So you’re thinking of whether or not you want to buy Forex signals from somebody else, huh?
We’ve all thought about it. Many of us have done it.
Why put in the work, when we can just copy off of somebody else?
Or better so, maybe we can find somebody who can add onto our current results. This would make a lot more sense.
Most people mess this process up — badly. The chances of it all working are low, but you increase your chances of finding a successful Forex signal provider a whole lot by reading this blog post first.
So let’s get into it.
I did a podcast episode on this. You can listen to it here, or simply continue on.
In this blog post, we are going to cover
- Major red flags to watch out for
- The type of people who should be paying for one
- The exact approach you should take if you are going to go this route
Let’s do this!
Dark Waters
I think it should go without saying, but when you dive into the world of Forex signal providers, your chances of finding an honest one are extremely low.
Your chances of finding an honest and successful one are 10X lower than that.
If you know this going in, and you can approach this entire search with a heavy dose of skepticism, you are already ahead of most people.
Most people are pie-eyed optimists who just want to find their savior and are willing to look past any obvious red flags.
So this is one of those rare occurrences where a heavy dose of pessimism is a good thing.
But if you have conditioned your mind to think this way, you can now proceed and do your due diligence.
And while you are doing this, allow me to alert you to the major red flags you need to be looking for. Some of these may seem obvious, others maybe not as much.
Red Flag #1: They’re Only On WhatsApp, Telegram or IG
You can pretty much just end your search here if your signal provider doesn’t have any other outlets on social media.
This may not be fair to the one poor guy out there on Telegram who’s doing it honestly, but if you think about the reasons why these people aren’t on any other media platforms, it makes a lot more sense.
First of all, there is zero reason not to leverage platforms like Facebook, Google, YouTube, and Twitter. Absolutely zero.
If you have 20 people buying your signals, you could easily get to 200 over time by putting yourself out there on the largest media platforms in recorded history.
So why aren’t these WhatsApp, Telegram and IG signal providers doing it? Can anyone guess?
It’s a no-brainer if you think about it.
A: They’ll get called out constantly on those platforms, and become exposed.
Hell, I don’t sell anything, and I get accused of leading everyone to an inevitable pay wall all the time.
Imagine what actual hucksters would have to deal with.
IG and Telegram don’t give you the ability to be 100% in the shadows, but it does give you enough of a cloak to freely get one over on as many people as you can without taking too much of a reputation hit.
It’s a lot tougher to hide when you’re out there on YouTube and even more so Twitter.
At the very least, they should have a fully functional and modern website. But there will be some things to look for on these websites which we will tackle in a bit, stay tuned.
I know younger people will gravitate to younger platforms, this is understandable. But you’re not doing your credibility any favors here.
Speaking of youth…
Red Flag #2: They’re Young
Is this ageism? It’s not, but the easily offended will turn anything into a “something-ism”, so you just have to surge ahead and let them piss and cry about it.
Like when your 5-year-old has a tantrum, the best move always is to walk away and let them learn how the world doesn’t revolve around them, and how this behavior won’t get you what you want in life.
Anyway, young people on the whole aren’t that great at Forex. And if they’re good, they will be better later in life when they’ve amassed a good amount of experience.
The ability to do this consistently and consistently well, while weathering the storms and all the ebbs and flows you’re bound to encounter over time is something a trader with only a year or so’s worth of experience simply cannot handle.
And this is magnified 20X when you have others relying on the information you send them.
What a lot of young people ARE really good at is programming automated systems which can take this emotion away and focus on the raw results, and this is a very good thing.
…..but these programs will also get better with time as well.
Why would I buy the iPhone 3 now, when I can just buy the better version?
If you want the worst possible product this person is capable of in the next 5 years, by all means, become allured with the travel and the cars this guy flashes on IG, and see what he has to offer.
But just know what you’re getting — and what you’re not (yet) getting.
Your money can probably be spent better somewhere else, can we all agree?
Red Flag #3: Lifestyle Flashing
I don’t think we need to spend too much time on this.
