Category: Companies Overviews

Bitcoin Profit – Profit Even When MARKETS CRASH
3 min read
- Bitcoin Profit provides learning materials not only presented in the written form.
ABOUT

Bitcoin Profit was designed by skillful software developers. Its programming algorithm is founded on the basis of complex analytical methods. Let’say, these people have nothing to hide from the public. This is obvious from their policy of complete clarity in every possible procedure. Not only this. They teach users how to maximize their daily earnings while staying safe from the risks.

Who founded Bitcoin Profit

Bitcoin Profit is the creation of John Myers. It was developed after years of hard work and research. Myers hired the team for the development of the software. And it is highly skilled and professional. Further, they gave priority to security and safety. This is the reason they have implemented encryption strategy on their website. And yes, they are using the latest SSL protocol.

The brokers associated with this trading system are reliable, legit and have proper licenses to provide legal investment advice.

They all have reputable in the industry. And, which is very important, they want to help their clients prosper.

Their CEOs are educated traders who have many years of experience behind their backs. All of them have graduated from some of the most prestigious business schools in the world.

They have studied cryptos since back in the day when Bitcoin was first launched. The team has a lot of experience in currency trading, stocks and bonds, trading, and high-frequency trading as well. These guys certainly know what they are doing and they do it very well too.

Trading Platform

This trading system is smart and logical. It will alert you as soon as trading opportunities are available in the market. With its assistance, you will be able to make smart decisions about when to trade and when to stop. There are many qualities and features that make it extremely useful for traders. The software has been designed to be easy to use and it utilizes pre-set parameters to guide you as you trade.

Bitcoin Profit also provides to analyze the digital currency markets, study price charts, monitor market activities and identify trends. So, that can help you spot profitable trading opportunities especially if you are new in this world. The great preference of this software is that it will send out alerts as to when you should open or close a position.

This software will help you improve your gains and at the same time reduce the level of risks you encounter as a trader.

Importance for beginners

For novices, it can be quite exhausting to learn the basics of trading. As it is known, the time limit is one of the biggest barriers that prevent them from achieving the success they desire. But, when you use BTC Profit, it takes care of most of the hard work for its users. It provides assistance and support which makes the whole process simple and fast. Thus, it gives traders more time for their own research and analysis.

If you want to trade with Bitcoin Profit, you don’t have to undertake education or training in this area. Even if you are a complete beginner, for instance. You will found massive success with this tool because of its autopilot nature. And the software also enables manual trading, but it is more suitable for experienced traders.

Demo account

Yes, they have a demo account and it is completely free. It is very important for beginners. To test skills and learn.

How to start with BitCoin Profit?

1: Click the link to get to the official website of BTC Profit.

2: Fill in the form to get a FREE license for trading.

3: Follow the instructions on the platform to start profiting

To take advantage of this impressive algorithm that this crypto website has, you can do so by entering a couple of basic details into a registration form. After a couple of minutes, they will send an email confirmation and it will feature an applied link.

This will lead the client to a legit, regulated, and trustworthy partnering crypto trading platform where an individual trading account can be opened.

How to use this software

To use the software, you have to join the program and customize the settings. Note that you will need investment funds in your account to be able to trade bitcoins.

The program has a very simple user interface. Beginners will be able to benefit from the easy to use settings and features of the software to attain the best possible trading results.

Customer support

Personal Account Manager will assist customers. You can get in touch with them via telephone or email. This cryptocurrency exchange app has a number of certificates issued in its name for the high service quality. As a result, it operates only with licensed partners.

The process of joining the system is hassle-free. In case you might have questions or problems, you can always turn to the customer support service. That is available 24/7. You can be sure they will answer all of your questions in a swift manner and with professionalism.

The customer team

The customer care team at BTC Profit are professional, knowledgeable of the tool and most importantly they are friendly. Moreover, they give online service to customers. And you can trust them. Always they want to provide accurate information and on-time resolution of trading related issues.

With their problem-solving attitude and an approach that is fantastic, they keep their clients satisfied and happy.

Cost and expected returns

The minimum for the first deposit is $250. The cost of using the software is free. As long as you have investment capital in your account, you will be able to use the Bitcoin Profit without any cost. Well, returns may vary significantly depending on the settings you have chosen and the amount you invest on your trades.

Security

Another great bonus is the fact that it applies the most recent 256-bit encryption protocols. BitCoin Profit’s storage of personal and financial data is done on separate servers. Users must make a minimum initial deposit of $250 in order to fund their account but this is not a payment. It is simply a method of getting started. But the sum can be sent back to the trader at any time.

This team has made an effort with establishing this software is safety. The point is, the platform has been encrypted to provide the highest possible security level for your funds and personal information. In a volatile and fast-paced industry like cryptocurrency trading online, security is important. So, you can trade with a calm mind.

One advantage more

Bitcoin Profit provides learning materials. The most interesting segment here is that some of the learning materials are not presented in the written form. They are made available as interactive vlog content. And some are animated. So, we can confirm that they have very interesting materials. You can find frequent guest lectures from expert financiers. They utilize language which is simple. Even though the topics it covers can be very complex. But, the main point is, it can be understood by anyone.

Conclusion

The Bitcoin Profit is not scam software. It has been proven to work and to generate substantial results for its clients. John Mayers and his team have developed an accurate and user-friendly investment platform.

Bitcoin Profit is a genuine and fully reliable cryptocurrency exchange app.

It started off as a small online investment project, launched by young professional. And now is full-time trading software. So, users can proceed to safely get started with it. As it complies with all SSL requirements.

It earns the approval of users and good ratings in cryptocurrency exchange reviews. At most, thanks to its outstanding performance. The majority of traders who are their customers have achieved excellent results, as we know.

Just grab one of the free spots that have been made available and begin your path in the cryptocurrency trading industry.

With a viable trading solution like Bitcoin Profit, it doesn’t matter in which direction the markets are moving. The software will always aim to help its users generate returns regardless of the conditions.

You can sign up now for free before you decide to spend money.

