Is Tradera a pyramid scheme? This is the question that so many ask these days. The short answer is: yes, it is. I joined Tradera.org to find out how it worked. I liked their concept, but then I preferred not to work with them for the reasons I am going to clarify here in this article. I will reveal everything about Tradera and will also give you a general criteria that you can use to distinguish whether a program is pyramid scheme or not.
I will also explain about the legal and illegal forms of pyramid schemes and MLM marketing.
Note: We just received the email below from Tradera. It seems they have shut down the company:
Subject: Tradera LLC Cease of Operations Notice
Dear valued members,
We regret to inform you that Tradera LLC is ceasing all operations effective immediately.
As our final contribution to the trading industry and our gift to each of you, all of our trading education content which was previously hosted exclusively for paying members is now hosted publicly for free via YouTube at…
Tradera’s legacy is free, top-tier forex trading education for the world. With this gift, you will never have to pay for proper Forex education again.
While Tradera’s mission to educate the world on the power of the financial markets and provide a platform for people to achieve financial freedom changed many lives, we believe that it is our legacy that will truly have an impact.
Thank you for your past business and support. We wish you all the best for your continued success.
Yours In Success,
Tradera LLC
The good news is we have a great substitute for Tradera that makes a lot more money. Please read the paragraphs below:
Is Tradera a Pyramid Scheme?
First, please note that not all pyramid schemes are illegal. It is the same with MLM programs that are almost the same as pyramid schemes.
Pyramid or MLM programs are not necessarily illegal. Multi-level Marketing is a proven kind of marketing strategy that many well-known companies have been doing for decades, and they are still working and no government has stopped them.
What makes a pyramid or MLM program illegal is offering no product/service and making money through the membership fees only. It becomes worse when top level members make money through the membership fees that the lower level members pay, and they make money only because they are at the top while they do nothing.
In illegal forms of pyramid schemes, members must refer and recruit new members in order to make money. As a member, if you refer people who sign up for an account and pay membership fees, you will make money, while you also have to pay membership fees. If you stop referring and recruiting, or if those you’ve referred, stop paying membership fees and referring new members, your income will go down and you will stop making money. So, in order to make money in an illegal pyramid scheme, you must (1) sign up and pay membership fee, (2) refer and recruit people, and (3) push them to duplicate what you do to grow your team. There is no product or service offered. Membership is the only thing they offer.
Most Probably You Won’t Make Any Money with Tradera, Because You Cannot Refer and Recruit
Not all of those who sign up for a pyramid scheme are able to refer and recruit. Therefore, they pay membership fees for a while, but they won’t make any money. So they stop after a while. Also, many others do their best to refer and recruit and they make some progress, but as they cannot do it strongly and consistently, they don’t make the money they expect, and so they stop referring and recruiting and paying the membership fee as well.
That’s why all illegal forms of pyramid schemes collapse after a while: Top members keep making money through the efforts of the lower level members. But lower level members give up because they keep spending time and money for a while and they can’t make any money, or they don’t make the money they expected. So they stop referring, and so their higher level members stop making money and they also stop paying membership fees, and so on. This goes to higher and higher levels gradually, until the whole system stops.
In legal forms of pyramid schemes, still you must refer and recruit to make money. However, the difference is that membership is not the only thing they offer. They offer some products/services that you can sell to earn commission too. Sometimes, they combine these two. It means, you pay a membership fee while you must also buy some products to become eligible to earn commission or increase your commission rate.
Now, let’s go back to Tradera. Is Tradera a pyramid scheme?
Yes, it is because you must refer and recruit to make money as a Tradera member. They offer two kinds of membership:
- Client Membership
- IBO Membership
As a client, you can have access to what they offer as their Forex-related services:
- Trade Academy (training)
- Trade Alerts
- Live Trading Sessions
- Fundamental Analysis
- Market Forecasts
- Member Support
Indeed, what they offer as “Client Membership” is the product they sell. As a client, you won’t earn any money through their referral program. If you want to earn money as a referrer, you must sign up for their other membership as well which is called IBO. In order to have access to their Forex-related services and earn commission through their referral program, you must have both the client and IBO membership at the same time. Their client and IBO membership cost $99 and $15 per 28 days respectively.
There is nothing wrong with it so far. However, the question is: how can you earn commission through their referral program and compensation plan? The answer of this question proves that Tradera is a pyramid scheme:
They have 12 levels or ranks in their referral program:
- Founder
- Knight
- Noble
- Bishop
- Duke / Douches
- Prince / Princess
- King / Queen
- Emperor / Empress
- Legend 100
- Legend 200
- Legend 500
- Icon
You become a Founder if you personally refer three new members. But you won’t earn any commission as a Founder. However, if your three referrals also refer some others and you collect ten clients in your team in total, you will upgrade to Knight level and will earn $128 per week.
