1. Please give us a brief introduction about yourself - What is your position? What is your professional background?



My name is Abdullah Aabbas and I am the managing director at AFB FX. I have started an early career in foreign exchange markets as a broker, while I was obtaining a degree in Physics from the University of Jordan. After my graduation in 2002 I was promoted into a senior broker, and throughout the Years I gained enormous experience from many positions I held in different companies in Jordan, Egypt, Switzerland, and Kuwait.

In 2005 I and my Partners decided to start our own business, and as a result, Arab Financial Brokers K.S.C.C (AFB) was established to be the first regulated company that deals with foreign markets in Kuwait.

In 2007, with the role of business development manager, my vision was to explore other markets than Kuwait. In 2008 this vision paid off its worth when the financial crisis hit the local market. Our God then my team who believed in my vision helped AFB to introduce the company to the virgin markets of Far East Asia, introducing the micro account class. By 2010, AFB obtained the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) license, becoming an international organization. As a result to this success AFB FX Limited was born to become a fully licensed and Regulated Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) and to be the first GCC Company to obtain a CySEC license.  My vision has no limits. With the desire to become a worldwide leading company in Forex, Futures, CFD, and bonds markets, I work even harder to insure that AFB is not far from obtaining this desire, and turning into the first Forex Islamic Bank.

2. Who is your target audience?

Although most professional traders make up the majority of accounts in AFB FX, our vision for AFB FX is to make forex trading available for everyone by targeting a broad spectrum of audience ranging from beginners interested in acquiring education and assistance while trading with small micro and mini accounts, to professionals looking for a clearing house with tight spreads and fast accurate execution. This vision is clearly displayed by the VIP treatment that we provide to all our clients regardless of their account size.  

Professional traders are extremely important for us at AFB FX and this is why we introduced professional accounts which have negotiable trading conditions and negotiable bonus depending on the size of the account and the traded volume. This allows us to offer professional clients a custom tailored solution to meet their trading needs.

3. Why should a trader choose YOU over another provider?

• Spreads from 0.6 pips·        
• Leverage up to 1:500
• Wide selection of trading instruments covering Spot/futures FX, Energies, Spot/futures precious metals soft commodities futures (coffee, sugar …. ETC), and indices  
• Fast and accurate execution with minimal requotes 
• Free Educational courses and video
• Dedicated account manager for every account 
• CYSEC regulated / FSA registered broker 
• Professional accounts with negotiable bonuses and trading conditions  
• Live news and analytics from Dow Jones and Informa Global Markets 
• $50 Minimum initial deposit 
• Investor compensation fund insuring client accounts up to 20,000 Euros per account in case of company failure 
• Professional accounts with negotiable trading conditions and bonuses aimed to offer custom tailored solution for professional traders 
• Guaranteed stops and pending orders execution

 
4. Please describe the trading platforms available to your clients?
 

• MetaTrader 4: The most popular leading forex trading platform from MetaQuotes. Mt4 offers advanced charting, indicators, expert advisors, pending orders, trailing orders, take profit and stop loss orders. 
• MetaTrader 5 Beta: The new state of the art trading platform developed to become the predecessor of MetaTrader 4 but still in beta testing.
• WebTrader:  Trade from internet browsers on any computer without downloading or installing a trading platform.
• Mobile Platforms: AFB FX offers trading platforms for I-Phone, BlackBerry, Android, Symbian, I-Mod, and windows mobile devices.
• MetaTrader MultiTerminal: Trade on several accounts at the same time, Ideal for fund managers who want to execute trades on several accounts at the same time.

 
5. What other services do you offer your customers to support their investment decisions and/or trading?

• Live news from Dow Jones news wire
• Live analytics, recommendations and trading alerts from Informa Global Markets
• Daily and weekly market over view from our research and analysis department
• A wide range of indicators and expert advisors
• Comprehensive economic calendar

 
6. Walk us through opening an account with your company.

1. Visit www.afbfx.com
2. Click Open a live account
3. Choose between an individual account or a corporate account
4. Choose account type
5. Fill the form with accurate information
6. Check your e-mail and verify it by clicking the link inside the e-mail
7. Download AFB FX trading platform (link provided in the e-mail)
8. Send your documents for account verification (signed colored copy of passport and a valid proof of address)
9. Once your account is verified you will receive your Trading account access and you can perform deposit and withdrawal transaction by logging into our member area My AFB FX.

