Don't trust and check: how to protect yourself from stupid investment mistakes

Hello to everyone who found this article on the Internet and regular readers of my blog! In this article we will talk about how to analyze and evaluate investment projects, and specifically online projects that provide an income of 5-50% per month . At the moment, there are a large number of companies operating in the network that attract private capital at a fixed or floating interest rate. Such companies have beautiful websites, documents with serious seals, hold various presentations “on the ground”, and open offices. They claim to be engaged in Forex trading or to be a crowdfunding platform where they raise money for other projects. However, I advise, and this will be a sober and correct thing, to consider such projects as pseudo-investment . Even if the project is actually engaged in real activities, and the invested money is put to work, it is better to treat it simply as one of the tools in your portfolio.

It follows from this that the project must be classified by percentage of profitability and worked with it in full accordance with the rules relating to this category. For example, hedge funds operating on the market for 5-10 years and accumulating profits of 20-40% per year may suffer serious losses and become bankrupt, but this will already apply to trading risks in the financial investment market. For most highly profitable projects, about 80%, and more often all, of the proceeds from investors is their income. To understand which project from all the mess that is on the Internet to invest your money in and, most importantly, withdraw your money on time and make a profit, let’s look at the main analysis tools .

Technical analysis

1. Place of registration of the project (Russian Federation, offshore or abroad), documentation presented on the website. Registration in offshore companies provides a higher level of information security from fiscal authorities that may interfere with work on the project;
2. Ways to contact official representatives of the company. Real office, technical support, telephone hotline, online chats;
3. Content and website. Serious projects always have correct text without obvious errors. Pay attention to the presence of instructions, FAQ, original photographs . It is worth taking a closer look at the design and usability of the site, checking whether there are crooked buttons and widgets. If the site is multilingual, it must be translated completely, including all kinds of manuals and instructions, but not using Google translator;
4. Domain. We go to whois, 2ip.ru whois or domaintools.com and see when the domain was purchased. Even if the domain is purchased before 2025, this does not mean anything: now they cost pennies. You should not work with a project in the Russian zone, that is, reg:ru in whois, since there is a high probability of blocking such a domain at the first complaint from competitors or dissatisfied customers to the relevant authorities. Domain restoration will take at least 2 days, which is a failure for hype projects. As soon as payments stop, panic will begin on all information resources, and the project will close. A sign of a quality project is a strong registrar whose domains are not at risk of blocks, for example, ENOM ;
5. Hosting (DDos protection). The more serious the project, the more seriously it takes DDos protection. In whois, this can be assessed by ns servers. The strongest of them are BlockDos, Dragonara, Staminus Communications. Weak and cheap - DDOS-guard, Koddos, BlackLotus, GeniusGuard, LeaseWeb. Another way to check how powerful and high-quality the admin’s hosting is is the 2ip.ru/analizator analyzer. If the “number of sites on server” parameter is more than 10, this is a weak hosting that will fail at the first DDos attack. If less than 5, then the hosting is good and of high quality;
6. SSL certificate.

   
   The presence of such protection is a plus for the project. SSL is used to protect and encrypt data. You can check whether a site has an SSL certificate on the main page. S is displayed in the address bar and there is an image of a padlock next to the link, then SSL is enabled. The presence of Green Bar shows the status of the project and confirms its legality. Green Bar is a green frame instead of a lock near the link to the site where you can see the company that issued the certificate. Green Bar can be purchased offshore, but this requires time and considerable expenses;

7. Script. Scripts are not difficult to identify, since most of them are boilerplate and rarely handwritten. In handwritten scripts, there is a possibility that the author will leave a “loophole” for the theft of funds if the project turns out to be worthy and collects a large box office. Most admins use widely used H-Scripts and GoldCoders. Good self-written scripts cost good money. This script is characterized by increased functionality and convenience for the site user;
8. Website layout. An indicator by which you can determine how carefully you worked on the project. Using this criterion, you can understand how many people worked on the project. Design, layout, preparation and translation of text are almost always done by different specialists. You can check your site for errors at validator.w3.org. If there are many of them, this is a minus in the project evaluation treasury.

Fund audit

Each mutual investment fund (UIF) has a management company. Its activities should be subject to independent audit from time to time. At the same time, affiliated persons cannot become auditors.

An investment audit is carried out to determine the reliability and compliance of the management company’s activities with the requirements of current legislation. As part of such an audit, a comprehensive check is carried out:

• the composition and structure of the property that constitutes the mutual fund;
• calculating net asset value;
• compliance with the requirements for the procedure for preserving the fund’s property;
• transactions made with mutual fund assets.

The result of such an audit is the issuance of a report prepared by the auditor. Often this document is considered a mandatory appendix to the annual reporting on the performance of the management company.

