Forex (Foreign Exchange) is not a scam and certainly can be a credible and legitimate way of making money. However, whenever there are large sums of money involved, the shadier elements of society are never lagging. There are plenty of nefarious brokers that target novices, experienced traders and everyone else in between. Forex scams are unfortunately common. At Broker Complaint Registry we have seen many forex, binary options and CFD scams emerge. Here are a couple of things to look out for whether you are an experienced trader or a complete novice.
Regulated Forex Broker?
The very first step to take to avoid becoming a victim of a Forex scam is to make sure you open an account with a regulated broker. There are many dominions that regulate Forex trading including the FCA in the UK, ASIC in Australia, and the CFTC and the NFA in the United States. Do not solely rely what is on the broker’s website. Check them out online and make sure they are regulated. It is simple to place a regulation on a website so use the resources available to you such as https://register.fca.org.uk/. Be sure to call the forex broker and find out who they are and what they do. Do not get pressured into opening an account unless you are 100% at ease. However, merely checking to see whether the broker is regulated is not enough. There are numerous regulatory agencies such as CySEC that do not apply strict enough oversight and fail to implement harsh penalties for any brokers that violate their rules.
Guaranteed ROI
Any broker that guarantees a return on investment (ROI) is a surefire scam. For example, a “broker” may be approached to invest your money with an organization that will trade on your behalf and promise yearly or monthly returns for as long as you keep investing with them. Many of these con artists promise 40-50 % of your invested capital guaranteed PER MONTH. These “returns” are absolutely unsustainable and almost always involve other investors continuing to add money to the pot. This is called a Ponzi scheme. Remember Bernie Madoff anyone? Forex trading is risky and while there are plenty of individuals who can consistently earn money trading, no one will say it is a guarantee.
Fund Withdrawal
If the forex broker or account manager tries to prevent you from withdrawing your funds or your return on investment, then you know that it is a forex scam. There is absolutely no reason that it should take anymore than a few business days for your money to be returned. Even some regulated brokers have refused to allow their clientele to withdraw. Take OTCapital as an example. They are regulated by ASIC, but Broker Complaint Registry has dealt with numerous individuals that have been unable to withdraw their funds. What to Do if You Have Been Scammed If you have fallen victim to a cryptocurrency scam, send a complaint to at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]), and we will do our very best to get into contact with you as soon as we can to initiate your funds recovery process.
WikiFX: the murky business and the murkier methods
https://preview.redd.it/1rf74ljv34l51.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=566235871ce22dd3078f0532dfb672bff6eb0707 The irony of financial markets is that this business that officially has got as much regulation as arms trafficking, has also got the same problem –- numerous illegal entities that evolve around the niche. Scam brokers, funds recovery services that rob the robbed traders, HYIPs, “learn how to make millions overnight” trading courses and a number of other schemes all tend to exploit the weak point of human nature – the belief that there is the magic device with the “MORE MONEY” button out there, that someone can sell you.
A thief shouting “Thief!”
Considering the above there is a high demand in society for truthful and unbiased information about the market players. WikiFX claims to be the provider of such honest information about brokers but in fact, makes money by blackmailing brokers and promoting any company that offers to pay enough in their rankings. WikiFX is a classic illustration of a thief shouting “Get the thief!” louder than anybody else in the crowd. The strategy works unfortunately and traders tend to trust WikiFx broker’s ratings without questioning what these ratings are based on and who sponsors this global brokers’ database.
Paving the road with some good intentions
Even the most horrible crimes against humanity were done under the cover of best intentions. Starting with the first crusades and ending with the holocaust. There are always some sound arguments, protected people and reliable methods. Ask any trader whether each forex broker must be regulated by a third party? The answer will be “yes” with a near 100% probability and this answer is totally correct. Know-your-customer procedures and some unbiased third-party control are essential for maintaining the overall transparency of any business in a sphere of finance. This is the argument that WikiFX starts with when promoting its service and there is absolutely no point to argue. Starting with an indisputable truth is a good strategy to win the debate. “The long-term presence on the market adds credibility”, – says WikiFX, and hears “yes” again. “Don’t you agree that the longer the company is in the business, the better?”. “Sure”, – the trader agrees one more time. The mission is completed. This is when the broker ranker can add any other criteria to their appraisal methods. Traders will tend to trust the service because they’ve agreed upon the most important criteria. The rest are minor details. But what if the rest of the appraisal methods are not just minor issues? What if these details can be the means to manipulate the facts as much as they want to?
Can WikiFX appraisal criteria be trusted?