Showing people a flashy lifestyle is pandering to the least intelligent among us.
And this is a tactic over a century old. It’s happening right now on TV commercials all over the world.
And they do it because it works, because most humans are dumb as shit, and the marketers who create these commercials are smarter than they are, and in turn can easily profit off of them.
Basic food-chain stuff, people. Decide where you sit on the chain.
By posting high-end lifestyle photos and videos on their social media, they are all saying, in no uncertain terms, “You are an idiot, and I am here to take your money”.
All that’s left for you to decide at this point is — are you or aren’t you?
Red Flag #4: They Don’t Show Their Results At All
You kinda want to know if the product works, right?
You can try review sites, but you may not like what you see, and chances are if you do like what you see, it’s probably something like 4 total reviews, all created by the signal provider and his buddies.
When you first hear me say they should show their results, may of you would probably laugh because it’s so obvious, but you would be surprised.
How surprised?
Almost half of the sites I looked up showed no results whatsoever.
And most of these sites looked like they’ve been in business for awhile.
Crazy, right? No, actually very common. And even prospering!
So these are some of the ways no-results sites will try and hook you
1 – Pretty Website
A well-made, very professional-looking website can go a long way, especially in the financial world, especially when most of your clients have never been in the financial world.
Now remember, most of these clients aren’t that bright, so you can bet when they see a well-curated and beautifully clean website, they will often buy just on this alone.

Most people don’t realize this is a stock photo and not the person they will be actually speaking to. I’m serious.
Live 24 hour support? These guys are legit!!
(LiveChat is a simple WordPress Plug-in, and you can attach a bot or a $5/hr CS rep from overseas to it)
What these potential clients never seem to consider is how the whole site design was probably outsourced, or that…….I dunno……….maybe website design and winning signals have nothing to do with each other.
Rule #1 of marketing: Never market to the intelligent. There’s just not enough of them out there.
2 – Corporate Experience
Experience? Good!
Most of that experience in the corporate world?
Typically bad, believe it or not.
Always remember, this does not necessarily (or usually) mean success in the corporate world. Many of these people are now jobless, hence the signals site.
And I hate to be the one who tells you there is no Santa Claus, but most of your better-known financial companies out there don’t crank out big returns to begin with.
The book “Where Are The Customers Yachts” shined a great light on this whole industry and how these people make money off of you moreso than for you more often than not. A great read if you get time.
So in other words, don’t become dazzled by a signal provider’s corporate resume. All it really says is they already know how to make money off of you.
3 – Technical Jargon
Another advertising tactic over a century old, a great way to get people to buy from you is to use words they don’t understand in hopes they’ll just assume you’re better at all this than they are.
And it works.
In the world of Forex signals, the most common approach here is to get really computer-y with everything and let the potential mark know you have things like…
- An AI program or some made-up crap like that
- Multiple algorithms (So what? We have those here at NNFX.)
- Decades of past data (Okay……and??)
All of this “wizard-behind-the-curtain” nonsense means absolutely nothing, and it’s one of my least favorite things to see in any marketing model. Wreaks of shadiness.
“Ooohhhh, I got some CRAZY shit going on back here, you just don’t know!”
Okay, what is it?
“Man, I can even BEGIN to show it to you, your mind just can’t comprehend how CRAZY powerful and detailed this stuff is man”
Yeah, never mind then.
4 – Claims Results But Doesn’t Prove Them
This is pretty egregious, and should have probably gotten its own category, but stating results isn’t the same as showing results.
Yet people are so dim-witted, what all many of these scammers have to do is make up some random result and post it to their page/site, and these same dimwits will immediately start throwing money at them.
Like a “40% ROI” posted in the top corner of the site, but no proof anywhere to back it up.
It baffles me how easy this is.
Like, actual snake-oil salesman are calling these people lazy.
Yet here we are. And here they are, still at it after all these years.
Who Likes Fudge!
By attempting to prove your results, you can draw from both wells: The smarter shoppers who want to see actual results, and the unabated morons who fall for all of the stuff I listed above.