Also, you can also find more companies we recommend in our wall of fame, and be aware of the ones inside our wall of shame.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

Screenshots from website thebtcprofit.com/
1st December 2018
TradeInvest90 – Why Trade With Them
3 min read
- Traders Paradise delves into all aspects of this online trading brokerage.
ABOUT

TradeInvest90 is a relatively new and unregulated trading brokerage. The question is how do they compare to the competition and can they be trusted? You will find out in this in-depth review. Traders Paradise delves into all aspects of this online trading brokerage and shines a light on the products and services they provide.

TradeInvest90 is an international online trading brokerage. It provides innovative trading services to traders all around the globe. The brokerage provides trade, invest and profit from the global financial markets. That include over 1000 top class assets.

Where and how it originated

TradeInvest90 was established in March 2017 and is owned and operated by Capital Force Ltd. The brokerage serves the international markets through their online trading platform. They are based out of Oceania with their company headquarters located in Samoa. As TradeInvest90 is an offshore trading brokerage, they have not acquired any sort of regulation from reputable regulatory authorities but claims to operate their services within the means of the strictest regulatory requirements.

TradeInvest90 Trading Platform

TradeInvest90 provides its very own proprietary web-based trading platform. The ever-popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform is not offered. So, traders will have to learn a new platform. But, the TradeInvest90 trading platform is incredibly easy to learn and use. Their platform has a fantastically designed user interface that is fast and easy to use. That provides traders to trade multiple financial instruments all in one place. That is a great opportunity for traders who like to diversify their portfolio with one trading platform. The platform features a standard charting package with basic features for technical analysis.

You can find a variety of technical indicators, chart types, time frames, and drawing and analysis tools. This trading platform is satisfactory for most traders needs. But some of the traders could wish more recognized trading platforms like the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. For such we have only a few words: TradeInvest90 is simple and easy to use trading platform.

Very good for beginners

The custom-made and in-house developed online trading platform has a user-friendly operating interface. That allows users to trade comfortably. Clients are not required to download anything on the PC. Instead, it can be accessed online using a computer connected to the internet. On the other hand, traders can also use the company’s online trading platform on all on-the-go devices. Such as mobile phones, and tablets. The supported versions of the online trading app for Android or iOS-based devices can be downloaded from Play Store and App Store respectively.

Exchange markets and tradable instruments

Traders at TradeInvest90 have access to over 1000 world class financial assets across 5 global markets including forex, stocks, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Traders can trade CFDs on the latter three markets and can participate in forex trading on the world’s most popular currency pairs. A complete list of asset index is available on the company’s official website. Clients can click the following link to access a comprehensive range of asset index.

See below, a quick overview of the CFDs and Forex markets.

CFDs

6 commodities
6 indices
Over 100 stocks
Trade on the leverage of up to 1:200
Trade both rising and falling markets
24 hours a day, 5 days a week
Risk management capabilities

Forex

Trade Majors, Minors & Exotics
Nearly 70 currency pairs
Trade on the leverage of up to 1:200
Trade both rising and falling markets
24 hours a day, 6 days a week
Risk management capabilities

Types of accounts

This company offers a standard account only. The minimum deposit is $250. All you need is to open an account at TradeInvest90 with the company’s recommended broker to get started. The broker offers Forex, binary options and CFDs trading all in one account. It has fixed spreads in place. It charges zero commission.

Clients can expect their investment to grow by 400% over time. It has state of the art trading facilities available for clients wishing to invest more than $250 including customized trading analysis and charting tools. It also provides its account holders dedicated customer support round the clock, six days a week.

Fees and commission

TradeInvest90 offers its traders zero commission trading by incorporating the fees into fixed spreads. The fixed spreads are higher compared with most of the competition. For instance, the fixed spread on the EUR/USD currency pair was 3 pips which are 1.5 pips higher than the industry average. Also, traders have to pay an account maintenance fee of $7.50 per month. Also, traders incur a profit clearance fee. Here are the profit clearance fees associated with the number of profits cleared.

250$ or less = 1.5$
$251 – $500 = 2.00
$501-$1000 = $3.00
$501-$1000 = $4.00
$1001-$2500 = $4.00
$2500 or more = $5.00

Other penalties

If traders account is inactive for longer than 31 days, they have to pay.fee of $10.00 per month. Honestly, this time frame could be too short. Withdrawal fees are of 3.5% and a minimum withdrawal fee $30. We have to say, the fees on traders by TradeInvest90 are pretty much high. But, clients can withdraw their funds as and when they wish to. The company offers a wide range of deposit and withdrawal methods to its clients including debit cards, credit cards, payment via e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller), bank transfers, web money, and other local payment methods.

Tradeinvest90 customers can withdraw their funds and benefits whenever they need to when they pass the compliance procedures. It could take 5-7 business days to process the withdrawal request.

Demo account

Unfortunately, the company doesn’t offer any demo account. We do hope that in future it will begin offering demo accounts as well.

Customer support

It looks like this broker is created with great intention to be helpful to traders who just started. The broker understands the importance of excellent customer service which is excellent for novice traders. It offers 24/6 dedicated customer support to its clients. The company ensures the availability of professional and competent staff round the clock to assist its customers.

Clients can contact the company using a telephone line. This is wonderful because of the opportunity to talk with a real person. Inquiries can also be made through email at [email protected]. A live web chat feature is also available on the company’s official website to facilitate clients on a runtime basis.

The bottom line

We made a very careful review. TradeInvest90 is one of the best online brokers available in the market. It’s user-friendly and award-winning trading platform. It definitely states of the art trading tools make it stand out of the crowd. It provides excellent customer support to its clients round the clock. Recommended for novice traders as well as for advanced.

You can also find more companies we recommend in our wall of fame, and be aware of the ones inside our wall of shame.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
Screenshots from website www.tradeinvest90.com
28th November 2018
Initiative Q – What is It?
3 min read
- Initiative Q has adopted some of the worst elements of scammy altcoins
If you google Initiative Q and head to its website, you will find a giant page posture “tomorrow’s payment network”.

Social media’s got itself a new trend, it asks you to sign up to a new financial network called Initiative Q.

To attract signups, Initiative Q is using pyramid-style recruiting, aggressive social marketing. And it’s working: The project has been public since early summer, Google searches for “Initiative Q” have exploded since October 14.

