David Smith, founder of investment club Olint Corporation, has launched i-Trade FX, an online foreign-exchange trading platform registered in Florida. - File

David Smith, principal in foreign exchange trading company Olint Corporation, is offering a platform to Jamaicans wishing to learn how to trade currency online.

Smith has offered to each person signing up to i-Trade FX, "$100 of his own money" to help kick-start live foreign exchange accounts, a press advertisement blared Wednesday.

However, each trader signing on to test their mettle must also put up $300 - essentially creating a margin account - and must sign up by December 31 to get the extra $100.

The would-be traders would be required to do a minimum of 10 'round-turn' trades per $100 deposited to their accounts, the ad said.

A round-turn trade essentially requires the trader to execute both a purchase and a sale transaction, or vice versa.

"Clients who request a withdrawal of all account funds without meeting the aforementioned requirement," the ad said, "may not withdraw the deposit giveaway amount."

Locked in court battle

Sources confirmed that the Smith mentioned in the advertisement was the creator of Olint, which remains locked in a battle with the Financial Services Commission and is legally barred from conducting investment business in Jamaica, at least until the court rules on arguments heard by the parties from June this year.

The i-Trade FX platform is accessible at GoTradeJamaica.com. The company, which is registered in Florida, describes itself as 'a market maker in the forex market.'

Smith created the platform, the Financial Gleaner was advised, to allow Jamaicans to test for themselves how trading is done and to demystify the element of how such lucrative returns are possible.

StIll, the ad warns: "Currency trading involves substantial risk."

Olint, which describes itself as an investment club, as opposed to being a securities trader, pays its subscribers returns of about 10 per cent per month or 120 per cent per annum.

Othe investment schemes, as the FSC refers to them, have cropped up across Jamaica operated even by members of the Church.

business@gleanerjm.com