Here are some of the phrases used on the sites selling fx trading software that appear on the front page of Google for that search phrase:
"Forex trading at it's very best", "Incredibly Powerful, Yet Simple Trading System That Will Help You Make A Fortune In Forex", and, incredibly, "Forex Robot That Is Capable Of Doubling Your Money Every Single Month".
That last one is some claim, though note the words "is capable of". The question is, "Will it when I use it?". Then of course you have the guarantees, essential if the seller is to sell more than just a handful of his program. The guarantee on one of these sites runs, "... provided you have traded with it in accordance with the simple instructions, we will refund your purchase price in full".
It's all very beguiling, isn't it? Can it really be that good? It's little wonder that these software programs are selling by the thousand to a market that is hungry to learn how to make money at home, in many cases to replace the income from a job that disappeared. And the people selling them are making a lot of money.
But are their customers making money from having bought the program? More than 95 per cent of them are not. That's the proportion of new forex traders who go out of business within a few months. This unfortunate statistic is cynically used by the program sellers to convince their prospective customers that they had better buy their particular program in order to avoid that fate.
The truth of the matter is that there's more money to be made in selling forex related programs and information than there is in actually trading forex. In theory it should be possible to make money easily from forex. The exchange rates of up to 40 currency pairings are changing nearly all the time, sometimes moving a couple of hundred points in just one day. So it's easy to believe that you can take a ride on just one or two such moves each day to earn a nice income.
Appearances are deceptive, though. The forex market is like a woman of the night, beckoning, promising, and when you get inside you more often than not get a punch on the nose. It promises so much but usually delivers nothing other than an empty bank account. Why should this be?
The fx market, as we're always being told, is the largest market in the world, trading over $3 trillion a day, according to the latest figures (March 2009). And that's part of the trouble. It's made for the big players. The small guy doesn't have much chance. It's so volatile and unpredictable that even the most advanced forex trading programs and "robots" can't handle it.
The winners are those traders who have literally millions behind them. They usually risk only a tiny percentage of the money in their currency trading account on any one trade, no matter how certain they are of success. They usually operate on behalf of a big bank, hence the millions available to trade with.
They often trade through covered warrants or Exchange Traded Funds, and avoid spread betting, with all its risks of being stopped out. If they do use spread betting they can trade with large stop loss levels, often of hundreds of points, to ride out any erratic moves and volatility that occurs before they reach their profit target. Small traders, on the other hand, are usually advised to operate with small stop loss levels to "protect" them from a reversal in the trend and avoid large losses, and they're never given a chance to use the less risky warrants or ETFs.
And if you think any fx trading software is worth a try because there's a money-back guarantee, then be careful. If you are to get your money back you have to supply evidence of your trades so the seller can satisfy himself that you followed the instructions to the letter. Any slight variation and the guarantee is worthless. And you have to have traded with real money - hardly likely within the time period of the guarantee.
But all is not lost. If you really want to make money trading the financial markets (not necessarily forex) from home, just find a successful trader (he'll quite likely seldom touch forex) and see if he'll teach you. You're nearly there already.
"Forex trading at it's very best", "Incredibly Powerful, Yet Simple Trading System That Will Help You Make A Fortune In Forex", and, incredibly, "Forex Robot That Is Capable Of Doubling Your Money Every Single Month".
That last one is some claim, though note the words "is capable of". The question is, "Will it when I use it?". Then of course you have the guarantees, essential if the seller is to sell more than just a handful of his program. The guarantee on one of these sites runs, "... provided you have traded with it in accordance with the simple instructions, we will refund your purchase price in full".
It's all very beguiling, isn't it? Can it really be that good? It's little wonder that these software programs are selling by the thousand to a market that is hungry to learn how to make money at home, in many cases to replace the income from a job that disappeared. And the people selling them are making a lot of money.
But are their customers making money from having bought the program? More than 95 per cent of them are not. That's the proportion of new forex traders who go out of business within a few months. This unfortunate statistic is cynically used by the program sellers to convince their prospective customers that they had better buy their particular program in order to avoid that fate.
The truth of the matter is that there's more money to be made in selling forex related programs and information than there is in actually trading forex. In theory it should be possible to make money easily from forex. The exchange rates of up to 40 currency pairings are changing nearly all the time, sometimes moving a couple of hundred points in just one day. So it's easy to believe that you can take a ride on just one or two such moves each day to earn a nice income.
Appearances are deceptive, though. The forex market is like a woman of the night, beckoning, promising, and when you get inside you more often than not get a punch on the nose. It promises so much but usually delivers nothing other than an empty bank account. Why should this be?
The fx market, as we're always being told, is the largest market in the world, trading over $3 trillion a day, according to the latest figures (March 2009). And that's part of the trouble. It's made for the big players. The small guy doesn't have much chance. It's so volatile and unpredictable that even the most advanced forex trading programs and "robots" can't handle it.
The winners are those traders who have literally millions behind them. They usually risk only a tiny percentage of the money in their currency trading account on any one trade, no matter how certain they are of success. They usually operate on behalf of a big bank, hence the millions available to trade with.
They often trade through covered warrants or Exchange Traded Funds, and avoid spread betting, with all its risks of being stopped out. If they do use spread betting they can trade with large stop loss levels, often of hundreds of points, to ride out any erratic moves and volatility that occurs before they reach their profit target. Small traders, on the other hand, are usually advised to operate with small stop loss levels to "protect" them from a reversal in the trend and avoid large losses, and they're never given a chance to use the less risky warrants or ETFs.
And if you think any fx trading software is worth a try because there's a money-back guarantee, then be careful. If you are to get your money back you have to supply evidence of your trades so the seller can satisfy himself that you followed the instructions to the letter. Any slight variation and the guarantee is worthless. And you have to have traded with real money - hardly likely within the time period of the guarantee.
But all is not lost. If you really want to make money trading the financial markets (not necessarily forex) from home, just find a successful trader (he'll quite likely seldom touch forex) and see if he'll teach you. You're nearly there already.
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