The risk of loss in trading foreign
exchange can be substantial. You should therefore carefully consider whether
such trading is suitable in light of your financial condition. You may sustain
a total loss of funds and any additional funds that you deposit with your
broker to maintain a position in the foreign exchange market. Actual past
performance is no guarantee of future results. Simulated performance results
also have certain limitations unlike actual performance records, simulated
results do not represent composite trading. Also, since trades have not
actually been executed for this composite, the results may have under-or-over
compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of
liquidity, simulated trading results, in general are also subject to the fact
they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation can or is
being made that any trading system will, or is likely, to achieve profits or
losses similar to those shown in this simulated performance record.
The performance records have been
calculated in a manner we believe to be reasonable and is based on the
respective leverage factors intended to be used. Prospective investors must
recognize that any simulation of a hypothetical record, even when based on
actual trading systems, with qualified trade execution, has inherent
limitations. We believe that the records as presented should be of interest to
investors in determining whether to participate, such rates of return should by
no means be taken as an indication of how the system will perform or would have
performed, even given the same trades. Any performance record compiled from
individual performance records of any trading methodologies has certain
hypothetical and artificial characteristics and must be evaluated
accordingly.
HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE MANY
INHERENT LIMITATIONS, SOME OF WHICH ARE DESCRIBED BELOW. NO REPRESENTATION IS
BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFITS OR LOSSES
SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN. IN FACT, THERE ARE FREQUENTLY SHARP DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND THE ACTUAL RESULTS SUBSEQUENTLY ACHIEVED
BY ANY PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM. ONE OF THE LIMITATIONS OF HYPOTHETICAL
PERFORMANCE RESULTS IS THAT THEY ARE GENERALLY PREPARED WITH THE BENEFIT OF
HINDSIGHT. IN ADDITION, HYPOTHETICAL TRADING DOES NOT INVOLVE FINANCIAL RISK
AND NO HYPOTHETICAL TRADING RECORD CAN COMPLETELY ACCOUNT FOR THE IMPACT OF
FINANCIAL RISK IN ACTUAL TRADING. FOR EXAMPLE, THE ABILITY TO WITHSTAND LOSSES
OR TO ADHERE TO A PARTICULAR TRADING PROGRAM IN SPITE OF TRADING LOSSES ARE
MATERIAL POINTS WHICH CAN ALSO ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS. THERE
ARE NUMEROUS OTHER FACTORS RELATED TO THE MARKETS IN GENERAL OR TO THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF ANY SPECIFIC TRADING PROGRAM WHICH CANNOT BE FULLY ACCOUNTED
FOR IN THE PREPARATION OF HYPOTHETICAL PERFORMANCE RESULTS AND ALL OF WHICH CAN
ADVERSELY AFFECT ACTUAL TRADING RESULTS.
The risk of loss in trading the foreign
exchange markets can be substantial. You should therefore carefully
consider whether such trading is suitable for you in light of your financial
condition. In considering whether to trade or authorize someone else to trade
for you, you should be aware of the following:
If you purchase or sell a foreign
exchange option you may sustain a total loss of the initial margin funds
and additional funds that you deposit with your broker to establish or maintain
your position. If the market moves against your position, you could be called
upon by your broker to deposit additional margin funds, on short notice, in
order to maintain your position. If you do not provide the additional required
funds within the prescribed time, your position may be liquidated at a loss,
and you would be liable for any resulting deficit in you account.
Under certain market conditions, you
may find it difficult or impossible to liquidate a position. This can
occur, for example when a currency is deregulated or fixed trading bands are
widened. Potential currencies include, but are not limited to the Thai Baht,
South Korean Won, Malaysian Ringitt, Brazilian Real, Hong Kong Dollar.
The placement of contingent orders
by you or your trading advisor, such as a stop-loss or
stop-limit orders, will not necessarily limit your losses to the
intended amounts, since market conditions may make it impossible to execute
such orders.
A spread position may
not be less risky than a simple long or short position.
The high degree of leverage that is
often obtainable in foreign exchange trading can work against you as well as
for you. The use of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains.
