Sensei Michael Investments

It seems that investment products without tacit government backing would fall eventually. BitCoin Club has now been investigated by the US government for possible Ponzi scheme involvements. The company has been raided and their accounts frozen. Under such circumstances, even IF (and that is a big IF) the legal team proves their innocence, the company is effectively done for. Nobody can invest with them under the present circumstances, and by the time they emerge, their finances would have been in shreds. I have already made more than twice my investment with them, and have already withdrawn my BTC before the event. It reminds me so uncannily of how I liquidated all my investments in the SGX before the big crash, investing the money in the best investment of my life - my wedding and marriage. Right now my money is in Funding Societies , a crowd funding site for local businesses. I have seen a 6.28% p.a. returns from it, nothing to shout about compared to my HYIP, but something to ke...

It all started when the NZ regulatory body withdrew the broking licence from the HYIP I was investing with , because their fixed income product (the HYIP I was investing with) does not fit into the broking licence's regulations. The HYIP's banking accounts got frozen later, resulting in their inability to repay their investors. I have been through something similar with my own private investment fund, as I become aware of regulatory hurdles that I would have to cross when I reach a certain size, and how banking bodies would start to check on me (ostensibly under money-laundering laws) when the money coming in from broking houses become larger. My fund closed before I could ever reach that stage, and so I watched with bemusement as anger and frustration built up within the Telegram investment group I was in, over being "scammed" by this HYIP. I moved instead into BitCoin mining, and my USD599 investment into the mining pool (whose mining equipment is in Iceland) in la...

My IB has indicated that he is unable to continue business with me. This means I need to explore other methods of withdrawing and funding my investment - only Perfect Money (a payment processor) and BitCoin are platforms the FOREX broker deals with. In the States, an Accredited Investor is someone with a net worth of USD 1 million, or an income of USD200,000 per year for the previous two years. In Singapore, the same class of investors is someone with net assets of SGD 2 million, or an income of SGD300,000 in the past 12 months. Many classes of high-yield investments like hedge funds, FOREX funds, etc, are allowed to be marketed only to such people (so nobody is allowed to market those investments I am investing in to the "common folk"). Such investors are considered to be "sophisticated" enough to understand the risks involved in such high-risk investments. I have been reading the Telegram chat group of my FOREX investment. Each time the Introducing Brokers (the fi...

It was a very enlightening conversation I had with Alex, one of my mentors in investmenting. What he shared is precisely my experience with many MLMers who burnt out, which is why I prefer to invest in investment MLMs rather than product MLMs . WHY I GET SUSPICIOUS WHEN MLM'ERS WON'T GIVE ME STRAIGHT ANSWERS I find it very interesting that practically most MLM'ers will not give me a straight answer to the question: "How long have you been at your MLM business and how much are you making now?" Usually they will divert to talk about how much their upline is making. I am not interested in how much your upline is making. I am more interested in what you have made after all the years you are in if you say the business you represent is really that good and lucrative. If a business proposition or investment is that good, I will be prepared to divulge the exact details as to how it is that good and will even open my accounts to show "where is the money"! Also, w...

It has been an incredible and interesting journey, and I have completed my one-year contract with the FOREX broker. ON 27 July, my investment account was automatically terminated as per my agreement with the broker, and my USD1000 in that account returned to me. I have decided to reinvest that amount into a new account (allowed under the investment agreement with the FOREX broker) with a fee of USD30 charged to me. This would allow me to continue my 8+% monthly returns every month for another year. As I continue with the world of HYIPs, I cannot help but continue to remember why the rich always get richer. The FOREX broker allows each individual up to USD100,000 in the fixed income investment. I cannot afford such potential losses and so have to limit myself. The rich, including some Malaysian Dato I know of, can afford such losses and so could pump in the full amount, gaining USD11,000 every month (it is no longer 8+% but close to 11% at these amounts). Accounting for the weak Ringgit...

It has been nearly a year since I last invested for a monthly return of about 8% each month. The company just reminded me that my yearly investment cycle (the contract locks my investment for a year) is up, and I should choose either to renew at a returns of 3% less each month (about 7% after calculating for FOREX) or to withdraw and to start a new contract for a one time fee of 3% of the investment of USD1000. I thought the math was very straightforward and somewhat of a no-brainer. I have chosen to withdraw and to start a new contract. The other HYIP I have started (which I have expressed doubt in my previous post ) has collapsed. There is a reason why I only invest a tiny amount for such HYIP. After this episode, I have told myself not to invest any more into any HYIP where the leverage just does not work out, or where the outlay is so ridiculously low (USD10, anyone?) that it being a money game is just so clear. I have to learn to listen to my hunches when it comes to investments. ...

