An Interview with ForeX Masters

ForeX Masters is a service offering courses and support for people learning to be traders. They provide trading knowledge and skills meant to translate into successful trading. After sharing their knowledge through courses, they monitor new traders' performance and how they are applying what they have learned. Learn more at http://www.fxmasters.co.uk/.

1. How did ForeX Masters get started?

ForeX Masters started as a complimentary service that we were offering to some of our alternative fund investors. Some of them had experience trading their own stock and commodities account and wanted to learn more about Forex market and how our fund strategy was delivering hedge alpha.

Before we knew it, we had more people being referred to us via our brokers and clients, and decide it would be a good and fun opportunity to deliver in-depth forex education. This also serves as a tool for our expansion plan while recruiting and growing talent.

2. What are the main differences between the three Forex courses that you offer?

We understood based on our own experience and the feedback of our clients that people have different needs. These needs can be based on their lifestyle, life stage, and financial goal. Some are doing trading for fun, while others do it as a mean to earn extra money. Still others simply do it as a means to build a long-term retail trader career. In some cases, I have seen people transiting from stock and indices for career purposes. Not many big institutions offer an in depth trading course but expect their traders to have acquired that knowledge. Therefore, we thought it necessary to design different courses with the aim of filling business needs in mind while always providing a solid base.

3. How have your courses helped people with their ability to trade either part-time or full-time; in other words, what are some of the key skills that you teach?

We have had a great success to date with every student that manages to complete their chosen program while respecting and following our methodology. Till today we have some our student testimony that can be seen below as successful examples, and for those that still struggle we do operate a open door policy, where the can get in touch with any of our coaches for a free refresher session.

I actually had a student contacting me in October last year almost 18 months after completing his program; he told me he needed help, and I spent two months coaching him after we met for a coffee. Sometimes people lose interest and drive, and as with mastering any skill in life, successful trading take requires time and having the right attitude is key.

Students usually come out with a deep understanding of technical and fundamental analysis but more importantly the importance and impact of countries' economies, and central bank policies on currencies exchange. And another important lesson is the correlation between currencies and commodities. Something I always assure my students is that by the end of one of our program, your view on the world will drastically change while at the same time your understanding of it will help you have a more fulfilling life.

4. Are there any misconceptions that you commonly see people having about trading?

Misconceptions associated with Forex trading are always the same with the financial trading industry and investing: people believing it's a scam or that huge amounts of money are required to invest or simply that the markets are rigged so that only the wealthy would profit.

Contrary to stock and indices, for example, there's no one entity that can control the outcome of a trading session. With the Forex market it's a fragmented and decentralised market where all parties need each other and the biggest players do need the smallest to a certain extent. Anyone can profit from this market if they put the time and effort into learning. Even the best traders and funds do lose money at times; the secret is to stick to risk management and build consistency.

Another misconception is that it's impossible to make an income from trading, which is totally untrue. People can indeed make a living from trading but once again this requires knowledge time and discipline

5. For people who have always wanted to get into trading, what makes Forex a good option compared to other ways of investing?

The Forex market offer a unique way for individuals to invest and trade 24 hours a day. The information needed to make informed trading decision is widely available on most brokers' platforms and specialist websites for free.

Thanks!

Meet Debra Roberts, Honeybee Educator and Advocate

Debra Roberts is an international honeybee educator and advocate. She teaches natural, compassionate beekeeping, and sacred relationship with bees. She stewards her bee sanctuary in the Appalachian Mountains. Learn more about Debra and her Sacred Path of Bee series of classes by visiting her website, HolyBeePress.com.

1. How did you first become a beekeeper?

Beekeeping was never a plan, but it was clearly a call. I sort of stumbled into it in the remarkable way that life sometimes unfolds. In 2004, my health crashed and I took a six-months' sabbatical that changed the rest of my life. As I was recovering, I felt inspired to take a pilgrimage to Hopi to pay my respects to the family of Thomas Banyacya, an elder who had passed and had touched my life profoundly at an earlier time in my life. I had gotten guidance to bring honey as a gift to his family. I wasn't a beekeeper (and I wasn't thinking about being one at the time), but a neighbor of mine sold some honey to me. Off I went from North Carolina, across US Route 40, arriving days later at the Banyacya family door in Arizona, quart jars of honey in hand. Thomas' daughter-in-law, whom I had never met, greeted me at the door. I said I was Debra Roberts from North Carolina and I had just come to pay my respects because of how Thomas Sr. had touched my life. And I wanted to give them a gift. She welcomed me in, received the jars of honey I gave her, and said, "Why I was just telling my husband, Thomas Jr., that we were out of honey and I needed to go to the store to get some more..."

So when I look back, there was something about that moment that marks when bees came into my life... something bee-ish, full of grace, quietly slipped under my radar and into the heart of my life. By the end of that year, I ended up in bee school, and I have been at the feet of bees ever since.

2. What is your goal or intention with your honeybee sanctuary?

I am a honeybee educator, speaker, and advocate. I teach and travel around the world, and I am totally bee-sotted. I am not commercial and rarely harvest any honey. My bee sanctuary is right next to our house in the mountains of Western North Carolina. It is a place that is holy to me. I spend time there every day that I am in town. My path is to explore sacred relationship with the bees, to learn from them, and to inspire and support others in doing the same, and it is also to provide a safe place for bees to flourish in the world. The bee sanctuary is a place I express my respect, love, reverence, devotion, and gratitude for them. This place and space is also to honor others. The sanctuary is filled with precious objects that are meaningful to me and other people, placed mindfully around the bee sanctuary to represent prayers for the well being of the bees, particular people and animals, and for the benefit of all life. As I move around the yard daily, these prayers are regularly enlivened. More than anything, the bee sanctuary is place of expressing and sharing my love for these precious wing-ed ones and for creating a healthy place for them to thrive, especially in these times where their health and well-being is so challenged.

