

1. A blogging platform.

After you’ve identified the type of blog you want to set up, plus whether you’re going to make money from it, you’ll then need to pick a blogging platform tailored to your needs. Many people chose to operate on WordPress as it is one of the most comprehensive blogging systems going, but they forget platforms like Wix and Squarespace that are great for both helping you save and make money and are great options for those who are less tech-savvy and are new to the blogging game. Plus if you’re blogging for business, you might want to think about using LinkedIn for your business blog.
We’ll go into more detail on what blogging platforms are best for your needs shortly, but make sure to keep in mind your objectives and technical experience when choosing the right platform for you.

1. A hosting platform.

Every website needs a web host to store their website’s information on the internet. A web host is an online service provider that will store your website’s information on one of its online servers. This will put your blog out there to the world. The best web hosts will perform a variety of functions for you, for example, Wix is an all-in-one package that will host your website for you, allow you to register a domain name, and has easy to use website design tools to help you start your blog.
Web hosting can be expensive though so make sure you pick the best value for money host that can cater to the amount of traffic you have running through your website. Check out our post on the 11 best hosting providers. [Insert blog link here]

1. A domain name.

I’m sure by now you already know what sort of blog you want to set up, whether that’s a travel, blog, a blog accompanying your online store, or perhaps an affiliate marketing product review blog. You’ll have a niche and an idea and now all you need is a name. Every website online has what’s called a domain name. It’s included in the website address at the top of your search bar, for example, our domain name is www.digitalsupermarket.com.
You’ll need to register a domain name after you purchase a hosting plan, to enable customers to find your site quickly and easily. One good tip is to find a hosting platform like Bluehost or GoDaddy that will provide you with a free domain name when you register for one of their web hosting plans as domain registration can be fairly pricey. Pick a great domain name that is easy for customers to read and type into Google so they can find it easier online.
TOP TIP: To increase your blog’s search engine ranking, and to help more people find you on Google, try to pick a domain name that has either a .com or .co.uk ending. These domains often rank a lot higher in Google searches than .org’s, .net’s, and .info’s, and for that reason can be slightly more expensive, yet can help boost your site’s reach and credibility.

The Best Blogging Platforms For You.

There are a wealth of platforms out there catering to all your blogging or online portfolio needs. We have listed some of the main ones below shedding some light on what needs they service and why they might be a great option for you.

WordPress - The best software to give you full customisation.

WordPress is perhaps one of the most renowned blogging platforms in the world, running approximately 35% of the internet. It’s favoured highly by professional bloggers because it gives you total freedom to do whatever you want with your blog. WordPress can help you build your blog using one if its search engine optimised themes, you can customise using its drag and drop website builder tool to create a stunning blog.
What’s more, is you’ll be able to use its professional blogging service to post your content online and take advantage of the hundreds of third party app plugins, you can integrate into your blog, to improve automation, add new features, and drive traffic to your site. The only downside of WordPress is that it can be quite technical and can take some time getting used to, but once you’ve got the hang of things, you’ll have great control over everything on your webpage.
Pros:
Cons:

• Full customisation
• Domain name registration
• Fully scalable
• Tons of third-party plugins and apps
• Technical and can take some getting used to
• Not the best if you’re not tech-savvy or are just starting out.

Wix - Best for monetizing your site.

Wix is probably the most streamlined and easiest blog providers. It’s so simple and easy to use, it’s therefore great for anyone just starting out in the blogging world. You can customise one of its stunning templates with Wix’s drag and drop editor, and then upload blog posts to your site by slotting in pictures, gifs, social media buttons, sidebars, and other widgets that will help your blog stand out.
One of the coolest features about Wix is its marketplace integration, where you can install a whole variety of third-party applications to your blog to provide your users with greater features and usability. Wix is the perfect all-in-one blogging solution to help you easily build a platform to amplify your business to the world, helping you to make more money, but it can also save you a lot of money as it’s cost-efficient plans roll up, web hosting, blog posting, and domain registration all into one product!
Check out our Wix review and our comparison of Wix and Squarespace for a deep dive into Wix’s main blogging features. [Insert link here]
Pros:
Cons:

• Streamlined and easy to use blogging software
• Includes as a package, web building tools, domain registration, and web hosting
• Tons of third-party plugins and apps on the Wix marketplace
• Great platform to help make money and save money on its reasonably priced subscription plans
• Don’t get the same full control as you see with WordPress
• Locked into using Wix’s templates.

Squarespace - Best for creating visually stunning blogs.

Squarespace is very similar to Wix, in that it is an all-in-one web building and blogging platform that can help you build a blog you can monetize efficiently. It sets itself aside though through its better design and customisation features, making it one of the best platforms on the marketing if you’re looking to design a visually aesthetic blog. I’d recommend using this platform if you are a business operating in some sort of design, arts, or culinary industry.
Although it offers minimal template options, Squarespace’s templates are works of art and offer you great customization when building your blog. Plus Squarespace offers a great blogging tool that lets you schedule posts and customize your blog to suit more mobile audiences.
Pros:
Cons:

• Streamlined and easy to use blogging software
• Can build a visually stunning blog on Squarespace with its streamlined tools
• Excellent blogging features
• All-in-one web host, domain registrar, and web builder
• Can’t add third-party applications on Squarespace

LinkedIn - Best for blogging businesses.

Aside from setting up a blog on your own site, corporate entities can use LinkedIn to enhance and amplify their presence online. LinkedIn has more than 575 million users, most of whom are professionals and members of corporate conglomerates, and you can use this social platform to target some of the most influential people in the world.
If you’re blogging about business this is the perfect platform to use a pre-existing community of people to enhance your social standing. You’ll then be able to build connections and followers on your profile who can easily share your blog on their platform through a couple of simple clicks.
Pros:
Cons:

• Utilise LinkedIn’s pre-existing community of business people to amplify your brand
• Target corporate directors and influential people directly through LinkedIn
• Check out what people are looking at on LinkedIn and tailor your content to that market
• Again you are confined within what LinkedIn’s platform will let you do, it’s not your site and you don’t have full customisation

Instagram - Best for the Artists.

