Having traded for over a decade, I learned by experience that trading is not designed to give you regular income (your pay cheque job should do that), but trading is designed to generate wealth. When the oil price rose from $10 per barrel (during the pandemic) to $126 per barrel and then fell back to $76 per barrel, our institutional trading on the global level made over $1.5 million trading oil derivatives digitally through various liquidities. It was a planned event, and the oil market is extremely liquid. These opportunities exist, but most individuals are unaware of how they work.

Nigeria has a lot of skilled traders roaming the streets of the internet without funds or portfolios; or trading firms to trade under, their counterparts in the US and Europe are not better or have more experience than them; it is just that our people have not seen the potential of fin-tech trading or trading on the global financial and commodities market. I considered it a big slap when some people claimed that trading is a scam because they lose money in schemes. 

“By my experience, there are thousands of individual traders in Nigeria; are they all scamming themselves of their own money too? Few people I’ve met who have lost money while investing in schemes could not give a trading account or name a broker or exchange where those monies were traded; it’s essentially a case of using a good name to take in their money. That is also why I continue to believe that an educated trader must always be a successful trader, and an educated investor must always be a successful investor. I believe that the public should be educated on how trading works on a regular basis, I’m not saying trading is risk free, of course, it has a degree of risk, but proper understanding and education can help. 

Another thing I’ve learned from trading with institutions is that paying attention to a certain instrument or industry is critical to improving success. Our firms trade on various exchanges and liquidities around the world, but this did not distract us from our aim. We focused more on the energy sector, which led to the formation of a trading initiatives called “Energy Without Borders.”  The goal is to educate people about alternative ways for people to profit from the oil and gas business through derivative trading.  We are also working with the operators of the local market to educate people on other opportunities and how these instruments can be utilised for hedging, such as real gold, which is traded at one of the licenced and regulated exchanges in Nigeria, but without training and education, this can’t be understood. There are hundreds of instruments in the market, and what regulates them is our global economic activity. These items can also be traded globally through an organised and regulated exchange or a broker, given you chances to diversify and connect to global economic activity. 

Another thing I have learned by experience is that, for every investment (trading) to be successful, there must be good capital, a long-term goal, low risk, and experience. Though without experience, if one adds good capital, a long-term goal, and low risk, there are chances of becoming successful. When I was first contacted for CCI institutional trading, under the brand of CCITRADERS. I first recommended that only experienced traders should be allowed to trade or that a high-performing AI should be used. I can say that most firms perform poorly in their trades by allowing inexperienced traders (the public) to make executions. 

In conclusion, just as we are adopting fin-tech services, we should welcome fin-tech trading as well. Trading is genuine, not fake; fakes exist because originals exist; however, the challenge is that fakes are always more popular and accessible than originals. Original products may be more expensive, but they last longer than fakes.

Uche Paragon is an entrepreneur, a forex & commodities trader, portfolio & risk manager