Forex Science James de Wett mismanaged fund

[wombats]

James de Wett of Forex science.com. Offers a trade follower service (or lack of service) Charges 97GBP/month & promises 15% return monthly. 2 Months in a row- loss after loss. His strategy uses a 30 pip Stop, 30 pip take profit. Well, he doesn't set a take profit, he just enters a trade & disappears, leaving winning trades turn to losers. I had to manually intervene 3 times to stop my account totally disappearing. Only way he makes money is selling a system, if he could trade, wouldn't have to do that.He doesn't answer e-mails.

 

[Pharaoh]

How are the trades placed into your account?

 

[szendro]

Hello Wombat. I was just scrolling through and my jaw dropped open to see the name "James de Wet" again. If you google his name you will unearth lots of information about this infamous individual. His first managed service back in 2005/6 was called Team Forex and this managed to lose all clients funds. Apart from that he had enticed clients by falsifying performance and was prosecuted and found guilty by the CFTC in the US. I was in contact with the cftc and still have a copy of the last email:

"The Court has entered a final judgment against James de Wet. Attached for your convenience is a copy of that Order. To date, James de Wet has not made any of the payments required by the Order. If he does, the Commission will move the Court to distribute those funds to his customers. When that occurs, all his former customers will be notified by the Commission.
"
Although judgement was passed, de Wet was (and probabaly still is) living in South Africa and the CFTC seemed unwilling or unable to follow extradition procedures. He therefore got away with it scot free.

To everyone's dismay, he later sent a video to all previous clients. The video was of him sitting by his pool drinking a beer in which he said "sorry" for what he had done.
Obviously sorry does not mean much to this fellow!!!

 

[keithg59]

Trade copier

How are the trades placed into your account?

The service is run using a VPS, although it has now changed slightly and trades are placed directly onto the users account.

I have submitted a review of this service, so will not repeat all the details here, but as someone who has been using this copier service for 2 months, I was down 13.5% after the first month and now almost 25%. The bizarre thing is that the underlying system seems to work, but the trade copier service has been a disaster. Trades have been taken that do not comply with his own stated rules, so if he cannot even trade his own system according to his own ruules, what hope have the rest of us got?

Despite the negative comments on the internet, I had a lot of time for James de Wet. Not any more.

 

[wombats]

James de Wett gone out of Business Today.
Here is the e-mail he sent me
Firstly, I aplogise for the lack of communication from my side over the past week.

I have been taking time to consider my path (and that of Forex-Science) moving
forward into the future. I have also been battling through some personal issues
which I don't want to discuss here.

At the beginning of last month, I stopped offering training and signal services to
Forex traders, and opened the "trade copier service" to predominantly my Charter
Group members.

If you are a trade copier, you will know that the results have been less than successful
and the current result is 25.6% drawdown since March 1st. I could say a lot more about
the drawdown, but I'll keep it simple:

At 7.5:1 leverage, this level of drawdown is to be expected on occasion. The market
hasn't been easy, but I have also made trading mistakes and errors of judgement. I am
not making excuses - it is what it is. As much as I dislike to see my copier clients in a
drawdown, this IS part of trading and these risks need to be accepted.

After over a decade of trading the markets, I have finally decided to "hang up the boots"
I will be stopping all trading services indefinitely, including all training, courses, signals
and the trade copier. I will be focussing on my own personal trading and one or two
large clients.

The reasons for this are various, including personal reasons, and I don't feel it
is necessary or appropriate to go into them in this letter.

For those who have followed me for years, I thank you for your support and, in many
cases, friendship. For those who have followed the trade copier, a few good trades
will easily recover the current drawdown, and the market is bound to offer those
opportunities soon - perhaps even this week.

I will certainly miss the work I have done with thousands of traders around the world
for so long, but on the other hand, it gives me the chance to focus my trading on
more specific funding.

If you are a trade copier, please contact 4xSolutions to ask them to cancel your
copier account with Forex-Science. They may be able to recommend other copier
services to you if you enjoy the concept.

Take care and good luck for your trading future

James de Wet




Forex-Science, 53 Brighton Drive, Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape 6001, SOUTH AFRICA

I naturally asked for a refund

 

[Pharaoh]

Please post a followup to let everyone know if that refund arrived or not.

 

[Merchant Prince]

Here's the text of an email that I, and most likely others, have received that might shed some light
on the issue people were having with the performance of the trades that were made available through
the trade copier.

It was sent about a month after the email that wombats just posted here. I assume that everyone on the general
mailing list did not get this email:

"Hi,

This letter comes 32 days after I last wrote to you to tell you that I am no longer offering Forex trading services to the public.

Please indulge me and take a few minutes to read through this letter. I have only written this to members and long term associates, and not to my general mailing lists.

Before I begin, I want to thank the many, many folks who wrote to me to wish me luck and to thank me for the years of training and services I have given since 2001. I only started reading the emails in my "trading" inbox yesterday, and I have yet to finish them all. I am also reading through the few disputes and will attend to those soonest.

Why did I decide to drop off the map so suddenly?

If I had to try to dissect my feelings, there were possibly four main reasons, although they are intertwined and inter-related. Some of you will know a little about them, but let me elaborate.

Firstly, around 8 weeks ago, I lost a dear friend in a motorcycling accident. Not only was this a great shock to me, but it also got me to begin some introspective thinking about life, my family and my purpose in it all.

