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forex asset class. Lemont comments: “We see ourselves
very differently from the forums and discussion
boards because of the transparency and the real time
nature of our trade information. Currensee traders
come together to share real trade information with
each other. It might be to share trade strategies,
particular trading ideas and to ask technical questions.
“We’ve found that a forex social network acts very
differently when the members are talking about real
trades. Our vision is to build a platform that is driven
by authenticity and transparency, which means real
traders collaborating on real trades in real time. You
can almost think of it as Facebook meets TripAdvisor
for Forex traders,” he states.
Currensee’s goal is to support as many brokers as
possible to give traders the option of joining their
broker of choice. Today, it supports close to 100
different forex brokers, including all MetaTrader4
brokers, and have partnerships with many of them.
Some of the brokers it supports include FXCM, Gain
Capital, MBT Trading, FX Solutions, Forex.com,
Alpari, FXDD, IBFX, and CMS.
Its research, platform and educational partners
include The Hansen Group, FX Tech Strategies, Ninja
Trader, Candlecharts, NetPicks, Tradesight, Traders
Laboratory, Forex Briefings, FX Instructor, Informed
Trades and many more. It also has a relationship with
Thomson Reuters IFR Markets, where Currensee’s
traders can purchase exclusive widgets featuring their
trade and market data.
Educating the masses
Abu-Hamdan comments on how a branded
community can work well: “In the FX context,
education satisfies the novice broker's immediate need
to learn how to get trading, so it sells itself. More
subtly it places the education provider in a position of
expertise which is a different relationship to the
customer-salesman relationship. Most people question
the motivation of a salesman but are willing to accept
information from someone we see as an expert.
“The trick is to tie the prospect in while they are
happily learning to trade,” continues Abu-Hamdan.
“For instance, engaging them in a community, or
grabbing their email address so that you can engage
them on a personal level. This interaction should be
considered in the context of the long term relationship.
If done well it will create strong relationships which
can withstand the odd negative experience and ideally
will lead to the client disseminating viral marketing
materials,” states Abu-Hamdan.
124 | january 2010 e-FOREX
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David Lemont
“Traders want to understand what makes one trader more
successful than another. This learning can only be discovered
through collaboration via real trades and performance data..”
On education, MoneyTec would like big brand names
to openly discuss issues and subjects with its site
visitors, as long as they add useful content and do not
blatantly spam the community, yet most have not
learned the proper way to harness the community
assets to their benefit. Cottrell explains: “I’d like our
site sponsors to come into the site, be transparent
about who they are and even dedicate a team to talking
to people on the site, educating and helping them. But
they don’t see it that way and would rather just put up
banners than have a dialogue with our members.”
Independent minds
Some retail FX networking sites are owned by
brokers, while the likes of MoneyTec and FX V-room
are independent. Cottrell notes: “We have had several
offers from brokers to buy us out, but it’s not the way
we want to go.” On how social networks for retail FX
traders have differing value propositions, Durazo
comments: “You have social networking forums
created by brokerages and although you have a lot of
people on them, the end goal for all these
communities is for you to open up an account with
the controlling brokers. FXCM with its DailyFX, and
Cureensee.com, are mostly about guiding users back
to a broker.
“The main point of difference about FX V-room is its
all about the user. We are a neutral party that does
not manipulate the user in anyway. We offer a
platform for peer to peer sharing and connecting. We