Answers to the most commonly emailed questions

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AsstModerator

FPA Forums and Reviews Admin
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Here they are, all in one place. I like questions. I just think it's a waste of FPA resources to send out the same answers to the same questions over and over again.

Read this and then send in some new questions. Questions that many people will want to know the answers to work better in the forums.

Here's the list. Click the links to be taken directly to the post with the answers.

Questions about SPAM and what happens to spammers.


Questions about Password and Signup Issues.


Hey dude, where's my review?


Questions about Performance Tests, product settings and how to use products, trading platforms, etc.


What product, broker, or service is the best?


Can you tell me about this product, company, or broker?


Can you declare this company to be a scam?


FPA Signals and News Trading Questions.


Other useful resources.




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SPAM will not be tolerated

SPAM will not be tolerated

I'm putting this first. Banned spammers keep writing in claiming that they didn't think there were any rules against spamming.

I like it when people use the forums, but please try to follow the rules. I don't care if you have a forex product that will make me a trillion dollars overnight, DO NOT SPAM ABOUT IT! The forums have an area called the Commerce Zone. It has places where you can post ads for free, like the FPA's Classified Ads Section. Within the classifies, there are folders for different categories of forex-related ads. There is also a Flea Market folder where non-forex ads can be posted. Any legal product may be advertised inside the correct folder. Posting ads for illegal products will result in the account being banned. If you decided to post your ads in non-commercial areas in the forums without special advanced permission from me or one of the other admins, your account will be permanently banned. If you spam with your ClickBank or other affiliate ID, I'll report that too. I've had many of those shut down.

Spend a little time looking around the forums. There are special folders for many different purposes. As long as you aren't advertising in the wrong places, I don't mind a few items out of place. If you see that your posts keep getting moved to another folder, please take that as a hint and place new posts in the correct folder.

If you have something you want to post that's borderline or have any questions about whether or not it will be considered to be spam, then use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page to ask before posting. This is one situation where it is better to ask first than to try to beg for forgiveness later.

In November 2011, the number of new spam accounts jumped from the usual 5-10 per week to hundreds per day. In December 2011, the FPA engaged the services of StopForumSpam.com. This blocks signups from IP addresses and email addresses that have been reported for spamming.

If you are getting a spam error when signing up and you are not a spammer, try asking your ISP when your IP address will change.

If you do spam, your IP, username, and email address will be reported to StopForumSpam.com. Your spam messages may be deleted, or they may be placed on public display in the Spammers Hall of Shame. If this happens, the FPA reserves the right to make changes to mock you and the company you are spamming for. By using the forums, you have already agreed to this in the Terms of Service.

Do not create forums accounts just to add a link to a website inside your user profile. Active FPA members who have an outside commercial or private site can place that link in their profile. Creating a forums account with no intention to ever use it for anything other than as a parking space for a web link will make that account subject to deletion. If I see too many of these for the same website or a group of related websites, I may post a warning about your actions in the Spammers Hall of Shame.
 
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Password and Signup Issues

Password and Signup Issues

If you just signed up, you probably haven't gotten an email about the Daily Trading Signals yet. Be patient. Signals are sent out about 24 hours before news events. If you sign up on Thursday afternoon you probably won't get your first Signals mailing until Sunday.

Your FPA Forums account password require cookies to be accepted to work. Some users report that they can't login with Internet Explorer, but can get in using FireFox. Some report the opposite. So far, no one here has heard any complaints about Opera or Google Chrome, yet.

Another common problem. You've been on the mailing list for a long time, have forgotten your forum password and get an "email address not recognized error" when you ask to have your password reset. Either you changed your email address or you never had a forum account. If you remember your old email address, use that. If not, or if you've never had a forum account, just use the "Join Us Today" link again. Look towards the top of most pages in the website. If you are on the mailing list, it should take you straight to the forum signup page.

If you later decided you don't want your full name to be your forum name or want to change your forum name for some other reason, use the "Contact Us" form. Make sure to include your current forum name and 2 or 3 alternative names. Many names are already taken, so providing alternatives can speed up the change process.

As mentioned in the post about spam, the FPA has engaged the services of StopForumSpam. If your IP address has been reported for spamming other forums, you'll need to ask your ISP how long until you get a new IP address.
 
Hey dude, where's my review?

Hey dude, where's my review?