In some cases, managed accounts are
subject to substantial charges for management and advisory fees. It may be
necessary for those accounts that are subject to these charges to make
substantial trading profits to avoid depletion or exhaustion of their assets.
Currency trading is speculative and
volatile
Currency prices are highly volatile. Price movements for
currencies are influenced by, among other things: changing supply-demand
relationships; trade, fiscal, monetary, exchange control programs and policies
of governments; United States and foreign political and economic events and
policies; changes in national and international interest rates and inflation;
currency devaluation; and sentiment of the market place. None of these factors
can be controlled by any individual advisor and no assurance can be given that
an advisors advice will result in profitable trades for a partic0pating
customer or that a customer will not incur losses from such events.
Currency trading can be highly
leveraged
The low margin deposits normally required in currency trading
(typically between 3%-20% of the value of the contract purchased or sold)
permit an extremely high degree leverage. Accordingly, a relatively small price
movement in a contract may result in immediate and substantial losses to the
investor. Like other leveraged investments, in certain markets, any trade may
result in losses in excess of the amount invested.
Currency trading presents unique
risks
The interbank market consists of a direct dealing market, in
which a participant trades directly with a participating bank or dealer, and a
brokers market. The brokers market differs from the direct dealing
market in that the banks or financial institutions serve as intermediaries
rather than principals to the transaction. In the brokers market, brokers
may add a commission to the prices they communicate to their customers, or they
may incorporate a fee into the quotation of price.
Trading in the interbank markets differs
from trading in futures or futures options in a number of ways that may create
additional risks. For example, there are no limitations on daily price moves in
most currency markets. In addition, the principals who deal in interbank
markets are not required to continue to make markets. There have been periods
during which certain participants in interbank markets have refused to quote
prices for interbank trades or have quoted prices with unusually wide spreads
between the price at which transactions occur.
Frequency of trading; degree of
leverage used
It is impossible to predict the precise frequency with
which positions will be entered and liquidated. Foreign exchange trading , due
to the finite duration of contracts, the high degree of leverage that is
attainable in trading those contracts, and the volatility of foreign exchange
prices and markets, among other things, typically involves a much higher
frequency of trading and turnover of positions than may be found in other types
of investments. There is nothing in the trading methodology which necessarily
precludes a high frequency of trading for accounts managed.
Execution of orders
In entering
orders for clients accounts, the advisor does not intend to limit itself
to any particular kind of order. At times it may enter market orders intended
to obtain the prevailing market price in a particular market. The advisor may,
however, at times use limit orders and other kinds of qualified orders if, in
its judgment, that appears appropriate in the given market circumstances. In
addition, when liquidating a position, the advisor may effect a reversal order,
i.e., the current position is liquidated and an opposite one established for
the market in question, if signaled by the program.
The effect of dealing spreads and
terms
Each client could be subjected to various kinds of transactional
costs, even if the account ultimately is not profitable. The advisor bases
compensation on profitability, hence it is important to domicile the account
managed by the advisor with a competitive dealing center. Since dealing spreads
vary from dealing center to dealing center. The advisor reserves the right for
final approval of the dealing center chosen by the client. The advisor may
refuse or suspend order entry with certain dealing centers if it is determined
the dealing center in question refuses to make competitive markets.
Failure of a clients dealing
center
Under regulation, dealing centers are required to maintain a
clients assets in a segregated account. If a clients dealing center fails
to do so, the client may be subject to a risk of loss of his funds on deposit
with the dealing center in the event of its bankruptcy. In addition, under
certain circumstances, such as the inability of another client of the dealing
center or the dealing center itself to satisfy substantial deficiencies in such
other clients account, a client may be subject to a risk of loss of his
funds on deposit with his dealing center, even if such funds are properly
segregated. In the case of any such bankruptcy or client loss, a client might
recover, even in respect of property specifically traceable to the client, only
a pro rata share of all property available for distribution to all of the
dealing centers clients. With this information in mind the advisor
reserves the right for final approval of the dealing center chosen by the
client.
Potential conflicts of interest
The advisor trades for its own proprietary accounts, it is possible
that orders of the advisor could compete for execution with the orders of other
customers, even if said orders are placed with differing dealing centers around
the world. There is therefore, a potential that orders executed by a particular
dealing center chosen by the client, could receive better or worse price fills
than orders executed for and by the advisor for its own proprietary accounts.