If we take a look at any broker’s WikiFX rating, we can see that the criteria of appraisal are the following:
The year of registration
Regulations
Market Making license
Software license
For example, this is what the top-rated broker’s summary looks like at WikiFX: WikiFX Forex com example https://preview.redd.it/t4ugtbt344l51.png?width=625&format=png&auto=webp&s=95fddf8434faf8938d1a3f18bbd5f1da2ceb47e4 Looks good. Really. Regardless of the attitude to this particular brokerage, the work seems to be done fine. All the regulators are listed below, the information on the used software, licensing, and years of operation is included. But what if we take some other random brokerage with one of the lowest rankings at WikiFX? NinjaTraderBrokerage WIkiFX Ranking https://preview.redd.it/pgyqp0u644l51.png?width=631&format=png&auto=webp&s=eb268faac83608a494c31a39eb1621f7132e3520 This is where the truth reveals itself. Once again, regardless of the attitude to this particular brokerage this is really easy to find out what they do, what licenses they’ve got and what kind of software they use. Suspicious clone? Seriously? If WikiFX staff cared enough to do any investigation prior to stamping that “Suspicious” mark on the brokerage, they would have seen that both domains, nijatrader com and ninjatraderbrokerage com belong to the same entity. NinyaTrader whois data https://preview.redd.it/2097lkw944l51.png?width=563&format=png&auto=webp&s=079cc4248b825a3cd941c6b691a67bb9769f4f7f If they cared enough to collect information on the brokerage from at least one reliable source, like Investopedia or any other similarly known database, they would also have found out that the company not only provides the brokerage service, but also is known for its trading platform with advanced technical analysis tools. But the only trading software that WikiFX considers reliable seems to be MT4/MT5. They simply ignore the fact that trading does not evolve around MetaTrader products, no matter how good and popular they are. WikiFX lowers the score of any brokerage with custom-developed software. We can clearly see this with the above example. Other criteria that WikiFX is proud to use for the broker’s appraisal are regulations. Using the same example let’s see how well they do the appraisal in this field. As you can see above, WikiFX used the “Suspicious Regulatory License” stamp for NinjaTrader Brokerage. And here is what The National Futures Association, that NinjaTrader is registered with as a futures broker has on its record: NFA regulation of NTB proof that WikiFX did not consider to be trustworthy https://preview.redd.it/di8fwkdd44l51.png?width=629&format=png&auto=webp&s=2de618d5df26bd8fcca99c51a6030f4bdfa7f776 We can’t expect every trader to know that any futures broker that wants to operate on the US market must be a member of NFA. This is the requirement of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regarding the futures broker’s operations. But this is totally unacceptable for a broker ranking website, which WikiFX claims to be, to mark NFA-registered futures brokerage as non-reliable. By the way, did you notice on the above screenshot that NTB has obtained the NFA license in 2004? Yet, this does not prevent WikiFX from claiming that the brokerage has only been providing its services for 1-2 years only, instead of the factual 16 years of operations. We can long discuss the reasons that lie behind such selectivity of WikiFX but this random example clearly shows that any brokerage that provides access to non-forex derivatives trading or dares to suggest custom-developed software to its traders is in danger of receiving a negative review at WikiFX regardless of the factual reliability and regulations.
What lies beneath WikiFX selectivity?
WikiFX claims to have a team of professionals that are all involved in objective appraisal of broker’s services, licenses and used software. The methods used by these professionals remain unrevealed and as we see from the above comparison two similarly reliable brokerages can get any score from 1.0 and up to 10.0 at WikiFX, no matter what regulations they’ve got, for how long they’ve been in the business and what kind of software they use. This is difficult to say what lies behind such selectivity with 100% confidence. The first thing that comes to mind is that WikiFX might be affiliated with some brokers. The hypothesis gets even more realistic if we try to understand who sponsors WikiFX. There are no transparent built-in ads neither on the web-version of the website nor in its applications. There are no paid subscriptions for access to the database. This means that users sponsor the service with neither their attention to ads nor directly. Being the non-charity and non-governmental organization WikiFX can’t be sponsored with donations or a government. The only option that we have left is that brokers sponsor this ranking system directly, which automatically makes the whole system non-reliable and highly biased. The only transparent method that we know WikiFX uses to collect money is sponsorship fees they collect from their offline events participants. Let’s have a look at the exhibitors of the recent WikiFX Expo in Thailand. WikiFX Expo Exhibitors
TLC is a non-regulated investment platform that was founded in 2019
Samtrade FX is not regulated by any of the agencies that WikiFX itself lists as reliable
Forex4you is not regulated by any of the agencies that WikiFX itself lists as reliable
B2 Broker is a non-regulated broker
XDL FX is a non-regulated broker
VAT FX is a non-regulated broker Six out of sixteen WikiFX recent expo exhibitors do not have proper legal status according to the “standards” of WikiFX itself. This fact does not prevent them from promoting the services of these companies at their offline events. This conspicuous fact tells a lot about the attitude of WikiFX to common traders looking for reliable partners. Reputation is nothing but a sale item for this brokers’ ranking system.
