Forex Peace Army Members Forums>

[glenn david]

Hi, I'm Glenn from the UK and new to this. I've been contacted by a broker from a US company called Atwood and James ltd, he tells me they are a Wall Street company, but he is based in Rio, he says he can make me money buying optoins in the currency market. I have been scammed before and don't want it again. His name is Unis and he wants me to sign a contract/ agreement on line( no obligation ). I just want to do the right thing and look foreward to recieving knowledgable advice.
All the best to you all and thanks for any help

[Pharaoh]

Whois shows contact info in Brazil. Phone numbers listed on whois data and on the website have Brazil's country code (55).

The website has almost no info. It does talk about some economic indicators and mentions forex, but only discusses options. There is no mention of a platform, and it sounds like trades are made via telephone consultation.

Whois does show that the website is hosted on a New York server (rackspace.com). I am suspicious that this is as close to Wall Street as they will get.

Since they appear to be trading futures and claim to be a Wall Street firm, ask them for their NFA registration info.

Please let us know what they say. In the meantime, don't sign anything.

[Cedric Maxwell]

Well I can confirm some things. Atwood & James Ltd is in New York, but trades foreign exchange out of Rio, with overseas clients in a number of countries. (Their literature has the contact information for both offices.) So, I guess this is why they aren't registered with NFA in the US. They seem to know a lot, and the guy I talked with was an old-timer.

I'm very cautious too, so I always take a bit of time to look at who I'm dealing with. Last year, I checked with the FSA, and Atwood & James Ltd had no complaints filed against them. They seemed to have a great reputation working with international clients, so I signed on.

I've dealt with a number of brokers. Look, let's face it. The sales guys are sometimes a bit aggressive. That's why they're in sales. It's in their personality.

During 2007, I only made two trades, but I was in total agreement with Atwood and James on where they thought the market was going, on events and timing. I made some money on the trades, so I'm happy, but it was a learning period for me, so I was slow to jump in.

[manorlad]

hi
My advice to anyone thinking of investing in any company/forex or other financial institution, based on either an email/phonecall/junk mail etc. is simply to say a very big NO THANK YOU. There are several boiler rooms scattered around the world - at times I was receiving up to 3 calls per day - ALL offering fantastic gains on various investments BUT rest assured ( from personal experience) your chances of ever seeing any of the gains claimed will be as remote as ever seeing the return of the all the capital invested.
Consequently I would never, EVER, again consider investing in ANY company based oputside the UK as your chances of any follow up are severley restricted as they will not be regulated within the UK. My advice would be to find a high interest account and deposit there in the knowledge that your money is safe and recoverable!!

[Chris P]

Hi Glenn,

Never,ever sign up with someone who has contacted you out of the blue. You have to ask yourself this questio: "Where did they get my details from?" The fact that you haven't asked them to contact you means that they have gained your details by 'other means'. Do you really want to do business with a company like this? How do you know you can trust them?

My advice is to search around this site and read up on reviews that other users have left for brokers or managed accounts. If the broker you're considering using isn't listed on this site, then that's another warning signal. With the thousands of members registered on this site - if no-one's heard of them before, that's a warning.

Just my 2 pips!