William Berg
William contributes to several investment websites, leveraging his securities law expertise and experience as a consultant for IPOs in the Nordic market and background providing localization for forex trading software. He has over 10 years experience in the online trading and financial industry.
Experience
William Berg studied law and business administration at the Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, from where he earned a law degree (LLM). He studied securities law, international trade law, commercial arbitration and international tax law at a master’s level. After that, he studied for one year at Moscow state university.
After leaving university, William worked as a consultant working with IPOs on the Nordic market. William worked as a consultant for a fintech start-up that strived to simplify payments and POS information gathering for retailers. William used to provide the localization for a well-known leading trading software. He has provided localization for a number of different forex trading softwares.
Personal Investments
Outside of work, William keeps his permanent personal portfolio divided between real estate (60%), individual stocks (20%), and holdings in private companies (20%). He also maintains a speculative portfolio that he uses for forex, CFD and options trading. Half of the profits from this portfolio gets moved to the permanent portfolio.
William avoids cryptocurrencies because of their highly speculative nature. In his view, they lack fundamental value and are traded largely on psychology. He acknowledges that they have performed well as investments, but he still avoids them because of the lack of fundamentals and the difficulty this creates for valuation.
He also avoids gold and precious metals securities, as he does not believe they provide the safe-haven protection often promised. In his opinion, many issuers of such securities do not offer sufficient underlying gold coverage.
William stresses that he does not recommend that others copy his personal portfolio. For most people, investing in a equal weight mutual fund or ETF is a better approach than investing in individual stocks. He also recognizes that the large real estate allocation in his own portfolio provides less-than-ideal diversification.
Hobbies
In his personal time, William is a well known fish keeper who has contributed to countless websites, scientific databases and magazines. This includes contributions to TFH Magazine and FishBase.com.
Role At BrokerListings.com
William is Head Legal Analyst and Securities Law Expert at BrokerListings.com. He monitors legal developments in key trading jurisdictions and works to improve trader safety by scrutinizing the regulatory credentials of brokers and trading providers.
His work includes verifying regulatory licences, investigating broker clones and trading scams, and assessing the overall safety profile of brokerages. This encompasses reviewing entity structures, client onboarding routes, the strength of licenses, and any history of enforcement actions or lawsuits.
- Years of experience auditing brokers: 14
- Total brokers audited: 569
- Hours spent auditing brokers: 7302
- Number of different trading platforms and apps tested: 16 (third-party and proprietary)
- Number of trades placed: 3523 (private and test trading)
- Broker T&Cs audited: 569
- Regulatory licenses checked: 3295
- Trading scams and broker clones investigated: 2378
Expertise
William Berg specializes in:
- Financial Securities
- Securities Law
- Stock Markets
- Financial Regulation
- International Trade Law
- Forex Trading
- Forex Trading Regulation
- Broker Dealers
- CFD Trading
- Online Trading Platforms
- Broker Regulators
- Social Trading
Academic Background
William Berg is an alumni of:
Credentials
Profiles
William Berg can also be found on: