Arif Alexander Ahmad talks about the need for trust and transparency in today’s industry, building relationships, and creating value for clients.
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Scandinavian Capital Markets had a successful conference for premier IBs and Forex traders in South Africa, Johannesburg. The event featured organizers and guests speakers such as Michael Buchbinder (Scandinavian Capital Markets), Nick Sproule (Blackstone Futures), Francis Hunt (the Trading Sniper), Stephen Nefdt (Forex Wealth), Richard Goers (ML^ Predictive Analytics Trading), Robert Lotter (SetBot) and others.
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Scandinavian Capital Markets is proud to announce a further expansion of our trading platform offering, with the addition of multi-award winning cTrader, available to both their Retail and Institutional Clients.
Trusted by millions of traders worldwide and supported by a large community of partners, cTrader incorporates the most advanced tools, offering state-of-the-art technology for fast entry and execution, asynchronous order processing and Level-II pricing.
Furthermore, it combines a wide range of advanced order types, as well as cutting-edge tools for effective risk management, helping investors to better inform their trading decisions. The platform’s web, desktop and mobile interface also allows for seamless, uninterrupted trading anytime, from anywhere in the world.
The combination of cTrader, alongside a deep, multi-asset liquidity pool from an extensive list of Tier-1 financial institutions through Scandinavian Capital Markets’ established relationships, makes the platform an ideal choice for every trader.
Michael Buchbinder, Managing Partner at Scandinavian Capital Markets commented: “We are delighted to be extending our platform offering and believe that cTrader is an ideal platform for both beginners and more experienced traders. Professional traders can utilise their skills through cTrader’s API protocols, whereas novices can benefit from the platform’s advanced trading tools and risk management features in order to better perform their strategies. We are advocates of robust risk management and always try to help our clients make sound trading decisions. cTrader now allows us to provide the clients with all the necessary tools and resources in order for them to succeed and strengthen their trust towards our company”.
Alexander Geralis, Business Development Manager at Spotware, commented: “We are pleased to welcome Scandinavian Capital Markets to our growing list of brokers. Scandinavian Capital Markets is a broker who shares our ‘Trader’s First’ mentality. We know that Scandinavian Capital Markets’ traders have been eagerly awaiting to use cTrader and at the same time, respect how the company puts in a great deal of effort to understand the platform and its benefits before concluding that it is exactly what their traders are after”.
The cTrader platform can be downloaded from the Scandinavian Capital Markets’ website.
SetBot takes the knowledge and sophistication of a pro day trader, combines it with the power of statistics, and puts it into the hands of the public for the first time.
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We sat down with Daniel Hunter, global asset manager to talk about Forex as an alternative investment. Since the 1990s, start of his career, Daniel has been an advocate of alternative asset classes. Now those can vary. Today it can be Forex. It can be anything from hard commodities. It can be art. It can be wine…
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The Carry Trade Strategy in Forex involves borrowing one currency at a low interest rate and simultaneously investing in an currency that yields a higher rate of return.
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Etienne illustrates this new wave of traders. At the young age of 25, he’s already become a successful trader in his own right. Though he enjoys world travel, he diligently checks his trading. Trading is a business that enables his lifestyle.
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Forex trading is a very broad field. It includes a wide variety of instruments, trading strategies, Forex brokers, and trading platforms. No matter how much experience you or your team have, all Forex traders should constantly be looking to broaden their knowledge.
There are a number of Forex educators and online Forex education websites that make it easier to learn the ins and outs of Forex trading. With these resources, beginner and advanced traders alike can learn new information and improve their skill level.
To help you narrow down your options, we’ve compiled some of the popular Forex educators and websites available. These options offer the tools and learning materials to help your team become better Forex traders.
Why bother seeking help from a Forex educator?
While your team may be very experienced, they can never stop learning. A Forex educator can help you:
Find the Right Information: With so much information available, it can be difficult to determine what is worth spending time on. There is always a new strategy, broker, or trading platform to learn about. A Forex educator will help you learn the information you need to know to be a skilled Forex trader.
Learn Effective Strategies: Forex trading often involves losing money as you test different strategies. A qualified educator will help you learn effective, proven trading strategies.
Build a Foundation: Forex educators will provide your team of traders with a solid foundation to build off of.
Learn From Someone With Experience: One of the best ways to learn how to do something is to learn from someone with experience. These Forex educators can teach you the methods that have worked for them and help you avoid some of the mistakes they’ve made throughout their careers.
Ultimately, Forex educators compile the information you need to improve your Forex trading capabilities so that you can spend less time scouring the internet and more time trading.
There is no shortage of Forex educators and education sites available online, making it difficult to know which ones are worth your time.
When determining which educator to go with, there are several factors you should consider before making your final decision.
Always read customer reviews before choosing a Forex educator.
Reviews can tell you what you will learn from the educator, whether or not it is worth the time or money, and if the program is a scam or not. Be sure to look for programs with a high number of positive reviews to ensure that the educator is qualified.
Would you take driving lessons from someone without a driver’s license?
Qualified educators should have demonstrable experience and success as Forex traders. Knowing that your educator has had success as a trader will help ensure that the strategies and other information you learn is effective.
Student success is just as important as educator success. While many educators have had success themselves, that doesn’t necessarily make them good teachers.
Read testimonials and reviews to ensure that the students of any given educator have had success themselves. This is a good indicator that the educator is not just knowledgeable, but is also an effective teacher.
Certifications and accreditation are yet another measure of experience and qualification.
Look for educators that have certifications that back up their experience. This could include Chartered Financial Analysts, Financial Risk Managers, Chartered Market Technicians, and other accreditation.
A professional website is the first sign that an educator is professional and takes their profession seriously.
In this day and age, there is no excuse to have an outdated, unhelpful website. Any educator worth your time will have made the effort to create a modern and informational web page.
Be sure to do thorough research on any educator to ensure they haven’t been the subject of any lawsuits.
Also, carefully read reviews to see if any of them indicate that the educator or website has scammed any customers or participated in any other fraudulent behavior.
To help you find the right educator for your team, we’ve compiled a list of a few of the popular Forex educators available.
These educators are experienced, reliable, qualified, and have exceptional customer satisfaction.
TradingwithRayner, by Rayner Teo, is one of the best and most popular Forex trading education programs available.
Rayner Teo will teach you everything you need to know, from trading strategies and risk management to technical indicators and more. He’ll also recommend other reliable resources, like books, group coaching sessions, and other trading tools.
One of the biggest downsides, however, is that Rayner hasn’t proven his success as a trader. While many of his students testify to the quality of his program, there’s no telling whether or not he has been able to successfully apply his teachings.
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Sam Seiden is the Chief Trading Strategist and Instructor at Online Trading Academy. He has experience trading Forex, equities, futures, interest rate markets, and more, and has used his experience to teach others how to be successful Forex traders.
Sam is famous for his original supply and demand market timing strategy. One thing that sets Sam apart is that he does live trading to prove the efficacy of his trading strategies.
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Navin Prithyani is the founder of Urban Forex — a highly-reputable Forex training program.
Prithyani is a very successful educator who has been awarded by FXStreet and Udemy for his high-quality training webinars and courses. In his years as a Forex trader, Navin has had several different mentors and has compiled what he has learned into digestible training courses.
Urban Forex will teach you the basics of Forex trading, how to trade based on price action, how to perform technical analysis, and much more.
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Francis Hunt, founder of The Market Sniper, has over 30 years of experience as a professional trader and is the creator of the Hunt Volatility Funnel trading methodology — a system for determining the next most profitable trade.
Francis created The Market Sniper community to teach traders his HVF trading methodology and to give traders a place to interact with one another and discuss Forex trading strategies.
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Dan Blystone is a very experienced trader who started his career on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, later going on to trade Bund Futures at Altea Trading.
