Is FX education the key to success in Asia? We speak in detail to Maxson Tan of Singapore’s FX1International

Opinions vary with regard to the advantages and disadvantages of FX education and training companies, a plethora of which operate in some of the world’s largest financial and electronic trading centers including London, Toronto and New York.

Often, FX training institutions fit into two categories, the first being independent firms which sell software and concentrate on encouraging novice traders to follow their formula which often involves a fee and an IB relationship with a b-book brokerage with which the training company places client deposits, or university-backed academic courses such as the one offered by University of Essex Online in partnership with FXStreet.

Things are very different in the Asia Pacific region, where educational tools are vital components within the trading ecosystem, and in order to look at this closely, we spoke to Maxson Tan, General Manager of FX1International in Singapore, the world’s fourth largest financial center and Asia’s number one destination for the institutional FX and interbank sectors.

Education is key to success. It’s a phrase that we hear all the time. How important is a trader’s education to their success in long term trading?

It’s probably the most important aspect to ensure that a trader remains consistently profitable. I would say that education hinges upon 3 factors:

· Strategies
· Money Management
· State of Mind

Strategies account for 15% of a trader’s success. Money management accounts for 30% and state of mind (which consists of beliefs and emotions) account for a whopping 55% of a trader’s success. It was Warren Buffett who famously said “Until you can manage your mind, do not expect to manage your money.”

FX1International has a large following in APAC and the Subcontinent. What is important in those regions and why is FX education popular among traders in Asia?

There are many prevalent programs here in Asia which tout get-rich-quick schemes. The pitch is almost always the same: give us your money and start earning between 10% to 20% a month in passive income. As we all know, such programs almost always fail after some time. In my opinion, people here are looking for 3 things:

· Credibility
· System
· Results

Forex has such a huge popularity among retail traders and investors because of the high leverage and the opportunity to make money both ways. However, as traders and investors get more knowledgeable over the years, expectations have also increased. They want to deal with a credible person or company. They are also keen to understand the system and the subsequent results of the educational course. In FX1, we treat these 3 aspects very seriously.

Does trading education help traders succeed long-term?

Yes for sure. Looking at the “3 laws of successful trading” again – Strategies, Money Management and State of Mind, continuous education helps to shape a trader’s state of mind more. You see, strategies and money management are fairly “dead” concepts. This essentially means that once you learn it, it’s a matter of repeating the same steps again and again. Continuous education helps to shape a trader’s thought process, their habits and ultimately, their psychology.

Can you share some success stories with us with regard to how education has helped your clients long term and achieve their investment goals?

Here’s two stories. One is a 20 year old student called Dickson Pua. He came to us because he wanted practical information on how to make money from the capital markets. He was so focused during the program that he graduated as one of the top in his batch. In fact, the story doesn’t end there.

Today, Dickson is working with us as an international speaker to spread our message of responsible and profitable trading all over the world.

Another story is KC. KC is 80 years old. Although he had retired, he heard of our reputation and signed up for our basic program. He also subscribed to our trading app called “ProfitPips.” KC is still trading to this day!

Both stories show that Forex trading can be both for the young and old.

We’ve noticed that the majority of shady education providers out there use the old pump and dump tactics. Large convention halls packed desperate punters listening to beautiful people wearing large Rolex watches, designer clothes, video clips of Ferraris, private jets and helicopters (no names mentioned). Clients get fired up, pay copious amounts of fees only to learn the “three steps to millions” type strategies and end up broke. Should the education industry be further regulated in a sense that any claims, testimonials, and or selling tactics made to be proven or at the minimum monitored by some regulatory body?

As a legitimate player in the industry, we certainly welcome some form of regulation if the main purpose is to uphold professional standards and code of conduct. In FX1, we have Mario Singh on our board of advisors. Mario is a well-known figure in the Forex world and his authority has helped us to gain a solid reputation within the APAC region.

A quick Google search for Forex Education, and to a seasoned eye, one will find endless pages of (for lack of a better word) “shady operators” looking to prey off the weak.

How does someone new to trading make the differentiation between an solid service vs. the majority of nonsense out there?

In this case, we reiterate the answer to your second question:

· Credibility
· System
· Results

Selecting the right educator is ironically the same as firing off a trade – you only do it after your rules have been met. These top 3 qualities are paramount to selecting the right partner: Credibility, System and Results.

By having a fully comprehensive training website, it is clear that the company understands the value in education for retail FX customers. How will the material be moderated in order that good quality information can be provided?

In the absence of any regulatory body, we have sought the expertise and wisdom of Mario Singh – one of Asia’s foremost thinkers on the retail Forex market. Mario today sits on the board of FX1 International to assist top management in growth and strategy.

Do you anticipate that the ability for trainers and educators to put their own content on your website in a way that will attract brokerages to use the service as the variation of information can be used as a retention tool to increase lifetime value of clients?

I think that method will pivot the business to become more like a Forex news platform as opposed to a full-fledged education arm. Essentially, what I mean is that the end-point for that method would be to attract different brokers to advertise on our site. That really isn’t our focus. We want to deliver world-class education to our base of traders and investors.

Will this be available in multiple languages? Chinese IBs are the focus of many FX firms these days, and due to Chinese government regulations on FX, IBs must be either an education or information service. Do you plan to leverage this for the benefit of Western firms?

Yes for sure. Our best-selling product right now is our trading app called ProfitPips. This app allows traders to access trade calls, daily coaching and live webinars. When we recently launched the English version, we had over 1,000 downloads in the first month alone. That gave us confidence to develop the chinese version. We have successfully completed that and are now developing the Arabic version of ProfitPips.