A while ago, we spoke to Joshua Raymond about putting effective trading strategies in place. Now, as XTB seeks to address the forex industry’s negligence when it comes to self-education for traders we do a quick Q&A on XTB educational resources.
I suppose the first question is why do you think there is negligence in the forex and CFD industry when it comes to self-education?
I honestly feel that education has become somewhat of a lost art in the trading world over the past few years. This is mostly down to two aspects.
Firstly, a change in focus from some brokers towards price competitiveness and attracting professional type clients who don’t typically require much education.
Secondly, the rise of signals providers or copy traders outside of the traditional Expert Advisor MT4 medium has created a false impression that the appetite amongst traders for education has waned somewhat. But this is simply not true from what we’ve seen at XTB.
There continues to be huge demand for education and self-improvement when it comes to trading and for the most part, clients typically only have access to webinars or articles from brokers in the industry.
XTB has always felt education has to be one of our core goals within the overall customer experience and this goes hand in hand with customer service, price, platform performance and client safety.
For the past few years XTB has invested a large amount of funds in creating educational content and partnering with leading experts in multiple areas of trading or investing to help bring premium training material to our clients to help them become better traders.
You’ve been in the industry for almost 15yrs. What’s the biggest mistakes you’ve seen traders make over the years?
I’ve seen some horrors over the years for sure. I remember one client around ten years ago who made more than £1.5m trading in a few months, only to give most of it back within a few weeks, because they were basically building bigger positions the more a trade went against them i.e. chasing their losses. I’ve had one client who thought they had made £5m trading USDJPY in a CFD trade and was popping the champagne cork only for me to tell them that in fact they had made 5 million YEN, which was effectively £35,000. It was some comedown.
Every trader makes mistakes. That’s part and parcel of the trading journey, but it’s also important to recognise that even when mistakes are made, that doesn’t necessarily mean you make a loss. Some great trading decisions can be made, but still result in a loss. At the end of the day, the market is going to do what it does. There is no crystal ball. Traders simply need to try and make the best decisions with the information they see, and if they make more good decisions than bad ones, this should result in a positive trading result at the end of the day.
Education is THE crucial component in training traders on how to make good decisions and on what information they need to learn about the market to help them make successful trades.
How does XTB educate traders to help their performance?
We’ve invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in creating content that seeks to teach our clients an array of skills to help them get better trading results. Our online trading academy contains more than 50 different courses with helpful lessons covering a huge range of topics, with interactive quizzes to help all levels of experience from beginners through to intermediate and premium.
We’ve partnered with some of the world’s leading traders and investors, such as Lex Van Dam, Jack Schwager and Kathy Lien, to create a series of comprehensive video lessons where these experts teach our clients their best tips and strategies to become better traders. Our global online masterclasses, hosted as a full-day live stream on YouTube by multiple renowned traders from all over the world, have been watched live by more than 35,000 traders. Moreover, we host these masterclasses for free.
What other education plans has XTB got in the pipeline?
Collaborating with world-famous investors and traders is getting a huge amount of traction and positive feedback from our clients. So one of our educational priorities is to continue adding more speakers and mentors to help share their tips and strategies with our clients.
In March 2020 we also plan to host our biggest ever LIVE Investing Masterclass event in London, which will be a full-day educational event featuring an array of speakers from different sectors and investment disciplines.
Josh Raymond is Chief Marketing Officer at XTB
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.