Please note that all referrals must have a client membership which is $99 per 28 days, otherwise you won’t reach the rank/level. Your team must grow and grow until you finally have 75,000 clients in your team. If so, you will be in the Icon level and will make $250,000 per week or $1,000,000 per month. It is not only that. There are some distribution requirements that have to be met to reach the levels/ranks. Therefore, Tradera is a pyramid and MLM scheme definitely:
Is Tradera Pyramid Scheme Legal or Illegal?
A lawyer can answer this question precisely. I am not a lawyer. But now I think that Tradera is close to the illegal form of pyramid scheme because the product they offer (client membership) is not indeed a real tangible product. It is a virtual product that is there only to pretend that they are offering a product.
Other pyramid scheme companies like Herbalife try to sell tangible products like weight loss or nutritional supplements, just to convert the illegal form of a pyramid scheme or MLM marketing into the legal form. In spite of this, everybody knows that people don’t buy the Herbalife products because they are good and useful products. People buy them because they have to do it to become able to make money through Herbalife’s referral program and MLM compensation plan.
It is the same with Tradera, with this difference that unlike Herbalife, Tradera’s product is not even a tangible product. Members also have to buy Tradera’s product if they want to make money through Tradera’s referral program compensation plan. When it is a must for members to buy a product to become able to earn commission, the pyramid scheme becomes closer to the illegal form. And it becomes even closer to the illegal form of pyramid schemes when referring and recruiting new members is the only way of making money, which is true about Tradera. In Tradera pyramid scheme, you must refer and recruit and your referrals must buy the client membership for $99 per 28 days, otherwise you won’t make any money.
Will the Tradera Pyramid Scheme Collapse Like All Other Pyramid and MLM Schemes That Work Based on Referring New Members?
I think it will. The reason is clear and was explained above. 99.99% of those who join are not able to refer anybody. Therefore, they will pay the membership fees for a while and then they give up, and so the top earners will stop making money after a while.
When these programs are new, they grow so fast and the early members who have joined when the program was launched will make a lot of money. People’s excitement and enthusiasm promote these kinds of programs very fast at the beginning because all members think that they will become rich and millionaire through the program. But 99.99% of them are wrong because they can’t refer anybody or enough number of referrals to start earning a reasonable amount of monthly income. Therefore, they will give up and stop paying the membership fees, and so the program will start collapsing.
The only thing that can save Tradera from collapsing is the quality of their client membership. If they offer really strong Forex trading training, alerts, analysis, etc. as they claim, then Forex traders will keep paying the $99 client membership fee just to receive these Forex-related stuff. These people are not after making money through referring others. They just want to trade Forex. Therefore, these members are the ones who pay and will keep the program alive as long as the Forex-related stuff they receive is exactly what they really like to receive. If not, they will also stop paying the $99 client membership fee.
So it is possible that Tradera pyramid scheme doesn’t collapse because of the Forex traders who may like what Tradera offers through their client membership package. However, the number of these people who can afford to pay $99 every 28 days is not that high. Many of them will stop if they see that they are not making money through the Forex-related alerts and analysis they are receiving from Tradera. It is not easy to provide consistently profitable Forex trading alerts that make money for people consistently, and this is one of the other big challenges that Tradera will be faced with.
Is Tradera a Ponzi Scheme?
No, it is not. Ponzi schemes have a different structure: Ponzi Scheme Explained in Details
Tradera Management
As I mentioned above, I joined them few months ago and were a member for 1-2 months. Their concept looked good to me at the beginning. But then I saw so many technical problems. Their site went down for a few days sometimes without any prior notification to members, which means they don’t consider any value for the members who have eagerly joined and paid the membership fees.
Later, they revealed that thousands of their members’ personal information, including their payment and credit card detail had been stolen, which is a disaster for a company that is dreaming of becoming huge and the best.
Their founders are way too young and inexperienced for such a project, and so they will make lots of mistakes and can be in trouble. They have already made lots of mistakes.
Therefore, I stopped my membership and left them alone with their problems.
Launching such a program is not everybody’s bread and butter. It needs lots of knowledge, experience and wisdom. Wanting to become rich and famous is not enough to run a scheme. It needs lots of other capabilities and qualifications. Everybody wants to become rich and famous. But those who can launch and manage a strong program are rare.
What Is the Solution?
Instead of joining programs like Tradera pyramid scheme that unfortunately has lots of problems as I explained above, we joined another great company which is called EPIC Trading, with a similar concept but a more solid management, technical and support team.
