FX Traders vs Brokers
Vanilla and exotic options, forwards, and other OTC structures: what retail traders never see.
By the CrossVol Derivatives Desk.
First Edition · June 2026 · 404 pages · 33 chapters · 7 desk chronicles.
ASIN: B0GX31WB5F · Kindle & Paperback
74 to 89% of retail forex clients lose their account every quarter — according to the regulators themselves. This book explains why. Mathematically. Structurally. Operationally. From a desk that quoted EUR/CHF on the morning of 15 January 2015 — and is still standing.
What you will read that no retail course teaches
How the broker's algorithm quietly moves you to a different room. The five-step retail-trader journey nobody told you about.
The invisible frictions that fund the industry. Why the 200ms last-look window decides who pays and who collects.
The pro theory of FX options made readable. Where the 25-delta risk reversal lives and what it tells you 5 days before spot moves.
Risk reversal, butterfly, term structure, carry-basis — read together like a cockpit panel. The macro reading pro FX desks practice every morning.
Six documented collapses, dissected to the minute
50,000 SMEs ruined by a hidden multiplier they signed without reading.
The largest corporate FX-derivative loss in Latin American history.
The night the CBR jumped to 17%, USD/RUB touched 80 intraday.
The floor breaks. FXCM loses $225M. Alpari UK files for bankruptcy. EUR/CHF prints 0.85 intraday.
Olam, Noble Group, Chinese snowballs. The exotic structures still being sold today.
VIX 65.73. $14 trillion in notional unwound in five trading days.
For who
Retail traders who recognize themselves in the 74–89% statistic and want the pro-side explanation. Quants and structurers crossing into FX. Risk managers who want a desk-level read on retail-broker microstructure. Anyone who has ever heard "no dealing desk" and wondered what it really meant.
"If you have stayed this far, you now know a market you can no longer look at the same way." — The CrossVol Derivatives Desk
Available languages on Amazon
Read the book. Stop funding the industry.
The book lays out the structure. The CrossVol terminal lets you read FX vol surfaces, risk reversals, and dealer positioning in real time.