Instagram is one of the biggest blogging sites in the world and without realising it, we are all technically bloggers in some way with our Instagram accounts, right? Ultimately for professional use, it is great for building a portfolio that has some form of visual or graphic eye-catching media around it. Instagram lets you post videos, photos, boomerangs, even write a blog in the photo’s caption if you wanted to!
Best of all, Instagram is free, and you can use its business software to link up your online store, to drag users away from your profile, using its product tagging features, and land them in your online checkouts. Our top tip for using Instagram is to post regularly and keep on the theme of your blog. Don’t go off-piste as you’re followers will catch on quickly and unfollow you. And with 1 billion people using the platform each day, it is a great way to gain people’s attention and build your brand’s presence online.
Pros:
Cons:

• Best for the creatives.
• Totally free and easy to use interface.
• Access to a pre-existing community of people.
• Online selling capabilities.
• Again you are confined within what Instagram’s platform will let you do, it’s not your site and you don’t have full customisation

The Do’s And Don’ts Of Blogging

Here are a couple of top tips to bear in mind when building your blog to help you create an awesome, lead driven platform.

The Don’ts

Don’t use complicated language too soon.

With that in mind, do include language that your target audience will understand. But remember they are still here to learn, so don’t drop people in at the deep end right away by using complex jargon off the bat. Define terms and spell it out in layman’s terms for people at the outset, and as the post goes on, then introduce more complex writing. Introducing technical jargon at the start of your posts is an instant turn off for most readers.

Don’t waffle - Keep it succinct.

People want to get to the punchline now. 43% of people admit to skimming through blogs to get to the information they need, meaning to get your blogging site converting leads, you need to engage the reader early on and offer information succinctly throughout your post.
Plus don’t make your blog too long. Depending on what you’re writing, a lot of people will see large volumes of text and will switch off immediately. There is no set limit for what a good and bad amount of text is, that’s something you’ll have to figure out per your industry, but from my experience, the shorter, the better.

Don’t make headlines too long.

Also ensure that your headline is not more than 60 characters long. If it gets too long it won’t rank well in search engines and people just won’t want to read it. Check out this headline analysis tool which will analyse the effectiveness of your proposed headlines.

Don’t plagiarise or use credited images.

Copying other people’s work is lazy and can land you in a lot of hot water in extreme cases if you breach a copyright regulation. But it’s also just unfair on the person who has worked hard or been creative to write that work. The same goes for images, people need to make a living from the content and photos they’re taking so don’t steal that off them.

The Do’s

Do write killer headlines.

People are like goldfish. You only have about 3 seconds to get their attention. That’s why it is important to write catchy, funny, and enticing headlines to draw your reader in. One good way to do it is to use the “How To” and “10 Best” strategies. These sorts of titles telling people ‘How to set up a blog’ or ‘the ten best web hosting platforms’ are search engine optimised, lead winning titles that rank highly in Google searches. Try them out and see!

Do post regularly.

The key to creating a great blog that builds leads is posting regularly. Although it is not the best idea to post regularly. Ideally, you want to post 3-4 times a week to get the best influx of traffic to your site. You’ll also want to check out when’s best to post for your target audience, for example, if you’re in the FOREX market, you’ll want to post your blogs perhaps at 8 AM, before the markets open when city workers are on their staring at their phones on their morning commuter trains to the city.

Do share on social media.

Share your content far and wide on your social platforms. Everyone is on social media these days and its outreach is simply phenomenal. That’s why you should always share your posts to your social channels to get greater traffic on your website, and include share buttons all-around your blog to invite your readers to share your articles too!

Do use SEO keywords to drive more traffic.

In a nutshell, SEO keywords are the phrases people put into search engines when they are looking for information on a certain subject. They are how you get found on your website. Depending on what you are writing about, there is always a set of keywords relating to that topic that you can implement, to help you show up higher in people’s google searches. For example, people might regularly search in google, ‘what is the best compost for growing sunflowers?’ When you come to writing about growing sunflowers in your blog, you might want to use these words or incorporate this question into your blog somewhere, to help you rank higher on Google.

Do use call’s to action to take your readers to the next step.

If you don’t challenge your reader at the end of your blog to follow you on Instagram, or check out your sales pages, you’ll never get the leads or sales you are looking for. With that in mind, build compelling calls to action at the end of each of your posts, to pull readers into taking the next step. Check out our post on landing pages to see a couple of cool ways on how to implement calls to action on your site [insert link here].

Do identify a target audience.

People will often tell you to write as though you were in the shoes of the person you’re looking to bring to your website, but it’s true! Identify what type of people you’re writing to, for instance, if you’re writing a business blog about FOREX trading, you’ll write with potential traders in mind who have one eye on the stock market and the other on your blog. Or if you’re a wedding florist, you’ll set your portfolio up to target those people looking to get married in the next year.

Leads, Sales, Results.

Blogging is one of the most influential marketing strategies in the world and the best bloggers can reap some awesome rewards for producing some truly awesome content.
It is fairly straightforward to get started and we advise if you’re a small business, or someone with minimal blogging experience, to try out Wix or Squarespace first before you jump into using more technical platforms like WordPress. Once you’re up and running remember our top tips on what to do and what to avoid when writing your blog. Plus don’t forget to think about optimising and adding useful applications to your site to help you build and grow your content. Check out these 39 awesome blogging tools you can use to drive greater traffic to your site!
Found this article useful? Make sure you share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter and let us know in the comments if you have any other useful blogging tips.