Bear with me as I try to put this all into the mixing pot, even if it all becomes a little scrambled...

Secondly, I was diagnosed with level 2 bi-polar disease roughly 5 years ago, although I have been suffering from it since I can remember. Since diagnosis and medication, I had been wonderfully stable, but it seems that the death of my friend, and general fatigue triggered a semi-relapse, with somewhat unpleasant results for me, my trading and my family. Thankfully, this is now completely under control again!

The third factor I think was general weariness. After having been a full time trader since 2001 (12 years!) I had begun to lose the spark and enthusiasm which has driven me for so long. In retrospect, this was probably due (to a large extent) to the other aforementioned factors.

I think the final factor was simple stress caused by (I say this with the utmost respect) client's reactions to the first poor month we had with the trade copier. Unfortunately, I received an enormous amount of abuse directly and through third party forums. I know I need to man up to this, as it is part of every business, and I'm not one to react normally. But like I said, I think I was in an unusually weak head space and this took its toll. Running a trade copier for hundreds of traders possibly came at the worst time!

I have had a month to mull over things without distraction, and to lock myself quietly away with my trading charts and to do some beautiful research! I have also had chance to assist my family with other enterprises - something I have enjoyed tremendously!

I wanted to write you this letter for two reasons. Firstly, as I said, to explain my sudden departure from trading, and secondly to let you know that I don't think I am about to quit on teaching just yet.

However, I am not going to ever "go public" again, and only past members and course owners will have access to my newest work.

I'll tell you more about the research I have been doing in my next email, possibly later today or this weekend. Suffice to say, the hundred or so hours I have spent have paid off hugely, and I think you'll be as excited as I am!

Finally, I realize that it is unusual for a vendor to write to his clients so frankly, but I felt an explanation was needed, and what better way to do it but with the truth?

Speak soon,

James

P.S. If there are any folk who raised a dispute of any sort which wasn't addressed, please email me to remind me, and I'll try to sort it out. You might consider holding back until you hear what I may offer."

 

[Merchant Prince]

This is another email that I received that explains further the decision on James' part to
stop offering instruction to the public. This was right before the issues people were having
with the trades that people were getting through the trade copier. I have a copy of the recorded
webinar that corroborates this. if anyone is interested in getting a copy of it, please contact me
here and I'll arrange for you to get it:

"Hi guys

I have thought long and hard about this email before posting it, and now wish to
tell you about some decisions I have made regarding the way forward for the
Charter group.

I have decided to focus my efforts on TRADING rather than TEACHING. There are
various reasons for this, including the energy and time required to teach over
200 students and to answer over 50 emails daily. This generally distracts from
my main work - trading and researching.

As you know, I recently started my trade copier service, which is generally working
exceptionally well, with just a few small niggles to be worked through. I will
be offering the copier as my primary service to traders.

I will also be focussing on my own personal trading and quite possibly be working
as the head trader for a hedge fund.

In this light, I am going to stop all regular training webinars and trading signals/alerts.
I may occasionally hold ad hoc sessions if a good reason comes along. I will also
review this decision as time moves along.

I don't think I have much left to teach, other than what is contained in the hundreds
of hours of teaching in my recent and archived recordings. Everything you could
ever wish to know about Forex trading is in there. My most recent teaching,
the "Triple M" strategy, is foremost on the webinar recording page.

After nearly 12 years of trading, teaching and signals, it is time for me to
hang up the old boots and, as I said, focus on the core of my business - trading.

For those folks who want to continue with my services, the trade copier may
suit you. You will continue to get my trades, not as desktop or SMS signals, but
direct to your account. You can also use the copier as a signal service by using
an MT4 alert script, if you prefer not to copy directly.

You also have access to all my training on the Triple M strategy and the years
of video archives, plus the member's forum, where you can (sometimes) find
constructive support amongst other traders.

For some folks who have been with me for many years, this may come as a
disappointment, and for that I am sorry. However there is always a time for everything
to end.

I may occasionally release training courses in the future, based on my ongoing research
into new methods and systems, and I'll keep you in the loop.

For now, though, if you are not using the trade copier and want to sign up,
there are still spaces left at www.forex-science.com

I will be recording my final video of the Triple M series off-line today, and it will
be on the webinar recording page a little later today or tomorrow.

I'll see you (if you can make it) in our final webinar session in little under an hour's
time, where I shall bid my farewell and answer any questions.

See you there!

James

Forex-Science, 53 Brighton Drive, Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape 6001, SOUTH AFRICA "

 

[Pharaoh]

Has anyone reported any of this to the CFTC? I believe they issued a permanent restraining order against him in 2006.

 

[BigT1]

Has anyone reported any of this to the CFTC? I believe they issued a permanent restraining order against him in 2006.

Folks,
I suggest you put your experience and the former CFTC action references into a complaint with the Regulatory body in South Africa. Here is a link:
Financial Services Board Internet Site
.
I would copy this new compliant to the NFA:
http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Complaint.aspx
.
Also report the suspect Performance report quoted on his website to the compliance department at Oanda (the indicated broker) and ask for verification:
http://www.oanda.com/corp/story/regulatory?srccont=rightnav
.
Anthony Ingrassia, CTA
NFA ID#: 0278164