Found another HYIP that pays 2% per day for 10 days with a capital of USD100, upon which profits is returned together with the capital. So far all HYIPs with such low capital outlay have not lasted long (unlike the other one I have invested with since July 2015), due likely to the fact that anything more than 1% per day is going to be difficult to sustain, and that is with FOREX being used as a trading platform. For someone like me, who was used to comfortably doing 1-2% a month selling options in the US stock markets in the past, the amount of leverage those guys are getting into is really incredible and mind-boggling. I have learnt to keep an open mind, however - because there are many who found my 1-2% a month equally mind-boggling. As I began understanding the world of high leverage, I learnt that they can be done - just not done by everyone. All forms of high-yield investment programmes have to deal with the issue of draw-downs. A move against the predicted model, a long-tail, a b...

My portfolio is now ahead SGD243.60 (I included the bank charges that I incurred when I first entered into this HYIP), 10 months into my investment. Things have been going well so far but my antenna is still up. I suppose many years of playing with HYIPs (and actually running one) made me so. It needs a certain kind of personality to survive the world of HYIPs. The HYIP I am investing with now has dropped its previous payment processor (which allowed us to directly send our investment by bank telegraphic transfer) and started using BitCoins. To me, this signals an attempt to avoid anti-money laundering efforts. Previous HYIPs used e-gold to avoid anti-money laundering scanning by financial institutions, which created tons of problems then as hackers attacked the e-gold accounts and removed the gold. BitCoin, however, has physical wallets, which is actually a 2FA system where you cannot hack and access the BTC (acronym for BitCoin) without physically controlling the dongle as well. And ...

Just applied to withdraw another USD200 for this monthly payout. Unlike some of my fellow investors, who aggressively market this product to gain from the binary payout option (investors also gain from the payouts of those below them, in a form of MLM), my insistence on telling my prospects of the risks involved in this product (and the nature of investment products) mean that my leverage has not been as good as those who roped in tons of downlines. I am fine with that, but am also frustrated at how many of my fellow men could not see the importance of a salary hedge, could not see how the risk of losing the USD1300 is actually less than the risk of not investment (it is a mindset issue), and could not see how an investment product, while different from a health product, is still a viable product after all. Risk management itself is an important part of modern financial prudence. Why do we pay to buy insurance, in the hope that we do not need to use it? The concept of risk management c...

http://www.fxunitedexplained.com/is-fx-united-a-scam/

With this latest payout from the FOREX HYIP, I have already taken back all my money in USD terms (more than USD1300) although in SGD terms I still have to get one more payout to have taken back my investment (due to the IB's spread of 1.6 vs 1.4 currently for the USD/SGD pair). For something I started 8 months ago, this is pretty solid returns. In statistics, we study probability and understand the concept of mathematical equivalence. We understand the concept that a 100% chance of getting $10 is the same as a 50% chance of getting $20, mathematically. However, in the real world, any sane person will take the 100% chance of $10. As such, in the real world, probability in itself has a value, and all games of chance (investments are also games of chance, as are businesses we run, except that the latter we believe we can influence somehow with our steering of the business) add that value to the investment. Because of this value of probability, all investments share one common trend, w...

I met up recently with a lady who was interested in my 8.52% per month investment scheme. She wanted to find ways to quickly reduce her debt, which made me advise her not to come in to the investment scheme because of its high risk. I found out she had incurred the debt burning her fingers doing FOREX futures. It was nothing new to me. Too many of us have been burnt with leverage. Leverage is like a knife - it can enable you to cut something well, but if used carelessly, you cut yourself. And if used criminally, it can kill someone. Unlike spot trading, where you immediately pay on the spot and hold on to the actual security (stocks, in the case of the stock market, or currency, in the case of the FOREX market), futures itself is a promise to pay in the future at an amount agreed upon now. Since there is no floor or ceiling either way, you can get burnt for more than the capital available, unlike spot trading. Futures really, should be used by those who are truly interested in locking ...

I have received my seventh payout early this month. Calculating the various bonuses from the downlines that my upline has added to me in this binary MLM system, I have gotten back USD1255. This means that, in USD terms, I am one more payout away from taking back my investment. So far the capital protection has also kicked in a second time, replacing lost capital from their poorly-performing trading system. I must admit I still find it strange that they are open enough to show us the inner workings of a poorly-performing trading system. Ponzi schemes I know of would show you all the nice trading gains, and you will be none the wiser, unless you are the financial advisers of latter investors in Madoff's ponzi (who did the Math and could not reconcile how the strategy could bring in the returns promised). A prospect that I spoke to recently told me she believes in working hard and adding value in her work. It is a common objection from those who have no experience in the finance indus...

