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Forex Fun
We take a look at the funny (or weird) side of economics
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A life without fun
is like an ocean without water ...
We need to laugh a lot! |
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The Storyof the Monkeys
An explanation of how the stock markets work
Author Unknown |
Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.
The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.
He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.
The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.
In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers; "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."
The villagers rounded up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
They never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a much better understanding
of how the stock market works!
Lesson: Greedy traders don't last long!
We must be careful not to think
with our emotions,
but with our heads!
The picture below is an excellent example of how one person can affect another ...
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Subject:
Understanding Economics
The Eurozone Bailout
Author Unknown |
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It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.
On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the Farmer’s Co-Op.
The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna.
The tavern owner slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit.
The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town.
No one produced anything.
No one earned anything.
However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works
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How is Greece affecting us?
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Subject:
Understanding Economics
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The Fiscall Cliff
Author Unknown
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You've got a lot of bottle, son!
Trader, 23, who blew £125,000 on champagne
in £200,000 bar round gets told off by his MUM
Article from MailOnline - 8/03/2012
Heavy load: Two waiters were required to carry the 99lb double Nebuchadnezzar-sized bottle
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It was so big it was the equivalent of 40 standard bottles of bubbly
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Alex Hope also had to pay a 10% service charge - costing more than £18,500
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A self-proclaimed City whizzkid who spent more than £200,000 on Britain’s most expensive round of drinks has been criticised by his unemployed mother over his apparent night of excess.
Alex Hope, 23, who claims he has earned a fortune by trading foreign currencies, is said to have forked out £125,000 on a single bottle of champagne along with £60,408 on other beverages and a £18, 540 tip.
But his mother Tina Hope, 53, who lives in a three-bedroom terrace house in Deptford, south-east London, is shocked he could blow so much money at a time while millions of people are struggling to survive.
The 53-year-old, whose home is worth as much as her son’s bar bill, said ‘I just hope he didn’t drink it all himself.'
‘I should suppose not. He’s a very good boy. I’m surprised by all of this,’ she told the Daily Express.
Mr Hope, who lives in a Docklands apartment two miles from his mother, claims to have enjoyed a meteoric rise since leaving school.
He says he began currency trading in his bedroom and also worked on market stalls and as a burger flipper.
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Celebrity friends: Alex Hope, seen partying with Desperate Housewives star Layla Flaherty has been revealed as the trader who ran up a £203,948.80 bar bill
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On his blog – alexhopefx, which has now had access restricted – he boasts: ‘Alex knows and loves the FX market. Throughout his youth, his passions were football and…currencies!
‘At the age of 11, Alex had a deep-rooted interest in the different currencies and relished trips across Europe where he could explore this interest first hand.
‘Opening his first account with just £500, in one day he’d doubled his money and turned the £500 into £1,100 by trading gold.’
‘A talented, charismatic and thoroughly likeable man, Alex Hope exudes knowledge and you can’t help but respect and admire this self-taught and self-made young trader. Watch out trading markets, Alex Hope is kicking up a storm!
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This is how a £203,948 bill for an evening out looks! |
Mr Hope booked a table at the UnderGround night club at Liverpool’s Hilton Hotel and ordered the 30-litre bottle of Armand de Brignac in advance of his visit on Sunday night, according to bosses.
He is said to have entertained celebrity guests, including Manchester City footballers Joe Hart and Adam Johnson and Man United star Wayne Rooney’s wife Coleen.
Two waiters were needed to carry in the bulky 99lb Nebuchadnezzar-size bottle of champagne, which is the equivalent of 40 standard ones.
He also ordered 40 single bottles of Ace of Spade champagne along with £4,000 worth of Grey Goose vodka, which he handed them out to women there last night.
Mr Hope settled the bill for £203,948.80 after paying a 10 per cent service charge – worth a massive £18, 540 – on top of the £185,408.80 drinks total.
Although there is some scepticism about the receipt, which was released hours after the party, Mr Hope has been pictured with other celebrities in the past and has been seen drinking Amand de Brignac. In January he was photographed with Desperate Scousewives star Layla Flaherty at a party in London.
Of Sunday night, one clubber said: ‘The club went wild when he popped this huge bottle of champagne, and they were handing out glasses of champagne to everyone in the VIP room.
‘Frankly there was no way all his group would have got through the bottle on their own anyway. |
‘This guy was phenomenally generous and was buying everyone in the place a drink.
‘Funny thing was though that he didn't seem to be drinking much himself and looked totally sober but he was clearly having a great time.’
Nightclub boss George Panayiotou ordered the DJ to play The Dawn of Man, the iconic anthem to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as the huge bottle was carried through.
The clubber added: ‘The party went off with a bang and everyone was toasting this guy's generosity.