Be patient. The review moderation queue can get backed up. Every time you post a review, there's a note about reviews taking from 3-5 business days to be processed. The time spent answering this same question over and over again every day from people who left reviews less than 48 hours before adds at least 1 day to the moderation process.

Please don't lie about your location. You don't have to give your city, but if you lie about what country you are in, your review will probably be deleted. The bulk of reviews with fake countries are fake reviews. There's an idiot in Latvia who spent more than 6 months leaving hundreds of reviews claiming to be from all over the world. He thought he could rearrange the top rated brokers. He failed. If you are traveling outside your home country, select the country you are currently in from the country dropdown box and write "(home country), currently visiting" in the location box if you feel the need to say where you are originally from. The FPA's reviews don't require you to give your real name, so your privacy is protected. If you have an issue with a company that's threatened you and are worried that they can identify you just from the country you live in, then please use the Contact Us form to send a message to the FPA.

Is your review really a review? "I need contact info for the company or a reviewer." Or "Hello person who left a review long ago, how's it going?" aren't reviews. People go to the reviews to read about experiences dealing with companies. If you want to argue about best settings or chat with other users, all but the most recently listed companies have a discussion thread linked to the review page. "Has anyone used this product?" is only appropriate if you are submitting a new site. It won't make users come to the review page and share their experiences.

If you leave a followup review, use the same name and location you used in the first review. Don't try submitting multiple reviews under different names. One trader gets one vote. If you get caught cheating, the best that you can hope for is to have all of your reviews deleted. The FPA is always working to improve detection of those who try to cheat.

If you do write in about a missing review, please say what company you reviewed and what name you used in the review. Without that information, there's no way to check and see what happened to your review.


Some people claim that moderating reviews is censorship. Read this thread to see a small sample of the useless things I and my team have kept out of the reviews. You can also find more information about good and bad reviews in the other threads in this folder.

I have a special note for employees who leave fake client reviews for their own companies. If you are caught, all of those reviews will be set to Zero stars. A note about where those reviews came from will be added to each review. A warning might be placed on top of your review page. I've been in charge of the FPA's reviews for over 3 years now. When they were caught, many companies claimed that the client review happened while the client was at the company's offices. So far, not one client has ever mentioned that he or she was leaving the review while visiting the company. Not one review left from inside a company's offices has ever mentioned that the client had ever visited those offices. At this point, I won't believe that a client review left from inside the reviewed company's offices is anything except fake no matter what it says. If clients are visiting your company's offices, don't let them leave reviews from inside the company offices. Don't let your employees leave fake client reviews. If you do, it will only damage your company's reputation.
 
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Tech Support for the Universe

Tech Support for the Universe

The FPA has conducted Performance Tests for hundreds of products. There are currently about 2500 companies listed in the review pages. We don't have an encyclopedia of forex sitting in the office. Most of the information we have is posted directly in the forums and review pages.

All performance tests hosted by the FPA use default settings unless otherwise noted.. Any version upgrades beyond the basic package that was purchased/donated to us are noted on the Performance Test Page. If you buy something and then it offers you the "Special Version" for more money, the FPA test is on the basic version unless noted.

For tested products, the most common questions are...

What are the settings the FPA is using?
Why doesn't my EA trade exactly like the one at the FPA?

There are so many PT related questions that I made a separate FAQ for that area. CLICK HERE for answers to those and many other Performance Test questions.

If you want to volunteer your product or service for Performance Testing, CLICK HERE. The link and instructions for submission are near the bottom of the first post in that thread. Please read all the posts in the thread before trying to volunteer.


For non-tested products, no one here at the FPA has any special info about any settings, good or bad. Please contact the seller of the product with support questions. That's part of why you gave the seller your money. For any company or product listed in the reviews, you can also follow the link from the review page to a forums thread dedicated to that website. This will let you share questions and information with other FPA members.


People email and ask if the FPA takes credit card deposits. People ask how much for the software. The FPA isn't a broker and doesn't have anything for sale. If you have an uncontrollable urge to send money to the FPA, send cash and write "ATTN: AsstModerator" on the outside of the envelope. You won't get anything for your money, but I'll have fun spending it. :) I think some of these people are using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of review pages. If you are anywhere inside the FPA's website, the "Contact Us" link is only for contacting the FPA. It does not to the company being reviewed or discussed on the page. Click the company's name at the top of the review page or the thumbnail image on the review page to go to the company's website.
 
