Dear Mr. Tan,
I am a Singaporean PR with a background in the financial services sector. I am quite appalled at much of what goes on here in terms of mis-selling of products and services by the finance-related sectors. I am glad that you have managed to take on some of these issues and wish that the various authorities here in Singapore would be more active.
For the last couple of years I have had various dealings with such groups as MAS, ABS and CASE in my efforts to have some of these bad practises stopped and have had periodic successes.
However there is one issue that I just can't seem to make any headway on that I feel is something that somebody really needs to tackle and that is the selling of "get-rich-quick" type foreign exchage trading courses. This activity has been going on for years here and is essentially an on-going fraud that takes place in full public view, most notably via advertisements in the Straits Times.
The groups behind these schemes have made millions and millions of dollars here carrying out an activity which would be banned in most countries. It saddens me every time I open the newspaper when I see these advertisements because I know that it means yet more people will today be conned out of their hard-earned savings, or taken into debt, in order to attend one of these courses.
I would like to urge you to try to tackle this issue. I think that if you could do so you would be doing the Singaporean people a great service. Many millions have been swindled, but lets not let this practise go on for yet more years. I have realised that my efforts with the MAS, CASE, ABS etc are coming to nothing in this area so I realise it needs somebody of your status to be involved in this if anything is to change.
Please let me know if you would be interested to look into this issue and I would be very happy to help in any way I can starting by briefing you on what I believe are the illegal practises carried out by these groups in full public eye,
Concerned
I am a Singaporean PR with a background in the financial services sector. I am quite appalled at much of what goes on here in terms of mis-selling of products and services by the finance-related sectors. I am glad that you have managed to take on some of these issues and wish that the various authorities here in Singapore would be more active.
For the last couple of years I have had various dealings with such groups as MAS, ABS and CASE in my efforts to have some of these bad practises stopped and have had periodic successes.
However there is one issue that I just can't seem to make any headway on that I feel is something that somebody really needs to tackle and that is the selling of "get-rich-quick" type foreign exchage trading courses. This activity has been going on for years here and is essentially an on-going fraud that takes place in full public view, most notably via advertisements in the Straits Times.
The groups behind these schemes have made millions and millions of dollars here carrying out an activity which would be banned in most countries. It saddens me every time I open the newspaper when I see these advertisements because I know that it means yet more people will today be conned out of their hard-earned savings, or taken into debt, in order to attend one of these courses.
I would like to urge you to try to tackle this issue. I think that if you could do so you would be doing the Singaporean people a great service. Many millions have been swindled, but lets not let this practise go on for yet more years. I have realised that my efforts with the MAS, CASE, ABS etc are coming to nothing in this area so I realise it needs somebody of your status to be involved in this if anything is to change.
Please let me know if you would be interested to look into this issue and I would be very happy to help in any way I can starting by briefing you on what I believe are the illegal practises carried out by these groups in full public eye,
Concerned
30 comments:
I totally agree with the writer of the letter. It is obviously a FRAUD, a scheme to swindle naive public of their hard-earned money. It applies to all those selling trading system, be it forex or stocks. There is a broker at Phillips Securities allowed to sell his system to public, at the same time he nets them in as his clients. How unethical can one get! Giving false hope and milking people both ways. If it is so easy to make money from trading, why are these system sellers not using their own system to trade and make lots of $ for themselves, why sweat it out by selling systems instead. I think it is high time the regulators look into this issue seriously.
Again and again, messages ended like "regulator pls look into it." In 2008, 10,000 victims from minibond saga couldn't even get MAS to help, why should they now? Based on a couple of messages? For those who have been burnt, pls be ultra careful when you invest. For those who have not been burnt, pls ask people like TKL for second opinion before putting in a hugh sum of money into a legal scam. Alternatively, attend Mr. TKL finanical courses or read his book. Don't believe everything the FA or RA says......
Scams and frauds are committed daily in full view and broad daylight yet the regulator is blind. or is it blind? Why? Isn't the regulator's job to protect the public? Unfortunately and sadly it is not doing what is right?
Just because they did not care in the past doesn't mean they can continue not to care. They are called regulators in this country and their job first and foremost is to protect the public interest before other things. Just because they failed us in the past doesn't mean it should continue like that. Prevention is always better than cure. These crooks do big-scale advertisements everywhere, on newspapers, on FB, everywhere. Can you and I bring them to task on such small scale? No, we need the regulator the first regulate the industry then you and I can bring the crooks to justice whenever we see breaches. But once regulators step in, we should not see big scale misleading advertisements. That is half battle won. Regulators should do their job properly. Such glaring misdeed how can they turn a blind eye to it, unless they are blind themselves.