You may have already been addressed by friends on Facebook or Twitter. And they told you there are only a limited amount of invites to join in on the next crypto, future bitcoin, that will potentially get you rich quickly. Despite that great interest, there is a concern that the operation might be a scam.

Initiative Q is a project led by veteran payments entrepreneur Saar Wilf, who contributed technology to Paypal, and George Mason University economics professor Lawrence H. White. They want to launch a digital currency but they’re very noisy about the fact that it’s not a cryptocurrency.

Initiative Q says it will be “tomorrow’s payment network.”

Wilf has started a viral social media campaign with this:

“Interested in a free $130,000 lottery ticket, which I estimate has a better than 1% chance to win?”

And below

It is evident they need to encourage mass adoption if they want success.

But, let’s put aside absurd and arrogant claims of their made-up “currency” being worth $2 trillion USD in the future. For now, they have a nice landing page. Anything can go in the world of marketing. But there are some reasonable questions we have to ask.

How could free units of a new digital currency end up being worth thousands or billions of dollars?

This is where things get interesting.

If you read through Initiative Q’s website and try to find how they got to their absurd $40,000 airdrop value you will find a long description, but here’s the summary of how they got there:

As you can see Initiative Q is different as it doesn’t ask you to invest any money. The free offering promises to collect a better financial reward if you secure one of the free slots. That means there should be no financial risk to you to join.

They are offering to set up a new payment network utilizing the very newest technology and then run a private currency ‘Q’ on that network, with a base of 2 trillion Q, which will be worth $1 per Q. This may make you think of a pyramid or Ponzi scheme, whereby a scammer will trick new investors, but no money has changed hands. Yet.

That, however, doesn’t change the fact that Initiative Q is in our opinion, a really bad idea. Initiative Q has adopted some of the worst elements of scammy altcoins, without even small simulations of technological innovation. It’s connected in general with risks.

Why does it look like a scam?

It’s premised on the hype

Initiative Q most resembles a crypto scam while active promoting of FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out. Its own marketing materials compare it to “getting free bitcoin seven years ago.”

Promoters spin estimates of the currency’s future value and they’ve built their marketing on “the earlier you join, the higher your reward.”

This rhetoric is created to attract the naive audience, and get them caught up in the excitement of easy money earning. Take a look at their Facebook profile. It also doesn’t seem like a coincidence that Initiative Q sounds like QAnon. It is a dangerous viral conspiracy theory that has taken over certain corners of social media in the past few years.

Let’s say, prop up scammers.

It’s not anonymous

Initiative Q is pointing out that they’re not selling anything. They’re just asking for your name and email address. They just want to keep you in the loop when the currency is launched. But, this trove of names and emails is a giant tank for hackers at the same time. A list of people interested in get-rich-quick schemes that could be extremely lucrative for more opened scammers. Where is the anonymity? The essence of crypto, P2P and blockchain!

Initiative Q seems to have missed the core source of the cryptocurrency enthusiasm they’re trying to use to leverage their really weird non-crypto. Data is valuable, and advertising companies will gladly pay heaps of money for access to good lists. Yes, they say in their privacy policy that they don’t sell our data! So does Facebook. That didn’t stop Cambridge Analytica from scraping illicit data and using it to advertise during the US 2016 election. If Initiative Q is sold to another company, they have every right to change the privacy policy. There’s no guarantee that your data is private. If there is no possibility of anonymous digital transactions what they are looking for in the world of crypto? Without the possibility of anonymous digital transactions, nobody would give a damn about cryptocurrency.

It has no technology

Initiative Q doesn’t have anything as yet, except the notion of ‘build a payment network and it’ll be awesome. Frankly, many of the things Q is promising to build already exist in the form of Apple Pay, Google Pay, AI fraud prevention, and smart card systems. What’s new? It looks like another payment app, just another payment processor. It’s utterly unclear what unsolved problem Q is meant to address. Keyword ‘unclear’! Fog! They have no idea but they want you to sign up. Smart! The most interesting thing about Initiative Q is its creators’ decision to pitch it as “sort of like a cryptocurrency, but definitely not a cryptocurrency.” So, what it is?

They have no product. Most ICOs or cryptocurrencies will explain how they plan to build their network. They ’ll draw up a whitepaper, going deep into the technical details.

What about Initiative Q? Nothing! No product, no details, no descriptions. There are some indications, signs but all unclear and obscured.

There’s an endless well of frustrated greed in the world. For a while, cryptocurrency was the vehicle and object for that greed. What Initiative Q’s creators seem to have missed is that there’s a lot more to it than that. Greed isn’t the main subject.

Its marketing is scary

Initiative Q’s authors have presented their plans to the world with all the aspects of a scam. Where’s the evidence for this?

Here! You can only join Initiative Q if you’re recruited, and each new joiner gets five invites to send out to friends. Recruiting others rewards you with more Q currency in the future. OK, there is no buy-in price, but that’s literally a pyramid scheme.

Initiative Q has been aggressive in using barrel-scraping content marketing tactics like MLM. But, unlike the MLM businesses, Initiative Q isn’t asking you to buy anything. They’re just making incredible promises about the value of the free coins they’re handing out.

Our concern is that when “get rich quick” schemes like this go viral on social media, they rust the image of cryptocurrency. They can cause confusion among the general audience. Even if Initiative Q does work out as a new system of payment, their marketing has been misleading. That “by invite, only” system for early adoption makes a false sense of exclusivity. At the same time, it can encourage people to spam their social media feeds with the Initiative Q saga.

Initiative Q is centralized

Initiative Q is a digital currency that’s not blockchain-based. According to creators, it is a payment network with a smartphone app, instant payments, and better fraud prevention than credit card companies. In fact, it links its fraud prevention specifically to the idea that it’s centralized.

They are establishing “patterns of appropriate and inappropriate behavior,” and Initiative Q will build “more reliable fraud assessment.”

What does it mean?

It is just an enhanced version of what banks and credit cards do. And that’s exactly the problem: Q isn’t an actual innovation. Initiative Q creators really just want to build a centralized payment network. And they want to take their piece of cake.

Q will be a private currency and you won’t control the money you receive. The network could shut down, the admins could move your money into someone else’s account. There is no guarantee the Q would avoid legal intervention that destroyed earlier centralized digital currencies.