3. What inspired you to create your Sacred Path of Bee series of classes?

I fell into friendship years ago with a wonderful woman named Layne Redmond, who was a renowned frame drum teacher, musician, researcher, and artist. She and I discovered, in our unfolding friendship over the years, that many of the experiences I was having in my sacred-in-the-ordinary bee-tending life were resonant with some of the ancient ways of the bee priestesses that Layne had been exploring while researching what later became her seminal book, When the Drummers Were Women. Neither of us called ourselves bee priestesses, but nevertheless, those words help describe a sacred territory that was so enlivened in our lives. Layne invited me to share about bees and the sacred many times in her gatherings and conferences, and we went on to create a free public offering on bees and the sacred with the intention of later co-creating a multi-part online series. Unfortunately, Layne passed away in 2013 so I went on to create the series myself. I launched The Sacred Path of Bee in August of this year, and it is offered in her loving memory. The other source of inspiration for this series are the honeybees who have colonized my mind, heart and consciousness and inspire me every day of my life.

4. Who are some of your special guest collaborators in The Sacred Path of Bee?

I have invited ten remarkable people from around the world to join me in this series. Each are a world and a wonder. To describe just a few of them, I have invited Jacqueline Freeman to join me, a visionary who communicates with bees and who wrote the widely acclaimed book The Song of Increase, Returning to Our Sacred Partnership with Honeybees. Also invited is Horst Kornberger, who wrote Global Hive, Bee Crisis and Compassionate Ecology, who teaches at the Rudolf Steiner College in Perth, Australia. And there is Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees, an artist, educator, activist, and elder who has spent her life at the crossroads, where species, cultures, beliefs and the unknown intersect, collide, and evolve. All ten guests bring a unique perspective to our understanding of bees and their vast blessings in our lives.

5. Why is it important for us to forge more connections with bees in our world?

Since Colony Collapse Disorder reared its head in 2006, it is now much more widely and commonly known that we depend on honeybees for over a third of the food we eat (and I would add, food we really enjoy eating). From my years with the bees, I think the opportunity they bring in helping us to understand some of the deeper issues and opportunities in life is even more important. It is my belief that many of the challenges in this world stem from our disconnect with nature--both within us and outside of us. When we steward bees in a bee-centric rather than bee-business-centric way, there is an opportunity to learn about the interconnectedness we share with all life. A higher consciousness naturally is awakened and enlivened when we spend time with honeybees in a respectful way (rather than treating them as livestock). More women than ever have stepped into the world of bees in unprecedented numbers. This started around 2007, and I believe it represents a compassionate response to the challenges bees are facing. I see this compassionate expressed in both the men and women I teach in the world and who are participating in the Sacred Path of Bee series. I celebrate the growing numbers of beekeepers and bee appreciators that are taking an interest in the bees with a primary intent to help them. If there is any one simple thing I could say about my own life with the bees, it's realizing that love itself is the ultimate activism. The Sacred Path of Bee is my offering to the world and to the bees, in the hope that more love can come their way and spread around to the rest of life. For it is sorely needed... and it's time.

Thanks, Debra!

Meet Marguerite Beaty, Photographer and Teacher

Marguerite Beaty lives in Miami, Florida, where she enjoys taking photos and teaching photography classes. She has an MFA in Photography from the University of Miami, and she worked as a stockbroker in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Learn more about Marguerite at her website, Crea8fotos. She offers a variety of classes in photography as well as business classes for artists. Her classes include in-person and online options.

1. As a photographer and photography teacher, how do you find a balance between fine art photography and commercial photography?

I do not think that I ever found a good balance between the commercial photography and the fine art photography. They contradict each other in every way! The commercial photography is all about another person's vision and will be used for marketing or advertising. In other words, it will be used to sell something. The fine art is about my vision. It's about my philosophy or the way that I see things and then somehow put it all together. I was able to use my vision in some commercial photography but it was more about how to do a photo session than the actual final product.

2. Your digital mastery program looks to be very comprehensive. Do students need to have any previous experience before taking these classes, and what are some of your goals for students to achieve in this program?

The Digital Mastery Program is created for the beginner: the person who just bought a camera and has no idea which button to press. This program is also good for the person who has a good idea about photography but wants to study it in depth. There is also the part II which is great for the advanced photographer. The idea is to understand the camera very well and to take control of the picture taking by making decisions. When you shoot in the auto mode, the camera will decide everything for you and there are many techniques that will not be very successful. So it will come down to this: do you want to create your photograph, or do you want your camera to create it?

3. For students who are located outside of the Miami area, what are some online learning options you offer?

For students who are from different states and countries, I teach via Skype! I love it and it has worked quite well. I am finishing a new series of classes that will be available online. Those will be for people who prefer to learn on their own.

4. What do students learn in your business classes, and are these online or in-person classes or a combination?

The photography business classes were designed after I met several self-taught photographers who asked me to teach specific techniques and began to ask about sales and marketing. As our conversation flowed, I saw that they needed a plan and to organize themselves so that they could actually create a profit while doing what they loved.

The business class are one-on-one online (via Skype). The students will do research and will have several assignments. So this has a large component of self-learning and the advantage of a number of real-time sessions to discuss things.

5. What inspired you to start teaching, and do you feel like your teaching influences your artwork (and vice versa)?

I have always enjoyed teaching. While I was working towards my MFA in photography, I did quite a bit of teaching-assisting or adjunct teaching. It is fun to exchange ideas and to be challenged creatively. I do not think that teaching has affected my artwork. It does make me think more and do a lot more research on photography--so maybe it has influenced me. I am not sure how!

Thanks, Marguerite!