Traders have been on notice for some time now that retail forex trading was a losing bet. In my book and in a 2012 post I (and others) warned that high leverage and high costs would eventually wear down a trader’s forex account into nothing. Now we know there was more to the story.

Yesterday Marketwatch reported that retail forex company FXCM ($FXCM) and its founders were recently cited by the CFTC and barred from the industry.

FXCM has been banned from operating in the U.S. after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found the retail currency broker had an undisclosed interest in the market maker that consistently “won” the largest share of FXCM’s trading volume – and thus was taking positions opposite its retail customers.

Then again, scandals in the forex industry are not uncommon. A couple of years ago a handful of major banks were swept up in a trading scandal. So maybe we shouldn’t be all that surprised that untoward behavior was happening on the retail level as well.

If you still feel the need to speculate on currency movements there are a whole host of ETFs that get the job done or as I mentioned in a recent episode of Futures Radio Show with Anthony Crudele you can also trade forex futures as well. Josh Brown at the Reformed Broker was right back then. When it comes to retail forex trading: “Just don’t do it.”