Should you sign up to Initiative Q?

We won’t tell you what to do with your money. But be very cautious when it comes to Initiative Q and online promises of quick wealth.

It’s possible that Initiative Q is not a scam. It’s possible that they’re just a company orchestrating a brilliant viral marketing campaign. Nothing is wrong with that. PayPal, CashApp, Payoneer, offer referral programs to attract new users.

So, where the problem lies? There are so many ways to make money, especially in the crypto area. People are wasting their time on gambles like this.

Initiative Q’s affiliates promote this possible scam instead to do something that’s actually profitable. True wealth never comes by waiting for random internet companies to hand deliver you $40,000.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
7th November 2018
Ripple Cryptocurrency – latest review
2 min read
- What is the future of the Ripple cryptocurrency?
First of all, it should be explained that Ripple is not a cryptocurrency in the usual sense of the word. In fact, this is a settlement system that has become a faster, more transparent and secure alternative to the existing ones. For example, the SWIFT system used by banks. Ripple cryptocurrency is a combination of currency exchange and a money transaction company.

XRP, the so-called Ripple coins is used to facilitate transfers in different currencies. In existing settlement systems, the basis for the conversion is usually US dollar. That process is associated with additional costs and lasts for a long time and bank transfers between countries, often last up to 3 days.

Converting payments to XRP instead of dollars, the system saves inventory costs, and transaction processing takes a few seconds.

XPR token

XRP is a token used for representing the transfer of value across the Ripple Network. The main purpose of XRP is to be a mediator for other – both cryptocurrencies and fiat – exchanges. The best way to describe XRP is ‘Joker’. Not the creepy Batman enemy, but the card that can be any other card. If you want to exchange dollars to the euro, it can be dollar with dollars and euro with euros to minimize the commission. As highlighted above, the transaction cost on Ripple is $0.00001.

After the transaction, the amount of $0.00001 ‘disappears’ from the platform and can’t be replenished. With every transaction, the world becomes $0.00001 poorer. It is designed that way to prevent spammers attacks.

Basically, Ripple wanted to be a cryptocurrency built for enterprise and banking use. It wanted to enable fast cross-border payments, low transaction fees. And all of the other benefits of digital currencies. Most importantly, it wanted to do this with the goal of targeting enterprise and banks. The two groups that require extended features you won’t find on cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or Ethereum.

How Ripple cryptocurrency works

Ripple is a system that enables the execution of transactions by binding banks, digital exchanges and corporations in order to be able to send and receive money worldwide. The basic idea is to replace old principles like SWIFT. Ripple has licensed its blockchain technology to many banks. Furthermore, there is a lack of complete anonymity that most people value in cryptocurrencies. Relationship with the “enemy” i.e. the banks, rejects many. But what is most important is that Ripple is doing great on the market and that this connection with banks can even represent a measure of security.

Ripple: an exciting, feature-rich network

To understand Ripple’s place in the crypto universe, we have to value its contributions to the industry. In addition to being one of the most renowned digital tokens, it is also one of the most efficient payment networks for financial transactions on the planet.

The Ripple technology is, in fact, more widely known for its digital payment protocol. Then for being a cryptocurrency. The XRP (Ripple) is the associated cryptocurrency of the platform. It performs the part of a bridge currency to other tokens without discriminating between fiat and crypto, facilitating exchanges between different coins. The Ripple cryptocurrency; the XRP, has the power of liquidity by serving as a bridge between other means of payment, making the exchange more comfortable for all parties involved in a transaction.

Ripple is an official organization with the trust of many banks. It’s not another Blockchain startup from a no-name company.
No inflation. All the tokens are initially mined and already exist. The more banks use it as their transaction platform, the higher the value of XRP.

What is the future of the Ripple cryptocurrency?

Predicting a cryptocurrency course now becomes something really in trend. Lot’s of public places spot their thoughts, trying to guess what would happen next. And among the cryptos, nothing is taken into such consideration as Ripple.

Ripple still has some growing room left, but meteoric rises like seen at the end of 2017 will naturally be few and far between, and it’s safe to assume that the price changes will settle into more sustainable ranges. This is especially likely for a cryptocurrency like Ripple which can benefit from price stability.

They have a large supply

With its large supply and currently limited use, investors will want to be wary of readjustments following price rises. This is especially true for a coin like Ripple. It benefits from stable pricing and is designed more for corporate use than individual use.
Although there is a long list of very respectable banks that are planning to use Ripple. According to the Financial Times, most of them are still on the testing stage. The few who transact real money use the platform but not the token. So, perhaps banks “are not that into Ripple”.

Why is Ripple criticized?

However, there are some cons. Ripple cryptocurrency is highly centralized. The whole idea of cryptocurrency is to avoid centralized control. As the tokens are already mined, the Ripple developers can decide when and how much to release, or not to release. So, it is basically like investing in a bank.

In addition to centralization, today it is pretty much a monopoly as Ripple Labs owns 61 percent of the coins.
Yes, it is open source and very smart. But still, once the code is accessible there is a good chance many people will try to hack it. Some of them even might succeed.

And it can freeze your transactions.

The biggest example of this is when Jed McCaleb, founder of Ripple Labs, tried to sell more than a million dollars worth of Ripple. The transaction was reversed. There are rumors that McCaleb breached the contract. But even then, the very possibility of freezing a transaction is against basic cryptocurrency principles.

Samson Williams, CSO of Ireland-based fin-tech firm SeedUps said.

“Though not a cryptocurrency at all, it is the child of banks. So it’ll get the natural bump from the 2018 Recession.”

The bottom line:

Ripple/XRP still has room for growth. They have an impressive list of partners. It looks like many people have a vested interest in seeing Ripple succeed.

Is Ripple able to pull off its goal of being the preferred money transfer system for banks across the world? If the answer is YES, then we can see Ripple at least maintaining its position as the third most valuable cryptocurrency.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
6th November 2018
NEW GREEN ENERGY INVESTMENT TRUST TO FLOAT PROFFERING A HIGH DIVIDEND

This article was originally posted on https://www.markemlickprivateequity.com/

Boutique asset manager Gresham House is seeking to list a trust that will invest in battery farms to store renewable energy for use by the National Grid.

