France financial regulator AMF has issued a notice urging retail investors to exercise the greatest vigilance towards certain activities proposed by Laurent Chenot.

Following several reports by investors, the AMF is warning the public about the proposals and activities of Laurent Chenot, through his companies Legendary Learning and Tradinvest.

According to the AMF, Laurent Chenot has invited private individuals to subscribe to paying training courses in finance on his website before redirecting them to online brokers. Once they are registered on these platforms, the investors carried out financial transactions in highly speculative financial products based on specific investment recommendations. A number of investors have contacted the AMF after making substantial losses on these platforms.

The activities conducted by Laurent Chenot and his team would appear to correspond to the investment services of asset management on behalf of third parties and/or financial investment advice, for which neither Laurent Chenot, his team nor his companies, Legendary Learning or Tradinvest, have the regulatory authorisations. In addition, the non-European brokers that Laurent Chenot presents to the retail investors are not authorised to provide investment services in France, either.

By the terms of the Monetary and Financial Code, the provision of these investment services requires authorisation from the AMF.

The AMF recommends that investors should not respond to contacts or offers of financial training made directly by Laurent Chenot or through his companies, especially for the services known as “Livret Alpha”, “Livret Alpha Performance”, “Dollar King”, “Money Daddy” or “First Trading”, and that they should refrain from passing them on to third parties in any form whatsoever.

More generally, the AMF reminds retail investors to follow these safety guidelines before making any investment:

• No advertising materials should make you overlook the fact that high returns always involve high risk;
• Learn as much as you can about the company or intermediary trying to sell you a product (identity, country of establishment, civil liability, organisational rules, etc.);
• Be aware that you cannot become an expert trader in just a few hours of online training;
• Avoid the non-regulated Forex markets, where there is a risk of losing more capital than the amount you invested (if you are not an experienced investor).