In fact, investing just 10% of your overall portfolio can often offset loses in equities (stocks) because many commodities do not move in tandem with the stock markets and therefore can offer what we might call stock portfolio insurance or a hedge. One specific investment area to possibly consider is currency trading, which is very liquid and offers perhaps more safety in some respects to other commodities (or other high yield investments) because of this liquidity.

In fact, the world currency trading markets overshadow stock markets in terms of volume, yet the media reports very little about this to the general public (the foreign exchange or currency markets often experience over 1 Trillion US Dollars worth of volume daily).  One possibility is because most of the previous investors were large banks and other institutions, as most individual investors did not have a way or the funds to access these markets.  This has changed today, as many investment firms or mutual funds have popped up to offer access to the small investor, yet it still remains somewhat of a secret or unheard of investment to many.

With that said, there are of course some firms that do a good job for investors, and believe it or not, are honest with clients. Of all of the things that come across our desk, this one firm we are about to discuss stands out above all the rest we investigated and I will tell you why.

The first thing to be said is that this firm is very conservative and adverse to risk in an investment class known for risk. That is to say, the firm only trades three or four basic currencies -the US Dollar, the Euro, the British Pound, Swiss Franc and occasionally Canadian or Australian Dollars.

As an example of one of the firm's key principals, founders told me, is that they stopped trading the Japanese Yen because it was too volatile and most other currencies do not offer sufficient liquidity to make them feel comfortable. In addition, the firm only trades in the spot market, refusing to get involved with what are called futures (placing bets on which way a currency will go in the future). In other words, they look for advantages or opportunities between the current exchange rates between two or three different currencies and look to move in and out quickly. For those investors familiar with stock trading, this style of trading can be compared to what is known as arbitrage (which includes buying and selling the same stock at the same time on two different exchanges to take advantage of perhaps a ¼ point difference between the two).

How have they done? Well, the firm offers different tiers of accounts (smaller investors which would include accounts between US$ 10,000 and US$ 50,000), and higher balance accounts get the opportunity for additional returns.  With that said, the average 5 year returns for smaller accounts has been 30.03% and for accounts over US$ 100,000 - 42.98%

The firms clearing account is carried with one of the largest banks in Singapore - one that is rated AA by Moodys rating service.  A woman trader conducts the trading also out of Singapore, and she has consistently been correct 86% of the time. That is to say, she makes money on 13 out every 15 trades and has consistently done so over the last 5-year period.

Account statements are audited quarterly and all trading activity is clearly provided.  In addition, clients may access account balances on-line via a secure server system, which also includes on-line access to account statements as well.  However, an important point is that the firm's operations office is located outside of the US or Europe, offering security for client records. The firm recently did have their office in the Bahamas, but decided in April of this year to move operations out of the Bahamas rather than give up the privacy or confidentiality of clients.

All things being said, we have met with principals of the company on a few occasions and can only say that in a world of dubious investments or dubious people, these are some of the good guys. For more information about banking in the Dominican Republic, or additional information regarding a managed currency account application, please contact our office directly.