Post: #1

I'd been studying basic accounting and economics from free online courses in my spare time and while I've learnt some basic knowledge which is cool. I've also been introduced into FX trading, I watched videos on youtube and became hooked.
I set up a demo account on a binary trading site called IQ options.

With a very basic knowledge of trading i out of luck managed to triple the amount of money in my demo account..
Thought to myself
"fuck this is easy! I'm using real money."

Deposited £100 into my account and traded for about 20 minutes. I made £280 back from a couple trades. Then lost the entire amount on the next few trades. Thinking how easy i doubled my money but forgetting how easy i lost it,
I decided to deposit £250 which gave me a bonus £100 to play with..
Ended up losing all that money and then deposited another £200 to try and get back my winnings.
After 2 losses in trades I started to realise "holy fuck, I'm spending money i cannot afford to lose and I'm losing all of this. "

I tried to withdraw the £240 in the account i had left back to my bank. Then I get, "Sorry you cannot withdraw your current funds"

So i then start to panic realizing I've just lost over £500 in a couple of hours. I contact the company via their live chat and tell them my situation. They then tell me that because a bonus was activated when I deposited my £250; a new rule comes into play that you have to earn 35x that deposit on trades until you can withdraw your cash. WTF!!!
I called my bank. They couldn't help..
I called the IQ options number. The phone doesn't get answered and they don't respond to emails either..

I spoke again to their live web chat team (just some random bloke from pakistan i reckon) and they tell me there's nothing I can do because it says in the T&C about the 35x multiplier to withdraw rule.. Obviously I didn't read all the small print of the T&C's when i signed up.
Fuck, you'd think they'd make something as ridiculous as that available for people to see before they deposit money into an account which they realistically are never going to get back.

After hating myself for the stupidity to fall for a scam like this and losing money that I couldn't afford to lose, I've now just had to accept this is a life lesson and I've payed a price big time for it..
All the things I could of done with that £500 but nope, its in the trash, gone in the wind. It hurts it does..

Is there actually anything I can do to get that £200 that's sitting in that account on their website back into my hands..?

Post: #2

It's a scam site run by Russians. You're never getting any money back from them. Obviously, never use this site again in the hope of "making it back".

Chalk it up and consider it a lesson learned -- don't gamble.

If they have your credit card or bank account information, I would consider changing your card number. Just tell your bank that you have reason to believe the identity of the account may have been compromised, and you'd like a new card number / account number etc.

Post: #3

At least you learned something.

I know someone who spent $3000 on an RSD bootcamp and learned nothing.

Post: #4

(09-19-2015 04:39 PM)Ruivinho Wrote:  Is there actually anything I can do to get that £200 that's sitting in that account on their website back into my hands..?

Yeah obviously you can withdraw it all after you've traded is x35. You should seriously read those terms yourself.

You said it yourself, it's a life lesson. All successful people have made mistakes. This is true for everything including money and girls. I lost $2200 in bitcoin margin trading earlier this year. Another time I was scammed on a $1500 weed-deal. It sucks but this is the things that I really learn from.

Either you can stay safe, never take any risks and never lose anything. The world is full of people like this and no one will blame you.

Or you can take the risks, take the loses and in the end, when you finally make it in something, you won't regret it and instead be grateful for what ever happened on the way.

Post: #5

Always deal with a reputable company when trading, the trading divisions of banks are your best bet.

FX trading is not easy, 95% of the guys that trade lose their shirts.

I know one guy who is in the 5%.

Post: #6

The 35x rule is pretty common when accepting a deposit bonus. And you know who else gives out deposit bonses? Sports betting websites. That's right. FX "trading" is gambling unless you have an edge. Which you don't.


Like others said, it's a life lesson and the lesson is that there is no free lunch.

Post: #7

You paid tuition and learned something

Post: #8

(09-19-2015 05:35 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  Always deal with a reputable company when trading, the trading divisions of banks are your best bet.

FX trading is not easy, 95% of the guys that trade lose their shirts.

I know one guy who is in the 5%.

Can you tell us a bit about this guy? Does he scalp? I assume he is a technical trader. What indicators does he use?

Post: #9

Your mistake was thinking you could make a fast profit.

People who make money in stocks and shares are long term investors.

