I found the Apiary Fund (apiaryfund dot com) while searching for FX training online. Has anyone heard anything, good or bad, about them? This site (babypips dot com) is mentioned in one of their training videos, btw…
Before paying the technology/“tuition” fee (basic package at $97/month) I am doing due diligence and checking them out. I googled “apiary fund scam” and am getting mixed reviews. There were complaints filed with the BBB but they seemed to be more whining than actual offenses committed by AF. There is also a thread on google groups where Jerold Adair (Managing Director, XCEL Investments, LLC) states that he checked AF on the NFA site and found zero complaints. Still, I want to be sure since there are a number of forum posts on different sites that shout SCAM–but no real evidence given.
So I figured I’d ask the good people here at babypips what y’all think, or better, know.
Is AF a legit company and opportunity for a trader who is willing to work and learn, but will never have the funds to open a large (read: safe) enough trading account on his own because of the economic situation of his home country?
As I mentioned, I have done a search myself and a lot of reading and research, but am getting mixed statements.
Any assistance would be appreciated, thank you.
Happy trading to all!
Here is my response to another post which asked the same question regarding the Apiary Fund:
Let me point out a couple of facts/opinions:
The Apiary Fund is NOT a scam. I’ve been with the Fund since April 2014. They offer a 12 module course that teaches you the fundamentals of Forex and currency trading. They also teach you trading strategies which are well known (or some version of them) among many experienced traders. I pay $97 per month for full access to the course AND the MT4 platform which I use to demo trade. They have live trading rooms and live recordings you can sit in and listen to. Everything is archived in their library. If you want lifetime access to the library then you pay a one time fee of $297. THATS IT!!! If you want to learn more about the Apiary Fund, the have intro webinars that give you more information. The guys are honest and really want to help you succeed. But they are not just going to give you their money to trade without developing a track record while you demo trade.
If you worry about every being a scam just because you don’t understand it or don’t know **** about it, then you will never get anywhere in life or trading. People scam themselves. How? They pay thou$ands of dollars for “one-on-one” mentoring or a limited-time course and then don’t take any action! In case you didn’t know, the market for lazy people is a multi-billion dollar industry.
The only thing you probably should be paying for is monthly access to a trading platform so that you can practice the fundamentals of trading. If you already have a funded account with a broker, most of the time the platform should be free.
Sorry, but the market doesn’t care how many degrees you have. Totally useless in this game. If you read about the guys who work at the CBOE, many of them barely graduated high school and are all dumb-asses. But they are among the best traders in the world because they have the right mindset.
I am not funded yet with Apiary, but I expect to be by November. I’ve learned alot about the mistakes I made from April through June. July was a good month and August will be a better month. I’m going to demo trade through September before I set up my interview with the Risk Manager. At that point, I’ll have 3 months of a steadily rising equity curve. After this period, they don’t just hand you live funds. There is another demo period (2-3 weeks) where your demo account is reduced from $10,000 to $1,000. This is to make sure that you psychologically can trade smaller positions. If you are successful, then I believe they fund you with $1,000 to start off with. If you continue your success, then the funded amounts go up over time, potentially up to $250,000. From what I understand, most “funded” traders are at the $10,000 level. Again, attend the intro webinars and ask all the questions you need to ask. I also don’t believe that you are required to submit a margin deposit which most prop firms require you to do. Also, the payouts to the trader is anywhere from 65% to 85%. The higher your funding level, the higher the percentage payout.
Let me know if you have any questions about the Apiary Fund and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Perfect observation. Makes you wonder how could they be in business for 10 years and do what some people say they did. until you check out the complaint and find it’s whining and blaming someone or something else for in most cases their own carelessness.
Bro don’t do it. Fact yes they’ll train you, you’ll pay for that previlage. Then you must prove you can trade their methodology before they’ll even consider giving you a grand to play with. $97 a month buys you 970 pips in a micro account. Better you learn there and find your groove (its different for all of us) than trying to trade like someone else. My two cents
Well, over a year has gone by… how have you done? I’ve been with AF for six months, feel like I’m getting close to funding- just have to learn discipline. Hope to hear from you.
