Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February 2014 | Page 41

FINANCE

BY TRACEY COOPER

Successful
Currency Trading
And Investment
Turning the myth into reality

T

he majority of investors have discovered the
profit potential of property investing and
appreciate the long-term security that these
investments offer. However, with the current climate
of shrinking property prices, constipated credit
markets and falling interest on savings accounts, many
people are seeking alternative ways to manage their
investments and expand portfolios with other tools
that enable them to continue to make money when
property softens. Thousands of entrepreneurs, many
of them complete novices, have taken up trading to
develop a second income stream out of the stock
market. How is this possible?
Meet multi-millionaire wealth mentor Greg Secker.
A man so passionate about foreign currency and the
trading business that he inadvertently began in his
living room, he talks as fast as the algorithmic trading
machines that are working away on the computer
screens behind him. By the age of 27 Secker had left
the corporate environment and was trading from
home. “I used to trade the European section from
5:30am until about 11:30am and then I was done for
the day,” he recalls. “In the afternoons I began to teach
my friends to trade - one day there were 19 people
in my living room all with laptops, smoking and
drinking coffee while they were trading currencies.”
In 2009 Secker formalised the living room forex
trade coaching and created Learn To Trade (LTT).
In six short years the company has established
offices in London, Sydney, Johannesburg and Cape
Town. Since its inception, over 100 000 people have
learnt through various programmes and workshops
how to build their wealth either through earning a
second income by trading, or learning how to be a
trader full-time.
Currency trading is the world’s largest and the most
liquid market, exceeding trillions of dollars a day in
volume. Foreign exchange markets have always been
something of a mystery to many people who regard the
speed at which currency values fluctuate and the size of
trades being executed as a risk that only major players
in the banking sector can take on.

Secker believes that the reverse is true, and points
out that the latest economic crisis in the world’s
stock markets has driven more small investors to try
their hand at currency trading. “In actual fact, it is
illiquid markets like the stock markets that carry a
larger proportion of risk. Those markets can jump
around over night, or be nudged around by one or
two large investors, but the currency markets, by
virtue of being open 24 hours and having so many
more participants, are much more liquid and subject
to more rules and identifiable signals.” However, a
structured training and coaching programme that
introduces beginners to the risks of online trading
is a fundamental requirement for anyone to be
consistently profitable without risking their capital
when it comes to personal trading.
“People think this business of algorithmic trading
is black box stuff,” says Secker. “You know, you
just turn the machine on and go lie on the beach
somewhere waiting for the cheques to arrive.
But it’s really more of a grey box. You have to
understand what goes on in the markets, why you
set your programme up in a certain way, and when
it is prudent to switch it off for a while.” Often,
Secker points out, it’s about learning how to sit on
your hands rat