The truth about…
9 articles
Products sold as trading that work like something else. We look at how they are built, what their own issuers say about them, and what regulators have ruled — no adjectives, arithmetic first.
Your CFD broker is the counterparty, and that is not the problem
A CFD is a bilateral contract: no exchange, no third party on the other side. What decides whether their interests clash with yours is not that, but whether they hedge the exposure. What ESMA wrote, and the number the broker publishes on its own front page.
Synthetic indices are not the market
Its issuer writes that a random number generator produces them and that news does not affect the price. What is left of technical analysis, why is the arithmetic negative-sum, and why does "Volatility 75" have nothing to do with the VIX?
Binary options lose money by design
At an 80% payout, expectancy is −10% per trade and you would need a 55.6% win rate just to break even. What did ESMA, the FCA and the CNMV rule, and why is the 74-89% everyone quotes not about binaries?
The welcome bonus is charged back to you in spread
A 100% bonus cannot be withdrawn until you trade a set volume, and that volume is paid in spread. Break-even sits at 62.5 EUR/USD lots. What did ESMA write when it banned them in 2018, and why is the real cost the condition rather than the balance?
The signal group is paid for your volume, not for being right
A free channel does not mean nobody is paid: an introducing broker programme rebates part of the spread on every trade you execute, win or lose. What separates it from copy trading, and why has the record you see been selected? And what the FCA is prosecuting.
In copy trading, not everyone is paid for being right
The trader you copy is paid in two very different ways: on performance, and on the volume your account generates whether they are right or wrong. What ESMA asked supervisors to check in 2023, and the question that orders all the others.
The robot is not sold for what it earns, but for what it shows
The product page carries a flawless curve and a "modelling quality 90%". MetaTrader's own help says that even in its most precise mode the ticks are generated by interpolation. What does that 90% measure? The two costs the simulation never saw, and the five things to ask for before paying.
The prop firm evaluates you in a simulation, and it says so itself
"All accounts are demo with fictitious funds and any trading is in a simulated environment": the firms publish it themselves. What does that change, where does their revenue come from, and why did the CFTC case everyone cites end dismissed with costs against the regulator?
The trading course does not live on trading
Whoever teaches is paid from three places and only one requires being right. The least visible is the broker rebate on every lot you trade, win or lose. What the market abuse regulation requires, what Spain's CNMV measured in April 2026, and our own position declared.