 
7. What advice do you have for someone who is just starting to trade the markets?

Consistent and continues education is essential. Educational sources must be credible and reliable such as AFB FX educational section where traders can access a series of video courses that covers materials for beginner, intermediate and advanced traders.
Demo trading is an excellent tool for beginners however it cannot capture the psychological state of real trading. This why I highly recommend learning using micro real accounts so that trader gets experience in real trading without risking a substantial sum.
Using trading strategies that focus on small to medium consistent profit with a moderate capital growth rather than aggressive triple your account in two days kind of strategies that most definitely will blow your account.
 
8. What would you say are the most common mistakes traders make? What are some of the best trading practices to keep in mind?

Emotional trading is the most common trading mistake; a trader must have neutral emotionless logical approach to the market and to avoid giving in to attachments to certain instruments, fear and greed. 

Over trading is also a common mistake, many traders make many trades with smaller volumes over short period of time and with very uncertain entry levels rather than identifying genuine opportunities and entering with proper volume to achieve maximum profit.

The last common mistake I would like to mention is not setting up take profit and stop loss levels on trades. This common mistake causes many traders to miss closing a position while it’s yielding profits or accumulating large losses that could lead to margin calls. I understand that some traders have developed fear from setting stop levels because of scam broker’s practices such as artificial spikes to hunt stop losses but that is not a problem when working with an established respectable broker like AFB FX where stop orders are guaranteed to be executed on accurate prices in transparent and traceable manner.
 
9. What’s your view on the economy? What are the implications on the currency, equity and commodity markets?
 
The world economy has witnessed intensive financial crisis during the year 2011, when the accumulated deficits of governments’ public budgets and the current accounts in the United States and several members of the European Union resulted in extreme debt that quickly took the form of a chronic financial crises. The Euro zone today is no less critical financial situation than that of the United States. It took only ten years since the Euro Zone was created to a point where this financial zone is facing grave danger. In 2nd of May 2010 Euro Zone members was forced to provide swift financial aids amounting to hundreds of billions to Greece and Ireland who shortly were followed by Portugal while other countries like Spain, Italy and Belgium are still under danger of bankruptcy.  
 
The world economy has witnessed intensive financial crisis during the year 2011, when the accumulated deficits of governments’ public budgets and the current accounts in the United States and several members of the European Union resulted in extreme debt that quickly took the form of a chronic financial crises. The Euro zone today is no less critical financial situation than that of the United States. It took only ten years since the Euro Zone was created to a point where this financial zone is facing grave danger. In 2nd of May 2010 Euro Zone members was forced to provide swift financial aids amounting to hundreds of billions to Greece and Ireland who shortly were followed by Portugal while other countries like Spain, Italy and Belgium are still under danger of bankruptcy.  
 
The question now remains; can the troubled economies overcome the financial crisis?
As its well-known now these governments have used all their inventory of tools that usually aid them in regulating financial inconsistencies such as injecting several financial aids to revive its declining economies that kept sinking in recession and the result was bigger mountains of foreign debt.
 
They also used all financial policy tools (exchange price and bank interest) to the point where all their bank interests are at minimal.
And there are no tricks still hidden up their sleeves except sending out assurances by senior officials and heads of central banks to calm the fears of investors in the markets, as happened few days ago when 5 central European banks raced to announce its support for commercial European banks under risk of losing the loans they received from the European bailout loans And demanded at the same time to participate in new rescue packages for EU governments who are still facing financial danger. Add to that, of course, military power, on which EU states has long relied upon to secure and maximize the economic interests across the world.
 
There are no viable solutions left in front of the political ruling powers in Europe and the United States but to accept the change in the world’s economic scales, as it lost its competitive advantages against the new emerging markets and that the only solution is to undergo extensive restructuring that let go of trying to manufacture a middle class by excessive easy lending and the policy of depending on commercial lending to feed growth. They need to let go of many luxurious incomes and direct investments into education, youth support, and development and creativity and a new infrastructure that will encourage productivity, research and development. This requires decreasing spending by taking a wise budget cut backs policy and increasing the efficiency of tax collection and its returns.
 
As they say one man's loss is another man's gain. The currencies, metals and commodities markets were the biggest beneficiary of the successive crises that hit the major economies as it witnessed an increase in liquidity due to the investors who escaped from losses in the equities and stocks markets. Currency market witness unprecedented increase in electronic trading while precious metals prices and especially gold reached new heights as the price per ounce reached 1920 dollars since it’s the safe haven for investors and major banks in times of crisis. It themes that this activity in the currencies, precious metals, energies and commodities markets will continue throughout 2012 and will remain to be preferable by investors as long as the economic instability continues in creating movements and alternative profitable investments opportunities worldwide.