The Truth about ForexPeaceArmy – An interview with Bill K.

Posted on 22. Oct, 2009 by Jakob in Interviews, Random Noise, Review

ForexPeaceArmy is probably the largest site online devoted to reviewing services related to Forex Trading. The site has been around since 2006, back then known as forexbastards. ForexPeaceArmy is much more than just reviews of forex signals. They offer free daily signals and market overview, posted by a guy known as Sir Pipsalot. They offer a weekly market forecasts, written by the currency expert, Sive Morten. They offer help to individuals who have been scammed by brokers, signal service “companies”, etc. In general, ForexPeaceArmy is an awesome portal for anyone interested in forex trading.

However, there have been a lot of rumors around on the net, claiming that the guys from ForexPeaceArmy are a bunch of scammers. Some people have complained about the review section over at ForexPeaceArmy is managed in a poorly way, in the sense that they should favor good comments on their own services, and post fake comments on competing services. There is also a lot of critic about the owner of ForexPeaceArmy; Dmitri Chavkerov AKA Felix Homogratus, who apparently has been in some trouble with the American authorities, due to some green card issues. There is a lot of questionable elements, but as I have been a loyal visitor of ForexPeaceArmy for a long time, I decided to dig a little further. So I wrote them and asked if they wanted to do an interview, so I maybe could help in answering some of the questions raised by all the doubting forex traders. They agreed and this guy Bill K. helped me out with all my questions. Here goes:

- Jakob (TradeProfits): ForexPeaceArmy have been around for some time now, but as for what I know, it all started with a site called ForexBastards. Can you give an introduction to, how it all started and who was involved back then?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix was getting complaints back in the old days about some brokers being Bastards. He decided to start a review site called ForexBastards, and things expanded from there.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): And when was the site launched?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Forex Bastards began in early 2006. It was rebranded to Forex Peace Army in late 2007, when the mission expanded from just reviews and warnings to a more active role in helping to mediate between companies and traders as well as to investigate scams more thoroughly.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): How about you? What is your role?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): I supervise the Forums Team and the Review Moderation Team. I also try to help the Supreme Admin juggle all the conflicting priorities.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): As the years have passed, things have changed. Do any of the founders still have a stake in any of your different businesses?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix and the Supreme Admin are the only 2 remaining original people. Some have gone on and founded other businesses. Some have dropped out of forex.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): Besides from ForexPeaceArmy, which other related businesses do you (or any employee at FPA) currently operate?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix has his own other businesses. Everyone here primarily works for the FPA. I think one or two people have some small side-businesses, but at this time none are related to forex trading.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): So how many people in total are working for FPA?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Exact details are proprietary. The Admin manages the programmers and performance testing. I manage the Forums and Review Moderation. Scam Investigations are handled by their own group.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): How about SecretNewsWeapon. I recall you told me this was spinned off? Can you elaborate on this
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): I don’t have all the details. Eventually, some sort of agreement was reached between Felix and the people running SNW to take it independent.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): Is ForexDiamonds also owned by Felix?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Yes. Sir Pipsalot from Forex Diamonds also provides the current FPA Daily Trading Signals.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): Some of the services mentioned on FPA seem to have small levels of endorsements from you. Does this imply any kind of partnership or affiliation?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Officially, the FPA doesn’t endorse anyone. Of course, we are on pretty good terms with Felix’s other businesses (most of the time – they don’t like it when bad reviews get posted).
- Jakob (TradeProfits): “they don’t like it when bad reviews get posted”? Does this imply that you leave out comments if they do not mention positive aspects about the service?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Did you read those review pages? We don’t leave anything out just because it is negative about one of Felix’s services. No one likes getting bad reviews, but the Review Moderators are all trained to be very even handed. Had the review that NickB made about KFS (the one from the YouTube video) been left for any other service, it would have been rejected for lack of content.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): What is the deal with Rob Grespi, www.wpips.com and www.kingforexsignals.com. Does he have any relation to you guys?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix and Rob owned KFS and WPips. KFS turned into WPips in an attempt to try a new method of marketing forex signals on a pay-per-signal basis. There were technical issues with signals delivery, so WPips became more trade-room oriented. Later, Rob left to do his own thing and Wpips got rebranded as FxNewsWiz.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): So Rob is the guy behind FxNewsWiz. I was under the impression that FxNewsWiz was somehow related to Henry Liu´s (newsprofiteer) system. So FxNewsWiz and Rob Grespi is no longer related to FPA?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): No, Rob was with KFS and the initial part of Wpips. After Rob left, Wpips got rebranded into FxNewsWiz. Currently, Henry sends at least some of the daily mailings for FxNewsWiz. The whole thing is handled from a different office, do I don’t interact with them enough to get a lot of details.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): How about Dmitri Chavkerov, often referred to as Felix Homogratus. There seems to be several rumors about some criminal record here. What is the story? Rumors, or facts?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix’s real name is Dmitri Chavkerov. There was an incident where he was involved with green card marriage of a girlfriend who wanted to stay in the country. He was questioned, but never charged with anything. He posted the whole story and an apology inside the FPA’s forums. Here is the link…

