Some weeks everything seems to go your way. It’s true in Forex trading, and it’s true in building the first Forex trading social network. This week at Currensee towers, we’ve been ringing the bell big-time. On Tuesday, we announced our $8M B round of venture financing and the news got picked up all over the media, on Wednesday, our CEO Dave Lemont was on Bloomberg TV, on Thursday we had the biggest daily influx of members in our history, and today we held a webinar with Fox and CNBC guest analyst Bob Iaccino.
Check out our clip from Bloomberg TV’s InsideTrack show with Sara Eisen.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
In business school, we used to say “B’s make degrees” but in the startup world, we don’t settle for less than A’s, and a B round of venture financing makes a lot more than a few degrees of difference. With $8 million in B-round financing from North Bridge Venture Partners and Egan-Managed Capital, we’re going to be able to do a lot more for our trader members, our investors and the Forex world. Here’s our top three:
Accelerate our expansion around the world. Forex is a global market and we’re going to be a global business.
Develop Currensee Market Watch™ and other proprietary social indicators. We’ve been working on the first real-time social sentiment indicator that shows what traders are doing based on actual trades, which will also include advanced data options, such as real-time market depth, and new customization features. You’re gonna love it.
Drive the Currensee Trade Leaders ™ program. The financing will allow us to increase the velocity of the Trade Leaders Program, the first Forex social trade automation service that allows traders to follow the most successful Trade Leaders in the Currensee platform and create their own Forex investment portfolios.
This is no Oscar, and we’re certainly not going to rest on our laurels, but we do need to thank our members – especially the early ones – for being there and giving us feedback and encouragement (and sometimes that other stuff too), and making the community happen. You’ve told us how much you like the Currensee trader network and platfor and that what gives our investors confidence. In the words of our CEO, Dave “El Capitan” Lemont,
“The Forex market is ready for change and we are now in an even better place to accelerate our international expansion and product development to bring that change to the market. We continue to bring trust and transparency to Forex traders around the world and we’ve already seen broad traction from the traders who have joined our trading social network over the past year. We are ready to advance the platform, take the trader network to the next level and become the primary destination for Forex traders.”
Watch this space for more exciting news.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Six months later – and six months is a long time in startup years – we’re back at it again, this time at the International Traders Expo in New York’s Times Square (the most Vegasy part of New York) We left the spokesmodels at home and spent the raffle money on rum & diet coke chocolate babka, but we got a lot more attention. People came to our booth already knowing about us or at least having heard about us.
I’m sure I’m missing somebody but here are shout-outs to some new and old friends we met up with: Jamie Coleman of FXLive, Maud Gilson from FXStreet, author Curtis Faith, David Kaplan from FXCM, Marilyn McDonald from IBFX, Betsy Waters from DBFX, Currensee member Brian Johnson from FXIntel, Elissa Fulop from Gain Capital, Ryan Sindelar from NinjaTrader, Currensee member Clair Wyant from IntegraFX, Todd Hanson from Live Trade Signals, Markus Heitkoetter from Rockwell Trading, and our new bestest drinking buddy, Matt Vann from MediaCougar. Don’t worry Matt, those pictures are totally not on our company intranet.
We gave away hundreds of Trade Leader superheros and talked up the Trade Leader program with novices and experts alike.
What seemed like a slightly wacky idea in Vegas – a social network for Forex traders? Traders willingly sharing information?? - was natural and normal in New York. And New York is a much more skeptical town. In fact, people with background in other asset classes seemed to be flocking to the Forex scene. As much as we’d like to, Currensee probably can’t take much credit for an uptick in interest in Forex, but we welcome it and we think we can help make Forex more welcoming to newcomers and more interesting for old-timers.
So where will Currensee be in another six months? I haven’t checked the tradeshow schedule, but I bet we’ll be in a lot more different places than we are today. There’s some good news I can’t talk about yet coming out next week, and lots of growing excitement about both the Forex trading social network and the Trade Leader program, too. Happy trading, everybody!
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
The International Traders Expo opened last night at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square and the Currensee Trade Leader superheroes were flying out of our booth (#5610). Literally. Really, they can fly.
You see the show is all about the Currensee Trade Leaders Program and getting the word out to successful Forex traders about the program, how they can do what they always do – trade – and how they can realize a new revenue stream with no hassles and no headaches. In just the few hours the show was open last night, we talked to many a Forex trader. Traders of all different levels – many who have been trading for years and were interested in the program.
I was showing one FX trader the Trade Leader program and he said “Are you serious? I just trade and that’s it? I’m in!” That pretty much says it all. If you haven’t heard the details about the Trade Leaders program yet, check out our FAQ page and sign up.