Fundamental Analysis

1. Project start date. The most profitable tactic for working with high-risk projects is called “ hit &run”: enter as quickly as possible and exit as quickly as possible. For low-percentage projects, it is possible to use the overclocking . With each month of project operation, the likelihood of making a profit from a new deposit decreases;
2. The team that is at the helm of the project. Have they had successful organizing experience? Such information is rarely made public. Therefore, find yourself an experienced mentor who has such information. This point is very important if the technical preparation of the project does not raise any questions and it looks brand new. After all, it is far from a fact that an inexperienced team will be able to shake it up and promote it to the masses. It’s even worse if the organizers planned a scam in advance after the first large infusions;
3. The originality of the legend. This is what the project does according to the organizers. Different times - different trends and popular topics. In 2014, it was popular to publish legends on the topic of trust management in the Forex market. In 2015, the theme of mutual aid funds, or social funds in other words, was actively exploited. Examples of such projects: Mercury, Elevrus. Each subsequent of these projects worked out worse than the previous one;
4. Availability of payment counters and number of project participants. Keep in mind: only a few show real statistics; they are mostly inflated so that new investors think that they can still contribute money to the project and earn money;
5. The amount of advertising at the start. An excellent option if the project develops smoothly and does not engage in mass purchasing of advertising on thematic sites. Large projects advertise only with leaders in this industry. Word of mouth is the best advertising platform in this industry;
6. Administration activity. Conducting seminars, meetings, webinars. Answers to questions on forums and Skype chats. Promotion on social networks. You need to evaluate how much effort they put into promoting their project;
7. Affiliate program. Is it adequate by the standards of the industry to which the project belongs or is it overestimated? If the project is low-income, but offers its partners 15% of the referrals’ deposit, you need to think about whether the administration is planning long-term work or has decided to simply collect money and close;
8. Seasonality of the industry.

   
   This point is very important for HYIPs and is practically not used when analyzing projects with low returns and real investments, such as PAMM accounts and trust management.

9. Forums where the project is presented. In the CIS countries, the most popular forum is MMGP. Also see foreign forums and monitors, such as https://www.talkgold.com/forum/ or https://money-news-online.com/.

I have given the main points that you need to pay attention to when choosing a project to invest in. In addition, do not forget to follow the rules of the investor and your financial plan. At first it may seem difficult, but everything comes with experience, as in any business. Keep them in mind when analyzing a new project. My partners can write to me on Skype or VKontakte about any project that interests you in some way. If I have information on it or have already analyzed it, I will definitely help with advice and express my opinion.

Share your experience of investing on the Internet in the comments : what projects you invested in, how much you earned or lost. And remember that a failed attempt is better than no attempt.

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What is an investment project

Investment projects are sites that require investments in order to further pay dividends, and in Russia they are becoming more popular every year. They are available in different types, differing in operating time, investment amounts, payback periods, and risks. What they all have in common is that they bring passive income to their investors.

This is often what is called a detailed plan for using investments, and the practical implementation of investing: receiving payments or a final material goal.

Investment project assessment

I believe that it is necessary to take a comprehensive approach to the assessment of investment projects, be it an innovation from Sberbank or a hype with deposits at a high interest rate and a short period of work. There are several methods of effective analysis that are available to experienced and novice investors. Among the important points that I take into account when choosing a site:

• work deadlines;
• financial terms of investments;
• risks;
• expected return.

Let us consider in detail each individual method with a successful algorithm.

Conditional selection method

In this case, it is convenient to compare the main points of work in several projects: from the timing of the market to the personality of the administrator. It is important to highlight the key positions that are important in this particular area of ​​investment. Sometimes, if the projects are the same and short, you can conditionally identify and predict work based on the reputation of former projects.

Change Analysis Method

The method works on the basis of vertical and horizontal views: quantitative and qualitative. Suitable for use when projects have been on the market for a long time and intermediate results of their work can be summed up. For example, you decide to choose investment projects available in the Moscow region for 2021. In this case, take into account and compare:

• direction;
• owner;
• reputation;
• working conditions;
• duration of activity;
• number of clients;
• amounts and frequency of dividends paid.

Merge method

The principle is simple: assessing your share against the background of the entire capital of the project. For example, you know how much the 2-room apartment you bought at the construction stage costs, and what the budget of the entire residential complex is. This is convenient when you use an open database of investment projects, in which one of the indicators is the share of participants, the general owner (if there is one) and the average size of investments.

Overlay method

This method is good when you need to select a project that is a child of an existing one. For example, investment funds offer their own conditions: the tariffs of the general company are imposed on the subsidiary and a comparison occurs. If the indicators are catastrophically different, we need to think about it. The method also works when the manager’s success from one project is transferred to another, or vice versa, disappointment, as in the case of cashbury.

Comparison method

The easiest way to choose a project: from a pair or more, we highlight the key conditions and compare: which is more profitable, more stable, less risky, evaluate the possibilities, how realistic the project will be to pay, how much you need to invest right away. It is also important to make decisions based on work deadlines and user reviews.