Secured Trade Investment: The latest recovery scam

For those who were the victims of online trading scams it is as one scam victim said to me, “living in never-ending nightmare”. Many do not know where to turn. For those who seek help, there is another sinister scam that has reared its ugly head: Recovery scams. Preying on those who were victimized, they actively solicit their fraudulent services, often with a guarantee that they can recover the lost funds. One company, in particular, is Secured Trade Investment.

It never ends

This “recovery” firm is the latest scam to further add a black mark on the online trading industry. They convince individuals that have been scammed by binary options brokers in particular that they can recover their stolen funds. However, in reality, that is just a ruse. Almost always, they demand a heavy upfront fee and do nothing, which means a second loss for the victim.
Made-up team members and fictitious testimonials are the most misleading elements found on the site. Supposedly Owen Beamont is the CEO and Mathew Macleod is the Assistant Manager of Secured Trade Investment but research has shown that both of these individuals do not exist. These two invented identities are nothing more than images generated from an online image bank.
When viewing the contact information on the website we are given two separate addresses, the first being 7 Triton Square, Regent’s Place, London NW1 3HG UK. Unsurprisingly, when this address is entered into a Google search query the company that matches this address is not Secured Trade Investment. Additionally, the second address, 1270 E Broadway Rd, Tempe, AZ 85282 is associated with a different business
What is most disturbing about Secured Trade Investment is that they seem to be directly conspiring with the very same fraudulent forex and binary options brokers. Numerous individuals have told us that Secured Trade Investment had their information before they submitted their claim.

Take action today

If you are the victim of an HBC Broker scam be sure to send your complaint to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), and we will do our very best to get into contact with you as soon as we can to initiate your funds recovery process.

The majority of this sub is focused on technical analysis. I regularly ridicule such "tea leaf readers" and advocate for trading based on fundamentals and economic news instead, so I figured I should take the time to write up something on how exactly you can trade economic news releases.
This post is long as balls so I won't be upset if you get bored and go back to your drooping dick patterns or whatever.

How economic news is released

First, it helps to know how economic news is compiled and released. Let's take Initial Jobless Claims, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits around the United States from Sunday through Saturday. Initial in this context means the first claim for benefits made by an individual during a particular stretch of unemployment. The Initial Jobless Claims figure appears in the Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report, which compiles information from all of the per-state departments that report to the DOL during the week. A typical number is between 100k and 250k and it can vary quite significantly week-to-week.
The Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report contains data that lags 5 days behind. For example, the Report issued on Thursday March 26th 2020 contained data about the week ending on Saturday March 21st 2020.
In the days leading up to the Report, financial companies will survey economists and run complicated mathematical models to forecast the upcoming Initial Jobless Claims figure. The results of surveyed experts is called the "consensus"; specific companies, experts, and websites will also provide their own forecasts. Different companies will release different consensuses. Usually they are pretty close (within 2-3k), but for last week's record-high Initial Jobless Claims the reported consensuses varied by up to 1M! In other words, there was essentially no consensus.
The Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report is released each Thursday morning at exactly 8:30 AM ET. (On Thanksgiving the Report is released on Wednesday instead.) Media representatives gather at the Frances Perkins Building in Washington DC and are admitted to the "lockup" at 8:00 AM ET. In order to be admitted to the lockup you have to be a credentialed member of a media organization that has signed the DOL lockup agreement. The lockup room is small so there is a limited number of spots.
No phones are allowed. Reporters bring their laptops and connect to a local network; there is a master switch on the wall that prevents/enables Internet connectivity on this network. Once the doors are closed the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report is distributed, with a heading that announces it is "embargoed" (not to be released) prior to 8:30 AM. Reporters type up their analyses of the report, including extracting key figures like Initial Jobless Claims. They load their write-ups into their companies' software, which prepares to send it out as soon as Internet is enabled. At 8:30 AM the DOL representative in the room flips the wall switch and all of the laptops are connected to the Internet, releasing their write-ups to their companies and on to their companies' partners.
Many of those media companies have externally accessible APIs for distributing news. Media aggregators and squawk services (like RanSquawk and TradeTheNews) subscribe to all of these different APIs and then redistribute the key economic figures from the Report to their own subscribers within one second after Internet is enabled in the DOL lockup.
Some squawk services are text-based while others are audio-based. FinancialJuice.com provides a free audio squawk service; internally they have a paid subscription to a professional squawk service and they simply read out the latest headlines to their own listeners, subsidized by ads on the site. I've been using it for 4 months now and have been pretty happy. It usually lags behind the official release times by 1-2 seconds and occasionally they verbally flub the numbers or stutter and have to repeat, but you can't beat the price!
Important - I’m not affiliated with FinancialJuice and I’m not advocating that you use them over any other squawk. If you use them and they misspeak a number and you lose all your money don’t blame me. If anybody has any other free alternatives please share them!

