About 1-1/2 years ago, I got sucked into paying for a 3rd-party managed FOREX program with the guarantee that my purchase price ($3,000) would be refunded if I didn't double my capital in 12 months. Didn't happen, of course (the doubling). I didn't lose money in the account; it was actually up about 14% after 12 months re my $5,000 deposit into the account. Not worth the $3,000, in my mind, and the return had dropped to less than 10% by the time I got out a month later. Now, it's looking as if I won't be getting my refund. The company's been stalling on that and requiring vaguely-defined account summary submittals (paper copies, no less). They're now saying monthly summaries without the transactions is what they need, no matter that I can't seem to get such reports (without the transactions) from the account managing company. I submitted complete data in PDF format, which they say is not acceptable. They've been jacking me around to such an extent that I've finally had to report them to their state's attorney general and to the FTC. (This is out of the CFTC's jurisdiction, I'm told.)

Bottom line: There's still no holy grail in trading (although Erich, Tom, and Rob seem to come pretty close!). A managed account can probably be worth something (not for $3,000 up front!) if you can have faith in the manager and there's a proven track record. Otherwise, in my opinion, stay away from marketed trading programs with guarantees. Those programs are probably not going to perform, and it's not likely you can count on any guaranteed refund. I'm probably preaching to the choir, but if my experience can save somebody from unnecessarily losing their hard-earned money, this post will have been worth it.

Alan C.