ICM Trader, an international online foreign exchange (forex) firm is confident that online forex trading holds high prospect as an investment option amid the nation’s current economic downturn, just as it decried low knowledge among Nigerian about the lucrative nature of forex trading.
Bade-Ajidahun Oludahun, ICM’s country manager for Africa, leading other executives of the firm during an outing in Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub, this week, said as an international forex brokerage firm, ICM which entered the Nigerian market a year ago, is already proving consultancy, support, training and advisory services for all categories of investors. He believed trading in foreign currencies remains a lucrative investment in the face of the devalued Naira and the plunge in global crude oil prices that has left the nation’s economy prostrate.
Bade-Ajidahun that the firm, which is in its seventh year globally was eager to help Nigerians take advantage of the forex market as income stream and an investment option.
“We provide brokerage services for those who are interested in trading in foreign exchange market; it’s just like the stock market where you need a broker to trade in stocks. We are represented here in Nigeria to provide support, training and educational services for our clients. We offer training and trading opportunities to all categories of people that include low-end earners, high net worth individuals (HNIs), corporate institutions, upper class; we cut across all levels.”
Olufukeji Adegbeye, manager, institutional sales of ICM, explained that the firms has helped several clients trade safely in the global currencies market amid the adverse effects of global events like a slump in oil prices by giving them sound advisory services.
He said: “In January/February 2013, when Nigeria’s crude oil revenue began to dwindle due to the slump in oil prices in the global market and the oil price war between US, Russia and South Korea, we reached out to our clients and advised those who traded in equities here in Nigeria to begin to liquidate their shares in the local stock market.
“This is because when the foreign exchange becomes prohibitive, foreigners who make up 60 percent of the stock market will begin to repatriate their funds out of the country and this would collapse the stock market. So we advised our clients to liquidate their shares and hedge on ICM Trader’s platform by opening an account on the platform to trade WTI and Brent.
“Again, in March/April 2014 when the dollar began to strengthen against the Euro and the Pound, we reached out to our clients and told them that if the dollar was strengthening against the Euro and the dollar, the Naira would not survive. We advised them to fund their ICM accounts and start buying the strength of the dollar against the Euro and the Pound.
“Without ICM Trader giving these kinds of timely advice to our clients, many will sit back, do nothing and end up crying that they have lost all their investments in the stock market.”
Benjamin Ajimoko, also a senior sales executive, explained that to make accessing forex trading easier for young Nigerians in need of employment and lucrative investments, ICM Trader has made its training free of charge as against other forex traders who charge high fees for their training.
He said: Our training sessions are basis and the introductory levels are free as against other who charge as much as between N40,000 and N150,000 to train. This is because we want to reduce the barriers to entering into global market for interested Nigerians.”
Taiwo Tolulope, senior sales executive, pointed out that for low-income earners who wanted to go into forex, they could start with learning the skills and then earning commission by introducing others to ICM Trader’s platform.
“Low income earners also have access to what ICM terms the Introducing Broker Account (IB Account) that sees you earning a commission every time a person you introduced to the platform trades,” Tolulope explained.
JOSHUA BASSEY
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