How the news affects forex markets

Institutional forex traders subscribe to these squawk services and use custom software to consume the emerging data programmatically and then automatically initiate trades based on the perceived change to the fundamentals that the figures represent.
It's important to note that every institution will have "priced in" their own forecasted figures well in advance of an actual news release. Forecasts and consensuses all come out at different times in the days leading up to a news release, so by the time the news drops everybody is really only looking for an unexpected result. You can't really know what any given institution expects the value to be, but unless someone has inside information you can pretty much assume that the market has collectively priced in the experts' consensus. When the news comes out, institutions will trade based on the difference between the actual and their forecast.
Sometimes the news reflects a real change to the fundamentals with an economic effect that will change the demand for a currency, like an interest rate decision. However, in the case of the Initial Jobless Claims figure, which is a backwards-looking metric, trading is really just self-fulfilling speculation that market participants will buy dollars when unemployment is low and sell dollars when unemployment is high. Generally speaking, news that reflects a real economic shift has a bigger effect than news that only matters to speculators.
Massive and extremely fast news-based trades happen within tenths of a second on the ECNs on which institutional traders are participants. Over the next few seconds the resulting price changes trickle down to retail traders. Some economic news, like Non Farm Payroll Employment, has an effect that can last minutes to hours as "slow money" follows behind on the trend created by the "fast money". Other news, like Initial Jobless Claims, has a short impact that trails off within a couple minutes and is subsequently dwarfed by the usual pseudorandom movements in the market.
The bigger the difference between actual and consensus, the bigger the effect on any given currency pair. Since economic news releases generally relate to a single currency, the biggest and most easily predicted effects are seen on pairs where one currency is directly effected and the other is not affected at all. Personally I trade USD/JPY because the time difference between the US and Japan ensures that no news will be coming out of Japan at the same time that economic news is being released in the US.
Before deciding to trade any particular news release you should measure the historical correlation between the release (specifically, the difference between actual and consensus) and the resulting short-term change in the currency pair. Historical data for various news releases (along with historical consensus data) is readily available. You can pay to get it exported into Excel or whatever, or you can scroll through it for free on websites like TradingEconomics.com.
Let's look at two examples: Initial Jobless Claims and Non Farm Payroll Employment (NFP). I collected historical consensuses and actuals for these releases from January 2018 through the present, measured the "surprise" difference for each, and then correlated that to short-term changes in USD/JPY at the time of release using 5 second candles.
I omitted any releases that occurred simultaneously as another major release. For example, occasionally the monthly Initial Jobless Claims comes out at the exact same time as the monthly Balance of Trade figure, which is a more significant economic indicator and can be expected to dwarf the effect of the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report.
USD/JPY correlation with Initial Jobless Claims (2018 - present)
USD/JPY correlation with Non Farm Payrolls (2018 - present)
The horizontal axes on these charts is the duration (in seconds) after the news release over which correlation was calculated. The vertical axis is the Pearson correlation coefficient: +1 means that the change in USD/JPY over that duration was perfectly linearly correlated to the "surprise" in the releases; -1 means that the change in USD/JPY was perfectly linearly correlated but in the opposite direction, and 0 means that there is no correlation at all.
For Initial Jobless Claims you can see that for the first 30 seconds USD/JPY is strongly negatively correlated with the difference between consensus and actual jobless claims. That is, fewer-than-forecast jobless claims (fewer newly unemployed people than expected) strengthens the dollar and greater-than-forecast jobless claims (more newly unemployed people than expected) weakens the dollar. Correlation then trails off and changes to a moderate/weak positive correlation. I interpret this as algorithms "buying the dip" and vice versa, but I don't know for sure. From this chart it appears that you could profit by opening a trade for 15 seconds (duration with strongest correlation) that is long USD/JPY when Initial Jobless Claims is lower than the consensus and short USD/JPY when Initial Jobless Claims is higher than expected.
The chart for Non Farm Payroll looks very different. Correlation is positive (higher-than-expected payrolls strengthen the dollar and lower-than-expected payrolls weaken the dollar) and peaks at around 45 seconds, then slowly decreases as time goes on. This implies that price changes due to NFP are quite significant relative to background noise and "stick" even as normal fluctuations pick back up.
I wanted to show an example of what the USD/JPY S5 chart looks like when an "uncontested" (no other major simultaneously news release) Initial Jobless Claims and NFP drops, but unfortunately my broker's charts only go back a week. (I can pull historical data going back years through the API but to make it into a pretty chart would be a bit of work.) If anybody can get a 5-second chart of USD/JPY at March 19, 2020, UTC 12:30 and/or at February 7, 2020, UTC 13:30 let me know and I'll add it here.

Backtesting

So without too much effort we determined that (1) USD/JPY is strongly negatively correlated with the Initial Jobless Claims figure for the first 15 seconds after the release of the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (when no other major news is being released) and also that (2) USD/JPY is strongly positively correlated with the Non Farms Payroll figure for the first 45 seconds after the release of the Employment Situation report.
Before you can assume you can profit off the news you have to backtest and consider three important parameters.
Entry speed: How quickly can you realistically enter the trade? The correlation performed above was measured from the exact moment the news was released, but realistically if you've got your finger on the trigger and your ear to the squawk it will take a few seconds to hit "Buy" or "Sell" and confirm. If 90% of the price move happens in the first second you're SOL. For back-testing purposes I assume a 5 second delay. In practice I use custom software that opens a trade with one click, and I can reliably enter a trade within 2-3 seconds after the news drops, using the FinancialJuice free squawk.
Minimum surprise: Should you trade every release or can you do better by only trading those with a big enough "surprise" factor? Backtesting will tell you whether being more selective is better long-term or not.
Hold time: The optimal time to hold the trade is not necessarily the same as the time of maximum correlation. That's a good starting point but it's not necessarily the best number. Backtesting each possible hold time will let you find the best one.
The spread: When you're only holding a position open for 30 seconds, the spread will kill you. The correlations performed above used the midpoint price, but in reality you have to buy at the ask and sell at the bid. Brokers aren't stupid and the moment volume on the ECN jumps they will widen the spread for their retail customers. The only way to determine if the news-driven price movements reliably overcome the spread is to backtest.
Stops: Personally I don't use stops, neither take-profit nor stop-loss, since I'm automatically closing the trade after a fixed (and very short) amount of time. Additionally, brokers have a minimum stop distance; the profits from scalping the news are so slim that even the nearest stops they allow will generally not get triggered.
I backtested trading these two news releases (since 2018), using a 5 second entry delay, real historical spreads, and no stops, cycling through different "surprise" thresholds and hold times to find the combination that returns the highest net profit. It's important to maximize net profit, not expected value per trade, so you don't over-optimize and reduce the total number of trades taken to one single profitable trade. If you want to get fancy you can set up a custom metric that combines number of trades, expected value, and drawdown into a single score to be maximized.
For the Initial Jobless Claims figure I found that the best combination is to hold trades open for 25 seconds (that is, open at 5 seconds elapsed and hold until 30 seconds elapsed) and only trade when the difference between consensus and actual is 7k or higher. That leads to 30 trades taken since 2018 and an expected return of... drumroll please... -0.0093 yen per unit per trade.
Yep, that's a loss of approx. $8.63 per lot.
Disappointing right? That's the spread and that's why you have to backtest. Even though the release of the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report has a strong correlation with movement in USD/JPY, it's simply not something that a retail trader can profit from.
Let's turn to the NFP. There I found that the best combination is to hold trades open for 75 seconds (that is, open at 5 seconds elapsed and hold until 80 seconds elapsed) and trade every single NFP (no minimum "surprise" threshold). That leads to 20 trades taken since 2018 and an expected return of... drumroll please... +0.1306 yen per unit per trade.
That's a profit of approx. $121.25 per lot. Not bad for 75 seconds of work! That's a +6% ROI at 50x leverage.