Gresham House has become the latest in a growing line-up of asset management firms looking to launch new investment trusts. Their aim is to raise £200 million from investors for the ‘Gresham House Energy Storage Fund Plc’, for which £30 million is already promised by a range of cornerstone investors including Gresham House itself, staff and institutional investors.

The new trust will invest in lithium-ion battery farms, to provide the National Grid with utility-scale Energy Storage Systems or ESS, to help ensure energy from renewable sources is available when it is needed, rather than when having to rely on the availability of wind, waves or sun, depending on the renewable source used.

The infrastructure the trust will be investing in is essential to support the deployment of renewable sources of energy, which already accounts for 30% of the UK’s energy needs or 40GW. It is forecast to grow by an additional 50% by 2023.

The managers of the new trust claim it will offer investors a diversified and robust source of income, yielding 7% once fully invested, and it will be independent of renewables subsidies or the absolute level of power prices.

The trust will target a NAV total return of 8.0%+ p.a. (net of all Fund expenses). Once gross proceeds have been fully deployed, the manager expects to introduce leverage up to a maximum of 50%. Gearing, coupled with the expected asset management and revenue improvements, will increase the NAV total return target to 15.0% p.a. calculated net of the Fund’s costs and expenses.

As yet the fees for managing the trust are, unusually, unconfirmed.

Future growth

This forecast growth in energy generated from intermittent renewable sources creates a challenge for the National Grid because it increases the variability of power supply. ESS addresses this challenge by either storing power for future use or releasing power when required. The transition to renewables can only continue with the support of effective ESS.

Gresham House claims the trust will be managed by an experienced management team who have worked together for over 10 years, with strong renewable and energy storage experience.

They state that to date, the team has successfully worked on 28 solar projects with a total capacity of 290MW, and five energy storage projects with 70MW of capacity.

Describing the opportunity presented, Ben Guest, Head of Gresham House New Energy, said: “A change is coming in the nature of power in this country. We are determined to be part of this revolution that will contribute significantly towards a low carbon economy.

“The rise of renewables points to a major source of imbalance that requires an immediate solution – ESS is the answer. Curtailment is necessary today as the electricity grid currently has no means to store the excess electricity generated and this is ultimately an additional bill that the consumer is forced to pay. With consumers facing rising electricity bills, it is in everyone’s interests that none of this green energy is wasted.”

“The UK energy storage market is set for significant growth. However, the total potential of energy storage is currently limited by a lack of experienced operators, and this problem will only intensify, with demand for storage rapidly increasing as the deployment of renewable energy installations continues apace and the traditional coal and gas-fired generation are retired. We believe energy storage has significant potential from an institutional investment standpoint and is the key to a renewable energy future in the UK.”

Admission to the Specialist Fund Segment of the LSE is expected in early November 2018.

Read more HERE

29th October 2018
Facebook Purge Removed 559 Pages, 251 Accounts Ahead of US Elections

2 min read

Facebook removed pages and accounts too. Yes, that’s true.

“Today, we’re removing 559 pages and 251 accounts that have consistently broken our rules against spam and coordinated inauthentic behavior.”

That announced Facebook’s Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy, and Oscar Rodriguez, Product Manager, on October 12th.

Actual, Facebook purged over 800 U.S. accounts and pages for pushing political spam. It is another decision to clean the world’s largest social media site of allegedly inaccurate and manipulative political speech.

The post explains that some users were using multiple accounts with the same name. Or fraudulent accounts under fake names, and cross-promoting between groups to amplify its spread.

“Many were using fake accounts or multiple accounts with the same names and posted massive amounts of content across a network of Groups and Pages to drive traffic to their websites. Many used the same techniques to make their content appear more popular on Facebook than it really was. Others were ad farms using Facebook to mislead people into thinking that they were forums for legitimate political debate.”

These removals might be a final catalyst for mass adoption of an on-chain, censorship-resistant platform. For instance, within the Bitcoin Cash network.

Facebook’s blog titled the entry of Oct. 11, 2018, “Removing Additional Inauthentic Activity from Facebook.”

This leads readers to believe pages and accounts deleted were associated with a version of fraud or scam activity.

Facebook insisted, “People need to be able to trust the connections they make on Facebook. It’s why we have a policy banning coordinated inauthentic behavior — networks of accounts or pages working to mislead others about who they are, and what they are doing,” and added that “the bulk of the inauthentic activity we see on Facebook is spam that’s typically motivated by money, not politics.”

It looks something more sinister is going on.

News.Bitcoin.com done an examination, and found that “a significant number of the pages zapped from existence did not engage in any of the activities Facebook cited as the reason for the purge.”

Facebook removed pages because political pages such as The Psychologic-Anarchist, Free Thought Project, V is for Voluntary, Press For Truth, The Resistance, Reasonable People Unite, Reverb Press, Nation in Distress, Snowflakes, were caught up in the web of deletion as well, reveals Bitcoin.com.

The selections were characterized as being variously dedicated to right and left-wing views.

Another question is how many followers these pages had. The New York Times says that deleted pages Right Wing News, a conservative outlet, had 3.1 million followers. Reverb Press, a left-wing outlet, had 816,000 followers. Facebook told that it would not be releasing the follower counts. Facebook’s spokesperson said page admins and users were notified.

Facebook is a private company with the right to set its own rules, but targeting American-run accounts and pages will naturally spark a new controversy about freedom of speech. Everyone is understandably upset.

“This definitely seems politically motivated considering most of the pages I’m familiar with that were unpublished leaned libertarian or anarchist,” detailed Nicholas Bernabe, the founder of popular alternative news organization The Anti-Media. “With the midterm elections so close, this can be described as nothing other than Facebook trying to manipulate the outcome of the coming elections.”

Facebook removed pages on purpose.

“All of this is nothing more to me than a neo-Marxist cleanse if you will,” said Luis Fernando Borges Mises for news.Bitcoin.com, “…all the liberal pages are still there, all the Republican pages are still there. The ones that are trying to question the status quo, like the voluntaryist pages, are being censored and deleted.”

So, what is behind this Facebook’s action?