Over a decade ago, Dan founded TradersLog.com, a website where he covers a wide range of topics relating to trading and financial markets. TradersLog is a free resource that offers a wide range of useful information for both novice and advanced traders.
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Etienne Crete (from Montreal, Canada) is a swing trader, founder of Desire to Trade, trading academy. He helps aspiring Forex traders develop a trading method that works for them so they can produce income allowing them to live with more freedom.
Etienne interviews the greatest figures of the trading world and considers it is his mission to help traders implement their advice.
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Elite CurrenSea provides effective Forex, CFDs & Crypto trading systems traders.
Members get access to price action newsletters, weekly live training sessions, video tutorials, market analysis, free tools and indicators, and more.
There are four different programs to choose from, including a free program for beginners. There are also a number of other free educational resources for anyone to take advantage of.
Elite CurrenSea offers courses taught by Chris Svorcik, creator of the Simple Wave Analysis and Trading (SWAT) method, and Nenad Kerkez, creator of the CAMMACD method.
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2ndSkiesForex is one of the highest-rated training programs on Forex Peace Army, making it one of the most reputable forex education sites available.
2ndSkiesForex offers a free beginners course along with free educational videos and training sessions.
Once you are comfortable with the basics, you can move onto the paid courses, which include the Advanced Price Action Course, the Advanced Traders Mindset Course, and the Advanced Ichimoku Course.
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Strategic Trading Systems offers Forex mentoring programs and forex trading system ebooks to help students develop a strong foundation for Forex trading.
There are four mentoring programs and three systems to choose from — each dedicated to different types of traders. All of the company’s products are under $500, making it one of the cheaper options for traders to choose from.
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Forex Mentor Pro has long been one of the most reputable Forex trading courses available online.
There are beginner courses as well as more advanced courses which can be accessed with a monthly subscription. Forex Mentor Pro offers three powerful trading systems, great tutorials, daily analysis, and much more.
Forex Mentor Pro is positively-reviewed by customers and is a great resource for novice and advanced traders alike.
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Trading Heroes was started by Hugh Kimura, who wanted to document his trading journey. It is more of a blog rather than education platform, that has valuable articles based on the real experience of a trader, who has been in the industry for many years.
“I don’t pretend to know all the answers, but I whatever I blog about here comes from real-life experiences, conversations with professional Forex traders and my own experiments in trading, both good and bad”, says the author.
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Babypips is known in the Forex trading community as one of the best free educational resources for beginner traders. The website makes no assumptions on your trading abilities and explains concepts in a very easy-to-understand manner.
Site members can access trading systems, trade ideas, analysis, quizzes, courses, and more tools. Babypips also has a very large and active community which members can interact with to develop strategies and get feedback.
Babypips is a fantastic resource for any trader looking to expand their knowledge without paying for expensive online courses.
Forex trading can be very complex. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the information related to Forex trading available online.
However, as a trader, it’s important to constantly broaden your knowledge in order to keep up with the market and your fellow traders.
The educators and websites listed above are great resources to help you and your team learn new strategies and improve your Forex trading capabilities.
Trading today as a retail trader can be challenging. This is why many retail traders seek to have their money managed by a professional money manager. Up until recently there have been limited options for money managers to manage multiple accounts at once. Often times it required them to login individually to each account in order to place trades. As you can imagine trying to manage multiple accounts for clients in this manner can be downright impossible. The Gold-i Multiple Account Manager makes directing managing investor accounts much easier. Traders can manage accounts for multiple clients and assets from one platform and master account.
Highlights
The Gold-i MAM makes it easy to manage multiple accounts. With the simple installation, money managers can quickly get up and running. The plugin creates a one-stop-shop for managing multiple accounts with single block order entry. The Gold-i MAM includes:
For traders that want to manage multiple accounts or money managers, the MAM tool is ideal for seamless execution.
