Pay attention, Google and Facebook. Here is something much more insidious than some completely harmless FX ads
What on earth is going on? We make a harsh but direct analysis of how the mainstream media are getting our industry completely wrong, and what they should do about it.
Blatant, buzzword-infused advertorial is the epitome of journalistic idleness.
Whilst Facebook and Google, two of the internet media, search and indexing giants with monopolistic aspirations, have been busying themselves with corporate decisions to disallow certain FX advertisements from participating in their advertising networks, a far larger elephant in the room is being allowed to prevail across mainstream and in some cases very trusted editorial and news entities.
One of the innate downsides of holding out the mainstream as a yardstick for genuine insight is that many of the headline-orientated generic articles that are published for the purposes of attracting a wide audience rather than a specialist one is that these pearls of wisdom are often the efforts of upwardly mobile twenty-somethings with a media studies degree upon which the ink has not yet dried.
Many are interns, and even among those who are not, a detailed understanding of the financial technology industry’s internal structure is as lacking as a beard resembling a draft excluder is omnipresent.
Three years at a mediocre university in which thirty minutes of a nine hour day was spent mastering SEO and digital marketing networks which involved emphasis on euphoric repetition of the latest meaningless buzzword whilst the other eight and a half hours was spent naval gazing or working out an entitlement-based state sponsored future has led to some recent uses of famous names and respected business leaders in order to lure the unsuspecting into investing in dubious Bitcoin ventures.
Whilst the good quality, long established FX and CFD companies of London and Sydney have to now face applying for re-inclusion in advertising networks by submitting their full corporate details and meeting certain criteria, the pages of the rags are awash with overtly hedonistic proselytism in favor of unproven virtual currency ventures.
This week it was pointed out to FinanceFeeds by a consultancy firm here in London that provides services to large institutions that recently, CNN, admittedly a very left-leaning, anti-financial industry organ, presented under its Tech section a title which states “Bill Gates to Quit Microsoft, Jumps on Financial Tech“.
If that doesn’t get the attention of the rebellious Millennial with aspirations of anarchistic activities in moving away from traditional institutional technology (Microsoft’s main market is enterprise servers for large institutions) into a utopia which heralds virtual currency, then who knows what will?
A photograph of global business magnates Bill Gates and Richard Branson looking engaged in thought during a discussion panel at a conference leads the reader into the article, although it is very doubtful that the thought processes using their cognitive resources were contemplating any form of Bitcoin revolution, or anything relating to Bitcoin for that matter.
Once past the title and photograph, the editorial delves into the dictionary of superlatives to describe Bitcoin Trader and hold it out as Bill Gates’ latest business priority.
Bitcoin Trader is a ‘get rich quick’ scheme and its aggressive marketing tactics via this type of media should be a cause for concern.
The opening gambit is as subtle as an Israeli salesman in a library, stating “Real life Superhumans – Bill Gates and Richard Branson, have announced their 1.2 billion dollar investement to Bitcoin Trader and, they are expecting double the value of investment in just half an year. If you haven’t heard of bitcoin yet, then this is something for you – Bitcoin Trader.
This is absolutely a commercial advert, and is not news or editorial, thus should be highlighted as such.
In the light of the recent fate that has befallen the bona fide companies of our esteemed electronic trading industry in that they are now unable to freely advertise on Google or Facebook without jumping through hoops the size of the spread on an unregulated retail trading platform, the blatant hawking of schemes such as this by associating them with business moguls and placing them in mainstream media is abhorrent to say the least.
“What exactly is Bitcoin Trader? Bitcoin Trader is a financial technology with the plan to redistribute world wealth. Basically – take from the top 0.1% and give back to 99.9%. Bill and Richard believes wealth is not distributed well in our age, and although there always will be someone richer and someone poorer, the current situation is not acceptable, where top 0.1% controls almost 90% of world wealth. Gates believes he can cut that down to around 20% without causing world-wide financial crisis, Richard goes even further. So what exactly does that mean to you, the regular middle or lower class person? This means you will become 2 – 3 times wealthier, and no one except the super-wealthy will take a hit. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it?”
What a boast. Where do we all sign up? …. If Richard Branson and Bill Gates are backing it and it guarantees everyone wealth for no effort, then why aren’t every single citizen of the world now rushing to get involved? …… I can hear the tumbleweed blowing across the empty ground.
This is not the first time that such nonsense has been propagated.
Last year, FinanceFeeds reported that an attempt to onboard clients by a similar entity was being propagated in the media, this time using British celebrity Simon Cowell as a front man, insinuating that he had invested.
Mr Cowell himself confirmed that he is not involved and actually that he had no idea whatsoever that his name was being used.
So, mainstream media. Buy a razor, put a suit on and go and visit our esteemed leaders of the electronic trading industry. Learn our business, engage with us. Work out what the difference is between a British prime of prime which has relationships with Tier 1 banks, a $500 million balance sheet, public listings and a range of shareholders who have over 30 years large scale commercial experience and an illiterate binary options fraudster from Ramat Gan.
Instead of concentrating on what color your sneakers are, or how skinny your latte is, go and visit the offices of the companies that integrate FX platforms to such liquidity providers and provide continual development of technology so that retail traders can get the best quality of execution for the lowest cost and most ergonomic user experience.
Our FX industry is the genuine innovator of financial technology, yet our leaders who have dedicated their life’s work toward genuinely building a high quality environment are the real innovators and providers of the future’s financial markets landscape. One only has to see the enthusiasm and professionalism of my colleagues from all over the world when they attend industry conferences or meet each other after work.
So, mainstream internet search engines, social media moguls and mass market news channels, do the right thing by the right people.