Murky & Murkier
So far we’ve only discussed the facts that anyone can check himself using free tools and sources. It was not that difficult to discover that WikiFX uses non-transparent standards for brokers’ appraisal. It ignores the specifics of some brokerages lowering their scores due to non-standard derivatives they offer to trade or custom trading software. It also promotes non-regulated and non-licensed brokerages, which is 100% against the declared WikiFX values and mission. The rumors are that this company was also noticed blackmailing brokers with the purpose of making them pay for better reviews at WikiFX. There are also some signs that indicate suspicious promotion of WikiFX platform through social media and Quora. Some of the WikiFX positive reviews also look highly suspicious. All of the above is a matter of further investigation. Nevertheless, thousands of users keep relying on the information provided by this scam ranking system. It may even look like all these users are satisfied. WikiFX has got 4.5 starts at Google Play, which sounds good enough. However, positive WikiFX reviews use similar semantics and are also highly suspicious. Despite the high average grade, Google Play finds the following messages to be most relevant and brings them to the top of WikiFX reviews: Google Play most relevant WikiFX reviews https://preview.redd.it/kftutvcl44l51.png?width=532&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ccb74ee156388285a2fab711dd604945c04377c
You’ve got the facts now and it’s time to make your own conclusions.
03-31 08:14 - 'The Best Forex Brokers for 2020 / Forex, or FX, trading is a more advanced type of investment that is best suited for experienced traders. If you’re well versed in day trading or options trading, forex may be a challenge...' by /u/michaelegginton removed from /r/Bitcoin within 0-9min
''' The Best Forex Brokers for 2020 Forex, or FX, trading is a more advanced type of investment that is best suited for experienced traders. If you’re well versed in day trading or options trading, forex may be a challenge worth accepting. Forex trading can be another way of diversifying your portfolio, Due to the Dodd-Frank act, forex brokers operating in the U.S. must be certified with both the National Futures Association (NFA) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). These regulations restrict the amount of leverage available to traders. All U.S. brokers can offer a maximum leverage of 50:1 for most currency pairs, with some more risky currencies having a maximum of 20:1. Because of this, many forex brokers no longer offer accounts to U.S.-based traders. This review only considers brokers that allow U.S. accounts. If you’re interested in exploring foreign options, our international forex brokers site may be of help. [link]1 ''' Context Link Go1dfish undelete link unreddit undelete link Author: michaelegginton 1: *ww.*s*rof*acel*rat*d.com/ Unknown links are censored to prevent spreading illicit content.
Interactive Brokers is halting US Retail FX on September 1st!
They sent out a notice to all of their US clients that they will be shutting down their retail fx offering to all NON ECP clients. Basically, if you do not have a net worth of $10 million you will no longer be able to trade with them. And then there were 3.
For those of you who pine for the government's approval for you to transact with other adults, here's an example of why regulated markets are shit: https://www.nfa.futures.org/rulebook/rules.aspx?RuleID=SECTION%2011&Section=7 That is the link provided by Interactive Brokers to explain why they are asking if you are someone who, as apparently defined under federal law, "regularly enters into, makes a market in or holds itself out as a dealer in forex or retail commodity transactions." The link goes to the website for a government agency I have never heard of, created by Congress in 1974, or 36 years B.P.D. (Before Pizza Day). This agency I've never heard of requires that forex market makers maintain a minimum of $20 million in reserve capital and follow all sorts of intricate rules I don't even have the energy to scan at this moment. Now, look, I get that a lot of capital sloshes around in financial markets. But if you want to talk about barriers to entry, $20 mil is pretty damn steep. Not to mention the lawyers, lobbyists, and flacks you have to pay to survive all the rules that are keeping you so safe. "Startup" is essentially a laughable concept in this context. High barriers to entry protect established companies from competition, increasing costs and stifling innovation. If you ask me, I will gladly take -- in a brand, spanking new, rapidly innovating industry -- the occasional ETH/USD flash crash, DAO hack, or Bitfinexed's "There's a Nightmare In My Closet" blog posts any day over a $20 million ante to sit down at the table. It should definitely be illegal for Kraken to have a trading engine that shitty, though.