Make it real

If you want to do this for realsies, you need to run these numbers for all of the major economic news releases. Markit Manufacturing PMI, Factory Orders MoM, Trade Balance, PPI MoM, Export and Import Prices, Michigan Consumer Sentiment, Retail Sales MoM, Industrial Production MoM, you get the idea. You keep a list of all of the releases you want to trade, when they are released, and the ideal hold time and "surprise" threshold. A few minutes before the prescribed release time you open up your broker's software, turn on your squawk, maybe jot a few notes about consensuses and model forecasts, and get your finger on the button. At the moment you hear the release you open the trade in the correct direction, hold it (without looking at the chart!) for the required amount of time, then close it and go on with your day.
Some benefits of trading this way: * Most major economic releases come out at either 8:30 AM ET or 10:00 AM ET, and then you're done for the day. * It's easily backtestable. You can look back at the numbers and see exactly what to expect your return to be. * It's fun! Packing your trading into 30 seconds and knowing that institutions are moving billions of dollars around as fast as they can based on the exact same news you just read is thrilling. * You can wow your friends by saying things like "The St. Louis Fed had some interesting remarks on consumer spending in the latest Beige Book." * No crayons involved.
Some downsides: * It's tricky to be fast enough without writing custom software. Some broker software is very slow and requires multiple dialog boxes before a position is opened, which won't cut it. * The profits are very slim, you're not going to impress your instagram followers to join your expensive trade copying service with your 30-second twice-weekly trades. * Any friends you might wow with your boring-ass economic talking points are themselves the most boring people in the world.
I hope you enjoyed this long as fuck post and you give trading economic news a try!

I've noticed among the new members joining, people sometimes ask which offers they should do first, or which ones they could do when they don't have the £/€100 it takes to do many of the offers here. So I hope this little summary of no-spend offers will be helpful to you!
You can make ~£107 with the offers below without spending anything (up to £216 if you do the extra tasks). Notice I included some cryptocurrency offers - don't be afraid of these; they carry pretty much zero risk as you don't need to deposit anything (=buy crypto) - you only need to convert the cryptocurrency bonus back into £/€. If you need help with this, feel free to message me.
I also mention Revolut below, which is a popular online "bank" account. My app is currently not showing any promotions for new users, but perhaps someone else has a referral link for you that will make you some cash!
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Swissborg: ~$65
A Swiss fintech focusing on crypto wealth management. You earn CHSB (their token) by collecting badges for doing simple tasks in the app. You can get 600 CHSB (~$65) without much effort, and if you can invite 20 people, you can get up to 1750 CHSB ($190). Please check the current CHSB exchange rate as the token's value may fluctuate.

1. Download the app.
2. Register for an account (use my referral code ETTVC6Q and we both get 3,000 points). Tip: the code will get you started with 3,000 points - make your first forecast with 1,000 points and you'll get your first badge :) [don't use a code for no bonus]
3. Collect badges and earn!
4. In order to redeem the prizes, you'll need to download their Wealth app and verify ID. The rewards should be redeemable in Q3 2020, once the competition ends (by September).

Detailed post about Swissborg (the token value might have changed since)
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Bitwala: €15
A German bank account with integrated crypto services.

1. Sign up with my link (non-ref-link, no bonus) and verify your identity. (Prepare your passport and a printed proof of address (e.g. bank statement). If no-one picks up for more than a few mins, hang up & try again)
2. Create a bitcoin wallet in your account.
3. €15 will be credited to your account within 15 business days. You can withdraw it right after you receive it.

Detailed post about Bitwala
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Morpher: ~$15
An upcoming Austrian platform for trading stocks, crypto, and forex.

1. Sign up via my referral link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Verify your identity.
3. Get 500 Morpher tokens (estimated value $15) when you get invited to the app and withdrawals are enabled (this should be soon)

Detailed post about Morpher
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Quidco: £10
A popular UK cashback site.

1. Sign up with my referral link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Your bonus will be credited once you reach £5 in confirmed cashback - browse the Free Cashback section for no-spend offers!

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Topcashback: £5
Another UK cashback site.

1. Sign up with my referral link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Your bonus will be credited once you reach £10 in confirmed cashback. Again, you could browse the no-spend offers, or buy something from a store where you'd shop anyways!

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Curve: £5
A debit card to which you add your existing cards, and then you only have to carry the Curve card and choose which underlying card to pay with in the app.