Getting started with Gold-i MAM
Scandinavian Capital Markets offers the Gold-i MAM combined with the popular MT4 platform. When a new money manager is onboarded Scandinavian Capital Markets provides them with a MT4 client terminal, Gold-i Multi Account Management Software, and Master Account login details. Installation is a straightforward process. Unlike other MAM software available on the market, the Gold-i MAM does not require any license files to be downloaded or installed. The money manager simply installs the MT4 client terminal and logins into the account using the Master Account login details provided. This is the exact same process as someone logging into a normal MT4 trading account.
Then, in order to control the investor accounts the money manager would install the Scandinavian Capital Markets branded Gold-i MAM software, and login to that software using the Master Account login details. By default though when a customer is onboarded under the MAM they automatically join the MAM and receive trades based on their equity proportional to the overall equity of the MAM. So, it is possible for a money manager to get started trading the MAM without installing the Gold-I MAM software.
Using the Platform
The sleek platform offers an easy way to setup and manage your investor accounts in one screen.
Down the left-hand side, you’ll be able to see the Master Account Details including:
You’ll notice the window splits into three areas.
Top: In the top area you’ll be able to see the list of all the sub-accounts. This will display configuration options including exclusion type, risk multiplier, account leverage, balance, equity, and margin..
Exclusion type – This is used when you want to add or remove an investor from the MAM. With the Gold-i MAM it is possible to temporarily remove a person from a MAM, and add then back in at a later time. Usually, a money manager does this if an investor has specifically requested that they not take part in certain pairs/trades.
Risk Multiplier – Some investors prefer to take more or less risk relative to the equity in their account. The risk multiplier provides a simple way for money manager to control the risk each investor takes per trade.
Middle: Here, you can track your current open orders under the master account. You can toggle the expansion of the screen, pull in the latest orders, as well as configure which columns to display.
Bottom: The final section provides you a complete breakdown of a Master Account order. Money Managers can quickly identify how much an investor has received of an open order in this window. .
By bringing all the order management to one screen, users can quickly navigate trades. The split sections make it easy to track and execute orders across multiple accounts.
Defining Allocations
Gold-i MAM contains modules that allow users to define allocations in two ways: Master Account Allocation and Cash allocation. Both follow the same basic concepts.
Equity: Master accounts distributes trade volume across the sub-accounts based on the account’s percentage of its total equity in the master account. The lots within a trade are then divided between the accounts. Any residual lots will travel from highest to lowest equity sub-accounts.
Even: Even’s method distributes the trade evenly regardless of size. Residual lots will be allocated in order of the first account on the list working down.
Balance: The balance method distributes shares based on the sub-accounts percentage of the master account. Residual lots will be allocated working from accounts with the largest to smallest balance size.
Lot: This method only exists for the Cash allocation method. Lot allocation distributes the master trade lot size to the sub-accounts based on a configuration lot factor that the administrator sets.
Master account allocations have orders pushed from the master account down to the sub-accounts. Cash allocations have all the trades executed under the master account. Profits or losses are then distributed after the trade is closed.
Commission Configurations
Manual management of multiple accounts often comes with the hassles of allocating commissions. The Gold-i MAM allows users to pass on per trade commissions and/or spread costs incurred to the sub-accounts. Additionally, at the end of each month Scandinavian Capital Markets provides a detailed report on each investors performance, and handles performance and management fee payments. This allows a money manager to focus on trading their investor accounts, while Scandinavian Capital Markets handles the back office administration work.
Additional Configurations
While we’ve discussed many of the major configurations, there are several additional ones available as well:
Ability to close allocated sub account trades independently from the master account
The ability to close sub accounts independently from the master account has been a challenge for other MAMs on the market. This has caused issues when a money manager has investors who would like to leave the MAM while positions are open. As a result many brokers and money managers prevent investors from leaving the MAM while there are open positions, which has caused issues in the past. Gold-i has developed their MAM platform with these issues in mind, and through their seamless allocation methods they are able to flawlessly allow investors to leave a MAM at anytime.
