Many Burkinabè discovered trading with the blocking of company accounts and the strong reaction
that this has generated from investors. But what has been talked about the least in this news is the case
individual traders.
Mostly young people who have sometimes given up studies and jobs to devote themselves full time to this
activity, with only one dream in mind: to become millionaires in a few clicks.
It is a narrow staircase that leads to the first floor of an apartment building, transformed into offices, in the
district zone 1 of Ouagadougou. In one room, a large table on which, half-emptied cups of coffee ,
computers, electrical wires and cell phones compete for space. Around this joyful mess,
Ousmane, Mamadou and Rasmané - all in their twenties - have their eyes glued to their screens displaying
multicolored graphics that change in fractions of a second. We are far from the agitated atmosphere of the rooms of
market of the famous stock exchanges of New York, Tokyo, Paris, London or Berlin. Only the voices of children who
are having fun in the adjoining courtyard and which reach us through the half-open window break the silence of the place
on this morning of October 10, 2019. The atmosphere is almost religious. The three youngsters are also not drawn
to the nines like any good self-respecting financial wolf, but their objective is the same: to make a
maximum amount of money on the world financial market which brews astronomical sums every day. A universe
where fortune seems to be just a click away and where even little ones like them can play in the court of
big. It's been two years since the three friends took over this space thanks to the help of an elder. A license in
economy for Ousmane and Mamadou, in Transport and logistics for Rasmané, internships difficult
obtained, a job that could not be found were enough to convince them that studies did not guarantee success, or
less wealth.
Mamadou is the first of the group to have heard of trading. He was immediately seduced by this activity
which offered him what he had always wanted: financial autonomy. It was in 2017. A year earlier, a company of
trading had just been created in Burkina and was beginning to introduce young people to the mysteries of the stock market. The licensee has
paid and trained. He multiplied the training, spending a lot of money, online, in books. " With
this money, I could have done all kinds of studies in Burkina", points out the one who is also the most talkative
Of the band. He and his comrades, to start their business, have also invested in basic equipment:
sufficiently powerful computers and routers for the Internet connection. Alternatively, they can also
trades on their mobile phones.
By embarking on this activity, the apprentice traders were well aware of the risks that they
were taking. The financial market is a double-edged sword, full of marvelous promises but also of
big disappointments. The jackpot won in one second can be lost the following week. But it's to be believed
that the desire to make a fortune is greater than the fear of breaking one's teeth in this pitiless universe.
To be a trader is to be a cash daredevil. “The Burkinabe is too fearful. He wants it to be something
100% sure before committing. The others will find out how to avoid the risk and then shoot
profit", notes Mamadou with regret. “The others” in Africa are Ghanaians, Togolese, Nigerians,
South Africans; examples that come up frequently in their mouths. It is 1 p.m. in Ouagadougou, 8 a.m. in New York. It is from this time of day that the stock market begins to
really come alive since the United States, which makes the market, has just woken up. Mamadou chooses this
time to introduce myself to some basic rules of trading. The stock market, he explains to me learnedly, a finger pointing
on the screen, it's like a traditional market, except that here the exchanges are dematerialized. We sell and
buys currencies (euros, dollars, yen, yuan, etc.), raw materials (gold, silver, cotton , coffee , oil, etc.),
financial securities (stocks, bonds, etc.). The price of these products varies according to an age-old law: the law of supply
and demand. If the demand for a product increases, the price of that product will increase. Conversely, if the offer
exceeds the demand, the price decreases. The job of a trader therefore consists in buying a product when its price is
low and resell it when the price rises for a profit. In practice, the price change is
dependent on several factors, including socio-political, economic, financial and climatic. Thanks to a
great knowledge of the market and its trends, we can in theory predict the evolution of the price of a product.
This requires multidimensional knowledge and a great capacity for analysis. And in order not to
be surprised by the news that moves the market, very volatile, the three speculators do not lose a
eye throughout the day on the sites specialized in economy and finance, and even generalists. They
communicate frequently about what they find and think is important.
Lately, for those who speculate, among other things, on the evolution of the dollar against the Chinese yuan, the
Donald Trump's tweet and statements, in the context of the trade war against the Middle Kingdom,
are closely monitored. A phrase or a word from the tenant of the White House can make the
dollar rate. This capacity for anticipation, they acquired it above all in practice, sometimes in pain. "
We burned accounts (Editor's note: in the jargon, losing all your capital) several times before having our own
system that works now,” says Ousmane between two clicks. Now, he says, they know where they
pose the foot not to say the cursor. Today, this little game of the stock market brings them about 50 dollars
per day, or about 30,000 CFA francs, which they receive through transfers to their bank card. " We have
big goals. In the next two years, we want to make 2,000 dollars (1,200,000 FCFA) a day,” says confident Mamadou.