‘He was there with about 10 friends on a private table but after the big bottle came in they were mobbed with gorgeous girls.
‘There must have been about 60 of them at any time vying for his attention and he then ordered shots for every single woman in the club.’
Manager of the club Vasco Carealho said of Mr Hope: 'He was in the club on Saturday and he had pre-ordered the bottle. He has been to the club a couple of times.
'The fact he wanted to order something like that was unusual and it was a surprise but we welcomed it and we just created the best spectacle for the service of the bottle.'
The club has been open since December 16.
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Greed can result in the downfall of any person ...
The story below is a follow up on the story
above.
City trader dubbed King Popper after he spent £32,000 spraying himself with champagne is jailed for £5.5million Ponzi scam
Article for MailOnline -
Thanks to Monty for the update.
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Alex Hope, 26, swindled unsuspecting investors to fund playboy lifestyle
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Former catering manager reinvented himself as a currency markets expert
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Blew vast sums in casinos, clubs and hotels in 'hedonistic' £2million binge
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His 'mentor' Raj Von Badlo, 57, lured investors into parting with heir cash
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Hope pocketed £5,565,620 in total which he used as a 'personal piggy bank'
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Hope was found guilty of fraud earlier this month and previously pleaded guilty to carrying on a regulated activity when not authorised by the FSA
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Hope was jailed for seven years and Von Badlo was jailed for two years
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Alex Hope boasted he was a financial whizz-kid while swindling unsuspecting investors out of £5million to fund a flashy playboy lifestyle
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A city trader dubbed 'King Popper' after he spent £32,000 spraying himself with champagne was jailed for seven years today for a £5.5m Ponzi scam.
Alex Hope, 26, of Canary Wharf, east London, boasted he was a financial whizz-kid while swindling unsuspecting investors to fund a playboy lifestyle of gambling and exclusive nightclubs.
He blew vast sums in casinos, hotels and clubs around the world in an 'hedonistic' £2 million binge.
Hope was promoted as a 'successful and talented' trader by 'mentor' Raj Von Badlo, 57, who lured investors into parting with £4,292,820 with PR stunts and smooth sales patter.
A jury of five men and six women unanimously found Hope guilty of fraud following a retrial after just three hours and 57 minutes of deliberation earlier this month.
He pleaded guilty before the trial to carrying on a regulated activity when not authorised by the FSA.
Today Hope appeared at Southwark Crown Court sporting a lavender jumper, white open-necked shirt and with his dark hair gelled in the short back and sides style. |
Von Badlo, also known as Raj Shastri, wore a navy suit and tie and sat alongside his partner in crime in the dock. He confessed to enticing people into the fraud and making misleading statements following the collapse of the first trial.
Judge Deborah Taylor said Hope legitimately earned around £65,000 but it appeared 'not enough' for him. She noted an 'extraordinary feature' of the case was that people took Hope at 'face value', granting him access to premises, handing over cash, and giving him media hype. 'That helped to build the myth and once the bandwagon had started rolling, people were keen to jump on,' she said.
'The truth was this was a Ponzi scheme, you were trading little money, making substantial losses and spending the money on yourself. 'Your spending of their money was prolific, you were betting it in large sums in the Palm Beach casino in Mayfair.
'Your story that you were paying money into the casino to take it out, to give to Von Badlo to give to investors was manifestly absurd.'
Hope had splashed out on Rolex watches, designer clothes and first class travel to America with his friends.
'Today is the first time you have shown any remorse about the losses suffered by investors, even after you were arrested you continued to lie to them,' she said.
'Underlying your actions was greed.'
Judge Taylor added: 'You treated that money as your own and you squandered investors' savings and retirement monies in a hedonistic spree.
'It is right to say that they have not had their money back yet and have expressed their dismay at the way you treated their money.'
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The conman splashed £32,000 in one evening at a Champagne Spray event earning him the title 'King Popper' |
Hope was jailed for seven years for the fraud and a 16 months for carrying on a regulated activity when not authorised, to run concurrently.
He showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
Von Badlo was jailed for two years for making misleading statements and a further 12 months for communicating inducements, to run concurrently.
Hope represented himself after passing a hand-written letter to Judge Taylor before the retrial in which he claimed his lawyer, Annette Henry, was in league with the prosecution.
He wildly accused Ms Henry of being in cahoots with the other side after learning she had accepted a cereal bar from prosecutor Sarah Clarke.
Although he later backtracked from his 'extraordinary' complaint, Miss Henry was forced to withdraw from her position after finding herself professionally embarrassed. |
Reading from a laptop from the dock today Hope told the court it was a 'relatively unsophisticated scheme' which did not involve 'complexity and cleverness'.