1. Download the app using this link (use code D8XMLG5E when signing up. No code, no bonus.)
2. Order a free card (=Curve Blue).
3. When it arrives, link a card you already own to your new Curve card.
4. Make a first transaction with the Curve card (this can either be a regular in-store/online purchase, but people have successfully gotten the bonus just by linking the Curve card to their Paypal account or by connecting it to Google Pay/Apple Pay - so you don't have to spend anything. There's also no minimum spend requirement.) Note: you must make your first transaction within 7 days from signing up!
5. £5 will be added to your Curve Cash card. You can spend it immediately. You can also send it to your Revolut - set up a payment link in Revolut, and pay it using the Curve card, with Curve Cash set as the underlying card.

Detailed post about Curve
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Bitpanda: €5+
A reputable Austrian cryptocurrency exchange.

1. Sign up using my link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Verify your identity.
3. Complete the beginner quiz and receive €5 in BEST (the Bitpanda token).
4. Bonus: you can get an extra €10 if you're willing to deposit €25 and complete your first crypto trade of at least €25. The bonus will be credited instantly. Tip: buy BEST for €25, and then sell all BEST including the €5 bonus.

Note: you can withdraw the bonuses right after you receive them, but the minimum withdrawal and deposit amount is €/£25, so you can either deposit €/£25, get the extra €10, and withdraw everything back, or - if you don't want to deposit anything - you can transfer the BEST bonus to another crypto exchange or wallet. Up to you :)
Detailed post about Bitpanda
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Zelf: €5
An upcoming service where you can do banking in your favorite messenger app (Messenger, Whatsapp, etc).

1. Sign up using my link and finish the registration in your favorite messaging platform. (non-ref-link, no bonus)
2. Get €5 when they launch. Everybody in France and Spain should get their cards by the end of June and the rest of Europe by September.

Detailed post about Zelf
Let me know if you need help with any of these!

I've noticed among the new members joining lately, people sometimes ask which offers they should do first, or which ones they could do when they don't have the £/€100 it takes to do many of the offers here. So I hope this little summary of no-spend offers will be helpful to you!
You can make £70 with the offers below without spending anything (up to £100 or even more if you include the "bonus" tasks). Notice I included some cryptocurrency offers - don't be afraid of these; they carry pretty much zero risk as you don't need to deposit anything (=buy crypto) - you only need to convert the cryptocurrency bonus back into £/€. If you need help with this, feel free to message me.
I also mention Revolut below, which is a popular online "bank" account. Sadly my app is currently not showing any promotions for new users, but perhaps someone else has a referral link for you that will make you some cash!
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Swissborg ($17+) (edit: this is now worth at least $50 as of 10 June, the token's value has gone up)
A Swiss fintech focusing on crypto wealth management. You earn CHSB (their token) by collecting badges for doing simple tasks in the app

1. Download the app.
2. Register for an account (use my referral code ETTVC6Q and we both get 3,000 points). Tip: the code will get you started with 3,000 points - make your first forecast with 1,000 points and you'll get your first badge :) ^\don't use a code for no bonus])
3. Collect badges and earn!
4. In order to redeem the prizes, you'll need to download their Wealth app. The rewards should be redeemable starting in June. The app is already available for download; get it, pass KYC and you'll be ready to receive your rewards.

Bonus: if you can refer up to 20 people, you'll get $50 in total. ($150+ as of 10 June)
Detailed post about Swissborg
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Bitwala - €15
A German bank account with integrated crypto services.

1. Sign up with my link (non-ref-link, no bonus) and verify your identity. (Prepare your passport and a printed proof of address (e.g. bank statement). If no-one picks up for more than a few mins, hang up & try again)
2. Create a bitcoin wallet in your account.
3. €15 will be credited to your account within 15 business days. You can withdraw it right after you receive it.

Detailed post about Bitwala
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Morpher - $15
An upcoming Austrian platform for trading stocks, crypto, and forex.

1. Sign up via my referral link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Verify your identity.
3. Get $15 when they launch (June)

Detailed post about Morpher
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Quidco - £10
A UK cashback site.

1. Sign up with my referral link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Your bonus will be credited once you reach £5 in confirmed cashback - browse the Free Cashback section for no-spend offers, or search for "MyHeritage," you could get £5.20 for doing a free trial (just make sure to cancel on time).

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Topcashback - £5
Another UK cashback site.

1. Sign up with my referral link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Your bonus will be credited once you reach £10 in confirmed cashback. Again, you could browse the no-spend offers, or buy something from a store where you'd shop anyways!

​
Curve - £5
A debit card to which you add your existing cards, and then you only have to carry the Curve card and choose which underlying card to pay with in the app.

1. Download the app using this link (use code D8XMLG5E when signing up. No code, no bonus.)
2. Order a free card (=Curve Blue).
3. When it arrives, link a card you already own to your new Curve card.
4. Make a first transaction with the Curve card (you can try to top up your Revolut account and therefore not spend anything extra, but you can also just make a regular purchase, however small, if Revolut doesn't work)
5. £5 will be added to your Curve Cash card. To withdraw it, set up a payment link in Revolut, and pay it using the Curve card, with Curve Cash set as the underlying card.

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Bitpanda - €5+
A reputable Austrian cryptocurrency exchange.

1. Sign up using my link (non-ref link - no bonus)
2. Verify your identity.
3. Complete the beginner quiz and receive €5 in BEST (the Bitpanda token).
4. Bonus: you can get an extra €10 if you're willing to deposit €25 and complete your first crypto trade of at least €25. The bonus will be credited instantly. Tip: buy BEST for €25, and then sell all BEST including the €5 bonus.

