A forex (or foreign exchange) scam is any trading scheme used to defraud individual traders by convincing them that they can expect to gain a high profit by trading in the foreign exchange market. Currency trading "has become the fraud du jour" as of early 2008, according to Michael Dunn of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. [1] But "the market has long been plagued by swindlers preying on the gullible," according to the New York Times [2]. "The average individual foreign-exchange-trading victim loses about $15,000, according to CFTC records" according to The Wall Street Journal. [3] The North American Securities Administrators Association says that "off-exchange forex trading by retail investors is at best extremely risky, and at worst, outright fraud." [4]
“In a typical case, investors may be promised tens of thousands of dollars in profits in just a few weeks or months, with an initial investment of only $5,000. Often, the investor’s money is never actually placed in the market through a legitimate dealer, but simply diverted – stolen – for the personal benefit of the con artists.”[5]
In August, 2008 the CFTC set up a special task force to deal with growing foreign exchange fraud.”[6]
The forex market is a zero-sum game[7] , meaning that whatever one trader gains, another loses, except that brokerage commissions and other transaction costs are subtracted from the results of all traders, technically making forex a "negative-sum" game.
These scams might include churning of customer accounts for the purpose of generating commissions, selling software that is supposed to guide the customer to large profits, [8] improperly managed "managed accounts", [9] false advertising, [10] Ponzi schemes and outright fraud. [4] [11] It also refers to any retail forex broker who indicates that trading foreign exchange is a low risk, high profit investment. [12]
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which loosely regulates the foreign exchange market in the United States, has noted an increase in the amount of unscrupulous activity in the non-bank foreign exchange industry.[13]
An official of the National Futures Association was quoted [14] as saying, "Retail forex trading has increased dramatically over the past few years. Unfortunately, the amount of forex fraud has also increased dramatically..." Between 2001 and 2006 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has prosecuted more than 80 cases involving the defrauding of more than 23,000 customers who lost $350 million. From 2001 to 2007, about 26,000 people lost $460 million in forex frauds. [1] CNN quoted Godfried De Vidts, President of the Financial Markets Association, a European body, as saying, "Banks have a duty to protect their customers and they should make sure customers understand what they are doing. Now if people go online, on non-bank portals, how is this control being done?"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Monday, May 18, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Quality Factors in Foods
In countries where food is abundant, people choose foods based on a number of factors which can in sum be thought of as "quality." Quality has been defined as degree of excellence and includes such things as taste, appearance, and nutritional content. We might also say that quality is the composite of characteristics that have significance and make for acceptability. Acceptability, however, can be highly subjective. Quality and price need not go together, but food manufacturers know that they generally can get a higher price for or can sell a larger quantity of products with superior quality. Often "value" is thought of as a composite of cost and quality. More expensive foods can be a good value if their quality is very high. The nutrient value of the different grades of canned fruits and vegetables is similar for all practical purposes, yet the price can vary as much as threefold depending on other attributes of quality. This is why processors will go to extremes to control quality.
When we select foods and when we eat, we use all of our physical senses, including sight, touch, smell, taste, and even hearing. The snap of a potato chip, the crackle of a breakfast cereal, and crunch of celery are textural characteristics, but we also hear them. Food quality detectable by our senses can be divided into three main categories: appearance factors, textural factors, and flavor factors.
Appearance factors include such things as size, shape, wholeness, different forms of damage, gloss, transparency, color, and consistency. For example, apple juice is sold both as cloudy and clear juice. Each has a different appearance and is often thought of as a somewhat different product.
Textural factors include handfeel and mouthfeel of firmness, softness, juiciness, chewiness, grittiness. The texture of a food is often a major determinant of how little or well we like a food. For example, many people do not like cooked liver because of its texture. Texture of foods can be measured with sophisticated mechanical testing machines.
Flavor factors include both sensations perceived by the tongue which include sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, and aromas perceived by the nose. The former are often referred to as "flavors" and the latter "aromas," although these terms are often used interchangeably. Flavor and aroma are often subjective, difficult to measure accurately, and difficult to get a group of people to agree. A part of food science called sensory science is dedicated to finding ways to use humans to accurately describe the flavors and other sensory properties of foods. There are hundreds of descriptive terms that have been invented to describe flavor, depending on the type of food. Expert tea tasters have a language all of their own, which has been passed down to members of their guild from generation to generation. This is true of wine tasters as well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)