Final Thoughts
Although many MAM tools exist, the Gold-i MAM provides an immediate benefit for all levels of traders and money managers. The ability to work with the MT4 platform makes it unique in its universal capabilities. Given the breadth of configuration options available, everyone from large funds to individual traders will benefit from the Gold-i MAM solution offered by Scandinavian Capital Markets.
Cover photo: Denisismagilov
As we enter a month already notorious for volatility and market crashes, an ominous brew of high-impact events lies directly ahead. With US stocks still near record highs, many are wondering if the market has reached a top and is due for a rout. Will the China/US trade talks, Trump impeachment inquiry, third quarter earnings and Brexit be the ingredients for an October perfect storm?
The October Effect
The ‘October Effect’ describes the perception that stock market sell-offs often take place during the tenth month of the year. The fact that many of the largest historical market crashes took place in October, including the Panic of 1907, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and Black Monday of 1987, contributes to the sense of unease. The stock market crash of 2008 occurred just shy of October, on September 29th.
October Volatility
Research from LPL Financial suggests that October should actually be more famous for its volatility than crashes. The report points to the fact that since 1950, no other month has seen more 1% price moves for the S&P 500, while returns are roughly average. In a widely quoted note released last Friday, John Marshall of Goldman Sachs went even further back in his research, stating that since 1928 stock volatility has been on average 25% higher in October.
The equity derivatives strategist noted: “We believe high October volatility is more than just a coincidence. We believe it is a critical period for many investors and companies that manage performance to calendar year-end.”
US/China Trade War
Both stocks and the US dollar traded higher on Wednesday after President Trump stated that a US/China trade deal could be around the corner. Speaking to reporters at the United Nations in New York, he said: “They want to make a deal very badly… It could happen sooner than you think.”
Trade talks between the US and China are reportedly set to resume on October 10th and 11th in Washington. While the mood is currently cautiously optimistic, a further breakdown in trade relations will again raise fears of a global economic slowdown and roil the markets.
Trump Impeachment Inquiry
On Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi announced that the House of Representatives would initiate a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump. The inquiry centers around an anonymous whistleblower report claiming that President Trump pressured Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to launch investigations into 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Stocks sold off on the heels of the news. However, while we may see more volatility, historically impeachments are not negative for stocks. Stocks actually gained substantially during the impeachment process of Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, amid the turmoil in Washington, the US dollar was boosted by its safe-haven status.
Brexit
Brexit, the scheduled withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, continues to keep the United Kingdom in a state of political chaos. The deadline for an agreement to be reached is Thursday October 31st. On September 4th, Members of Parliament voted to pass a law that would force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to request a three-month delay to Brexit to January 31, 2020 if a deal with the EU has not been reached.
However, on Thursday Sir John Major warned that the Prime Minister could use a so-called “Order of Council” to avoid implementing the legislation until after October 31st and thereby force through no-deal Brexit. The ongoing uncertainty over the future of the United Kingdom is leaving investors on the edge of their seats as the end of October deadline closes in. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney recently estimated that a disorderly Brexit would reduce UK GDP by about 5.5%.
October Federal Reserve Meeting
In July of 2019 the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008. At the September meeting last week, the US central bank followed up cutting interest rates by 25 basis points to a range of 1.75% to 2.00%. The post-meeting statement cited concerns over a global economic slowdown and low inflation as justification for the move.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, the market is currently pricing in a 44.9% chance of another 25 basis point rate cut at the October 30th meeting. Last Friday, Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida stated that interest rate decisions for October and beyond will be made on a “case by case basis”.
The Bottom Line
August of 2019 was a volatile month for the market with 11 swings of over 1% in S&P 500. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked by 800 points on August 14th, marking its largest percentage drop of the year and fourth-largest point drop ever. August volatility was driven largely by mounting fears over the US/China trade war and the inverted yield curve, a reliable indicator of recession from the bond market. After a lull in volatility in September, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) reached a three-week high on Wednesday, as investors anxiously await the start of October.
Photo: @asafyrov