In its Thursday announcement, Facebook wrote it was taking this action because “people will only share on Facebook if they feel safe and trust the connections they make here.” It’s a good point.

Facebook for years has tried to squeeze spam and clickbait from its platform because it can irritate users.

But Facebook has usually applied a softer punishment, downranking the sites in its newsfeed so fewer people see them – but not shutting them down altogether.

Since Russian operatives used Facebook to target American voters ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the company tries to demonstrate that its platform won’t be used to disrupt the democratic process.

“It is totally reasonable for companies to say if you abuse our mechanisms, we will punish you, even if the individual content is okay,” said Alex Stamos. He resigned as Facebook’s chief security officer this summer. And now he is an adjunct professor at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University and a Hoover Fellow.

“Facebook first reduced the ability to use ads to punish extreme content. Now they are attacking organic recommendation systems, such as the likes and shares used to artificially inflate posts.”

But, is there something else?

One is left wondering if Facebook that authority which can decide what constitutes legitimate political expression, to begin with.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

12th October 2018
Is Privacy Concern Behind Google+ Shutdown?

By Guy Avtalyon

This has already happened to social network users. Private data, which they thought were only private, became public.

What happened with Google+?

Google potentially exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the Google+ social network. But they opted not to disclose the issue this past spring. It was because of fears that doing so would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage.

On Monday the Alphabet Inc. unit announced a sweeping set of data privacy measures that include permanently shutting down all consumer functionality of Google+. This is one of Google’s biggest failures and the final nail in the coffin of a product that was launched in 2011 to challenge Facebook Inc.

A problem appeared

A software glitch in the social network site gave outside developers potential access to private Google+ profile data between 2015 and March 2018.

When internal investigators discovered the problem, allegedly they fixed it.

According to some reports, a memo prepared by Google’s legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger “immediate regulatory interest” and invite comparisons to Facebook’s leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica.

Chief Executive Sundar Pichai was briefed on the plan not to notify users after an internal committee had reached that decision.

Google is down

In its announcement on Monday the 8th of October, the company said it is curtailing the access it gives outside developers to user data on Android smartphones and Gmail.

This incident, which hasn’t been previously reported, shows an attempt to avoid public supervision of how Google+ handles user information. We are living in a time when regulators and consumer privacy groups are in charge to hold tech giants accountable for the vast power they wield over the personal data of billions of people.

“Whenever user data may have been affected, we go beyond our legal requirements and apply several criteria focused on our users in determining whether to provide notice,” a Google spokesman said in a statement. The company considered “whether we could accurately identify the users to inform, whether there was any evidence of misuse and whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response,” he said: “None of these thresholds were met here.”

Allegedly truth is that the company has no evidence that any outside developers put to wrong use the data but acknowledges it has no way of knowing for sure. The profile data that was exposed didn’t include phone numbers, email messages, timeline posts, direct messages or any other type of communication data, but everything else was there, front and center in front of third-party eyes, full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived occupation and relationship status. Information users may not want available to a third party.

Google’s user data is available to outside developers through public channels, application programming interfaces, or APIs. These tools require a user’s permission to access any information, but they can be abused by app developers to gain access to sensitive personal data.

Google inside

Inside Google is formed task force named Project Strobe. The task for more than 100 engineers, product managers, and lawyers, is to conduct a companywide audit of the company’s APIs.

The silver lining in this situation may be that similar potential data breaches will not be happening in the feature. As the destiny of Google+ social network is to join another shutdown Google service, such as the Wave, over the coming 10-months wind-down period.

The moral of this

But the moral of this, yet another of this kind, story is that the developers of the social networks are entrusted with large amounts of personal and sensitive data of their customers. And as such should put more effort into protecting them.

Otherwise, out of concern for both privacy and security, many customers may decide that avoiding the nefarious actions of some potential criminals is more important than any benefit the services of the social network provides.

The decision which may very well hurt the bottom line or market capitalization of any social network developer more than any potential detrimental regulatory decision or penalty.

9th October 2018
Elon Musk made a deal with SEC: pay $20 million and quit as Tesla chairman

2 min read

Elon Musk agreed Saturday to quite as Tesla’s chairman of board and pay a $20 million fine in a deal to settle charges brought this week by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging fraud and making “false and misleading statements” when he tweeted claims of having secured the funding for taking the company private at the share price inspired by marijuana culture.

This settlement requires court approval, and the main point of agreement is that Elon Musk will be allowed to stay as CEO but must leave his position as chairman of the board within 45 days. He is unable to be reelected for three years, according to court filings. Elon Musk accepted the deal with the SEC “without admitting or denying the allegations of the complaint,” according to a court document.

Who has to clean after Musk?

Also, Tesla agreed on Saturday to pay $20 million to settle claims it failed to clean up after Musk’s tweet. According to some sources, terms of this settlement are less favorable for Musk and Tesla than the SEC’s initial offer of a nominal fee and 2 years ban on acting as a chairman of the board.

“The $40 million in penalties will be distributed to harmed investors under a court-approved process,” the SEC said in a press release.

The company also agreed to nominate two new independent directors to its board. And establish a board committee to oversee Musk’s communications.

A Tesla’s spokesperson confirmed Musk will be permitted to remain a member of the board.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said in a statement that “the prompt resolution of this matter on the agreed terms is in the best interests of our markets and our investors, including the shareholders of Tesla.”

Following news that the SEC had filed the suit, Tesla’s market share dropped by about $7 billion to $45.2 billion by Friday. But the agreement which allowed for Musk to remain CEO may have prevented even more disastrous consequences.

Ivan Feinseth of Tigress Financial Partners described the agreement as a “slap on the wrist” for Musk. He added that “the fact that he can remain CEO is very important for the company.”

This announcement from the SEC came two days after the agency filed a lawsuit against Musk, contending he defrauded investors. The decision is based on tweets Musk sent on August 7. In that tweet, he claimed that he has had secured fundings to take Tesla private at $420 a share. That has caused the company’s stock to soar. He had not secured the funding and knowingly made false statements, alleges the SEC.

The lawsuit asked for banning Musk from serving as an officer or director of any publicly traded company.
But Elon Musk told Tesla’s staff, to “ignore the distractions”, and hinted at being profitable.

