Trading forums tend to be a bit of a mixed-bag in terms of quality, although I think the futures io forum deserves a little credit for pushing that side of the industry in a new direction. In this review, we'll take a look at how they differentiate themselves.

First, let's consider the issues with many trading forums

• They tend to build 'cliques' of established users that then attack new users.
• They attract unscrupulous vendors preying on users
• There is a lot of questionable information on them

The 'cliques' of established users that can form on trading forums are extremely corrosive. They will, of course have more knowledge of trading that someone new to the art. This does not however, mean that they are profitable traders. They may have read 30 trading books, have encyclopedic knowledge of every indicator on the planet - but does this mean they can trade? Not necessarily.  When a newcomer comes to a trading forum, these "experienced" traders will often attack them. Usually the attacks either accuse them of having an agenda or just plain outright accuse them of being dumb. It seems that it's an offense to go to a forum and ask a question as a new member. You'll either be told "that's a stupid question" or "use the search function" because it's a sin to discuss something that might have been discussed before.

It seems these old members have a lot of frustrations to take out and that new members are an easy target. The futures io forum does not tolerate this at all. If a member attacks another member for any reason, their post will be deleted and they will be banned if they continue. That makes the futures io forum (which used to be called Big Mike Trading) a friendly place. You don't get large threads where people are fighting each other. You don't have to waste the energy wading through that. Diverse opinions and debate are fine. Calling each other names just isn't tolerated.

The futures io policy on vendors is also refreshing. They are very good at finding vendors that pose as regular members. Quite often that comes in the form of a new member coming along and praising a product or service. Sometimes it's new people coming along and asking a question about a service or product. Anything that draws attention to the product basically. On forums that are less well moderated, vendors come along and just make grandiose claims about their products. The 'ask a question' posts are harmless enough but fake reviews of a poor service are quite nefarious. Especially to those new to the trading community who might not realize how unregulated it is. As I mentioned, futures io brings out the banning stick on these posts, which makes for a much cleaner-reading forum.

In terms of questionable information on futures io - all discussion on all trading techniques is allowed, as long as everyone is playing nicely. Some will be better than others. It's best to be skeptical about all information on trading techniques. If you are methodical in your approach, then you will carefully measure your progress with any trading technique. That's your responsibility as a trader. If you browse though the Barnes and Noble trading section, you will find most of the books on trading are complete nonsense.

Another upside of futures io are the fact that a lot of people use it for journalling. Explaining their techniques and then showing how they did. The people writing these journals benefit from this process at least as much as the readers. It keeps them consistent. You can write a journal there without worrying it will be abused by people or get overtaken by trolls.

All in all, I rate futures io highly. It's good to keep in touch with the trading community and it's fantastic to be able to avoid all the fighting that derails so many discussions on other forums.