Monitor courses by 'trading gurus' but you don't be the next Jack!

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"If someone really have Magical Goose that can lay $$$ so easily, why would they be selling at $X,XXX. They should have secretly passed on the Magical Goose to their family members to lay plenty of $$$ for themselves and become one of the richest families in Singapore for generations to come. So don't be the next Jack" - Createwealth8888

By businesstimes

THE proliferation of online trading 'academies' and self-styled 'trading gurus' claiming to be able to empower anybody to become profitable share and currency traders needs to be watched.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a growing number of people seem to be falling for the enticing call of these so-called 'trading gurus', who promise 'massive wealth' in the 'shortest time possible' - as one outfit proclaims in its advertisements. Certainly, there is the need for investor education. And the market seems ready to provide such courses. Thus retail investors sign up for a whole plethora of seminars and coaching sessions hoping for a quick change of fortune. But what is being taught? Who are the teachers? How comprehensive is the course content?

None of this is to detract from the business schools and universities as well as the many respectable private educational institutions that provide sound and structured education in investment and financial management. But there is considerable evidence that retail investors do not think long-term and prefer to pick their investments based on their own, sometimes dubious, research. Such people are often the ones easily enticed by the short-term values of the 'trading gurus' who will find a hundred and one ways to convince them that they can create massive wealth in the shortest time possible with almost no effort. Such naive investors trade until they get their fingers badly burnt. This is not the outcome anybody desires for a class of Singapore's small-time investor community.

The government, through the vigilant eyes of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has been tightening its regulatory framework to monitor the financial markets closely. The recent global financial meltdown has left scars everywhere and financial centres such as Singapore took a hit, though not with the calamitous consequences faced by many in the West. The government's relatively tight financial regime has played a decisive role, together with the prudence of the private sector, in maintaining the stability of financial markets. If Singapore is to maintain its well-earned status as a stable financial centre, this culture of vigilance and stringent supervision must continue.

It was welcome news that some brokerages among the 10 financial institutions that were banned for a year from selling structured notes by MAS have decided to shy away from selling new structured notes after the ban was lifted. MAS slapped on them the ban following a probe into the mis-selling of notes linked to Lehman Brothers to retail investors. The industry has learnt its lesson.

A close watch should now be kept on this new, booming sector of online traders and speculators, and dubious 'gurus' who seem to be leading them up the garden path. It's better to go for stringent accreditation of such 'financial advisers' now than wait for a painful fallout.