An Open Letter to Oscar
Dear Oscar,
You wrote to me last week from your home in Kuwadzana. You are 26 years old, single, and working as an IT Officer in the CBD. You earn a net salary of $500 per month and have managed to save $2,500 over the past two years. Recently, you have been thinking about taking some of your savings and starting Forex trading. You say you are tired of living paycheck to paycheck and believe Forex trading could be your road to financial freedom.
Oscar, let me share with you some truths—truths that forex gurus will not tell you because they profit from your desperation. They will be uncomfortable to hear, but if you take them to heart, they might save you from losing not just your money, but also your peace of mind.
Why Forex Trading Is Attractive
I understand your attraction to Forex completely. You are scrolling through Instagram and TikTok, and you see these so-called Forex gurus living like kings. They pose next to luxury cars, sip champagne on Dubai rooftops, flash expensive watches, and post screenshots of “$1,000 profit in one day.” They whisper sweet promises: you can do the same if you just start forex trading.
You dream of waking up at 10 am, trading for a few hours, and then spending the rest of the day in complete freedom. You imagine finally sending meaningful money to your parents, helping your siblings through school, and never again calculating kombi fare in your head. These feelings are real, Oscar. The hunger for financial freedom is legitimate. But what you are seeing is a carefully constructed lie.
Social Media Illusion
Oscar, what you are seeing is not real success. It is marketing and theatre. Those luxury cars are rented for photo shoots, returned before the rental company opens the next morning. Those penthouse hotel rooms are booked for one night purely to create content that will hook people like you. Those trading screenshots showing massive profits? Most are photoshopped masterpieces or taken from demo accounts that use fake money.
The entire lifestyle is an elaborate stage production designed to make you feel exactly how you feel right now—desperate, envious, and ready to hand over your hard-earned savings to forex trading. They study human psychology like scientists, knowing that showing you wealth will make you overlook the warning signs.
The Forex Guru Business Model
Here is the truth they do not want you to know: many so-called “forex gurus” earn far more from selling courses, trading signals, and broker referrals than from actual trading. Their real business is not making profits in the forex market—it is selling the dream of making profits in the forex market.
That $100 mentorship? That $150 trading robot? That $50 seminar? That $80 monthly signal subscription? These are their true income streams, not forex trading profits.
Many are also partnered with Forex brokers. When you open an account using their referral link and deposit funds, they receive a commission. The more you trade, the more they earn—regardless of whether you make a profit or a loss. Your losses literally fund their luxury lifestyle posts. If their trading strategies were genuinely profitable, they would be quietly compounding their accounts in private, not spending 12 hours a day on social media recruiting new victims.
Another highly profitable model they use is offering “managed accounts.” Investors sign agreements acknowledging the risks, believing the guru will trade on their behalf. In some cases, the guru simply holds the money without investing and later claims it was lost. In other cases, they risk only a small portion of the funds, ensuring minimal exposure while still charging significant management fees. These management commission can be substantial, and the guru earns them whether the account grows or collapses.
From Fake Lifestyle to Real Wealth – Funded by You
Over time, these gurus can end up genuinely wealthy—but not from Forex trading. Many start by faking their success, renting cars and posing in luxury settings to attract followers. However, the more courses, robots, and signals they sell, and the more broker commissions they receive, the more real money flows in. Eventually, their lifestyle is no longer fake because their students are continuously funding it.
This is why they never stop hosting seminars—it is not about empowering you, it is because you are their source of income. The shrewder ones take these earnings and invest in property, businesses, and other ventures, building genuine assets over time.
Yet the uncomfortable truth remains: the foundation of their wealth was never their skill in Forex trading, but rather their ability to market and sell the dream of it.
Peer Pressure is Not Your Friend
Yes, your friend Tendai claims he made $300 last week from Forex. But he is not telling you about the $800 he lost the month before. Success stories travel fast; failure stories stay hidden. This is called survivorship bias—we tend to hear only about the few people who succeed, while the many who fail remain silent. The result is a distorted picture that makes Forex trading seem far more profitable than it really is.
Do not make life-changing financial decisions based on other people’s selective storytelling, especially when your future is at stake.
The Odds Are Against You
Let me give you the statistics they will never share: 95% of retail Forex traders lose money. Not break even. Not make small profits. They lose money. Even among the 5% who succeed, most make modest returns that are nowhere close to what these gurus promise. With $1,000 in your account, a skilled trader might make $50 to $100 in a good month. That is respectable growth, but it will not buy the lifestyle you are being shown.
Think about it logically, Oscar. If someone could consistently turn $1,000 into $10,000 every month, why would they need your $100 course fee? Why would they spend time making TikTok videos instead of quietly trading their way to millions?
Forex trading is not investing—it is speculating. It is closer to gambling than to building wealth. The market moves based on global economic factors that are impossible to predict consistently. You might win a few trades and feel like a genius, but the market will eventually humble you.
Why You Stand to Lose More Than You Think
The danger is not just losing your capital—it is the cycle of chasing losses. You may tell yourself, “Let me just risk $100, it is not much.” But it will not stop at $100. Once emotions get involved, it becomes like gambling—addictive and hard to walk away from.
A few good trades will make you feel invincible, convincing you that you have finally discovered the secret formula. You will then risk another $300, confident that you now understand how the market works.
The cycle is predictable: wins followed by devastating losses, each time pushing you to deposit more money in a desperate attempt to recover what you lost. Before you realize what has happened, the entire $2,500 that took you 2 years to save is gone—vanished in 2 weeks.
Do Not Gamble With What Took Years to Build
You spent 2 years saving $2,500. Every dollar represents sacrifice—meals you skipped, social events you missed, luxuries you denied yourself. Do not risk losing it in 2 weeks to a market that chews up even experienced traders. Protect your capital. Use it to build something that grows in value, not something that depends on your ability to predict tomorrow’s exchange rates.
What You Should Do Instead
If you truly want to improve your financial situation, focus on proven and sustainable paths rather than chasing high-risk promises. Starting a small business is one such path—use that $2,500 to launch a venture, and remember that we regularly share business ideas in the ZimLedger WhatsApp channel backed by real-world figures. While the business returns may not carry the same excitement as the lofty promises of Forex profits, they are genuine, dependable, and within your control.
You can also work on increasing your income by advancing in your current career or by acquiring high-income skills that are in demand. Such skills can open doors to better-paying opportunities and create a more secure financial future.
If your goal is to grow your money through the markets, consider long-term investments in stock exchange-listed companies, index funds, or Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). This approach may lack the instant thrill of day trading, but it has a proven track record for building lasting wealth.
At the same time, make it a priority to build an emergency fund that covers 3 to 6 months of living expenses before venturing into investments. This financial cushion provides stability, reduces stress, and ensures that you are prepared for unexpected challenges, giving you a strong foundation for future growth.
The Final Decision is Yours
In the end, Oscar, you will decide. I can advise you, but you will live with the results. My hope is that your future self will look back and thank you for resisting the temptation of quick, flashy promises and choosing the steady road to true wealth.
Wishing you wisdom,
ZimLedger Admin
Join our WhatsApp Channel for more content like this: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBKdAn30LKXCPTKdM1Z
ZimLedger
ZimLedger is the all in one business and finance platform for Zimbabwe. It generates quotes, invoices, payslips and financial statements, manages business ledgers, tracks income and expenses, and builds shopping lists. ZimLedger offers a simple yet powerful solution tailored to local needs. Whether you are budgeting in ZiG or USD, managing business accounts, converting Ecocash statements, or tracking household expenses, ZimLedger empowers you to stay organised, make informed financial decisions, and grow your wealth—right from your phone or computer.