I started with Apiary Fund in April 29 2015. I have a basic plan as shown above. I have prior experience trading FX pairs on FXCM but my results where up and down and I gave up on my real money account after 6 months & decided I need to learn to trade before I put up real money (I loss a portion of the funds I had at FXCM). Since I started at Apiary Fund they have two routes to getting funded with their money. They have their own trading platform (Alveo) and liquidity providers. (1) Standard process of trading Simulated Account and demonstrate ability to follow a plan and use discipline to grow a positive equity curve; have positive win/loss ratio with +expectancy on trading. (2) Starting last fall they implemented a new training methodology to supplement their training plan. It’s call beeline and it takes you through a series of goals to train you step by step on how to trade. Each level builds on the previous successes. You advance through the levels after completing scheduled tack in trading. After your completion of Bronze, Silver & Gold (three steps in each level); you are awarded a real money funded account ($1000.00) to trade for them. At the beginning, you get 65% of your profits each month paid to your banking account. After three months of successful trading you are advanced to trading ($2500.00) account. As you continue to demonstrate discipline and ability they will graduate you to trading larger account sizes for them and increase in your percentage of your trading profits. I didn’t do well on my first $1000.00 account. I’m now re-qualifying for another chance to trade real money. They don’t give up on you as long as you don’t give up on yourself. It’s worth a chance to learn something new and possibly trade with someone else money. I’m old school and old but it’s exciting to keep things going.
They are continuing to have traders funded upon completion of training plans
I would not call Apiary Fund a scam, but I WOULD call it an outrageous rip-off.
Of COURSE they are “loyal” to you… take as long as you need to learn about Forex and gain experience developing your trading skills, we’ll never cut you off! Do you think it’s because they have this great altruistic commitment to you, or because you’re paying them almost $100/month? Don’t overthink this.
Their new “Beeline” program for getting funded includes requirements that have NOTHING to do with developing your trading ability, such as requiring you to provide contact information for friends/family/acquaintances/co-workers anyone for them to pitch their program to. Why are they requiring me to act as THEIR agent on THEIR behalf to endorse a program I have not even completed yet?
My personal experience was that they were v-e-r-y s-l-o-w in responding to requests for support. I don’t mean tech support issues, I mean help in feedback and guidance on my trading progress. Why should they hurry? I’m paying them $97/month, right?
IN CONTRAST… The company I’m with now is Blue Point Trading. There is a one-time enrollment fee, after which you pay N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Go through their training program (which is 100% about teaching YOU) and however long you take to demo practice you will pay zero, zip, nada monthly fees. When you feel ready to start live trading just ask them to switch the account to “active” status. The fee for that is… $0.00.
At that point you begin getting paid for your trades from the very first month. My personal advice is to demo trade until you are confident in making 300 pips in a month. That is the performance requirement- for the first three months ONLY you must make at least 300 pips each month or you will be terminated. There is also a drawdown limit of -300 pips, which also will result in your termination. If this happens (as it did to me) they can offer you re-enrollment at a discount rate.
You are paid monthly on a “Dollars-per-pip” basis- you can check out the details on their website.
Oh yes, one last thing- I was absolutely amazed at the speed with which my personal questions were answered, and by the very helpful critiques of my trading performance. Truly amazing.
Sorry this was so long, but I had to share my experience.