He said: 'This trading scheme was set up with good intentions but clearly became overwhelming for myself and got out of control from an administrative point of view. 'I never set out to defraud people,' he insisted, adding it was a 'small scale' until he met Von Badlo.
But Bernard Tetlow, for Von Badlo, said his client had been duped by Hope and had even handed the young trader £165,000 of his own cash of which he recovered £95,000.
'He invested in the scheme himself and encouraged others to do so because he genuinely believed in Alex Hope.
'He was, of course, as it turns out naive and gullible in the extreme to have done so but he took Alex Hope at face value,' he said.
Former Wembley stadium catering manager Hope reinvented himself as a currency markets expert after teaching himself economics. He eventually landed an office job with City-based training school Forex Academy before meeting Von Badlo while working as an independent trader at Zone Invest.
By the end of 2011, investors were pouring cash into the trading scheme and huge sums were appearing in Hope's bank account.
Hope pocketed an 'eye-watering' £5,565,620 in just 13 months, between March 2011 and April 2012, which he used as a 'personal piggy bank' to fund his extravagant lifestyle.
Just £520,796 was paid back to the duped investors.
The conman splashed £32,000 in one evening at a Champagne Spray event in the five-star Grange Hotel near St Paul's Cathedral earning him the title 'King Popper'.
'This was an event that was organised where people could go to this hotel and buy bottles of champagne and, in effect, spray them over each other,' said Ms Clarke.
Hope can be seen in a video of the event wearing a drenched blue t-shirt as hundreds of bottles of expensive champagne are sprayed around a packed room.
Another night partying at the Playground Hilton in Liverpool was so excessive Hope hit the headlines for his spending.
He blew £45,987 on a Midas-sized bottle of Ace of Spades champagne that was opened as a publicity stunt by him.
The nightclub PR then boasted to the press that the 'high-roller' had splurged £200,000 in a night.
The party-boy blew a whopping £65,113 in a single night at the Aura nightclub in Mayfair.
Hope also spent £1m at the Palm Beach Casino, whose website brags it is the 'most exclusive casino in Mayfair'.
He lost £353,600 after playing games where more than £5 million was passed backwards and forwards over the table at the lavish venue he visited more than 81 times.
But £604,400 simply disappeared from the cash deposited with the casino, probably in cash withdrawals, and has not been traced.
Ms Clarke said it was 'quite clear' that Hope's money 'must have belonged to confirmed investors' in his trading scheme.
'Were any of the investors told that their money was going to be put into a casino and then withdrawn in cash for it to disappear?' she asked.
Receipts unearthed at Hope's address showed just a 'snapshot' of his wild spending, including a taste for Christian Louboutin trainers and expensive watches.
Hope also treated himself to luxury trips around the world, blowing nearly £64,000 on 'upper class' travel to Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Dubai.
He blew £130,327 on a stay at beach front resort the Fontainebleu in Miami and racked up bills of £38,838 in one night at the Cirque du Soir in Dubai.
A video filmed at the five-star Trump SoHo hotel in New York shows Hope pan around the luxurious suite and ends with a shot of his bed, strewn with money and designer clothes.
'Here is the bedroom,' he says, 'just being silly, laying some money out, you can see the 50s and the 100s.
'Did a little bit of shopping today as you can see, bought some Ralph [Lauren], bought some trainers as well, bought some Burberry... yeah, this is me.'
Videos taken from his mobile show him panning stacks of cash, in one he brags '£28,000 profit, boys' and in a second '£50,000 profit, boys, ten, 20, 30, 40' before cutting out.
But his dire trading meant he simply was not able to keep pace with his wild spending despite telling his investors that he would trade their money successfully on the foreign exchange markets, only 12 per cent of the total money that investors gave Hope was ever traded and when he did trade, he lost almost all of the money in his trading accounts.
Hope exaggerated his trading abilities and the returns he was making. He used doctored copies of statements from his trading account to mislead investors.
As a result of this deception, he continued to attract investors, with new money coming in used to pay those who wished to withdraw their funds.
Over 75 investors gave £4.29 million to Hope as a result of Von Badlo's actions.
'As the money from investors was increasing and his expenditure was increasing, in fact the amount of money that was being deposited on trading platforms in the first place was drying up to virtually nil,' said Ms Clarke.
Judge Deborah Taylor said Hope legitimately earned around £65,000 but it appeared 'not enough' for him
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Do not underestimate the profits
that can be made by trading forex!
I'd like to share one last idea with you about endurance:
I find that many traders will demo trade for a while, and then decide the effort and time taken is too much. They then quit trading and go back to their regular relaxed lifestyle.
Remember: You will never become successful without putting in some effort!
Please share your stories and experiences with us!
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You can email your story here:
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Risk Disclosure: Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.