He also called the SEC’s suit “unjustified.”

He assured staff that the company was close to “proving naysayers wrong.”

With Sunday being the end of the quarter, Musk said that Tesla must go “all out” on production. In order to “achieve a victory beyond all expectations.”

Last few weeks problems culminated for Tesla, and now the company is expected to report third-quarter production numbers this week.

The Electrek reported that Tesla has already broken its record ahead of the third quarter’s close. They wanted to suggest it would exceed production projection of 50,000-55,000 of Model 3. Tesla has already met an ambitious benchmark for its Model 3. After setting a new quarterly production record in the second quarter.

UPDATE 23th May 2019: Tesla’s stock hit a new 52-week low

The investors on Monday will also review Tesla’s settlement with the SEC.

Once again, this agreement is not official; a court must approve it. Reports from Reuters on Friday marked that Musk “could settle with the SEC but was ready for a court fight.”

That means the situation did turn out differently.

The question is whether Musk’s companions on the board decide to bring in a really strong chair. The one who will stand up to Mus

Jay Dubow, a partner at Pepper Hamilton and a veteran of the SEC’s enforcement division, says it is “unusual” that the SEC gave agreement to let Musk stay on as chief executive but exit the chairman role.

Dubow said:

“The CEO is certainly more involved than the chairman in day-to-day operations.” SEC may have determined that removing Musk as CEO would cause more harm to Tesla’s share price, and thus harm investors.

“I have always taken action in the best interests of truth, transparency, and investors,” Musk said. “Integrity is the most important value in my life and the facts will show I never compromised this in any way.”

It’s still unclear whether or not the Department of Justice will file criminal charges against Musk.

Tesla confirmed earlier this month that the Department of Justice was investigating whether Musk’s comments about taking his company private constituted criminal activity.

No matter what the outcome of the DoJ inquiry be, Elon Musk, for now, will stay on as Tesla’s CEO and its public face which equally causes controversies and reassures investors in the bright future of the business.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

1st October 2018
Amazon is Opening Store in New York for 4-Star Rated Products

1 min read

Amazon.com on Wednesday said it is opening a general store in New York City. It will sell toys, household goods and a range of other products highly rated on its website. Amazon is marking its latest push into brick-and-mortar retail.

Amazon 4-star will open to the public on Thursday in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The store will sell items ranked four stars or higher on its website.

The company will also focus on stocking best-sellers and items popular with New Yorkers.

Amazon’s physical shop will let customers play with Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers, and other devices made by the company.

Who are the best modern German investors?

It will also sell books, games, and kitchenware.

In an effort to tie-in with the digital realm each item displayed in the store will carry its own digital tag displaying the list price, star rating and volume of reviews received.

Those without membership in the fast-shipping club will be charged the typically higher list price while an exclusive Prime-only price will also be offered for subscribers.

Amazon said the store was “a direct reflection of our customers — what they’re buying and what they’re loving.”

The extent of Amazon’s ambition for the new store format is unclear.

The company is known for experimentation, and a spokesman declined to comment on expansion plans. Amazon has previously experimented with physical stores, opening around 12 bookstores earlier this year and establishing its own convenience store chain in native Seattle.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said Amazon will add new stores if the format takes off. But he expects it may not.

“If I’m looking for a television and the store is full of kitchen appliances, it doesn’t help me very much,” he said.

Grocery remains the other key category for Amazon’s brick-and-mortar play.

The company bought Whole Foods Market in a $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 99,000 crores) deal last year, from which it is now delivering fresh food to shoppers’ homes. It is also rolling out small grocery shops, which we previously knew as Amazon Go.

There is in-store technology. It allows customers to walk out with items. And have their credit cards billed without having to stop by a cash register.

The 4-star store appears to follow a similar format and strategy as Amazon Books, which stocks its shelves with the most popular online titles.

The company also uses detailed local data to showcase categories of area best-sellers.
Shoppers can check the online price of books they are interested in with a phone or scanner.
Amazon will use the store to hawk its own devices, allowing consumers to test them out and buy them in store.

You might be interested: Algorithms make fails more often than you expect.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

27th September 2018
Is Zulutrade scam?

Trading conditions:
Tradable assets: more than 100
Option profitability: up to -%
Minimum deposit: $300
Minimum trade amount: $10
Demo account: yes
Online registration: yes
Call support: no
Chat with support: yes

ZuluTrade is a very unique and innovative online social and copy trading platform. It brings traders from over 50 trading brokers together on one single platform- ZuluTrade. It allows traders to connect with one another and copy their every trade automatically in a safe and secure environment.

ZuluTrade was founded in 2007 by Leon Yohai and Kosta Eleftheriou. Leon Yohai wanted to build software that allowed him to copy the trades of the best traders. By 2009, the company has over 4,500 ‘expert’ traders (signal providers), and it was their portfolios who users could copy to make money.

What’s new about their site?

By the time 2014 rolled around, ZuluTrade had re-designed their website. They added a number of features, such as ZuluGuard, and had 120 employees, 40 of whom were in customer support.

In May of that year, the company announced a partnership with SpotOption, to create a social trading platform for binary options.

2015 brought with it a success as the platform was awarded an EU Portfolio Management License from the European Union. The resulted in the company becoming both legitimate and respected in the trading world.

Platform

Leon Yohai had the vision to create a web-based platform that could connect traders, enabling them to share their strategies while at the same time auditing traders globally.

Therefore, ZuluTrade is not your traditional trading brokerage as it is primarily a platform enabling traders to collaborate and copy one another.

Essentially, it allows traders to copy the trades of experienced traders in the forex and financial markets to achieve a level of automated trading.

However, the social element also enables traders to leave feedback and share ideas. Today it boasts around one million users and executes a trading volume in excess of $800 billion.

With the popularity and publicity around ZuluTrade and social trading at the moment, we’ve seen the question on whether ZuluTrade is a scam or whether it’s “real” raised a few times. Based on vast amounts of experience with other social trading networks and Forex trading in general, we thought it might be useful to share our point on view the ‘scam or not’ debate.

The regulation

The ZuluTrade platform is regulated in two regulatory jurisdictions; Greece’s Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC) and Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA).