I HAVE been with Apiary since May. it was very simple for me to decide for myself with the 14 day free trial. AFter the free trial I signed up, and I still pay my monthly fee of $97, because to me it represents a tremendous value and opportunity that I have not gotten anywhere else. if you have the time to take advantage of what they offer its a great deal. I did lose about $200 of their money in my live Apiaryfund funded account this month, my fAULT NOT THEIRS, but I didnt lose any money. I did not not earn money on any of the profits that I should have produced with their money.
but all is well they arent mad. I really like Apiary. And I went to the last live trading summit they had, it was an awesome time but I guess I am just a trading freak. I cannot wait until next Apiary live trading summit in Texas! see you there!!
you actually dont have to prove anything to get a LIVE trading account, all Apiary summitt Atendees get a $1000 account without proving anything, except that they can buy a summit ticket for $595. but you only get the live account for a month, and profits are split 60/40. But you could lose that $1000 in 30 days and owe nothing of course, and I am sure some people probably do it. I have really learned a lot from them this is my 6th month with them, so far so good! Yeah you can learn the real costly way, by losing your own money, I lost count of how many years I lost money before I finally turned it around and while it wasnt Apiary that turned it around for me , they sure helped me to improve my already consistently profitable results. Lessons learned by losing your own money are not more valuable JUST MORE COSTLY :Þ
and of course IF it isnt obvious, you dont get to keep or take the $1000 out, (just your share of the profit) (you lose their money they dont pay you ) but if you lose it, you lose $0 and they lose all, but they will limit you to something reasonable 5% loss per day per account. which makes again alot of sense, if you lose 5% in a day, most common belief is to stop trading! I have continued and got my 5% back but I also have lost another 5% or more before the day was done.
Blue point sounds like a complete rip off, maybe they should call it baby point trading?
I much rather would continue to get paid like a professional trader at Apiary, where I get paid on what is real (TOTAL PROFIT) where I get 60-85% of the profit not any dollar per pips diluted demented deal, and 300 pip heh, pip is a unit of measurement it matters not how many pips you get, its all about the PERCENTAGE OF GAIN on your account & preservation of capital.
in case you have NOT discovered already in life, you get what you pay for, and it sound like you are paying nothing and getting nothing. I need something a little more professional and supercharged
they dont teach you TO train like someone else, but that would be awesome if they did, I sure would like to be more like that Shawn, even though at 80% I should be happy.
they do however have strict hard coded risk management rules (bots) which makes sense, I should have been doing that 10 years ago, limiting my loss to 2% per trade and 5% loss per day.
AK I hope someday you are able to learn how to become a profitable trader. Apiary is not an outrageous rip off for those they send a paycheck to every month like clockwork,
Ripoff A ripoff is a bad financial transaction. Usually it refers to an incident in which a person is overcharged for something, or receives goods or services not of the standard expected for the price. A ripoff is usually distinguished from a scam in that a scam involves wrongdoing such as fraud; a ripoff may be considered excessive, but not illegal.
the value I have received is way in excess of what was expected for the price. cleaRLY YOU ARE IGNORANT? CERTAINLY ENTITLED to your own opinion, but I am sorry you are not a good trader and dont know how to make a profit, perhaps paying to learn is too much for you to grasp, but wise up and learn how to trade forex like a business, thats the only way you will make it long term, otherwise I will continue to take your money everyday. SO this means you need to be intelligent about it and scientific and logical. you need to learn otherwise you will continue to always be a loser @ forex.
unless you went through the beeline program (did you) (how far did you get) past the first level? you are much more ignorant than I previously thought. and your statements about the beeline are outright lies and again not only show your arse but your ignorance. see the way it works, is people come to apiary at all level of trading, the new ones typically take much longer top get funded. do you really think you can learn to trade (profitably) in a few days? and if Apiary taught you how to make a profit day in and day out in forex,. and their checks are good, why wouldnt you want to share with your friends etc? I found a way to make more money clicking my mouse in my mt4 account than I make at my regular job, if I am selfish and greedy then I conceal and lie, if I am kind and generous then I share and not just money.
as far as endorsing something, most people of average intelligence even newbs are able to make an intelligent decision about Apiary within the free 14 day free trial without paying anything. If you are so new that you watch trading experts do live training sessions, and you say they are this or that, it shows you dont know what you are taLKING ABOUT, my only goal in forex is to make a profit every day. When you run across people that make a profit everyday in forex, talking bad about them wont improve your trading results, and for $97 a month you expect a personal mentor? please describe your personal experrience not just give us bull**** judgements. I make enough that I am able to give away hundreds a month to help those in need, when you are ready top learn and become a profitable trader and I will sponsor you if you are too cheap to pay the $97, and if after 30 days of hard effort you show me something I will continue to pay your monthy fee so free for you if you can PRODUCE and make a profit, but better yet its all about getting through beeline as it forces you to learn and do things you wouldnt normally ever do in trading. and after the beeline is completed you are automatically funded.
