Financial Advisors And Other Experts
As we briefly mentioned before, there are other people to help you in addition to brokers. There are financial advisors and other experts out there. However, if you are looking to tap into the expertise of these professionals, you need to be cautious and do some investigative work yourself.
There may be a lot of advertisements for a lot of people on the internet that claim to be able to help you but this does not mean that they are all legitimate or that they all have your best interests in mind. You will also see a lot of advertisements for seminars and classes for online trading and investing. While seminars and classes can be a good thing, especially for an entrepreneur trying to become successful on their own, you need to be cautious of the ones that you find random advertisements for. Many times these are simply people looking to lure someone in with a promise to get rich quick, but are actually just looking to get rich quick themselves.
If you are considering spending your money on an “expert” you need to make sure they are actually qualified to give you advice and that they actually know what they are talking about. What are their credentials? What experience do they have in the business? These are all valid questions to ask. Where did they learn this information themselves? What qualifies them to be able to teach it to other people? Look into and ask for what education that they have. There are degrees for such things and you want to make sure that you are working with a legitimate professional.
There are search engines such as vipsearch.com that let you search for advisors and professionals in a certain field but again, you have to take it upon yourself to research and investigate them to make sure they are legitimate and safe to trust. Look into the better business bureau to see if anyone has reported them. You can also check to make sue that they are licensed and not in any trouble with any commissions.
There are advisors for stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, investing and even just general online trading but before you trust their advice, you need to be certain they know what they are talking about.
Be wary of who you trust for you never know what someone will do to you in the short or long run in order for them to make money at our expense. In addition, you also need to watch out for common scams and trade fraud which we will describe more for you below.
Avoiding Scams
Unfortunately, there are many different sites and companies out there that are not legitimate. Fly-by-night scam artists appear on the internet every day, take all they can get before someone is on to them, and then run off with your hard earned money. This is something to be wary of and can be avoided through a little investigation as opposed to using blind faith.
There are some specific things you can do and some specific things you can look for to help avoid common internet trading and investing scams. These can range from doing some simple research to in depth investigations. For example:
1. Is the company or organization registered? If you want to see, check the SEC's EDGAR database. (http://www.sec.gov/edgar/quickedgar.htm)
2. Find out if the firm or the individual who is selling the investment is legitimate. Do not be afraid to ask questions and to look them up to see if they are telling you the truth.
3. Remember that high-yield investments typically come with high risk. If someone is promising you a lot of profits with little risk and little work, you should be wary.
4. Avoid dealing with companies or individuals that refuse to give you information about them or reuse to answer your questions.
5. Get all the facts about a company before you ever give them any money.
When you take your time, do some research first and follow the tips above, you can help reduce your chances of falling victim to a scam. Never give up your personal information such as bank account and other information to a company or broker that you don’t fully know or trust.
If you do feel that you are victim to a scam or have discovered an agency that may be illegitimate, you should report it right away to the proper authorities. When people report these scenarios, it makes it easier to catch and stop the scam artists.
Remember, choosing a broker is an important part of your online trading but when you find a good one that you can trust and you enjoy working with, you will remain with them for a long time to come. Take the time and the effort to choose the right one for your needs and you won’t regret it.