A colleague told me recently how easy it was to make money out of offshore bonds a few years ago.  There were many tricks you could use to fool the brokers, and it was just not necessary to invest part of your portfolio in a managed forex account, as there was plenty of money to be had from the brokers themselves.

Just one way to make a guaranteed profitable trade was to take a straddle trade just before news releases – this would often result in a 100 pip or more profit.  In those days, news announcements created big price movements, and it was an easy trade to make upwards of 100 pips with a big news event such as interest rates, unemployment figures etc.

Today, however, there is not so much volatility, and it is much harder to make such huge sums.  In those times, it was easy to make substantial returns on your trading account day in, day out, so an offshore bond was not needed to increase returns.

Today, however, is very different, with millions of expat financial advice, without wanting to be sensible and go for a managed forex account.  These events have occurred along with the extraordinary levels of leverage that the forex brokers are offering their clients to trade with.

The real money of course is setting up a forex brokerage, which explains why so many are springing up everywhere, although this does not go far to explaining why offshore portfolio bonds are becoming more popular amongst the expat community.

In conclusion, currency trading today is a very risky activity, and not so easy as the brokers want you to believe. Of course, it is very much in the interest of forex brokers to promote high leverage, and to offer free training courses, in an attempt to lure people into thinking it is easy to make money in the currency market.  With good financial advice and research and good expat financial advice, expats can benefit from offshore bonds.

So what should an investor be looking at when he is deciding what managed forex fund to invest in?  Looking at the returns might be an obvious place to start.  But things aren’t that simple – one needs to consider the drawdown, ie how much the fund can potentially lose.

The investor should also speak with the manager of the forex managed fund and enquire as to how much leverage the manager is using. The wrong use of leverage can have serious consequences on a forex managed fund.

The negligent use of leverage is why the vast majority of retail investors lose their shirt in the forex market, and end up investing in a forex managed account.

But what if it all goes wrong?  In practice, you are already quite a lot down on your account, as you need to pay the spread, ie the difference between the buying price and the selling price.  You have to realise that as soon as you enter the trade, you are in a loss position, as you need to pay the spread.  Then if the market is volatile, you can soon get in a very bad position, lose your shirt, and then start to get sensible and invest the rest of your savings in a forex managed fund.

Consequently the potential client much choose a currency fund which suits his appetite for risk.  If the investor wants to get triple figure returns, he must accept a higher level of risk, with higher leverage. Alternatively, a client who places a higher level of importance to the preservation of his capital might want to look for a forex managed fund which takes lower levels of risk, and which uses lower leverage. In summary, therefore, the client must find a forex managed fund which fits his comfort levels vis a vis risk, and can maximise his investment goals.

Most traders I have met have lost money in forex, and some a great deal of money.  It is really not surprising that so many people lose money when using such high levels of leverage.

So, I will explain the lures, and dangers of leverage for you.  This might be an eye opener to even some seasoned forex traders – and I’m sure that for some of the novice currency traders reading this, it will be totally new material. The figures you can make with 500:1 leverage are crazy – you can easily turn $1000 into $50,000 in a very short space of time.

I wonder how many traders have thought like this when they started out, and how many fell flat on their face after just a few weeks.  But the harsh reality of the matter is that 99% of traders lose out, and resort to opening a managed forex account in order to make money on the currency market.  But in a similar vein, the leverage can also cause big problems for a currency trader..  The spreads will cause you a big drawdown, and with a volatile currency, as most are, and you can blow your account in a few short, but expensive, minutes!.

And so this is the honest cause why forex investments have become so popular – pure greed.  To succees where others have failed.  But after blowing an account or two, most will place their funds in a managed forex fund to ensure success.

At the end of the day, the only way to ensure you have a chance at profiting from the forex market is to leave it to a pro, and invest in a managed forex account.  After all, you wouldnt wire your own house to save paying an electrician?

Of course, there are risks inherent in choosing a managed forex account, if you have little knowledge of the currency market – after all, how do you go about selecting a manager in the first place.  Well, of course, appropriate due diligence needs to be carried out, especially with regard to the performance of the managed forex fund.

To summarise, whilst trading forex is doable, it is clearly better off to open a managed forex account. Better to invest your money with experts, in a managed forex account.

If you like to be in control of your own destiny and finances you might think why someone would have a managed forex account. These accounts are not right for everyone, but are a great solution for many.  Investors in traditional asset classes such as equities, and real estate, have seen the value of their investments fall dramatically, and have actively sought alternative forms of investment.

A unique feature of the forex market, and forex trading in general, is that traders can use leverage to increase their profits (and of course, to increase losses, if the trade is unsuccessful).  This principle also applies to managers of managed forex accounts.  The manager has a lot of discretion regarding leverage, and you need to be comfortable with the amount of leverage being used.  Too much leverage, and the account will suffer heavily when trading losses occur.

If you’re still not convinced, there have been studies performed that show increased returns for those who choose this form of flexible trading. These were independent of how the market was doing at the time of the study.

An investment in a managed forex account is also much safer than a traditional investment fund.  When you decide to invest in a managed forex account, the trader will never have the access to withdraw your funds.  Unlike the recent hedge fund fiasco of the Madoff case, an investor in a managed forex account has daily access to his account. His funds are held by a custodian, and the manager never has the opportunity to gain access to those funds.

Another popular feature of managed forex accounts is that they often offer a capital guarantee, which is of benefit for investors whose main concern is preservation of their capital. This feature does not exist for any other asset class – you have to monitor the investment, and take a decision yourself if you want to decide to withdraw your investment.  And even then, there may be a fee or penalty involved.

There are so many managed forex account services available, that it is essential that you read as many managed forex reviews as you possibly can. When evaluating a managed forex account, it is very important that you consider as many managed forex reviews as you can to get the biggest possible picture.  To conclude, hence, it can be observed that a managed forex account gives a great deal of versatility, safety, and generally better performance returns when as opposed to other investments.  Nonetheless, it is still crucial to ensure that suitable research is carried out, to ensure that you invest in the right fund for your conditions.

So why hire a forex money manager to look after your funds?  Perhaps the obvious reason is that they are professionals, and will make more money than you could.  Is this the case for the majority of money managers?

In the majority of situations, this is true.  For the average retail trader, forex trading is an extremely difficult skill to master, and the vast majority of traders fail within 3 months.  After this period, they either go back to investing in stocks and other asset classes, or look to find a professional to manage their money in the forex market.  Finding a respectable and high performing forex manager can sometimes be tricky, but it well worth the search.

So how can a managed forex account help you in practice? Well, a big benefit is that you don’t need to be a millionaire to access a managed forex account. Whilst most hedge funds often require commitments of over a million dollars, you can set up a managed forex account with just a few thousand dollars.

What a lot of investors like about managed forex accounts is the element of control they have over their investment.  The key to this, is that you open an account with the relevant currency brokerage, and at no point do you need to send money across to the fund manager.  This means that the manager will have no access to your money.

The forex money manager trades your funds via a power of attorney that you have granted him, but at no time does he have any other rights, such as to withdraw funds from your account.

These different levels of security are a key reason why managed forex accounts have become so popular in recent years.  In recent times, there have been countless cases of investment funds defrauding their clients of their investment.  Perhaps the biggest case reported in the press was that of Bernie Madoff.

Thus to conclude, it can be seen that getting a forex money manager to manage your forex account has a distinct number of advantages over a traditional form of investment. In this uncertain world, where the housing market is in free fall, and stock markets are collapsing, the ability of a retail investor to access the forex market through a well managed forex account is of great benefit.