Ak some of your post is so funny, you pay by the month and you are getting slow feedback? like days weeks a month?!? Did you ask for feedback. my experience so far is that they are quick to respond
and 300 pips a month is just silly, its not about the pips, I make 300 pips a day realistic goals are based on your account deposit and percentage of gain. SO on my $1000 account, the goal is 2% a day 5% a week, this is only because obviously you have to taKE some losses and even at 80%+ winning trade percentage, my average loss is larger than my average win which I dont like but I have 4 winners for every loser, so its all good.
and I have live accounts and demo accounts to prove what I say. and charts, and if the attachments here @ babypips didnt go way down in viewability, I would still be posting charts here.
and I am still laughing aT YOUR 300 PIP DRAWDOWN, YOU ALREADY BLEW UP YOUR ACCOUNT? AND have to pay to reenroll?> wow how many times aree you going to blow it up learning and need to pay to reenroll?
I have 11 accounts at Apiary when one blows up (5% loss REAL professional trading rules), I am locked out for 24 hours, but I dont have to pay, and If I lose their money, I never have to pay them back.
https://www.blue-point-trading.com/offices/franchisee-opportunities they are selling franchises, guess why? to make a profit? Apiary is a private fund in the united states, Apiary contracts with traders and pays them as professional traders, your blue boys are in are outside USA? and this: Please note before contacting us @ blue - Proficient english language skills and a strong background in information technology is a must for every potential BPT franchisee. You should have the ability to present to a group of 10 to 20 people and though not absolutely required, we recommend that you have some university education in the field of economics and financial markets.
Why not do some shopping. I am a trial member, and I haven’t been impressed. I plan on getting out before my 14 days are up. First thing is there success rate to become funded is 30%. Not good. I’m not impressed with there 30% of traders who are funded. What about the other 70%, are they paying for everyone else’s failures. If I am giving them 100 bucks a month for stuff I can get for free why not use that to fund my own account. Makes since to me.
not sure where you get that number but I’m sure it isnt accurate funding on the first level is automatic, even the slowest newest traders get funded in 6-9 months, I guess if you quit before you succeed, thats not really on them, you can give a trader trades all day but you cant make them pull the trigger. and typically those who get to $1000 get bumped to $2500 after 4 weeks of trading at $1000 if they control their risk. in case it isnt obvious #1 goal is capital preservation. they also dont hold your hand and coach you personally, which can easily cost $100/hr for a professional performance coach.
they also lowered the fees so as you progress they lower them every month as long as you are going through the levels. I still like it, I have met a great bunch of people there, no regrets, I think I’m paying now $65/mo tech fees, funded at $2500, support is great and can be slow if its low level, not that someone asking how to use the client doesnt deserve attention they do, but they try to prioritize support, and deal with high level issues first.
APIARY INVESTMENT FUND is using their 2 weeks free trial as their BAIT to get you on their program. This is their business marketing strategy to get somebody on the program. They will get your CREDIT/DEBIT CARD DETAILS during the sign up process for 2 weeks FREE TRIAL. After that, they will charge your CARD for $97 even you will not continue on the program. This is the “FREE TRIAL” that you will pay at the end.
It happened to me. BE AWARE AND BEWARE.
There are many options of Forex Proprietary Trading firm better than them that don’t require $97 monthly subscription. Just do your research.
) but if you lose it, you lose $0 and they lose all, but they will limit you to something reasonable 5% loss per day per account. which makes again alot of sense, if you lose 5% in a day, most common belief is to stop trading! I have continued and got my 5% back but I also have lost another 5% or more before the day was done.