This hub will compare and contrast where retail forex trading started and where it has progressed to since retail forex trading became available to the public. We will examine 4 areas.

1. Retail Forex Brokers

2. Forex Educational Providers

3. Forex Indicators and Trading Systems

4, Forex Websites

I have been studying and following the forex for nearly 7 years. When retail forex trading became available to individuals I immediately saw the advantages over trading the stock market as far as liquidity and leverage being built in. As a former stock and option traders I was very attracted to this and my forex journey began.

Retail Forex Brokers Then and Now

When retail forex trading first became available to individuals there were a handful of brokers operating dealing desks.The situations facing retail traders with spreads and slippage was awful. The current direction is a movement away from dealing desks to direct access forex platforms and variable spreads. This is an improvement and the progression has been positive and will continue.

The number of introducing brokers skyrocketed initially and finally, over the last 2 years the new regulations have eliminated the small IBs and there has been a consolidation in the forex brokerage industry which was sorely needed. This is also an improvement and there is currently good competition and an ample number of brokers. The amount of differentiation between forex brokers is becoming limited and it is starting to look like the brokers landscape in the stock market.

However one improvement is sorely needed. Some forex brokers like to say on their websites "We are number one based on customer service" or some other meaningless criteria. Whereas in reality the best broker is the one with the most successful clients. None of them advertise this. I know that forex brokers have no interest in you succeeding as a trader, they just want you to trade. If any broker states otherwise make them prove it.

Forex Educational Providers Then and Now

When retail forex trading first became available to individuals the amount of educational materials was nearly non existent on the internet. Forex educators came onto the scene began charging thousands of dollars to individuals, sometimes as much as $10,000 just to "educate" them on how to trade the spot forex. The industry has never recovered from this and massive improvements are needed.

It is my opinion that this will never change. Education companies will come and go but there will always be a busload full of newbies with their wallets open trying to take shortcuts to the riches and ripe to get duped by the high priced educators who make you sign a 5 page contract for forex education with absolutely no guarantee of success for you or any risk whatsoever on their part. And you will pay and pay and pay, and later regret regret regret.

The amount of education material about trading the spot forex has increased but the quality is dreadful. 99% of the information available on how to actually trade the forex is completely wrong. Dont believe what you hear and read and dont part with any of your money for forex education until you look deeply into the matter. Forex traders need to demand results. Technical analysis and forex robots dont work and even though they proliferate the internet there are no independent studies that indicate positive trading results.

Forex Indicators and Trading Systems, Then and Now

Really there is no progress here either. Forex traders fail at the same rate now as ever, simply no improvement whatsoever. When retail forex trading started online most forex traders migrated from the stock market and brought their technical indicators with them. These indicators didnt work in the stock market and they dont work in the forex but people use them anyway. Its somewhat comical.

The concept of a computer program that executes decisions and trades the forex for you is a great concept, however these expert advisors do not work either. They are based on the same failed technical indicators. Remember the vast majority of retail forex traders fail and this is what they use.

Immediately after retail forex trading started some companies started selling $4000 software programs via the internet and even infomercials on TV with heavy handed and misleading marketing. People lost money on the purchase then subsequently lost incredible sums on their trading. Surprisingly some of these programs have merit but most people cant afford the $10,000 training that goes with it, and the training is totally deficient on these products.

The result of all of this is that 99 percent of forex traders fail and there is no progress in this area.

Forex Website Quality

I have reviewed the top 500 forex websites based on web traffic, popularity and SEO rankings. I have done this 7 or 8 times and watched the progression over time. I came across stunning evidence that the information available to current and potential spot forex traders is bordering on sillyness. Remember just because a website is popular doesnt mean the information is accurate or can be proven, and there are plenty of examples of heavy forex marketing websites to go around.

You can break down forex websites into roughly six categories: Broker websites, signal providers, blogs, education providers, marketing and affiliate websites, message boards and forums, hybrid websites with some combination of the above.

Broker websites - The amount of educational information on current broker websites has progressed and is somewhat encouraging with regard to basic education and how to place orders and has improved greatly over 7 years. Also executions and spreads are improving in favor of traders on forex trading platforms. As far as brokers providing methods of successfully trading the forex market and being profitable at trading they are of almost no help, nor is it their business to be.