Above all, we are now offering a great and exceptional support to our referrals to build their teams with our strong marketing systems. This enables them to start making money faster, and increase their income easier, even when they are not able to refer anybody to grow their teams. Read these articles very carefully if you don’t want to miss this amazing opportunity:
- Become a Millionaire – Phase 1: Join a System that Makes Money
- Make Money With EPIC Trading Automatically
We are so happy with their management, technical support and quality of their site and what they offer to their members.
EPIC Trading Makes More Money Compared to Tradera
Just compare the Tradera’s and EPIC Trading’s compensation plans and you will admit that EPIC Trading makes a lot more money (4 times more), and so your way towards having hundreds of thousands of dollars of passive income is much shorter with EPIC Trading. With the same number of members you can make 4 times more with EPIC Trading. So, is it wise to join Tradera when the money you make with EPIC is 4 times more with the same number of referrals??? I don’t think so:
Monthly Pay | ||
Number of Team Members | Tradera | EPIC Trading |
10 | $125 | $500 |
250 | $1,250 | $5,000 |
500 | $2,500 | $10,000 |
1,000 | $5,000 | $20,000 |
2,500 | $12,500 | $50,000 |
5,000 | $25,000 | $100,000 |
15,000 | $50,000 | $200,000 |
40,000 | $125,000 | $500,000 |
75,000 | $250,000 | $1,000,000 |
EPIC Trading Compensation Plan:
Another Amazing Difference:
Our EPIC Trading referrals will have lots of rewards and privileges that no other sponsor offers. Click Here to learn about our “Become a Millionaire” campaign and join EPIC Trading through us. This campaign has already been started, and so, you should join as soon as possible not to miss the opportunities we are offering. It is your time and your life, and you must choose a program that is the best for you and makes more money within a shorter time, while their management, support and technical teams are much stronger and better, and their site is safe and secure, compared to Tradera.
Tony Biasillo
Thank you LuckScout for confirming my suspicions about Tradera. I too joined several months ago because it seemed like a good business to join. A young member can receive a good background on trading and trade alerts. But trade alerts were hard to follow, and when I questioned their support, I got a wrong answer that indicated to me, they didn’t have the answer. Anyway, there were many other things that didn’t sit well with me very well and so I quit the business. Also, the main thing was recruiting and making money, didn’t add up, and would be difficult. So I also agree with your comments on their young management.
I come from a vantage point of having over thirty years on home-based business and started when there were no computers. I have resigned myself to trading Forex and have gotten a lot better over the years. I have followed Luck Scout posts for years and have learned a great deal about trading. I have also followed posts from Vahid’s post for some time now and am trying to set up a website. Overall I think you guys are honest, have integrity, and really try to help everyday people make money. However, I am having a hard time making sense out of the business you and Vahid are trying to promote, by answer questions, responding to emails, and the like. There seems to be no baseline of how and how much for the monthly fee, just can’t get my head around it. Possibly it’s easier than I’m thinking and making too much from it. I still have to think about it and try to make sense of it. I certainly want to have a profitable website and have to make time for it. I will keep reading your posts.
I really appreciate all you guys do.
Thank You
Tony Biasillo
LuckScout
Thank you too Tony.
Glad to hear you follow us on LuckScout.
Regarding our new program, please kindly read the FAQs and then ask your questions. We will be more than happy to answer in detail to clarify everything and eliminate all confusions. We also love to have you on board. We do know that you will make money with this system:
https://www.luckscout.com/the-luckscout-club-system-faq/
Regarding running a website, we can do it for you. However, having a website is one thing and making money with it is another. Unfortunately, most of those who have websites don’t make any money with them.
Therefore, you can think about running your own online business on LuckScout.com and selling your products here on this site. Our website’s traffic and community shortens your way toward success. Also, our SEO and digital marketing experts facilitate receiving targeted traffic and generating more sales for your online business and products.
Please think about it 🙂
GODWIN
Thanks for the highlight on pyramid and joining luckscout. I prefer joining luckscout.
Myriam Pierre
I have heard about Traders before. I am glad to have read about that because I now will not be bothered with that. It is just lime any of those network marketing products. I really would rather earn by investing and old ways like coin collecting and selling, and definitely antique buying and selling. Those suggestions should be included. Yes being a picker is stressful but it does bring rewards.
Emmanuel Enya
Very informative, I have heard about tradera before, but from what I have read now, an no more interested
MummyJM
Great insight there. thanks.
Can i share affiliate links here?
LuckScout
Thank you too.
> Can i share affiliate links here?
Unfortunately not.
fdk191503
It is a great way to educate people. You really tried it yourself. Appreciate it very much.
fransisca
Great education. .thank’s luckscout team