The advisor when acting as an introducing
foreign exchange broker for its customers, could receive a portion of the
commission charged by the dealing center for the execution of client trades.
The advisors receipt of a portion of such commissions could create a potential
conflict of interest for it by creating an incentive to execute trades in such
client accounts on a more frequent basis than would be appropriate in the
unbiased application of a particular trading program and in the best interest
of clients. It is the advisors intention to manage all accounts within
each particular program with the same principles, techniques and market
evaluations applicable to the particular program and not have more frequent
transactions in those accounts for which the advisor acts as an introducing
foreign exchange broker.
Independent introducing foreign exchange
brokers and dealing centers who are unaffiliated with the advisor, but
introduce clients to advisor, may receive compensation, either directly from
the client or through the advisor in the form of a shared portion of the
advisory incentive fee charged. Such introducing foreign exchange brokers also
may share a portion of the dealing spread charged by the clients dealing
center. Such brokers may charge their own management, administrative or other
fees in connection with introducing the client. These forms of compensation to
the broker create a potential conflict of interest for the broker by creating a
financial incentive potentially for them to recommend an advisor.
This brief statement cannot disclose
all the risks and other significant aspects of the foreign exchange markets.
You should therefore carefully study all documents and foreign exchange trading
before you trade, including the description of the principle risk factors of
the investment.
NOTIONAL FUNDS
Note: The
following information is provided solely for the purpose of helping prospective
clients to fully understand the information contained in this Disclosure
Document. It is not meant as a recommendation to clients to fund accounts with
notional equity. Clients should consult their financial advisers to determine
if the use of notional equity funding is suitable for them.
Special
Disclosure for Notionally Funded Accounts
You should request your
Trading Advisor to advise you of the amount of cash or other assets (actual
funds) which should be deposited to the advisors trading program for your
account to be considered Fully Funded. This is the amount upon
which the Trading Advisor will determine the position size traded for your
account and should be an amount sufficient to make it unlikely that any further
cash deposits would be required from you over the course of participation in
the Trading Advisors program. You are reminded that the account size you
have agreed to in writing (the nominal account size) is not the
maximum possible loss that your account may experience. You should consult the
account statement received from your dealing center in order to determine the
actual activity in your account, including profits, losses and current cash
equity balance. To the extent that the equity in your account is at any time
less than the nominal account size, you should be aware of the following: 1)
although your gains and losses, fees and commission measured in dollars will be
the same, they will be greater when expressed as a percentage of account
equity; 2) the disclosures which accompany the performance tables may be used
to convert the rate-of-return (ROR) performance table to the
corresponding RORs for particular funding levels.
Definitions.
Actual
Funds: The amount of margin-qualifying assets on deposit in an account,
generally cash and marketable securities. Actual Funds can include
certain additional funds which are held in other accounts identified by the
customer, provided certain conditions evidencing accessibility and control are
met. These conditions include (but are not limited to) provisions whereby the
additional funds are specifically designated by written agreement to be
specifically designated and committed to the exclusive trading of the
clients account under the direction of the Trading Advisor.
Nominal
or Notional Account Size: The dollar amount that the Trading Advisor and
its customers have agreed to in writing which will determine the level of
trading in an account regardless of the amount of Actual Funds in the account.
Accounts in which the Nominal or Notional Account Size exceeds the amount of
Actual Funds are as Notionally-Funded Accounts. The terms
Nominal Account Size and Notional Account Size are used
interchangeably.
Notional
Funds: The amount by which the Nominal Account Size exceeds the amount of
Actual Funds which are on deposit in an account. Fully Funded Account: An
account in which the amount of Actual Funds is equal to its Nominal Account
Size. In executing the Advisory Agreement with the Advisor, each client must
designate the size of the account to be managed by the Advisor and specify the
trading program the client desires the Advisor to utilize on the clients
behalf. The designation establishes the Nominal Account Size and initial mix of
Actual Funds and Notional Funds, if such are to be included.
