I have a friend who trades forex and he says hes making 100% a year. hes offering to manage an account for me. should I put $20k in with him?

Has he actually traded over 1 year to arrive at that figure, or simply extrapolated from a shorter time period?

That really needs calling out for what it is, as your friend is either utterly remarkable or else taking such huge short-term risks that his short-term gains are high but he'll make huge losses within the mid-term.

If you really want to invest you need to appreciate that there is risk and invest at the level of risk that you can handle. If you can live to see $20k burned then sure, go for it with Forex.

If $20k is all you have and has value to you then you really should minimise your risks and that means not touching Forex but instead spreading your risk across different share funds, either by sector or different ETF's.

Not knowing anything about the situation, when stuff sounds too good to be true, it usually is. But as I said, I don't know the specifics. Get more details and proceed with caution.

True its the specifics we're missing but if anyone is making 100% return in the long-term in Forex then there are some major brokerages that would want to hire the guy for major bucks.

I consider forex as a kind of gambling, only that, if you are knowledgeable about the ins and outs, you would most probably prosper. As gambling, there is an investment and you spend for it, there is risk associated with it and since it is that way, just one advice: never spend what you can't afford to lose...

And even seasoned gamblers lose - they just know better when to quit. In theory.

Yah, why is it that there is always this addiction to gambling? When a gambler wins, he continues to bet in order to win more and when he loses, he continues to bet with the hope of getting back what they have lost. No wonder, they become gamblers and they just don't know when to quit.

I have made my experiences with managed accounts and I never lost as much money doing it myself. To be fair, I guess there are good money managers as well as bad ones and it depends on who you get. What I would recommend is to NOT let anyone experiment with your money. If you want to go this route, only select a manager based on references that you check carefully.
I am now using a FX-system where I manage 100% my own online account through a broker. The trading basis I get from a software license and once everything is set up, I spend less than 30 minutes a week managing the process. If I need to act, it is based on alerts coming to my cellphone and this may happen a variable number of times per week.
Most important, I and other users of this software are actually making amazing returns.
Knut

Knutfg..is this like trading on the news? There is a analyst who is charging $150 so that people can be part of “trading on a news” conference calls. Is this software for Macs as well? Is this program similar to trading on the news basically? I heard that this is the best way to make returns..question is..why should I give away $150. to some guy who I don’t know when I can put it towards a program. How much is the program? This is a great idea! I don’t use a cell phone, but I am always on my computer.

When you want to get your account managed through a forex money manager :

1) Check if the money manager can show historical performance over 1year or more. More the better
2) Check the credibility of the money manager through references if he is not working for a firm.
3) Its safer to have accounts managed with a Firm which is regulated. Though Forex as a market is unregulated, Forex brokerage firms are regulated.

Managed Funds start at 10,000$ or more, sometimes, the good ones wont take any funds below 100k. The fees depend from manager to manager, but can be between 20-35% of the profits. Please get it clarified before you send in your money.
Profits of 100% or more is not uncomman in forex Markets. However, the larger the amounts of funds, the more difficult it is to show that kind of returns. Hence, you can get 100% returns on small funds of 25K or even upto 500k $. However, making money in forex takes time and sometimes the market conditions may not be very conducive to giving those sort of returns all the time. Its never a straight line pointing to the moon.
If you need help regarding this, please pm me offboard.

Regards

How do you trust a trader? I have had bad luck with stock brokers..in fact, I dated a guy who almost became a stock broker but couldn’t do it, when he was told he would have to sell people bad stocks!

This is a hard question to answer. But do due diligence as I have mentioned in my previous post. Do a background check of the principals, how is their client response, historical performance data.
Make sure to call and speak with someone from the office, ask as many questions as you can, you can judge their response and how forthright they are, This gives you a better judgement of how the firm is.
Bogus firms usually have a non existent client support. Even with a managed account, the money should be under your name and you should be able to view the activity in your account as it is traded.

I hope that answers your question, please pm me offboard if you have anything more specific. I do work in the forex industry and this is my bread and butter.
Do not get put off by a past experience, you just might miss a good one.
Managed accounts are a good way of earning better returns on investments, its a higher/medium risk-high reward investment.
Regards