People have super short memory.
During the Minibond saga, Lee Kuan Yew said "You went in with your eyes open" , then how to expect MAS to look into bits and pieces of all business courses/schemes flourishing here.
What Lee meant was he himself also went in with his eyes open when he approved the UBS investment by GIC, he himself also got caught, so what's the big deal of your own losses.
Lesson No: 1 here, open your peppers wide, before you part with money. Be your own guardian angel, you are too insignificant for MAS.
Missing out the most important,
"What's the big deal of your own losses, as compared to the billions I lost for GIC in UBS."
Get the hint?
How can MAS regulate when GIC and Temasek have interest in all the FIs? It will be shooting in the foot, right? When they can talk it is for wayang.
Remember Mr.Goh warning to a local insurance company about pushing wholelife products that result in under insurance for Singaporeans? Did the that insurance company take the warning seriously? NO...in fact it showed Mr. Goh the middle finger and after the dinner they continued to push and push the agents to push ONLY wholelife products. You see, the FIs and the insurance companies know all these warnings are wayang only , to let us stupid consumers think that MAS is regulating.
Recently , the deputy Chairman of MAS also mentioned that insurance companies should stop product pushing and all those costly incentives to agents, eg trips to overseas, rebates and vouchers etc.
I am sure it will again fall on deaf ears as one minister talked about deaf frogs.
So don't expect anything from MAS. Be alert and educated financially.
I will like to bring to attention fx1 which use a Dr Lim who claim "2000 to 1 million in 11 months". However, no trading account was ever shown and only 3 basic setups are taught that can be found in $50 trading books for $5000. For kishore advertisement of '70000 in one month'. But I heard many students are not profitable and have to look for other fx courses.Similarly, J F lennon claims Jimmy wong make 1 million in another short period of time and do blindfold trading. Can their claims be verified or are they misleading?
http://www.jflennon.com/News27042010.htm
a trading guru who holds a record of trading USD $44, 000 to USD $1.14 million in less than three weeks. Mr. Jimmy Wong...
Many people will be lead to believe they will make millions if they learn from this guru and attend the course for thousands of dollars. Whether Jimmy wong is a real trader or not is not the point. But can these statements be verified with authorities like fx1 Dr Lim '2000 to 1 million in 11 months'. Do they constitute MISLEADING STATEMENTS if students do not get what is claim and cannot verify such statements with the claimed trading achievements.
Hi,
Just another note to add:
Many of these advertised FX training centres in the newspapers and actually not real qualified training schools.
Their main objective is not really to make revenue from school students. They have tie ups with online brokerage firms to earn commission each time their students trade, regardless of their trading results.
Hence their bulk of income is from brokerage commission. They will always encourage students to open live trading account immediately at their training course. Totally unethical! There is even a FX training school (FX1) where the trainer is a Brokerage firm (FX Primus) Director! His objective is obvious.
Just like in schools, students need to practice and experience good results themselves from the learning before going live. Demo trading 1st.
Let's go out and weed out these unethical schools that always advertise on papers or earn commissions from brokerage companies big time.
Thanks.
Hi,
Saw the above post on JF Lennon.
This is one school that has not advertise in newspapers, nor indicate you can make millions over a short period of time.
I have personally attended JF Lennon previews. The speakers have repeated several times it is not a get "rich quick programme". It is a mastery programme that takes time.
Jimmy had also told us the audience the result published on business times (44k to 1.14M) is his personal skill set. At least he is a proven successful trader. He can guide his students over time, not like him, and sufficient to build their wealth over time consistently and with discipline.
He had even showed us his current trading live accounts that are still profiting.
These are Facts that I had witnessed and hear for myself.
But I have not seen similar experience in other schools that advertised heavily in the papers.
Hi,
If these trainers and schools are so good, why not ask them to get into a competition to trade live for charity for a month or 2 to prove their trading skill set rather than just advertising.
Maybe the losing schools should close down thereafter.
That is one way to expose the "fake" schools.
A thought......
Hmmmm,
I believe the Jimmy Wong 44k to 1M record is audited and published in Business Times. Can't be fake right?