If you were one of those people, don’t get upset, you’re not one of those people anymore, and the present and future are all that matter now. I too have purchased signals for dumb reasons, and this is why I can speak with authority on the subject.
But many people attempt to do their proper due diligence, yet still end up getting duped because there are so many ways to alter your results to look different than they actually are.
I’m about to save you a lot of future lost money here.
These are some of the more common ways I have seen shady Forex signal services fudge their numbers.
I think you’ll have a good laugh at some of these, unless you’ve fallen for these tactics yourself, then your emotions may differ.
1 – Tables-Fudging
You’ll probably chuckle at this, but I’ve seen it more than once.
Not too different from what we just went over, but I’ve seen people create results tables on their pages where they simply manually enter fake trades and results.
It’s hilarious because it’s totally made up, but since it’s in table form it looks legit, nobody questions it.
2 – Half-Truths
In Forex alone, I have had months where I have made over 2000 pips.
Does that seem like a lot? It should. Anyone with any trading experience realizes just how hard-to-believe this is.
But I’m not lying. At all.
What I am doing however is withholding a key piece of data from you.
…..the amount of pips I lost in those same months.
I’ve never netted 2000 pips in a month, that would be pretty insane.
But this is what scammy results-fudgers do all the time.
This way, you can’t report them or even have a legitimate complaint about their records.
….because they weren’t actually lying.
It’s like when your sibling would say back you were growing up, “Mom never said I can’t steal your shoes and throw them out the window”
And you just want to pummel them in the face even more for it.
No different here. Child-ish, scammy, and downright unethical in every way.
Another example of this is how you will sometimes see services who claim to win 90+% of their trades. This is a clear signal that something else is really going on here.
Chances are if you ask to see their results, they’re going to show you their account summary with the losing trades cut out of it.
If you’re ever interested in their services, ask them to provide you their net gains. Accept nothing less.
And speaking of a 90% hit rate…
3 – Too Good To Be True
So if somebody actually does say something like “+1500 pips in the month of September”
You have every reason to be skeptical.
Look, it’s not out of the realm of absolute possibility to do this, but you need to ask yourself a few questions here.
1 – Is it net pips, like discussed earlier?
2 – How often does he claim to pull this off?
3 – Were these results all in spot Forex?
If it is in fact net pips, red flags should still be popping up everywhere.
A 1500 pip net gain for a month can happen I suppose, but it would be an incredible anomaly. So if you see it, or anything near it to be claimed in subsequent months as well, run away.
He’s lying.
Or, consider this. Are you SURE spot Forex is the only thing he trades?
The reason I say this is because as we’ve all learned by now, the ATR on things like crazy exotics, metals, or indices are very high, often 10-100X higher than your everyday spot Forex pairs are.
If this is the case, +2000 net pips is quite easy to do, and not very impressive.
The problem with this, is how most people won’t realize it, and end up getting dazzled by numbers that by more educated standards would be fairly mediocre.
Showing crazy results can be deceptive in many different ways. Always approach with extreme caution here.
And along those same lines…
4 – Top Loading
This is a term I made up, but it goes like this.
Want to have crazy results to show people? Just do this.
1 – At the start of the new year, open two demo accounts.
2 – Pick a volatile currency pair
3 – On one of the accounts, go long.
4 – On the other account, go short.
5 – Walk away and come back in 6 months to a year
If there was any real trending going on, chances are one of those accounts is sky high, while the other one is a complete disaster. So alls you gotta do is….
6 – Close down the losing account.
Voila! You have some tremendous, albeit ridiculously shady results to show potential clients.
But don’t worry, like we said before, many of them are incredibly stupid. You’ll make money.
Top loading just really comes down to having multiple accounts, and only showing the ones which are actually performing.
A lot of these scam-dogs have 15 demos open right now, just waiting to peddle the results of their best performer once it’s time.
The sports betting industry has this down to a science.