Notional
funds in a clients account are funds not actually held in the account,
but which have been promised by the client through separate
agreement with his dealing center to be available for trading activity in the
account. Because notional funding involves the extension of credit by the
clients dealing center, any such trading must be agreed to by that
entity. Notional funding allows a client to trade the account at a level higher
than the cash actually held in the account. Notional equity creates additional
leverage in an account relative to the actual cash in such account. Clients
considering the use of notional equity should be certain that they understand
fully the consequences of increasing the degree of leverage used to trade their
accounts. This additional leverage results in a proportionally greater risk of
loss (and corresponding opportunity for gain). While the possibility of losing
all the cash in an account is present in all accounts, accounts which contain
notional equity have a proportionately greater risk of loss since all cash
transaction activities can be applied only to the cash portion of the account
total value. For example, an account which is funded with only 50% cash (and
therefore 50% notional), a loss of 10% of the account value (based on both cash
and notional equity) will equal a loss of 20% of the cash value in the account
because of the two to one leverage factor (50% cash, 50% notional).
The account
portfolio size designated by you will determine the size of contracts traded
for your account. The client should be aware that the notional portion of an
account will be reduced only upon prior written notification by the client.
Upon
request, we will provide custom portfolio account analysis, using your intended
level of leverage and risk factors. To request a custom analysis free of charge
call your account representative on your countrys
toll-free number and it will be processed immediately.
RATES OF
RETURN BASED ON VARIOUS FUNDING LEVELS (3)
|
Actual (1)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rate of Return
|
|
|
Level Of
|
Funding
(2)
|
|
|
|
| |
100%
|
80%
|
60%
|
50%
|
40%
|
30%
|
20%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
45.00%
|
45.00%
|
56.30%
|
75.00%
|
90.00%
|
12.5% 1
|
50.00%
|
225.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
40.00%
|
40.00%
|
50.00%
|
66.70%
|
80.00%
|
100.00%
|
133.30%
|
200.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
30.00%
|
30.00%
|
37.50%
|
50.00%
|
60.00%
|
75.00%
|
100.00%
|
150.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
20.00%
|
20.00%
|
25.00%
|
33.30%
|
40.00%
|
50.00%
|
66.70%
|
100.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10.00%
|
10.00%
|
12.50%
|
16.70%
|
20.00%
|
25.00%
|
33.30%
|
50.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.00%
|
5.00%
|
6.30%
|
8.30%
|
10.00%
|
12.50%
|
16.70%
|
25.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-5.00%
|
-5.00%
|
-6.30%
|
-8.30%
|
-10.00%
|
-12.50%
|
-16.70%
|
-25.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-10.00%
|
-10.00%
|
-12.50%
|
-16.70%
|
-20.00%
|
-25.00%
|
-33.30%
|
-50.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-20.00%
|
-20.00%
|
-25.00%
|
-33.30%
|
-40.00%
|
-50.00%
|
-66.70%
|
-100.00%
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-30.00%
|
-30.00%
|
-37.50%
|
-50.00%
|
-60.00%
|
-75.00%
|
-100.00%
|
-150.00%
|
Comparative Matrix
The matrix
on page 26 provides a general guide for prospective investor to convert any
indicated fully-funded rate of return in the capsule performance summaries in
this Disclosure Document to an equivalent rate of return at various funding
levels. For example, if the monthly rate of return reflected is 10%, a fully
funded account would realize a similar 10% rate of return. An account funded at
50% would realize a 20% rate of return. Similarly, if a fully funded account
realizes a 10% loss, an account funded at 50% would realize a 20% loss. When
reviewing the performance records in this Disclosure Document, a client who
intends to fund his account notionally should read these tables in conjunction
with the intended leverage to be implemented.
(1)This
column represents the range of rates of return for a fully funded account that
are included in the accompanying capsule performance summary.
(2)These
columns represent the rates of return experienced at various levels of funding.
(3)This represents the percentage derived by dividing actual funds by
the fully funded trading level. Funding levels selected should include the most
common funding percentage selected and the lowest level funding allowed.
Note: The
rates of return presented by the matrix reflect only the impact of an accounts
funding level. An individual accounts rate of return is influenced
by numerous other factors set forth specifically in this disclosure.