For him as for the others, trading represents the future, and they do not intend to abandon the job they
have just married: "We have the same perception as Warren Buffet (Editor's note: 3rd world fortune in 2019, who made
wealth by investing mainly in the stock market). Even at 80 you can be on the market, you can't
find an activity as profitable as the stock market".
Franck, a 20-year-old trader, says nothing else: “Trading is one of the best jobs in the world. We
works internationally, we don't work to earn CFAs but dollars, euros. And we can
to make a lot of money easily", enthuses, his eyes lit up, the one who has abandoned his studies
after a whirlwind stint at college. We met him in a WhatsApp group of apprentice traders where he
shared his knowledge with other members and displayed his earnings to motivate them. This young man
with a touching face and a calm voice spins the metaphor about the financial market: "It's a train
filled with fruit. You need to know where this train is going to pass. You position yourself in its path, remove
fruits and let the train continue. You don't have to be greedy." This geek, crazy Internet enthusiast, very quickly
looked for the best way to undertake to escape the hell of the campus. Since discovering trading, he has spent
hours and hours, day and night, in front of his machine or on his telephone, "taking
fruit on the passing train", much to the chagrin of his parents. But he is decided. Today he claims to win
between 700 and 800 dollars, or nearly 500,000 CFA francs, per month. And it's growing day by day.
he says, ensuring that he will become a billionaire in two or three years. Appointment is made! Two years ago he
had embarked on the adventure with 300,000 CFA francs, the fruit of his savings.
game of nerves
November 18, 2019. We have an appointment with another private trader, Housséni Bonkoungou. In
In this case, he is really special since, unlike most of those who speculate on the market
financier, he invested in cryptocurrency, this means of payment which only exists on the Internet. The first one
virtual currency, Bitcoin, was created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Bonkoungou has the look
employment. He receives us in an impeccable tuxedo, in his offices in the Hamdalaye district where
an oversized cable TV with a 24-hour news channel. Three computers adorn his office.
Coming from a family where the business is passed down from father to son, taking the risk, he informs us, is a
second nature to him. After unfortunate experiences in Forex where he lost a fortune, he
started in 2014 to "decrypt", so to speak, cryptocurrency. And sometimes traveled from Abidjan to Dubai for
to improve. Winning bets. A Bitcoin traded for example $0.001 in 2009 reached $20,000
during the 2017 peak.
It's a little after 6 p.m. And his trade of the day is rather losing. His update of the day, 12,000 dollars, more than 7
million CFA francs, is down 37%. He is therefore losing nearly 3 million CFA francs. And
the tumble continues before our eyes at a frantic pace. But Housséni remains, surprisingly, very calm.
Noting that the reporter that I am was more anxious than him, he laughs mockingly at me: "That's it, the
trading. It's a game. You can win a lot and you can lose a lot too”. In fact, the owner
of the baccalaureate was sure of his fact. “I am convinced that it will go up,” he predicts. And add on
a professorial tone: “In trading, you must not give in to panic. Psychology counts for 60% in the
job ". Miraculously for the layman and in just a few minutes, so much so that we don't have
as time passed, the market went from red to green. As if under the effect of a prodigious magic, his
capital begins to bear fruit. Housséni's mocking laugh grew louder. Thanks to this quits or double which puts
straining his nerves, he claims to earn 30% of what he bets per month as winnings. At the time when we
were about to leave him, a bank executive, after work, came to the young man's home to take lessons in
trading.
How many of these young people have embarked totally or part-time on trading? hard to know,
but their number has been growing, according to a trainer at a trading company since the accounts were blocked.
Former investors prefer to learn trading themselves so as not to be dependent on companies that
have a run-in with the law.
Hugues Richard Sama
Box 1
“They are entrepreneurs like the others”
(Dr Relwendé Sawadogo, economist, financial market specialist)
Teacher-researcher at the Burkinabè Institute of Arts and Crafts (IBAM) of Joseph Ki-Zerbo University, Dr.
Relwendé Sawadogo believes that those who engage in trading are not very different from others
contractors. However, it warns of the many risks of the practice. To a good trader...
How would you define trading in easy French?
Trading, which derives from the English word trade (trade), is simply buying and selling securities
financial. It can be currencies (foreign currencies), bonds or stocks. In other words,
it is a speculative activity on the financial market aimed at profiting from variations in the price of assets
financial. Thus, trading is not fundamentally different from traditional trading. The only difference
is that it concerns financial products. Trading activity may relate to stock market indices (for example
BRVM 10, CAC40, Nasdaq), Forex (from the English Foreign exchange, to designate the foreign exchange market or
currency market), raw materials (gold, zinc, cocoa , coffee ).