I got my sixth payout last week. So far the HYIP has been doing as promised, delivering payout after payout. Again, I am seeing for myself why the rich is getting richer . There are those who can afford to take the risk. There are those who cannot afford to do so. I remembered a time when, even those I got salary increments, the amount of real money I get is constantly going down - because the cost of living outpaces my salary increases. I used to be paid in USD, but spent in RMB and paid loans in SGD. It was extremely painful watching the USD slide back in 2004-2010, wiping out my minor increases of a hundred or so USD each year. It was also a time when a bowl of noodles rose from RMB6 to RMB10, and groceries rose from RMB100 a week to RMB200. It was crazy then. Even right now, here in Singapore, where many of my peers are getting paid in SGD and spending in SGD, we see the costs of living outpacing our salary increments every year. In fact, some of my friends have not received salary...

I got my fifth payout this week. By now, with my own downline and the spillover effect of a binary matrix, I am getting more than the 12% ( actually 7.4% if you do the math) promised me. Do I still think this is a high-risk venture? Yes, by its nature it is a high-risk venture, but it is a venture that banks and hedge fund traders are doing day-in and day-out. And the risk factor is the reason I believe why many rich are getting richer. They can take risks that "mere mortals" cannot. To put things in perspective, can anyone afford to lose USD1 for a super-low chance to win USD1 million? Most people will shrug and put in the money. We call this the lottery. The lottery sells hope to those who participate in it, because the loss is insignificant but the possible gains are large, even though the probability is less than 1-1. Can many people afford to lose USD1300 for a 7.4% monthly income, but with the chance that any moment they may lose that USD1300 totally and not recover it...

The company that offered the high-yield investment is a FOREX broker, and so when we lent our money to them to invest, we naturally get account statements from them regularly regarding how our account is doing. These statements have been a point of contention and much jitters, because of how the capital kept depreciating from trading losses. The company's trading robot trading for our account appears to be trading not just for our account, from the way the activity works. Each account appears to be trading as part of a larger system, but the experience of many of our fellow investors also concur with me - the trading robots are generally losing. This apparently is not where the FOREX broker is making their money. Most FOREX bucket shops make money themselves by churning their clients account, not caring whether the account makes money, as long as commissions are being earned. This is the appearance of things in the account, and were it not for something that is promised and has act...

I have got a fourth payout this week. So far this HYIP has been keeping their promises of the monthly payout. As for capital protection, I suspect I can only find out once the year is up. The trading robot used to trade the account for us is quite weak. I see more losses coming from it than wins, but the company has just reconfigured their robot. I am still waiting to see how it will perform. While I am aware that both the HYIP and I do not really earn from the trading (and they have been transparent with us over the losses being made), it would be nice to know that the trading robot has been programmed to win rather than to trade. This has been the strangest HYIP I have ever encountered. Most HYIP will put up fake statements and entice people to put in more money. This one shows the real thing (losses), has horrible customer service, has a relatively high initial investment in the HYIP world (USD1300) and actually caps investments (you cannot put more than USD10,000 with them). It has...

I applied for my third payout this month, boosted a bit by the two downlines that are under me (both introduced by my wonderful upline, because I am still building my cases to reach out to my contacts and convince them of this wonderful financial investment). As expected, my downline commented on how the Forex company is a poor communicator, sending confusing messages with their trading reports. I agree with this aspect, and perhaps that is why they use an MLM system to get investors. The uplines are expected to be their sales and support staff. It is a very remarkable way of getting things to work indeed, seeing that their customer service (whatever little there is), is really bad. Another aspect of customer service breakdown that my Malaysian investors have been going through is that of their country's Introducing Broker. The volume of transactions are huge over that market, with hundreds of thousands moving through the system. To avoid issues with banks shutting them down over m...

I have just received my second 11% payout from my account with this Forex firm. My uplines are on their 8th payout already, and since they are extremely active with securing downlines, they get bonuses from their downlines' activity too. I have also received my second downline, also referred to by my upline. The Forex firm understands how Amway and other MLM companies work, and is using this model to increase the amount of money they have to trade and make profits with. Unlike other Forex investments, this one is passive from the investor's point of view, and professional fund managers manage the investments. I shall describe how the issue of "churning", the bane of most Forex investors in the past, is dealt with in this Forex firm in another post. This investment is looking good so far!

I have just applied for another monthly withdrawal of my 11% of USD1000. Since we need USD300 to put aside (considered part of the capital, which we can withdraw were we to close the account) to open the account, and this USD300 is not considered in the 11%, our actual monthly returns is 8.46%. If there is one thing I do not like about the HYIP, is how they do not "tell it like it is". Instead of proclaiming returns of 12% monthly, and then mentioning that it is based on the USD1000 trading capital, and that there is a monthly maintenance fee of 1%, why not just tell us it is 8.46% per month? The returns are still very fantastic, especially when you understand that most stocks give only about 8% per year on average. The poor customer service of the FOREX company also meant that Introducing Brokers are necessary. They are essential remitting agents dealing with the FOREX company, and each country has its representative IB. The one I deal with in Singapore gives me rates of 1.4...