I have attended his school (jf lennon) preview before. the speakers and jimmy himself emphasise it is not a get rich quick programme. It takes time to master. Jimmy's record is his personal skill set, but enough prove that he is a successful trader himself. At least he earns the right to guide hi students till today.
Don't think I have seen jf lennon advertise in papers, not shout about students making exponential growth in their trading.
Well, let's do more research to find out.
But I agree to weed out all the misleading schools, who thrives on earning commissions from their students trading account from the brokers. This is their main revenue.
To audit a trading account is real or not, it should be done by an certified accountant from 3rd party but not a news agent.
Jimmy is a responsible trainer, see what they said before drawing a conclusion
http://intrilliongroup.com/1-day-forex-training-workshop-s178-only
http://www.wealthcreation.com.sg/
http://www.facebook.com/JimmyFX?sk=info
I personally used $15K on the fx seminars. What I realise fx seminars
1) Use misleading statements esp millions in a short period of time(3 weeks, 11 months etc)that has no trading records shown.
2) Use high pressure sales tactics e.g haggling you until u relent. Always ask for your credit card and ask for your deposit when u say u will consider later.
3) Use motivational/NLP techniques to get u high in the seminar.
It's hard for layman to realise what's wrong with a trading seminars teachings until when one go live trading and get busted.
I then set a criteria of seeing trading statements before I sign up. The second seminar I went to seems better but the guru blew USD3K from my managed account and recently blew up his managed account with his 'no loss strategy'. Though I saw a trading statement of his but his EA is trading such a way it seems consistent profit but later blow up due to averaging techniques.
For people who yearn to learn trading. I suggest in checking the fx seminars
1) Ask for 1 year trading statement from the guru.
2) Observe any high pressure selling techniques used on you
3) Check out comments on the fx seminar on the web and ask attendees. Sometimes hard. But if you are resourceful join fx meetup groups.
4) The background and experience of the trainer. Is he managing funds if he can trade so well? If not, why? We have Deejays and doctors claiming making millions in 3 weeks, 11 months.
Singapore has the highest number of crap fx seminars. Teach simple basics found in $50 trading book but sell seminar at 3-5K with storyline like 'Dr Lim hurt his back and observing charts for a year in bed he found the holy grail.' How do u claim against a fx seminar on subjective grounds. The guru teach u ABC can u say he defraud u. So subjective. ABC is a simple chart pattern.
Even if now, with experience I can spot fake seminars but I still fall to my greed when again a trainer will flash 1 million in 1 year. And I still got screwed by my second guru even if he shows me a trading statement. The only way is for the govt to regulate the industry. And have avenue for complaints and refund. Many singaporeans fear singapore defamation laws and keep quiet. Many fx seminars are thriving and advertise every week on Strait times. They are having a field day with a government that doesn't bother about the slaughter of the innocence.
Perhaps, SPH should include some ethics in deciding what advertising to accept, and not just based on pricing alone.
All those advertisement that talks about early retirement in 1 to 2 years, or few hundred and few thousand percent returns in a few months should be banned forever.
Agree that auditing an account should be done by a 3rd party auditor.
I reckon what the media can do is probably validate it by viewing the live trading account,or seeing that the account has already been validated by a 3rd party auditor before publishing it in Business Times.
I doubt our Business Times editor would not have ensure this.
I personally the preview of the ABC /123 strategy sold by the school (FX1) back to 2007, they were very successful at that time, got many students paid them 5/6K for a few days course but I didn't sign up the course, and that medical doctor who claimed turning 2K to a million later offered another course at 10K under the same school was eventually disappeared in singapore. Now the ex-co-founders are running another school (JF-lennon) in town and their FX guru is showing his blind-folded trading technique video online and is using Facebook and twitter kind of free social network instead of newspaper to do publicity, I have no idea of good and how real of this FX-guru, but given the fact that singapore has the highest number of crap retail FX trading courses among all the well-developed countries in Asia, I think I would prefer taking those trading courses which is under MAS sponsorship scheme
Nowadays, this type of fake FX guru use different way to market himself.
1. Ask their marketer to flush many positive comments in different discussion forum, facebook etc.
2. No longer claiming of turning few thousand dollars to a million in a short time in black and white, but telling you what kind and how many of luxury cars/ properties he had and stress that he paid all these assets in cash from the trading profit,yet refusing to public a valid statement or engage a 3rd party certified accountant to audit the trading account, it is up to you to believe these assets is actually paid by the school fee from you or the trading profit by himself.