Note: you can withdraw the bonuses right after you receive them, but the minimum withdrawal and deposit amount is €/£25, so you can either deposit €/£25, get the extra €10, and withdraw everything back, or - if you don't want to deposit anything - you can transfer the BEST bonus to another crypto exchange or wallet. Up to you :)
Detailed post about Bitpanda
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Zelf - €5
An upcoming service where you can do banking in your favorite messenger app (Messenger, Whatsapp, etc).

1. Sign up using my link and finish the registration in your favorite messaging platform. (non-ref-link, no bonus)
2. Get €5 when they launch. For the UK the launch is scheduled to October. (launch update)

Detailed post about Zelf
Feel free to message me if you need help with these, or search this sub for the name of the offer for detailed posts with people's reactions etc.

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I ran across this website coin24option.com from someone claiming that they could flip my $800 into $8000 by trading through bitcoins and currency.
One day I was searching on Facebook for what i don't remember, I came across people saying how this guy Marcosfx was helping people make lots of money. It was about 10 people I saw saying the same thing and they all said to contact him if you would like to make extra money. So my curious self wanted to do some digging to find out if this was really legit.
My website that you are on now is about scams and legit companies to make money from. This will be on my TOP 10 Scam list as number 1. Ok so I contacted Mr. MarcosFX and he responded a few hrs later. He sent me a list of the amounts I can start with and flip the money. I chose the $800 because it sounded good at the time and I had money to blow. I also did it because I was 90% confident it would work. I knew about the currency and forex market and they claimed to do this for you.
Ok so once he contacted me he told me to buy 800 bucks worth of bitcoin and then transfer it into his account which I did. I bought it from someone through Zelle. When you go through Zelle it is almost impossible to get your money back if you have been scammed.
Ok after I did that he told me to give him my information so that he can make an account for me on coin24option.com He sent me the username and password and asked me to watch the account grow. I watched for about 6 days getting excited each day as the account went up 1000 a day. I was for sure that I was going to make me a whole lot of money and had a whole lot of plans on what i was going to do with it. When the last day came around I was trying to withdraw the money but couldn't. He messaged me on Facebook and said that I had to send him 20% of the 8000 before I could get it. I told him why couldn't I just give him the 20% from what was already there. He said it doesn't work that way. Immediately a red flag stood up in my brain. I was being SCAMMED! I tried everything in my power to get my 800 back but he just would not refund the money. I told him I wasn't giving him any more money and that was that. He ended up blocking me and ran away with my money.
I thought I was great at spotting scams before they occurred but this time, I got played! When I did the research on this company the first time I realized I pulled up the wrong company with close to the same name and that company had 5 stars. When I went back to look up coin24option.com there were plenty of people who had already gotten scammed from this company.
The only thing I could do was file an online scam report, but I still was not able to get my money back.
When you go con scam24option.com the site looks very professional. But at the top, it says it's not safe. They have a live chat there but no one ever answers the chat. All of the reviews and people they have listed as working for them are fake. I hope who is behind this site rot in hell for all of the money they have stolen from innocent people.
If you are reading this I hope I saved you from this SCAM. IF you are looking for a legit way to make money online you should check out www.moneyallthetime.com/best also if you want to learn Forex and trade yourself without having to lose any money then join the academy. CLICK HERE
I hope this helps, and if you have had a bad experience with this company please leave your comments.

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I wanted to write a quick post in answer to the people who routinely make claims I have a history of stealing from people in my previous company and base this upon a blog they read. If you would like to discuss this further, please make a post and link it to me to engage on. I will do so as long as we deal with the facts of how a PAMM company really works.
I won't engage in circular debates where the essential point is, "I don't believe you". You don't have to - that's not how any of this works. Just fact check.
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Anti-SEO:

I want to avoid Google ranking on this post. Although for my personal 'PR' it would be beneficial to aim to rank something answering claims, at some points in this some others involved in the company will not really come over in the best light. I assume it's likely these people are still involved things (Not spoke with them for 5 yrs) - It'd be unfair to rank bad PR on them.
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The failure of the company was squarely due to me. Anything anyone else did either would not have happened or not have mattered if I'd done better. I do not want anything I do now to further hinder anyone.
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So I will refer to names by only one letter (or number if applicable).
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Ponzi Claims:

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I found it strange at the time this ended up centred around the ponzi scheme side of things. There was a reasonable question to be asked and answered as to if it was a pyramid scheme. Were people signing up just to sign people up, or was there a core product of fair market value. The services sold I'd previously ran at the same sort of price point direct to market - so I felt on fairly good ground on that.
Initially I's actually been a bit excited initially, because I was a reader of the blog in question and I liked the work they'd done on pyramid schemes. I thought I'd be able to either validate I was doing things right, or learn how I should be doing them better. I never thought the ponzi side of it would take any more than a few minutes to clear up. But that was not so ...
A ponzi scheme was to all intents and purposes impossible. All of our business was done via three different brokers and all of our results publicly tracked with close to real time updates for marketing purposes. Of the three brokers we were using, two of them had good regulation. An off-shore broker had to be used for US clients, so this is the only one with any sort of question mark.
All of our results over all the brokers were almost identical (Some execution/costs variance). The two regulated brokers were under different regulators. Most, if not all, the brokers held clients funds in segregated accounts. All brokers would have to have been fully complicit in the scam - and it costs more to get regulated than there was to steal. Logically, it could not have been so.
We were using a PAMM model. This works by the client opening a brokerage account and signing a LPoA to allow trades to be copied onto their account. The LPoA grants the company no access to the funds. Money laundering laws also dictate the funds can only be redeemed to same source they were funded. PAMMs are big business. Protection of all parties is built into it, it's a well trusted model.
This should have taken no less than 5 minutes to self verify. It could not have been a ponzi.
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£50,000 Fine:

