Trading videos sell speed, skill and an escape from work. Here is what the FCA’s finfluencer crackdown means for your money — and what to check before following a tip.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 24 October 2026
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You watch one video about investing and, before long, your phone offers you a man in a rented-looking car explaining how to make money before breakfast. His chart went up. His followers seem grateful. Your pension statement, meanwhile, is less entertaining.
The question is not whether someone can make a successful trade. It is whether a stranger’s highlights reel tells you enough to risk money you have spent decades earning. The Financial Conduct Authority’s action against illegal finfluencers makes that question rather less theoretical.
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What has the FCA actually done about finfluencers?
In June 2025, the FCA led a coordinated international week of action against illegal financial promotions. Its account, published in July 2026, recorded three arrests, 50 warning-list alerts and 650 requests to take down social-media content. In February 2026, seven influencers were sentenced for promoting an unauthorised foreign-exchange trading scheme. That is enforcement, not a blanket judgement on everyone who talks about money online.
The underlying rule matters more than the headlines. FCA guidance issued in March 2024 says financial promotions on social media must be fair, clear and not misleading. An unauthorised person promoting a regulated financial product without the appropriate approval may be committing a criminal offence. A video does not become harmless because it has a disclaimer in tiny type or because the presenter calls it education.
Nor does an FCA crackdown mean every suspect post has vanished. You still have to distinguish a person explaining how markets work from one steering you towards a broker, trading group or paid course. Ask what happens after the video: are you learning something you can check independently, or being hurried towards a sign-up page?
Why can a small market move cause a big loss?
Some trading pitches involve contracts for difference, or CFDs. These let you speculate on a price moving up or down without owning the underlying share or asset. They can use leverage: you put down a relatively small amount to take a much larger position. The FCA has previously said that 80% of customers lose money trading CFDs; authorised providers must display a warning showing the proportion of their own retail accounts that lose money.
Consider a simplified trade. You put up £1,000 to control a £10,000 position. If the price falls 2%, that is a £200 loss — 20% of your £1,000 — before dealing spreads or other charges. A 2% rise would produce a £200 gain before costs. The chart’s small movement is not the same thing as the movement in your account.
UK retail CFD rules restrict leverage according to the asset, require firms to close positions when available funds fall too far, and protect clients from losing more than the funds in their account. Those protections limit particular risks; they do not turn a losing trade into a winning one. The FCA warned in October 2025 that some firms were pressing people to classify themselves as professional clients, or directing them offshore, where UK retail protections may not apply in the same way.
Before you copy a trade, find out whose risk you are copying — and whose income your sign-up creates.
A screenshot of one profitable morning tells you nothing about losing weeks, funding charges or what happened after the camera stopped. If somebody will not explain the full costs and the worst plausible outcome in plain English, you have learnt something useful already.
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Is the guru making money when you trade?
Possibly, and it is worth asking. A trading personality may charge for lessons or daily tips, or earn money by introducing customers to an investment business. The FCA has identified finfluencers promoting offshore firms without making that clear, alongside unrealistic claims about copy trading, managed accounts and paid trading signals. An impressive lifestyle is not an independently checked trading record.
It helps to separate three questions that often get muddled together. Is the person competent? Is the firm receiving your money properly authorised for what it offers? And is the proposed trade suitable for your circumstances? A yes to one does not answer the others. Even an authorised firm cannot guarantee a return.
Before sending money, use the FCA Firm Checker to check the firm and its permissions. Check the contact details there against those you have been given: fraudsters can impersonate genuine businesses. Search the FCA Warning List too, but do not treat an absent warning as a clean bill of health. If a firm is unauthorised, you are unlikely to have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme if something goes wrong. Compensation does not cover an investment merely because it performed badly.
Be particularly wary if the conversation moves from a public video to a private messaging group, then to an instruction to act quickly. A deadline set by the person selling the opportunity is not your deadline.
What is the alternative when retirement is getting closer?
Trading and retirement planning solve different problems. Day trading depends on short-term price moves; retirement planning starts with when you will need the money, what losses you could absorb and what you already hold. If you expect to spend a sum soon, the possibility of winning a trade is a poor substitute for knowing it will be there. MoneyHelper suggests considering investment for goals more than five years away, while keeping emergency savings available and looking at priority debts first.
The tax wrapper deserves attention too. In the 2026–27 tax year, you can pay up to £20,000 into ISAs. Income and gains on eligible investments inside a stocks and shares ISA are generally tax-free, but the ISA does not stop their value falling. Outside an ISA, gains on shares may be subject to Capital Gains Tax; the individual annual exempt amount for 2026–27 is £3,000. Those ISA and Capital Gains Tax allowances apply across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They are tax rules, not a reason to make more trades.
If you are thinking of taking pension money to fund a trading account, pause before making an irreversible decision. Pension Wise offers free, impartial appointments about options for taking a defined contribution pension, generally for people aged 50 or over. For a decision involving substantial savings or your retirement income, an FCA-regulated financial adviser can assess your circumstances. Neither a pension appointment nor an adviser can promise market returns. That is rather the point: a useful conversation deals with the risks as well as the appealing bits.
In short
The FCA’s finfluencer crackdown is a reason to check a trading pitch, not proof that every trading video is a scam. Find out how the promoter is paid, check the firm’s permissions, and understand the losses and charges before putting money in. Money earmarked for retirement deserves a plan, not somebody else’s best-looking trade.
Andrew Ingram writes about money for men 45 and over – the years when retirement starts to feel real and the decisions get bigger. Pensions and retirement planning, investing, savings, mortgages and tax: what changed, what it means for your plans and what's worth doing about it. No hype, nothing to sell, and a clear steer on when it pays to get personal advice.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to andrew@midcent.uk.
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