The advertisements seem too good to pass up. They tout high returns coupled with low risks from investments in foreign currency (forex) contracts. Sometimes they even offer lucrative employment opportunities in forex trading. Outside of location, you can do diligence based on how willing the broker is to talk about execution and their books. In other words, you can ask them how long they've been in business and how many countries they are regulated in. The more the better.
There are entire systems based on this style of trading. Some of them do nothing but place straddle orders all the time. Traders never care which way the markets will go, as long as they move. These kind of systems call for updating the orders every predetermined time interval. For example, once a day. This means that old orders/trades must be canceled/closed every day at the same time. That is when new orders are placed. People looking for mechanical trading strategies might find this approach suitable, since the same thing is done over and over again without any in depth analysis.
Whenever possible, go for a free demo account and then try your forex signals for a few days before becoming a paid member. Forex trading does involve some planning and strategy building so be prepared for a steep learning curve before trading with real money!
While the forex market is clearly a great market to trade, I would note to all beginners that trading carries both the potential for reward and risk. Many people come into the markets thinking only about the reward and ignoring the risks involved, this is the fastest way to lose all of your trading account money. If you want to get started trading the Fx market on the right track, it's critical that you are aware of and accept the fact that you could lose on any given trade you take.
Minutes of a meeting of dealers at the Bank of England back in 2006 appear to suggest that the possibility of market manipulation was discussed in front of officials, but the Bank of England denies this interpretation. Nine years on, it has led global regulators in cleaning up the forex market - and not before time, critics will say.