As well, they have obtained a Portfolio Management License from the European Union and are partnered with over 50 online trading brokerages, many of which are regulated from regulatory agencies from around the world.

In addition to being a highly regulated investment service, ZuluTrade has also won various awards for their proficiency in online copy trading services and customer service.

Today the company continues to innovate and strives. It wants to reach its goal of becoming the world’s largest financial community. They to provide customer-focused investment solutions and the largest social trading community in the world.

Minimum Initial Deposit

ZuluTrade has a relatively low minimum deposit requirement. Certain brokers available with ZuluTrade require a minimum deposit of just $1, others may require more.

You can sign up for their demo simulation account for free.

Spreads and Commissions

The spread will vary between brokers. The currency pair and time of the day can also influence the spread. For instance, brokers often widen spreads during periods of high volatility.

A commission is charged per trade by the brokers, in addition to the normal spread, for linking your account to ZuluTrade. This can be as low as 0 with ZuluTrade’s own broker, AAAFx, and up to three pips elsewhere.

Leverage

Most people are aware that leverage can be used to increase potential earnings.

But before you download an account, you should also note trading on leverage can amplify losses and open you up to margin calls.

However, the higher the leverage, such as 1:1000, the lower the used margin. This means an increase in the free margin and margin level. However, this can lead to overtrading and with a high drawdown, your account may strike a stop out level.

It’s recommended to use 1:100 leverage in order to avoid risk.

Other trading fees

You can be charged an overnight rollover/swap fee. The amount will depend on the currency pair you are trading. While these costs can cut into profits over a considerable time period, intraday traders shouldn’t encounter these fees.

Besides that, we didn’t find any other additional costs. ZuluTrade explained on their website that the traders you copy are paid directly by ZuluTrade. As part of the commission.

Also, when you visit their website, you may find deposits bonuses and promotions.

From the point of investors, we found ZuluTrade is very transparent about all the data they share with investors.

We found they share:

Every single trade with time and date stamp a trader has done in the past. Most other networks only supply a sub-set.

Only ZuluTrade currently provides information on how many actual investors (followers) have made per trader and in total.

Only ZuluTrade shares average historical spread per broker and per trader.

The other networks remove traders from their listings because they blew their accounts.

Only ZuluTrade gives us their full profiles and trade data

As far as we know, ZuluTrade is the only network trying to identify and show when the trader sends signals from multiple accounts. They all are linked and displayed, so it is easy to detect traders who tried multiple failing systems in the past.

ZuluTrade provides you with all the data to recalculate any of the statistics they provide in the trader profile screens. In addition, they’re not hiding accounts from traders who lost money or remove negative feedback from followers.

In our experience, there’s no other major social trading network as transparent as ZuluTrade in terms of the data and information they share with their customers.

To call it a scam because of the very poor quality of some of the traders/signal providers on their social trading network would be unjustified.

Would you call the DOW, NASDAQ, DAX or LSE a scam because they listed companies which went out of business or who’s share prices dropped significantly?

No, we don’t think you would, since the stock exchange is the enabler. But it’s the investor’s responsibility to understand the risk when buying shares.

The same goes for ZuluTrade. No one can predict which traders will be successful and which ones won’t.

If you think that historical trades are not real and are manipulated, you have to compare the results you see from copying the trades on your live account with the results displayed in the ZuluTrade interface.

And you will see.

They offer a fully functioning demo account which anyone can try. There are no limitations on the functionality of the demo account. It is very important before investing, the possibility to try and copy some traders and see what the results would be after a few weeks or months.

The trading platform currently provides trading for stocks, forex, binary options, commodities, such as oil. And indices, such as the NASDAQ. The platform allows you to clone the strategies of top traders.

The user base is split into two essential categories:

Signal providers – traders who are willing to share and be copied by their followers. Their compensation fees are determined by the success of their strategies.

Followers – users who copy the strategies of the signal providers. They can also copy strategies of the portfolios created by other followers.

The ZuluTrade platform is fully compatible with all mobile devices such as Apple, Android, Windows, and Blackberry. The platform features full functionality with a tweaked but similar interface to allow for a seamless experience on mobile.

Main features

Margin Call-o-Meter – This estimates the chance your account will run out of money, for example, if you get a margin call. This helps you establish how much of your capital you are actually risking. However, this is just an indicator and should not replace an effective money management system.

ZuluScript – This enables you to create scripts that form the parameters for trading bots. These are also commonly known as expert advisors (EA). This gives you trade automation, allowing you to execute far more trades than you ever could manually.

Cryptocurrencies – Traders can take a view on whether cryptos are the next big thing or a bubble.

ZuluGuard – A unique feature that protects Copy Traders if erratic trades are opened by traders they are following. An excellent risk management addition.

Lock Trade – This allows you to verify the execution of a trade after the signal has been received.

Automator – 2016 saw the introduction of ‘The Automator’. This notifies you by email or automatically executes actions when events occur. This function acts on rules that you add. For instance, if profit and loss from Trader X are more than $1,500, then lock the current profit. This can all help you to minimize risk and free up time.

You can use the ZuluRank calculation too.

This proprietary algorithm ranks traders by a number of different factors, including:

Sharp ratio
Low drawdowns, high profits
Age of signal provider
Amount of trade activity
The Frequency that trader logs in
Length of time trade stays open

ZuluTrade has a clean interface design. The operating system allows users to understand everything.

The great user experience.

You can open the account with a low entry fee of only $300. This is much lower than many other social trading platforms.

We don’t believe ZuluTrade should be labeled as a scam.

They’re probably the most transparent of all major social trading networks in terms of sharing the historical trade information of the traders on their network. They also don’t censor negative comments or feedback on their own website.

There’s a free demo to try and anyone wanting to invest ZuluTrade with real money can do so from $300.

You can try everything first and no one will force you to make massive investments (which is what serious scams or frauds are often about).

The bottom line

True is that the quality of plenty of the traders may be poor. But it’s up to the investor to decide who to copy.

And to understand the risk. It’s also up to the investor to decide whether this type of investing is right for them and if unsure to contact a financial advisor.

No, Zulutrade is not a scam. Actually, we can highly recommend ZuluTrade.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

20th September 2018