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/general-forex-talk/796-felix-holiday-5.html#post3166

As for rumors of other charges, those are all from forum postings and blogs. One of them even took a very old CNN story about some people on Wall Street being arrested and inserted one sentence about Felix at the beginning. If there is any real story from a reliable source about Felix being arrested under any name, no one here has ever been able to find it.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): What is Dmitri’s knowledge about the forex industry? To my knowledge, the daily signals and forex diamonds is mainly operated by Sir Pipsalot. Does Dmitri have any other role than being the owner of FPA?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Initially, Felix ran Forex Diamonds and produced the Daily Trading Signals. He also was one of the creators of SNW. His forex trading is primarily based on Fundamentals instead of Technical trading. Currently, he’s not actively day trading, but I think he’s got some longer-term forex investments going. He leaves the day-to-day operations of the FPA and his other services to the people he chose to run them, but does provide useful guidance from time to time.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): There are also rumors about huge losses, often with contradicting statements. Has any FPA employees been running any kind of business similar to that of managed accounts?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): There was one attempt to set up a managed fund for very large clients. No funds were ever deposited. All the stories about losses in managed funds are complete works of fiction. If someone claims to have documentation of such a program, I would like to see it.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): How about the Forex diamonds service. Have the members been taking large losses? Is there anywhere to see the past performance?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Records are kept, but there has been some problem getting them entered and posted. I’ve seen no complaints about ForexDiamonds and know that there is a large and loyal following. If anyone had a sudden, large drawdown, it would have been because they didn’t follow the risk control instructions. Sir Pipsalot never risks more than 2% of equity on any one trade.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): There are some places around on the net, where people have negative comments about FPA. I have highlighted some of them below, and maybe you can give an explanation.
- “Mr. dimitri has made headlines around the world for his cutting edge class of fraud. And is the first to be caught in this type of Online fraud. Based on current information he is pretending to be a trading expert but based on financial statements he has lost a large sum of money in trading the forex market and all of his current income is from fraudulent product sale”(source:http://tinyurl.com/yjdyvtq)
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): That is an exaggeration of the green card incident. Felix was not arrested. Follow the link to the ICE report and it is very clear about what charges were filed. The reply to that post only says he lost 30,000 and gives no other information. There are people who subscribe to Forex Diamonds and other services who do not follow the instructions about stoplosses and risk control. If this happens, they can lose their entire account to any signals provider. Forex Diamonds has good information about how not to over-trade an account, but some people do ignore it. It is also possible that the reply is 100% fake.
- “I lost money from his www.wpips.com site and from my 3 month subscription to www.forexdiamonds.com He has also started a NEW FRAUDULENT FOREX SIGNAL SITE CALLED! www.RiseForex.com  FRESH NEW LOOK SAME SCAM ARTIST !” (source: http://tinyurl.com/yju269l)
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix has nothing to do with Riseforex. There were a lot of these postings when a certain broker decided to try to ruin the FPA’s reputation online.
- “Well I thought it couldn’t get any better now Dmitri is selling DVD’s on how to become a Forex Millionaire in three years or less with Remote Viewing…Skip Atwater Quote from Felixyachtseminar.com” (source: http://tinyurl.com/ykq757m) (What is up with www.felixyachtseminar.com? )
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix had a seminar on a yacht. One small segment of a long video from that is about remote viewing. The DVDs have a lifetime return guarantee, so anyone who got one and didn’t like it could return it.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): Alright. Now without having seen this video, I can imagine this is about how Remote viewing can help you in becoming a better forex trader (correct me if I am wrong). Has Felix changed his opinion on this matter? To my knowledge, Remote viewing is connected to that of paranormal means or extra-sensory perception. It seems fair that people don’t find this to be a viable strategy, guarantee or not. I mean I do enjoy your signals, but if I knew that you gave these signals based on remote viewing, I would strongly reconsider to follow them.
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): The “remote viewing” was by a guest speaker. My personal suspicion is that it really just gives some people more confidence to place a trade if they can “sense” that it’s the correct thing to do. Personally, I’ll believe it when I see someone make at least 7 out of 10 correct calls based on it over a period of a few months. None of the FPA’s Daily Signals are based on this technique. One FPA member claims to have a Forex Magic 8 Ball whenever we have a contest for price prediction. He hasn’t won yet. ;)
- Jakob (TradeProfits): Any comments on this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWmyYDJn5P0
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): I used a paraphrased version of that review as a lesson in bad reviews. He said he didn’t like it and it’s a scam. He gave no information about asking for help, how long he tried it, or anything else. To leave a low rating like that requires at least some justification. The video also implies that people may not realize that the owner of KFS also owns ForexBastards. The top review left by Felix begins with “This is my service, so I’ll just let other people rate it and comment on it.”
If there is any question about my Moderation Team preventing negative reviews of Felix’s services being posted, check these pages and you will find some…

