Trading Legend Peter Brandt Names 3 Key Red Flags to Detect Scam Firms By

Skilled commodity trader with a multi-decade experience, Peter Brandt, has taken to his X account

to address his community of followers with an important warning. Even though he did not talk about crypto, still this message can be very much useful to those who trade regular assets.

Three red flags signalling scammer firms

Peter Brandt spoke about Sim for Payout scammer firms, meaning untrustworthy proprietary trading firms. According to Brandt, these firms promise “live funding in a matter of days”, “lots of screen shots and bells and whistles,” and, finally, “pimp affiliates.”

These scam firms promise young and inexperienced traders to provide fast funding, they stimulate payouts using a large amount of screenshots and hype, and they also use fake promoters to ensure aggressive marketing to lure new victims in.

Criteria for the Sim for Payout scammer firms you should avoid:
–Live funding in a matter of days
–Lots of screen shots and bells and whistles
–Pimp affiliates

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) August 5, 2025

In a tweet published after this, Brandt said that he had received a request to name some of the biggest Sim for Payout scam firms but the trader stated: “I refuse to name names.” Instead, he did give four “names” of those companies but they consisted of the first and last letters only.

More advice to novice traders

Peter Brandt also generously shared some more advice to new traders. First, he rejected a popular idea that to start a trader’s career you need a large capital than that which they have already. Brandt has called it “a big pile of B.S.”

The trick here, according to him, is to learn to trade successfully with a small capital. If you cannot do that, he said, the same will happen to a large capital – traders will lose it easily: “AUM means next to nothing.”

Some novice and aspiring traders believe they need much larger capital than they have to be successful
I have never heard such a big pile of B.S.
If you cannot trade successfully with little — they the same will be true with a lot
AUM means next to nothing
The best traders are…

— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) August 5, 2025

The best way to become a good trader is to make mistakes, learn from them and actually trade: “The best traders are those who grind it out all by themselves through trial and error.” It is a good idea, he added, to start trading on hypothetical accounts which are free to use: “That is the place beginners need to start.”

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