What are the risks associated with the practice?
In economics, we like to say that any profitable activity is risky and that the risk increases with the profitability.
Thus, trading being a speculative activity, it is also risky. Take the example of an activity
traditional way of trading which consists of buying and reselling maize: the risk is linked to the possibility of
resell the maize at a loss or not being able to sell it. Trading on the financial market is no exception to this
market principle. Imagine that you buy dollars today and in two months the price of the ticket
green falls against your currency: you would then have lost. Also, the financial products developed for
attracting individuals presents a financial risk and this risk is linked to the volatility of the market. In effect,
imagine that we hide the real situation of a company and that you buy the shares or the bonds of
this company and some time later there is a leak of information. All those who held the titles of
the company will seek to get rid of them and ultimately you may not be able to resell them. By
therefore, you will not be able to regain possession of your investment.
To return to the context of Burkina, I think that trading is done more on the foreign exchange market which consists
to buy and sell currencies. Transactions are made in currency pairs such as the euro/dollar pair,
dollar/yen, euro/pound sterling. So, it is necessary to buy foreign currencies (dollar, euro, yen) in order to constitute
your base currency before you can trade in the forex market. So you will agree with me that the
risk is at several levels, hence the complexity of trading which requires you to be specialists
to avoid certain risks.
In theory, can you really become a millionaire in record time thanks to trading?
As you say in theory, I will answer in the affirmative, because trading is not, as I said before,
fundamentally different from traditional business activities. Therefore, we can become
millionaire through trading. In some developed countries such as France, the United States, Canada,
some people do well in life doing just that. However, we must be careful, because we
can lose everything overnight. You have certainly already heard of Jérôme Kerviel in France
and the English trader of Ghanaian origin Kweku Adoboli, who caused their company to lose billions of euros.
Some young people in Burkina devote themselves to this practice, sometimes after dropping out of school. What about
do you think?
It is difficult to answer this question, because it is an activity like any other, and it is a choice that is
staff. They are no different from young people who drop out of school to embark on entrepreneurship.
It's a lifestyle choice. However, before embarking on this activity, it would be wise to know the ins and outs of it.
and the outcomes. I say this because people tend to convey information that suits them and
make young people believe that you can't lose in trading, which is not true. If so, everyone
was going to abandon other activities and only trade in developed countries. At this level, the state
should play its role as an awareness-raiser, because you imagine the consequences for society in the event of losses
important.
What is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency is a virtual currency and, unlike bills and coins, it has no form
physical. It is a currency that can only be used by those who hold the code. This code can be a
password, fingerprint, etc. Thus, it plays the same role as traditional money, like
make purchases and transfers. The best-known cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin (or Litecoin) and
Dash.
Is it more risky to trade on cryptocurrency than on other values such as Forex or
raw materials ?
In the financial market, information significantly influences the value of assets and like cryptocurrency
escapes the control of the States, it is more risky to trade on the latter. Currently on the market
financial, the value of cryptocurrencies increases because investors trust them, but the day the
doubt will set in, it will be a free fall in the market, and the losses will be enormous. Thus, the greatest risk
important of cryptocurrency is its volatility which is greater than that of other financial assets. In
more volatility, it is unclear on what day international financial institutions like the IMF, the
international regulatory bodies, central banks will begin to regulate or even prohibit its
currencies. Finally, the last risk, which is not negligible, is the destruction or failure of the electrical network.
Indeed, cryptocurrencies are virtual, and the day the central system will fail, there will be losses.
since holders will be unable to transact. In conclusion, it is riskiest of all
invest in cryptocurrency, and it is a good idea to diversify your portfolio to avoid surprises
unpleasant.
Interview by
HRS
Box 2
Against all odds
Even if they are not clients of these companies who have had their accounts frozen, retail traders that
we met share the outrage and anger of some 50,000 investors today in the
dismay. “I have never seen a country where people are prevented from succeeding. Everyone is in shock because
that, apparently, our authorities know nothing about trading, while they are mostly economists”,
plague a trader before mocking: “This is why continuous training is important. For now, the setbacks
of companies and the mistrust of financial policemen towards trading have no impact on the activity of those
who maraud in the financial market on a private basis. They continue to receive the fruits of their labor via
online banks and transfers on their magnetic cards. But on a daily basis, they also have to face
the gaze of those around you who do not understand this choice of life. And it's the same catchphrase: "It's money
easy”, as confirmed by a trader: “One of my aunts, when she learned what I was leading as
activity, told me that I should look for the money by the sweat of my brow. These are outdated considerations.
According to the parents, what is not physical is not work,” he laments.