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/www.WholesalePips.com
http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/www.kingforexsignals.com
http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/FxNewsWiz.com
http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/www.forexdiamonds.com

Not all reviews get posted. Here is some of what I and my moderators have saved people from reading…

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/basic-training/2228-worst-forex-reviews.html

Reviewers are also encouraged to read the rest of the threads in that folder…

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/basic-training/

- “Below is the actual Governments complaint against Dmitri’s girlfriend Yuliya M. Kalinina note in the interview she admits he is not a U.S citizen, and in his interview (pg-12) he admits he had knowledge of and willingly took part in this FRAUD against the United States Of Americ” (Source: http://www.pipwizard.com/forexbastards)
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Felix did something stupid to try to help his girlfriend. I wonder if PipWizard would have just told her “tough luck” and signed up with an internet dating site to find himself a replacement. Many of the websites talking about this say Felix was arrested. Unless PipWizard modified the ICE report, it shows that Felix was not arrested. I would also think a report like this would mention if Felix had any sort of prior criminal record. It doesn’t,
- Jakob (TradeProfits): There are many examples. To get an overview; Is there any reason for all of this. And has your business strategy changed over the years?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): There are many examples, because a small number of people decided to take one mistake that Felix admitted to and smear it all over the internet. Then, some of them decided to start making up complete fiction. According to one blog, the FPA went offline because of a CFTC or SEC investigation. This happened while we were offline due to a DDoS attack. Please call the SEC and CFTC and ask them if they have any investigations of Felix (Dmitri), the FPA, or anyone else associated with it. You’ll find that the answer is no. Our strategy has been and remains to be the best source of unbiased forex reviews on the net as well as being the best place to get information about how to avoid getting scammed in the forex market. This has expanded over time to include forums, educational materials, and Performance Testing of EAs, signals providers, and managed accounts.
- Jakob (TradeProfits): Final question: I truly enjoy all of your services. What can we expect to see in the future? The addition of Sive Morten and his weekly analysis has been great so far. What else you got for us?
- Bill K. (ForexPeaceArmy): Sive’s signals have been a great addition. The other new thing we have going is our Performance Testing program. We’ve got a bunch of EAs as well as signals services and managed accounts services where you can monitor how well they perform from our website. For the future, we’re looking at improving Review Moderation even further and are planning several big additions to our education areas.

Once again, thank you Bill, for taking your time to answer all these questions.
In my opinion, ForexPeaceArmy is a great place and I truly think that they contribute with a lot of positive elements, to the forex industry. If you go to the review section, you will also see negative reviews on the services owned by Felix, which should be a rather good indicator, that the comments are not manipulated in any way. I have left good and bad reviews, all of which have been approved. The free signals they offer is a great service, and Sir Pipsalot seems to know what he is talking about. I have also been a member of Forex Diamonds which I also think is a brilliant service. If anyone has lost a lot of money in there, I agree with Bill that this must be due to lack of money management. With this interview I hope that more people will change their idea about FPA. I am not affiliated with them in any way, so I have no reason to post misleading statements here. What do you think about FPA?

Related posts:

1. Felix Homogratus – Secrets of Successful Forex Trading
2. ForexPeaceArmy – New Giant – More Chapters and Sive Morten Outlook
3. ForexPeaceArmy Partnering up With Henry Liu
4. ForexPeaceArmy – News From Test Lab, Sive Morten and Felix
5. News From ForexPeaceArmy

Tags: Dmitri Chavkerov, Felix Homogratus, Forex Diamond, forex peace army, ForexBastards, ForexDiamonds, ForexPeaceArmy, FPA, FxNewsWiz, Henry Liu, kingforexsignals, Newsprofiteer, Rob Grespi, SecretNewsWeapon, Sir Pipsalot, Sive Morten, wpips