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That happened. Turns out if you set up a PAMM in the Netherlands and then let a bunch of people refer investment to it this is classed as running a ... I can't remember exactly and even at the time it was in Dutch so I didn't personally read it all. The underlying problem was not the model in any way. We were told at the time we basically jut had to pay £2,000 for each country we did business in.
We were global. At this time the company had neither the money to do that, or pay the fine they gave us for not having the money to do that.
My mistaken assumption was that since when you run a PAMM you are basically piggybacking off the broker's licence, all was well and good. This was true - but the problem was sourcing. Paying people to refer investment was what we were fined for when you get right down to it.
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$180,000 Stolen:

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This was just a headline. In many ways it's misleading. Firstly, nothing was stolen or even taken. It was lost or given away to clients who'd lost in the PAMMs that went bad. All the money lost was lost trying to get enough money to make good all the PAMMs. So it was not stolen, and there is nothing in anyway to imply that's a suitable word to use. In the blog, no explanation of that is offered.
What seems to be inferred is that this was commissions due out to clients that the company kept. Even outside the above mentioned this would be wrong. All affiliates were paid. You will not find a single one who says they were not. Further to that, of all the funds invested into the company (We'll call the company '5') somewhere in the 60 - 70% range was sourced directly by me.
Other funds were sourced by my co-founder. Investments were made through passive advertising without them being attributed to a refer. All in all, assuming we did not pay the affiliates and we had this much, $18,000 would be the number. Of the $180,000 somewhere a bit over $100,000 would have been mine. I never took that, and could not have "Stolen" it.
I don't see the point in getting super technical on everything by going through how, but the number also probably wasn't $180,000. I think this was an overestimate made in a throw away comment by my co-founder (We'll call her 'M') who was (Justifiably) extremely angry at me at the time she came up with the number and added it in a post (Of this multi paragraph post, this one line and one number was taken - if memory servers, all context was left out when the blogger cited this as stolen. Which would make sense. The post was berating me for losing the money. That didn't fit the narrative.
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What Backs the Story?

Of all of the claims of wrongdoing (Apart from the fine, which is documented and true) - there is no evidence proposed for any of the claims made. All of it hinges on a story told to the blogger by one person, who was another of my co-founders 'We'll call her 'E'. E was either a late teenager or very early 20s at the time.
In the founding of 5, E was essential. Before 5 I'd been running a service selling trading signals and selling them at $5 a week subscription. I was generating a lot of business (Working all day, every day and having fun with it. Like I did here for a while, but at that time I really was marketing). 5 - 10 people a day could be signing up.
I knew nothing at all about how to structure an online business. No listing of new clients to send emails. Nothing about making membership sites with password access etc. I was working off a Wix site I made myself with no on-boarding system in place. The volume of people joining was crushing me. I could not process them and was getting a lot of PayPal disputes.
I wanted to send them the stuff. Just did not have the process to ensure this was being done. E stepped in and saved me on that. She made original 5 website (On Wordpress, I believe it was later upgraded to something else). Set up memberships payments. Automated listing. Also she suggested changing the name to what the company became. E made the work I was doing work.
After that, she had varying performance. Her gripe in the blog is she was not paid for helping to found the company. Left out of this is the fact she was not paid because she was head of marketing and we were not getting enough clients. Almost all of them coming from me hitting the DMs and signing people up the old fashioned way.
On results of trading, everything was going well (and this was my area). Things were going so well people legit through it must be a ponzi! But we did not have in-flow of clients. On this I again blame myself. I sort of assumed this would all work itself out and did not put focus on fixing problems before they became problems.
There was a lot of pressure on everyone. E got into a new romantic relationship. I think she was heavily influenced by this person (I found E to be good hearted on the whole). E and M started to get along less and less. Then E and M seemed to hate each other. It all seemed to come from nowhere, but it quickly got to the point me and M felt it was not working with E, and she thought the same.
Pretty much everything is based upon the story told to the blogger by E. As I've said before I found her to be a good heart overall and believe she was influenced into doing what she did, and would not have done it on her own gumption. Therefore I won't rip into her; but if you're reading, 'E' (Won't be lol) - that was a bit naughty, wasn't it? Little 'Economic with the truth'.
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Why would the blogger post such big claims with no evidence?

People should ask themselves this on the first read through of the blog, to be fair. If you're a single source reporting on a story - tell how you know it's true. I think this mainly came down to revenge. After the ponzi thing I wrote blog line by line ripping the initial blog to bits. It was written in a very cheeky sort of tone, and what I was saying was right.
He then played, "My blog's bigger than your blog" , on which he was right.
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If you think there is some smoking gun here in any way, just email the blogger and ask them how they know. What evidence were they ever given any money was stolen. There was none.
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Money taken from the company:

In it's sad and drawn out end, cash on hand and assets within the company got down to around $10,000 and we were due out over 10* this to clients who I wanted to pay back. I was not bringing in new business (It seemed unethical to do until I fixed old problems - this was a miscalculation. No business was the big problem) and there was the 50K fine.
The company was essentially bankrupt. I wanted to use the remaining 10K to have one last ditch effort to re-coup losses, or randomly select clients to pay the 10K to. M didn't. At this time we fell out (Forever). I have no idea what happened to that 10K. I think M probably kept it. At the time I was livid about that - but to be honest, after all the work she did she deserved something. Losing was not her fault. To 'M' if you're reading (Won't be), I'm sorry.
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What went wrong?

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I was not good enough. When I got ahead I thought I was coasting. I came from a background of having nothing and as soon as I started to make a few grand I assumed I was gliding to being a millionaire. I stopped learning. Stopped improving. I never watered what I planted, and it withered and died.
I fail. Turns out you can not coast up a learning curve without ending up on your arse.