Signal Providers Websites - Get your wallet ready!!. Signal providers charge outrageous prices of up to $500 per month and most of them go out of business after one year. Also they are very secretive about their methods which is disturbing seeing how you are paying them alot of money. If they cannot be upfront about how they generate the signals walk away. If you examine them closely its just more technical indicators. Be careful and always make them explain how they are generating their signals and entries. No secrets.

Blogs - Forex blogs are popping up everywhere. With rare exception they are nothing but random musings about the forex with no solid information or training. They exist to attract traffic for google ads and generate revenue for the website or blog owner. The content of these blogs is often available elsewhere and most blogs are nothing more than an RSS feed from other sources with alot of banner ads and text ads from google.

Education Providers - If you dont have any money left at this point take out a loan to get some really bad forex education. The forex educators are looking to "mentor you" right out of $15,000 although they will gladly do it at the rate of $200 per month. Remember if they teach you how to place a market order that qualifies as "education". Then they "teach" you about technical analysis and when you are done you still cant trade anything because technical analysis doesnt work. Some of these weekend forex bootcamps cost $5000, and on Monday you wont be placing any trades or anytime thereafter,

Marketing and Affiliate Websites - There are hundreds of these, they are easy to recognize. They are alot of times simply a one page website hyping up some expert advisor with incredible claims that are completely unsubstantiated except for some unsubstantiated testimonials. Then at the bottom of the page it says "sign up here and send me your money". Dont fall for this nonsense you can waste 6 months trying to make something like this work off of one of these sites and time and money is lost. An affiliate website is owned by someone who is selling for someone else, strictly marketing and sales hype and commission splits for sales. Just dont fall for it because they are everywhere.

Forex Message Boards and Forums - Almost all forex message boards are really bad. If a forex message board is an open forum ignorant newbies start reading them and get led in the any one of 1000 wrong directions with technical analysis and expert advisors and nothing anyone says is close to being verifiable. Opinions are fine but forex traders or potential forex traders come to a message board or forum "looking for something" and wind up wasting time, sometimes months and years.

One potential improvement is to have a moderated forum where there is a limited discussion of one or a limited number of strategies, techniques or trading styles. At least you know what type of information you will get on this type of forum, not a random scatter of topics, none of which work. Most forex forex forums are devoid of anything useful and full of spam, the state of the union here is very bad.

One prominent forex message board has over 1300 forex trading methods based on technical analysis, if you investigated all of these methods you would spend your whole life doing so and never make one pip in your entire life and be stuck in the world of forex technical analysis. Technical analysis doesnt work. There are at least 15 other forex message boards like this and it is crippling anyone who tries to trade the spot forex.

A Hybrid Forex Website is some combination of the above with no real focus.

What do traders need??

Forex traders need free or at least very inexpensive information about effective ways to trade the forex with methods that actually work with absolutely no discussion of technical analysis or expert advisors, and no expensive software or education packages. Websites and information that give retail forex traders loads of information and a chance to succeed. Forex traders want to succeed but wind up getting squashed becasue the quality of what is made available to them is so bad. THe internet is actually the problem. These traders should be completely fed up by now.

A new breed of websites that operate in this fashion is sorely needed. This new breed of websites would offer forex traders a step by step guide to success for free or at least very inexpensively with methods that work to assist forex traders in making pips. The websites like this are upfront and transparent about their methods and everything is explained clearly on their website.

When a forex trader comes across a good quality website they have seen so many bad ones they have built in skepticism due to a lack of trust or financial losses. This is a shame and another opportunity is lost.

Conclusion

The state of the union for retail forex traders is bad. Other than the improvements with brokers and their websites,  the methods and education advertised on the internet to make pips dont work and vendors and educators are after your money. Be extremely careful as is could be years before all of this is fixed, if ever. Always look deeply into the matter and ask questions before comitting to any pricey forex system or educator, be a smart consumer. I fell into alot of traps myself and now I am happy to share this information with you about simple and successful spot forex trading.