3. change a free preview course to a 1 day short introduction program, at least the trainer can suck 200 to $300 from you if their marketers fail to brainwash you to sign up a so called high profitable and stress free trading program at $3/4k.If there are 50 stupid fool to sign up an introduction course , the trainer can get 10K in a day
I think those self-proclaimed successful FX gurus should have taken up a trading contest to prove themselves rather than keep sending a message through different media, online social network, magazine and newspaper to market how profitable the trading strategy, how many % of passive income you can enjoy from their strategy but lacking of proven valid and audited trading statement to support their claim. Some may just post a picture with his million dollar sport car to lead you think that he is profitable a trader
Likes FXCM, it has micro acct trade contest event every month. Can those FX-guru prove themselves by just spending $500
http://forexforums.dailyfx.com/king-micro-trading-contest/422842-septembers-contest-results-winner-returns-1627-14-a.html
Good point on witnessing live trade results and starting with small amount. Even getting someone to audit the live trades, and prove the assets are real.
Recently I attended the preview by JF Lennon.
Wow, the FX master actually opened 2 live trading account from the trading platform.
All the 40+ public attendees were asked to witness that his trades are live and real, by going through the live statement online, real time.
He had traded from $2.8k to $30k+ in 20+ business days in 1 account, and another account from $14k to $70k over similar time period.
All the attendees were asked to voluntarily witness and sign proof of witness letter.
This is convincing in its own way I would say in testifying to his own skill set.
The FX Master of JF Lennon is even looking for someone to sponsor a 30 days trading competition among all the FX schools to prove which are the fake schools and fake skill set. He is also looking for an opportunity to trade and donate away all his profits to charity.
Seeing is believing in this case for me.
Anyone can see for yourself as well.
Hi Anonoymous,
I am a trader and been trading for 20 years. It is obvious you work for JFlenon and maybe even own it. who knows. I would say Jf lenon is no better than any other school. All of these guys are interested in making money and provide education that is not of any standard. First of all, you speak soooo much of this jimmy wong guy...i Google him, saw the blind fold trading...so called...if he really is this good...he would be with biggest banks and hedge funds and not running a school...come on...so stop glorifying one school just to get students in. Now as for challenging others to compete and asking them to shut their business...let me tell you this...some people are great coaches but lousy traders...give you an example...Anthony Robbins coached the world's best athlete but he may not be an athlete himself...so really....if anyone ones to do any good to the community here...the right suggestion is that all schools must submit their courses to MAS and teach only authorized material...no claims should be allowed to be made....you said jimmy wong does not make claims...than what is all the videos all over the net of mr.jimmy blindfold wong doing blind fold trading...isn't that a marketing ploy saying trading is so easy i can do it blind folded so can you....come on....be real...trading is not that easy and surely you cannot do it blind folded...so people wake up....the only people to be blamed are people who promote these things and more so people that come on blogs like this a PRETEND to help but when they are actually promoting their own stuff and have a hidden agenda
oh not to mention....i had seen this fx master loose his oants down...what risk management is he using...2k to 3o k in 20 days...if he is real...show an account live that had been traded for over 1 year at least...get it auditted by a known auditor like PWC or someone and PWC to sign off saying it is authentic...i bet you he cannot do that....turning 2 k to 30k by trading 1 or 2 lots from the start is not trading but gambling ...so wake up...i had seen this many many times and at the end non of these so called high profit traders can stand the test of time..
Simple way to join a trade contest
1. No need to look for third party to sponsor a 30 days trading competition among all the FX schools .
FXCM has already provided a platform for anyone who is willing to take up the challenge . Link for applying the trade contest.
" http://www.forexmicrolot.com/trading-contest.jsp "
He just needs to deposit $500 USD to trade. I don't believe the coach who charges his student for a 4/5K course cannot afford to spend $500, rite?
2. No need to bother which are the fake FX schools and fake skill set. Important is he can prove himself is real will be sufficient to make himself stands out from the rest.
I saw a coach in a showcase who told people that he owned a group of professional research team in Hong Kong that keeps updating his trading algorithm and methodology constantly. That's why his trading course/material will be modified constantly too. After I heard that, I have some doubts. If the trading strategy is basically not working in long run, he can also
said there is new trading methodology to cater the change of the market conditions recently and the old one that student paid 4/5K to learn is irrelevant.
