Why would I want to do that? I know nothing about FTMO. Maybe they are a scam, maybe they are not. I have no idea!!!
But I AM sure that they will have to undergo the same scrutiny that MFF met with - and hopefully all prop firms will have to go through it and it will result in regulatory control (for what that is worth!).
It may well be that any regulatory framework introduced will render the “business model” unworkable and they will all disappear. But that is still a open question! Either way, it should end the Wild West shambles that we are currently seeing in this industry!
Then it is good that you bring it to people’s attention. The more aware potential traders become the more likely that they will keep their money saf(er).
Hopefully, you have also passed on your evidence to the appropriate authorities. I may be wrong, but I have understood that the investigations into MFF were initially prompted by outsider evidence?
nah. i dont have time to navigate the red tape of the cftc or the fbi or whatever.
i am just telling you how to tell that ftmo and the other “pay to play a demo challenge” are scams.
ask ftmo the following questions:
how do i know that you really have a mountain of cash with which to fund trader’s live accounts. (they will change the subject or tell you that you are being nosey and it is none of your business)
where are all of these LIVE FTMO TRADERS? i would think that there would be a few prancing around in these forums(such as babypips and forexfactory and forexpeacearmy) talking about their winnings and showing pics of their trading setups, etc… talking about their winnings, etc… but all we see is commercially made testimonials that are complete nonsense on youtube.
it is obvious to me why MYFOREXFUNDS and FTMO operate from countries where they are outside of the reach of the LONG ARM OF THE LAW, it is because they are criminal scammers.
done.
if you disagree with me…
show me that FTMO has a mountain of millions of cash with which to fund their LIVE ACCOUNTS with.
i dont think it exists… they only want your fees, just like MYFOREXFUNDS.
It was actually this news that woke me up to this industry. I hadn’t really heard of prop firms until about the start of this year and initially I thought the concept sounded very innovative : Match those with the money with those with the trading skills and share the profits.
But the more one hears, the more suspect it becomes. When talk started that prop firms are only interested in the fees, I dismissed it because I thought the amount must be insignificant considering the costs of running such a business. Afterall, who would want to scam for such small sums, I thought - but then came the MFF figures and …
It was only then that I started to think about the mechanics of how these function…
Interestingly, I have been following this FTMO trader thread here on BP. This trader has been around here for a long time and he is not working for FTMO. We will see how it ends up:
for some reason, his myfxbook shows NEGATIVE TEN PERCENT GAIN.
just fyi, i have followed his thread since it began and even tho he did pull off some impressive moves…
IF YOU ARE THINKING THAT YOU WILL PAY A FEE TO FTMO AND THAT YOU WILL END UP AS A LIVE FTMO TRADER FOR MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES, YOU ARE WRONG.
IT IS A SCAM.
THE other popular scam in the forex community is the offshore brokerages… that is a criminal’s dream… it is a license to steal.
also a scam.
hey, did you know that i have spent the last twenty years designing the holy grail of forek trading? and i dont care if you believe me… cuz i aint giving you anything anyways…
What on earth is a negative gain? I haven’t gone as far as watching his myfxbook. I am not that interested in this subject. I used to follow his threads prior to this and I am interested to see how this attempt works out, that’s all. He is a very likeable character and his threads are entertaining and he works hard at trying to get somewhere in these markets.
I have no personal interest in taking on one of these challenges. I have my own personal account so why share my profits with someone else! In the early days of watching this industry I did consider that it could be a big benefit to traders with significant capital tied up in their accounts because they could transfer their own funds to some other type of business and trade a company’s money instead. Also, that way, they could reduce the risk of problems with their broker. But for such traders, their broker risk is nowadays fairly minimal, but anyway. But now, I think that was all just “in theory”.
But I’ve said enough here for one evening, so I’ll pass the baton on…
i’ve had this mrharrypooter guy on permanent ignore under 6 different usernames now, all the way onwards from silverf466 - he says the same words in the same order, with the same expressions (and even sometimes the same spelling mistakes) and speaks to the same people on the phone (lol), and confabulates the same bullsh!t “information” and has the same prejudices and ignorance and silliness every time around
EVENTUALLY, every single time, the moderators put all the information i’ve shown them all together and get rid of him
but meanwhile it’s VERY, VERY tiresome - especially this time
i might come back when i hear he’s gone
until then have fun as he and one or two others destroy the little that’s left of this forum by driving away the few remaining active participating members
they may also have FTMO’s legal department serving a notice on their hosting company on Monday, i wouldn’t be surprised
one way or another, i think they need to find a secure and permanent way to get rid of this guy, for their business to survive - either that, or change their business model completely (also might not be a bad idea?)
Quite obvious if you stopped to think about it. E.g. If someone turns down a good job just because they are scared to make a change, then I would be against their decision in positive sense. On the other hand if they were taking a bad job then I would be against it in a negative sense.
I write long because I always wish to justify my views. Whether you or anyone bothers to read them is purely your choice, I really don’t care!! Unlike you, who seem to think that just leaving your caps lock on somehow makes your unevidenced claims proven.