You’ll often see them have dozens of different packages they can sell to people. Apart from the normal shady crap like dealing dual lines (like the example I gave in the Patience video), they’ll have all these different packages to sign up for like…
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Wise-Guy
Insider
Gold Plus
Diamond
Elite
Syndicate
Tits Magoo
Preferred
Executive
If they’re betting American sports, it’s normally a win-or-lose type proposition, so even with the vig, you can be assured a few of these packages are going to do well. Law of Averages.
So all they have to do is shine a big spotlight on the packages that are doing well, and just market those.
Again, they aint lying, so it’s all okay. Legally at least.
The same can be done, and is done, in the Signals business.
Keep your eyes open.
5 – Results Are Not Current
Easy to miss this one if you’re not paying attention.
I have seen this twice. You’re looking over their results, they seemed to have documented them the right way, everything looking really good….
….up until 2017. Then it stopped.
Okay, so clearly the service is no longer running and they just haven’t taken down the website, right?
Wrong! I was blown away.
One of them had a fully operational live chat, and I asked how much a signals package was worth, and they answered.
The other guy I had to email, but he assured everything was business as usual and tried to close me right there.
So again, they aint lying, but unless you want to travel back in time to get some of those results, steer clear when you see this.
What Steps Should You Take?
You are aware of the red flags, you know the chances of finding a good, consistent provider is extremely low, but you think it’s still worth the time and risk.
How should you approach it?
Four steps.
1 – Due Diligence
Fairly obvious, we just went over the ways to spot a thief. When scoping out a potential provider, come back to this blog if you have to and make sure they don’t check off any of those above boxes.
If you get scammed, it’s your fault. But like all losses, there are ways to keep those losses to a dead minimum by minimizing your risk.
Best way to do that?
2 – Demo First (For 2 Months)
What??
You want me to pay a guy money for nothing? I can’t even make money off of the signals I’m buying?
Yes, this is exactly what I’m saying.
Same thing I said in the Paid Indicators and Robots podcasts. You absolutely must know for sure if the claimed results match the actual results!!
This is by far the smartest use of your money.
Provided you find a good one, you’re in this for the long haul, correct?
Well then this is not only the smart move, it’s really your only move at this point.
If it matches up, you have an absolute unicorn on your hands, assuming the results are great. You can now proceed with caution still, but less than before. But just make sure you are going to….
3 – Use Money You Can Easily Afford To Blow
It makes absolutely no sense to put a harmful dent into your account or lifestyle just to get signals that are certainly going to be inconsistent over time, and possibly not even legit.
You need to do the math here, and figure out if the juice is really worth the squeeze.
This is much easier to do, when you easily have the money for the fees and don’t really care about it.
But at the end of the day, those people are the only ones who should even remotely consider buying signals — the people who don’t need the money.
I mean it. If you’re not at that level, save….your….money. You will pay for your lack of patience here, I promise.
But if you can, there’s one more thing I want you to consider.
4 – Make Sure You’ll Be Around For The Signals
Sounds obvious, right? But I think lots of people get caught up in the euphoria, and don’t consider this part as much as they should.
Some give them out once a day at the same time each day, which is your ideal situation. But this is not the most common approach.
If signals are given out at sporadic times, you are now a slave to your new master, and mush be present and able to enter/exit these trades every time, or your results won’t match theirs.
Given how time is worth far more than money, make sure you’ve given this a hard look.
Another huge reason to demo them first — you need to see if this is now the lifestyle you want, and if it’s worth it.
Some services use a trade copier, which pretty much means the signals provider controls your entire account. I still don’t know how this is legal, but it is.
I don’t know about you, but there is not one single human being alive who I trust with my own trading capital. Be very very careful here.
Conclusion
This is a lot to read, but it’s your hard-earned money.
The only thing worse than giving it to somebody who can’t perform is giving it to somebody who was only there to steal it from you in the first place.
And then end up on a modern-day “Sucker List” for your troubles.
When it’s all said and done, you’ll be glad you read this long-ass blog post.
— VP