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What (fill in the blank) is best?

What (fill in the blank) is best?

On very rare occasions, Felix might say that he thinks a product is cool or interesting. The FPA occasionally will send out special discount offers on outside products or services. The FPA does not endorse any product or service.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that not every product or broker will meet everyone's needs. Pharaoh wrote a couple of great articles that should help you find things that are best for you. You can read those here...

https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/forex-basics-boot-camp/2333-how-select-forex-broker.html

https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/fore...tting-scammed-when-buying-forex-products.html

The second reason is that good companies can go bad. I've seen trading rooms go from dozens of 5 star reviews to dozens of 1 star reviews. I've seen profitable signals services do the same. I've seen EAs that did pretty for a long time fail as marker conditions changed. I've seen well rated brokerages liquidated because of accounting irregularities. You need to always be on guard against getting scammed or losing money, even by products and companies that you've dealt with for years.

No one who answers the email at FPA HQ is ever going to recommend a broker or a forex product for you. You need to do your own research and be ready to switch brokers or products if one stops working as expected. The FPA is a great resource for research, but you have to do some work and make your own decisions.

If you still can't control the need to ask about the best forex broker, then click here for more information.
 
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Can you tell me about (fill in the blank)?

Can you tell me about (fill in the blank)?

Before asking this, go to the FPA homepage. There's a Google Custom Search there. Once you run the search, you can chose if you want only forum or only review links. That's the fastest way to search through all the companies the FPA has any info on.

If it's not the FPA's reviews, the chances are that no one at FPA HQ has any information about it. Why ask a handful of people when you can use the forums to ask all of your fellow FPA members? There's a Has anyone heard of? folder in the Commerce Zone of the forums. Ask there and you have a much better chance of getting someone who knows something about it.

You can also go to the FPA's reviews and search from there. Make sure you are on the All Services page. If the company isn't listed, then use the Add New Site button. Please don't use the Add New Site Button for sites that are already listed. That slows down the processing if you leave a review and also slows down getting sites that aren't listed added to the reviews.
 
This company scammed me. Declare them to be a scam.

This company scammed me. Declare them to be a scam.

I'm always amazing at how often someone writes in saying this without offering any evidence. Some of them get very demanding and are offended when they are asked for evidence or to follow the normal procedure. What should the FPA do if someone else writes in later saying "I know the company isn't a scam. Remove the SCAM label"? FPA Scam findings are based on investigation and evidence, not on one person's unsupported declaration about whether a company is a scam or not.

The FPA has a procedure for dealing with companies that may have done something wrong. First, you need to leave a review and to start a new thread about the company in the Scam Alerts Folder. Unless you have a very good reason for keeping it secret, you need to do this before anything else. If you have a good reason, put it at the beginning of your message.

Once you've left your review and started your thread in Scam Alerts, if you still think the company has done you wrong, read the instructions for filing a case with FPA Traders Court. Make sure you have evidence and fully understand the instructions.

The goal of the FPA is not to have Guilty verdicts in the FPA Traders Court or confirmed Scam findings. The goal is to help traders and the companies they deal with reach solutions to issues. If you have deliberately broker the rules of a company that you've dealt with or refuse to cooperate with an FPA investigation, then there's nothing that the FPA can do for you.


Some people write in saying that they know a company is a scam or is another company owned by people who are already listed as scammers. If you have proof, please give it. The FPA can't and won't call a company a scam based only on a rumor.

One guy wrote in saying he wanted a company declared a scam only because the product was expensive. He'd never tried the product. There are some products with consistent 5 star ratings over time that cost over thousands of dollars. There are products that cost under $100 with 1 star ratings. People should be careful with money, but the price tag alone doesn't tell you if a product is a scam or not.
 
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FPA Signals and News Trading Questions

FPA Signals and News Trading Questions

The new format has an after spike strategy linked to almost every news event. There's also a general set of instructions for newstrading if you click here.

If you have a question about a specific news signal at the FPA, please post it in that thread. That will give you the best chance of getting a quick answer.

The FPA has one of the best news calendars on the web here. At this time, you have to hit the refresh button manually. The programmers are still looking at several options to improve this. If any major upgrades happen, there will be an announcement and it will be mentioned in the forex trading signals also.

If you really want to try spike trade news events, you'll need a broker that permits it and a service to get the news faster. No, the FPA is not going to recommend a broker for this. You have to find your own.
 
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