As for the Trade Leader superheroes? Well, who doesn’t want to be a hero? That’s how we see our Trade Leaders and we are excited to send our army of Trade Leader heroes out into the world of Forex to save the day. And remember, when you’re trading Forex on Currensee, your trading friends can see your trades, but nobody can see if you’re wearing tights and a cape.
More to come from the Traders Expo NYC.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Last week, Interbank FX announced that they are now providing their traders with an option to receive their commissions/dividends on a reloadable Payoneer Interbank FX global debit card, instead of paper checks or wire transfers. They are one of the only brokers to offer a convenience feature such as this and it speaks directly to what consumers want…access to their cash now.
Marilyn McDonald, Vice President of Customer Experience over at IBFX says: “At Interbank FX, we feel customer satisfaction is an essential ingredient in keeping our traders happy,” said Marilyn McDonald, vice president of customer experience at Interbank FX. “By letting traders withdraw their margin sooner, Interbank FX is enhancing the experience of trading with us.”
By choosing the Interbank FX prepaid debit card payment option, Interbank FX traders gain speedy payment and greater convenience by uploading their margin accounts onto their Payoneer Interbank FX MasterCard® – anywhere Debit MasterCard is accepted, regardless of country or currency. This is a great option for customers globally who may not be able to cash a US check or don’t want to pay the expensive fees of a wire.
Focusing on what the customer wants is something that seems easy to do but can often take time and effort. Marilyn talks about how this was something they’ve been trying to do for several years in her blog post about the launch. It took them two years and, I’m sure, lots of hard work and perseverance given all the regulations and complexities that come with Forex and banking – especially internationally. Well, Marilyn and team, great job in putting the customer first and finding a way to create convenience and access with a superior payment option.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
If you’re a Forex trader, chances are you use MT4. We here at Currensee have been amazed at how fast the MetaTrader platform is becoming the prominent automated trading software platform. The developers over at MetaTrader have done a great job building one of the few, open, server-based platforms out there and traders continue to flock to the service.
Here at the ranch, we’ve been cooking-up our Universal Metatrader Bridge™capability to support all Forex brokers who use the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Trading Platform. What this means is that if you have an account with a Broker who supports MT4 (there are at least 100 of them by our count), you can easily download the Currensee Universal MT4 Bridge software and join Currensee in just minutes. The benefit? You can continue to execute trades as you always would through MT4 and your broker and can measure your performance, share real-time trade data, and collaborate in our trader network in a completely transparent manner.
We look forward to welcoming all MT4 traders to Currensee, where it’s all about real traders, real trades, real-time.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
I love to see partners, like IBFX, putting social media to work for Forex traders. Today, IBFX announced a pretty cool new Facebook app that they’ll be showcasing at the Traders Expo in Las Vegas later this week.
According to the press release, “Available through the Interbank FX Facebook page, this new application will facilitate Micro Mini Challenge participants to connect with Interbank FX and their fellow traders through Facebook—allowing winners to tag and share their photos and winning certificates.”
The Facebook app is a great idea. Why? Well, Facebook is all about leveraging your social graph, an intricate map of how people are related (socially, that is). People typically connect with other people on Facebook based on a common thread. For some it might be friends they went to high school with, others might be family dispersed all over the world, still others business groups and colleages. That’s the power of a social graph. It can combine all of these different people based on how they’re related. These IBFX traders all have a few things in common – 1) they’re Forex traders 2) they won this contest and 3) they use Facebook. The idea of giving these traders a fun and unique way to communicate and collaborate is what makes social media such an exciting strategy for brokers and financial firms alike.
“Our Micro Mini Challenge is a fun way for traders to engage in friendly competition,” said Marilyn McDonald, Vice President of Customer Experience at Interbank FX. “We at Interbank see the growing trend for traders to incorporate social media into their trading strategies, and we’re excited to facilitate a social connection between our Micro Mini Challenge participants and our Facebook page.”
We are excited to have hundreds of Forex traders and members as Currensee fans on Facebook and an integration with Facebook in the Currensee dashboard. It’s an exciting way to connect with other Forex traders and we give the new IBFX app two thumbs up.
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
I come from the retail brokerage world. A zero-sum game where every broker was always trying to one up the other guy all based on price. How low can you go was always the question the execs battled and price ruled when there was fierce competition for the same customers.
Price competition certainly continues to exist today, but what’s interesting is that brokers and other financial services players are finally catching on to other ways of differentiating. Some tout service, others executions, still others research and reporting. Zecco emerged in 2006 and announced Free trades and shook up the market. The big guys scrambled and soon everyone was offering free trades. What next? The emergence of forums, communities and networks was just beginning and Zecco realized that creating a trading community could help differentiate their offering.