Sure, there will be people making short term profits, but I guarantee they will have a 'long term fund', where the serious investing takes place. Their short term fund will be disposable money.

Only take risks with money you can afford to lose.

Post: #10

(09-19-2015 09:05 PM)Brodiaga Wrote:  You paid tuition and learned something

Very true. About three years ago I heard the phrase, 'you pay to learn' and I looked at my (albeit small) business losses in a completely different light. It changed my mindset considerably.

Post: #11

The 35x multiplier usually applies to the bonus you received. So to withdraw the £100 bonus you need to wager 35x the bonus. Only a few sites place a restriction that doesn't allow you to withdraw any of your money until it's reached.

Post: #12

I lost 10x that amount when I was 17-18 in online poker. Yes it's a horrible feeling but it's not the end of the world. You paid 700pounds for a life lesson better learnt now than 30 years from now when you actually may have a lot of money.

Post: #13

Do not ever play with currency stock trading shit. There are about 1000000000000000000000 factors that go into the makeup of the price of currency, if you think you are able to properly predict them you're a dupe
Lesson number 2, never play with money you can't afford to lose
Lesson number 3, research the firm you wanna give your money to

Post: #14

500 pounds is really nothing, I have seen players losing way more than that, I am into sports betting and when I first started, I lost 15.000 pounds in one week, that shit got me depressed for 2 weeks but I was able to make all the money back and I am on good profit right now but of course, it took me time to learn all of this and lots of stupid mistakes.

Imagine that you bought a phone with that 500 pounds and now you lost the phone, I know it hurts but you will be ok.

Post: #15

No big deal really.

1: As you start making money and investing later in your career you have to get used to volatility. I regularly swing down or up 3-4k/ day on my investments. In another ten years those swings will be 30-40k/day! You just gotta get used to it and learn to handle the volatility do that you won't end up making stupid decisions based on out of control emotions.

2: From another perspective, you are absolutely going to lose 500 bucks on stupid stuff regularly in life. Bad purchases of items that turn out to be useless or break, travel plans you need to change or cancel, all sorts of things, experiences that you thought would be worthwhile but weren't. The important thing is to try and learn from these mistakes and grow so that next time you won't do it. Hopefully by the time you're 40 you will have a wide variety of mistakes under your belt that you can learn from.

Post: #16

Thanks for posting about your experiences here. You've just provided me with £500 worth of education, free of charge. You're turning a negative into a positive, but taking that experience and using to warn others and generate useful discussion.

You'll do well in life.

And from now on, read the small print.

Post: #17

Pfft 500 quid?

Lame, I lost $5,000 speculating on penny stocks. Best part was I was up to $22,000 and got greedy. Much like trashy women, I married a "slutty stock" and got divorced raped

Consider it the cost of learning a new skill. That burned feeling will help you learn to divorce emotion when investing or speculating which is what will make your decisions more effective.

Post: #18

The psychology of trading is very interesting. You really have to know yourself and be able to approach things with a level of objectivity not possessed by many people of any age, let alone young people. At your age if you come from a very intense team sports background where the coaches drilled you about trying to remain nearly the same, emotionally, irrespective of whether you won or lost, that would be a good start.

There are various books on trading psychology. I'd suggest reading a few. I'm not sure what is current so won't make recommendations.

Post: #19

(09-19-2015 09:13 PM)Atticus Wrote:  

(09-19-2015 05:35 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  Always deal with a reputable company when trading, the trading divisions of banks are your best bet.

FX trading is not easy, 95% of the guys that trade lose their shirts.

I know one guy who is in the 5%.

Can you tell us a bit about this guy? Does he scalp? I assume he is a technical trader. What indicators does he use?

Yes he is a scalper.

Post: #20

delete

Post: #21

(09-21-2015 01:23 PM)Bad Hussar Wrote:  The psychology of trading is very interesting. You really have to know yourself and be able to approach things with a level of objectivity not possessed by many people of any age, let alone young people. At your age if you come from a very intense team sports background where the coaches drilled you about trying to remain nearly the same, emotionally, irrespective of whether you won or lost, that would be a good start.

There are various books on trading psychology. I'd suggest reading a few. I'm not sure what is current so won't make recommendations.

It's a lesson for sure. I learned it hard.

Recently, I flipped some inverse ETFs and made a cool 600$ profit. Going to eventually go green. It's a slow process.