1. Why this HK research team choose not to launch a similar FX course in HK but run the course in Singapore. The market Cap in HK is much bigger than Singapore and many PRCs go to HK to invest property /financial products and attending investment course in HK everyday.
The potential students can be grabbed each month in HK could be easily 4 to 5 times more than the class size in Singapore. Why they don't do it there?
2. If this research team is actually a 3rd party company and it is providing consultant service or actually selling the trading algorithm to the coach, the coach should reveal the license Number of this consultant firm or individual, if they are regulated by Hong Kong SEC (similar to MAS in singapore). They should have
License Number because the coach is making a claim that his trading methodology is proven . What is the definition of a proven trading methodology? Is it a trading algorithm from a Phd Thesis/Master conference paper and get published under any international Finance/trading journal? which edition and which years?).
He should make it clear when he made such claim to the public.
Recently, I realised there are many forex school ad. in facebook / twitter etc. The school highlights that the course is not a "quick rich scheme" and claims its strategy is "PROVEN" and it can yield 6% (for beginner with little forex trading experience) to over 25%.
Take out my calculator to do a simple calculation. Assuming the average monthly returns is 8% from its strategy, each $1 dollar will become $2.5 after 12 mths, this is 150% gain. Do you know that a 150% returns per annual is well above the benchmark of 90% of institution fund mangers worldwide. If the strategy can really make a consistent 25% per month, the same $1 dollar will become $14.5 which is 1400% in a year. What if the coach himself invest $10,000 SGD on such trading strategy? He will make 145K in 12 mths time. After seeing this figures, you have to ask yourself what is the motivate that makes the coach to teach you such amazing strategy at a $200 1 day course or $5000 2 days program? Isn't it is just selling you a "DREAM", a dream that you will become a millionaire one day?
Why no investment bank/ Hedge Fund gives him a billion dollar cheque to buy his strategy or hire him to work for them? How many students he has to teach to generate a 1 billion revenue for the school. Think Again!!!!!
This is a very informative video and it is started circulating in facebook and forex discussion forum since yesterday.
"http://vimeo.com/31528550"
In this video, there is a local forex coach who is trying to send you a message that
1.He can trade without looking the chart with accuracy greater than 60% for over 40 consecutive attempts
2.The accuracy will be improved to over 90$ if he does look at the chart to make a trade call.
3. His strategy is Proven.
It sounds amazing and unbelievable right? I m not interested in finding out whether his skillset is real or not and I just assume it is real.
What I m trying to tell you next is some proven mathematically theory which is probability, I believe most of you learn probability in secondary school.
Lets begin a "A story of an amazing penny"
Everyone should know how much a penny worth! Let us play a probability game with this amazing penny. The rule is very simple, you flip a penny and guess it is toss or head. If you get it right, the value of the penny will be double. For example, if I guess it right in 3 consecutive attempts, this 1 penny will become 8 penny (1 to 2, 2 to 4 then 4 to 8). Got it!
After 30 consecutive attempts, the value of this 1 penny will become 800K SGD if I guess it right each time. If you don't believe me, try to take out your calculator to check it out. What if I guess it right in 55 consecutive attempts? Woo, that 1 penny will become a very very huge amount, how BIG? It is equivalent to 2 times of Bill gate and Warren Buffet's fortune added together. Isn't it an amazing penny.
Now if you use his strategy to trade a micro-lot FX account, you will become the richest man in the world within 24 hours. Does this DREAM sounds very amazing?
I am wondering why MAS does not regulate all these so called Investment Expert, self proclaimed No1.Trader in Singapore.
Try and conduct this kind of "Education seminar" in Australia without an Financial Services License and Australian Securities and Investments Commission will make sue to ban you or put you in jail.
According to his website , the unbelievable trading skill that you see in this video "http://vimeo.com/31528550" is not what he taught in the course that he offers to student. He is marketing one thing but selling another thing. But a similar video is everywhere in the net, is this a mis-selling?
I am trading on a daily chart, slow and smooth. So far i am making about good returns. I tend to trade only 1-3 times depending on the pattern, candlestick and S&R. You can attend seminar but be open about it and don't believe about the hype. Do some research. There is a lot online you get for free. I do have friends who make a fast buck but some do lose the entire account in a month. I have been doing FX trades and US Equities for years. I am a full time trader. I don't teach but you can get good advice from Nial Fuller. Never paid anything for his course.
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