OVERVIEW OF THE FOREX MARKET IN SOUTH AFRICA

The global forex market has grown exponentially in recent years, especially in South Africa, with interest being growing weekly and new traders coming into the fold on a daily basis. More and more South Africans are becoming intrigued by the chance of participating in the 5-6 trillion dollar market and obtaining the ever looming South African dream, living life on their own terms and answering to nobody but themselves and the markets.

In this follow up article will be further outline what forex traders anticipate from the booming forex market in South Africa.

As we all known, since the start of the pandemic in 2020, it has become crystal clear that the need for people to find alternative streams of income and desperately need to develop skill sets that will allow them to become self sufficient and eliminate the need to depend on one salary and a boss that can let employees go with a moments notice and leave people stranded without the resources to make ends meet. Since the pandemic hit us globally, people in South Africa from all backgrounds have done exactly this, people have looked at diversifying their income and investing money in hopes that it would yield decent and livable returns on their investments and help themselves out of the financial black hole some of us find ourselves in as the pandemic continues to rage on in South Africa and some parts of the world.

The hype and excitement of the global forex market has generated a lot of interest in South Africa, but on the other side of the coin it has also created opportunity for many unscrupulous people to prey on the vulnerable among us, one such company is that comes to mind goes by the name of Africrypt, run locally in South Africa by two brothers who have allegedly scammed South African people out of billions of Rand to the tune of around 69,000 Bitcoin. The case against the Cajee Brothers is still under heavy investigation by the Hawks (elite criminal investigation unit in South Africa).

Another noteworthy mention is a company known as Forex International, also run by two brothers who were sentenced to a combined prison term of 27 years for defrauding investors out of around R1.6 million in total, these are just two of the many fraudulent and fake investment firms in the country, with many more popping up everyday and even more to come in future.

As promised, this follow up article will further outline what to look for when seeking a reliable broker to invest with in South Africa. Now we will dive a little deeper into what to look for to keep your future investments safe.

1. Trading and operating fees

When opening a new brokerage account, one should always be mindful of the fees charged by their chosen broker, either trading fees, maintenance fees or any type of hidden charges (beware of these!)

Brokers typically earn their livelihoods by charging traders a fixed commission of fees per trade known as 'the spread'. A large majority of brokers operate with this business model, other brokers may charge a lower spread but may also include operating costs like inactivity fees, fees on deposits and withdrawals, some brokers even go as far as platform/account maintenance which all greatly reduce the traders earning potential and profit margins due to higher overall fees as compared to other more reasonable brokers.

2.Trading conditions

Brokers trading conditions refers to all the factors that surround the entire trading process and experience, such as minimum deposits, available trading instruments, which platforms are available bro trade with such as MT4, MT5, Zulu Trader, Tradingview and so on. These are important in order to determine the best broker for your personal trading needs and goals, e.g., if you are a commodities trader then choose a broker that offers the best spreads on gold, oil and other commodities, WikiFX provides all such information and much more.

Also important is to confirm with your chosen broker on what leverages they offer, some brokers entice traders with leverages as high as 1:1000, which often leads to traders blowing accounts and I curing heavy losses, beware of methods that entice you over leverage trades and risk way too much, also determine available trade execution methods - market or instant execution or buy or sell limits and especially policies around requotes and slippage, too much slippage too often will negatively affect profitability in the long run so be sure to check/backtest past trade activity to determine that this will not be a problem. Customer support also plays a huge role in trading conditions so always test customer support to establish how efficient they are in responding to concerns and handling queries also always check reviews on platforms such as WikiFX and see what the professional opinion is and what other users experiences are with the broker.

3.Background and broker history

This can be done with tremendous ease at WikiFX, download the App today and gain the edge over the forex industry with a world of information at your fingertips, information specific to the forex industry and forex brokers and their legitimacy, all relevant regulatory information as well as thorough background checks done be our field agents to help traders navigate and separate the real from the fake.

Once you have downloaded WikiFX, you now have the power to check information such as website and broker reviews, regulatory compliance, as well as the number of regulations (the more, the merrier). Another important important factor to consider is the legitimacy of the information provided on a brokers website, our field agents do the ground work for you to determine if information like the address and operations are as legitimate as claimed by the broker.

Im conclusion, there are many things to consider before making an investment decision, be sure to consider all the factors before participating in the exciting world of foreign exchange...