That is interesting @flamingoproxy. I don’t spend enough time here (for obvious reasons!) to have noticed. But I guess it is historically not so uncommon as one might expect. Thanks for the heads up!
Don’t know why potter is in a tizzy - on line ‘props’ are not prop firms they are Scouting Firms.
The business model is simple - main source of income is the evaluation fee, the 10% or so get paid from this income source - the few that are actually consistently profitable - trade with them.
So what about the guys who didn’t make it -were they ‘scammed’?
Well they joined on a challenge - if they were not fed fake info, maybe they learned a little about discipline maybe they just gambled and lost - then again maybe the market is a scam?
Or again maybe we are all a little potty for being in the circus in the first place
They say that if you pay a fee to play a demo challenge and if you pass the challenge that they will put you in a live account.
Where are all of the live account traders?
Answer: nope.
There are no live accounts with myforexfunds, ftmo, maverick, etc.
And now myforexfunds.com is soon to be under indictment for fraud.
Ftmo is next on the chopping block and will be indicted for some form of securities fraud, which is a federal charge and is punishable by fine and/or prison time, as is the case for myforexfunds.com
MFF is accused of applying various techniques and manipulations that make it harder for traders to succeed in their challenges. This is wrong, but apparently very profitable and outside current regulation:
The complaint also alleges that Traders Global actively minimizes the likelihood that customers trade profitably by using pretexts to terminate customer accounts, misleadingly assessing commissions that reduce customer account equity, secretly using specialized software to cause customer orders to be executed at worse prices than appeared to the customer at the time an order was sent, and handicapping the extremely small number of successful customers to decrease customer profits and increase customer losses."
If it were just a challenge on a demo account to see if a trader can reach a pre-set target and if all the rules and restrictions are published upfront then I don’t see any problem.
But that was apparently not the case with MFF and, given the speed with which this basically unregulated market is expanding, there is a great need to investigate the operations of this industry as a whole.
If the result would be a regulated workable model then it is a great concept.
This is a trend that has been continuing for some time. The current forum is no comparison with what it was some 6-8 years back. There are few worthwhile conversations (like this one should be) and even fewer competent traders (if you can drive a car you easily spot the learners in the traffic even if they pretend otherwise).
But there are other sides to this site which are good and useful. E.g. I use the calendar here daily. It is very clear and user-friendly. But I only look in on the forum if I see a reply or “like” or if I have a dull moment. I am rarely inspired by what I see.
It is a pity, there seems to be a clear drift across social media as a whole towards one-sentence conversations. Everything is only skin-deep and superficial. Forums could/should be a place where topics can be discussed in depth, but no one has the patience for anything beyond two sentences.
Perhaps that is one reason why so many get into dodgy companies in the first place.
But maybe I’ll just stick to the calendar instead!
Aye a regulated entity has at the very least to comply with regulation - though oft times much can depend on where in the world the regulator is domiciled.
In the case of MFF the question was asked back in June “is MFF regulated?”
The answer in Forex Academy was " MFF Forex is not regulated by any major regulatory bodies, which may be a concern for some traders"
Being regulated doesn’t automatically safeguard us against malpractice - I’d say reputation is maybe one of the characteristics to look for in broker choice, and maybe see thru the marketeers with flashy come aboard videos.
Edit: I posted on another thread re on line ‘prop’ firms - if guys google ‘Scouting Firms FX’ they’ get good insight on the term ‘prop firm’ and what they are - Jack about 3 years ago…
Good point, @peterma. And that, sadly, goes for all sectors of the finance business, not just prop firms. They just happen to be the “flavour of the day” at the moment. We’ve had in the past, scammy off-shore brokers, illegal platform plug-ins, binary options, and on it goes.
Ultimately, the only way to fully protect the näive and their money is to ban these activities entirely. But what would that achieve? Just another innovative avenue opening up somewhere else. And why should the majority have to be penalised just because of the laziness of the few in checking what they are doing with their money!
The same principle operates throughout society. We enact laws and consequences to protect the public, and we install policing and justice institutions to enforce them. But what happens if, as so often happens, one cannot rely on the police services or courts of law. The same goes with regulating authorities in the finance sector.
As you say, one’s own due diligence is always necessary as far as it can go. But there will always be the cracks in the armour that let the arrows through.
I find these topics extremely depressing, but they are important and should be talked about on such forums wherever such vulnerable people gather. It is all the more important that posters remember that we here are all on the same side of the story - and there is no need for hostility amongst one’s own troops. There is more than enough of that on the “outside”!
Thanks for the post
PS: One additional thought. When one looks on the inside of the prop firm we also see them having to take precautions against being scammed themselves by their traders!! E.g. copy trading across accounts, using signals from external services, etc. Scamming is not, it seems, a one-way street!
I haven’t gone as far as watching his myfxbook. I am not that interested in this subject. I used to follow his threads prior to this and I am interested to see how this attempt works out, that’s all. He is a very likeable character and his threads are entertaining and he works hard at trying to get somewhere in these markets.