“Aside from Scottrade no other broker has dabbled in the community space, and Scottrade is still a relatively small effort. Zecco may have an opportunity to play in the same waters as kaChing, Covestor and even sites like Currensee. And Ranieri agreed. The opportunity to tap into the wisdom of the crowds exists, and in fact Raneri used that term several times in our conversation.
Wisdom of the crowds, eh? Sounds right up my alley, so I went ahead and joined the Zecco community. A few things struck me off the bat. First, while it seems like a great idea to let everyone join the community without linking their brokerage account, I felt lost and confused. There I was in a community with a bunch of people with zero trades (see image) and zero faces (yes, that’s me) with not much to say.
I wasn’t sure what to do next so I started looking at peoples’ profiles. Most of them hadn’t done much or said much which supports Raneri’s comment, “The community tends to mirror the blogosphere,” he admitted. “Some are very active while 90% are just lurking. But what’s important is we can mine the community for data.”
I get it. It’s all about the data, sure, makes sense. But if 90% are just like me and just lurking, you only have data for 10% of your community. And, that leaves, in my opinion, a way-watered-down “forum-like” experience for the majority of people who haven’t fully joined and may never see the value because of their initial experience.
Maybe Raneri has some tricks up his sleeve to improve his community. We have found here at Currensee that a trading community is only as good as the activity of the traders. We are lucky to have lots of active members who participate in our trader network and add value every day. My advice to Raneri is, rather than focusing on building another free community, put your heart and soul into building a valuable trading community where people actively share ideas and insights based on real trades and real information. Hm, sounds familiar…
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
This week, we launched our latest response to our salacious Wii Hula Video. We really pulled out the stops this time and decided to include a more artful ending.
In case you missed the controversy, we started with our first video titled Wii Hula, which was met with a bevy of commentary from traders around the world.
So, we decided to get a little more serious and included a well-played economic debate.
As if that wasn’t enough, we decided to get a bit more refined and include a more artful ending. Who doesn’t love a good paper-mâché sculpture?
No one said currency videos had to be full of charts, graphs, talking heads and trading screens. We hope you enjoy our fun and creative approach to Forex trading and share our love for the art of all things Forex.
Do tell…what’s your favorite video?
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
TechCrunch reported today about an interesting new iPhone app they came across in the App Store. It’s an official app made by the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), the American stock exchange. In the words of TechCrunch writer, MG Siegler, “That itself is interesting, but perhaps even more interesting is a key functionality of the app is to highlight tweets about various NASDAQ stocks.”
The app is called NASDAQ Portfolio Manager and, according to TechCrunch, it’s pretty slick. In addition to providing all the real-time quotes and data you’d expect, it also has some pretty cool charting features and, IMHO, the most interesting part of the whole app is that it has a special view that integrates all the latest tweets about that stock, coming in from StockTwits. If you don’t know about StockTwits and you’re a Forex trader, you need to check it out. The service is organized in “streams” and they recently launched a Forex stream, where you can see all the latest Forex tweets. A Forex tweet is denoted with $Currency pair (i.e. $USDJPY), and what’s even cooler is that you can sort the Forex stream by pair. Say you’re only interested in tweets about USD/JPY, click on the pair and just see that stream. We use StockTwits with our @Currensee Twitter stream to connect with influential Forex traders from around the world. Many new Currensee members find us on Twitter and connect with other Twitter members on Currensee.
This new NASDAQ app shows the innovation that comes when you blend social data with traditional data. The ability to look at a chart and a price and blend that with what other people are doing right now provides unique new insights and gives traders new decision-making tools. It’s reinforcing to see an institution like NASDAQ push the limits on data. I’m happy to be in such good company. :)
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Be sure to read the full risk disclosure before trading Forex. Please note that Forex trading involves significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved before trading. Performance, strategies and charts shown are not necessarily predictive of any particular result. And, as always, past performance is no indication of future results.
Currensee is the first social network for forex traders. We bring Forex traders from around the world together to make trading decisions in real time using live trading data.
Marilyn McDonald, Vice President of Customer Experience over at IBFX says: “At Interbank FX, we feel customer satisfaction is an essential ingredient in keeping our traders happy,” said Marilyn McDonald, vice president of customer experience at Interbank FX. “By letting traders withdraw their margin sooner, Interbank FX is enhancing the experience of trading with us.”
seems like a great idea to let everyone join the community without linking their brokerage account, I felt lost and confused. There I was in a community with a bunch of people with zero trades (see image) and zero faces (yes, that’s me) with not much to say.
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