The Importance Of Choosing The Right Forex Broker And How to Do It
One of the most common ways of getting started with Forex trading is through a Forex broker. When you are a beginner Forex trader you are most likely to opt for the same alternative, but the mistake that most rookie traders make is choosing the wrong broker. If your first step does not go right then you can merely depend on luck and in a competitive field like the Forex market, being lucky is very rare. The best alternative is to have the right information and also use it well. If you are thinking that how a Forex broker can be so important, here it is. The broker you choose will be the one that will be keeping your invested money in the account. Apart from this, a good broker will also be providing you their expertise about the changes happening in the market. This expertise comes with a fee but it is a small amount to pay for the information that can help you not just earn profits but also convert a loss into no loss. Elite Trading Strategist Choosing The Perfect Broker A good broker will be transparent regarding his fees, commissions, etc. but mostly it is not the case. If you have not done your research on a broker, well you might have to face some unwelcome surprises. So you do not have to face all these unpleasantness, here is a guide to choose the right broker. Hafizzat Rusli trading masterclass
1. Figure Yourself Out As An Investor
Different brokers offer different kinds of services and you will have to figure which kind of service will suit you the most. Whether you are going to invest big or small, how often you would like to invest, these are the things that can help make a final choice but that is not it. Choosing the right broker takes a lot more than this.
2. Figuring Your Affordability
The brokerage companies charge you a transaction fee. If you are a beginner and invested a small amount just to try your luck or to gain initial experience. Turns out you earned the profit, but what if the brokerage fee is 2 times more than what you earned. This will be the kind of shock that will leave you feeling humiliated for not choosing wisely. As a beginner choose the broker with less fee but also make sure if the account being provided is secure. The next point is about all that.
3. Always Choose A Regulated Broker Firm
A regulated is important to choose because that will automatically take care of the various security issues. If you are choosing a broker in the United States of America, he will be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA). Similar organizations are present in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Canada, and Switzerland. The presence of regulating organizations does not mean that all the brokers are regulated so pick wisely. If you want to be sure if your broker is actually registered under the NFA, you can visit the website of NFA and cross-check to be sure and safe.
4. Be Thoroughly Informed About The Terms And Conditions Of The Brokerage Firm
The rules and regulations of a brokerage firm can be tricky to understand at times. If you do not take your time to understand these terms well and choose the broker just like that, there will be times when you will want to change the past but will not be able to. For example, some brokerage firms do not allow you to withdraw your investment or trade it instantly. In situations like these, you will be at a major loss. Although such terms also come with benefits, but that depends on the kind of investor you are. With some brokers, the rules are as such that closing your account will be a tedious task. The broker does not want to lose you as a client and he/she can try various things for this. So, if you are willing to withdraw back you might have to waste a week's time or more with unnecessary things like filling lengthy forms, speak to the company's representative, take surveys, etc.
5. Find Out If You Will Get 24/6 coverage
24/6 means that you can consult your firm's customer service anytime between Sunday afternoon and Friday afternoon. Before you finally invest, put your broker through a small test. Give a call and see how quick and relevant are the responses from the broker's end. Apart from choosing the right broker, you will also need to have a mentor to learn more about currency analysis and other factors responsible for Forex trading. You can always look up for a trading course online but if you want the best then Ha is your answer. to know more about his Forex trading course click here.
I feel like with all the cheating and drama going on with spot fx we should at the very least have a dedicated section on the right for guidance on futures contracts. The shady Cypriot brokers and ones on other random islands are lying and selling a dream so let's take a look at the reality of spot fx... Currency markets are the most liquid and active markets of any sector. However, there is also a great deal of misinformation, slick advertising, and even outright deception regarding this $2 Trillion Dollar a Day marketplace. For starters, a large percentage of that $2 Trillion is traded through what is referred to as the interbank market. The interbank market is the top-level foreign exchange market where banks exchange different currencies. This trading between banks is not accessible to retail traders and is estimated to account for the vast majority of the Trillion Dollar liquidity factor that attracts so many retail traders in the first place. Here are a few of the reasons to trade futures: -Level playing field for all participants -Deep liquidity on major currency contracts -Safety and security of central clearing If your Forex brokerage firm uses a dealing desk, your buy and sell orders never actually reach the true Forex market. In other words, you do not have access to the inter-bank market. Instead you are buying and selling at prices set, and potentially manipulated by the dealing desk. This is known as conflict of interest. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange guarantees each transaction. Futures contracts are legally binding! This means that if you go long a currency futures contract and your speculation was correct, you will walk away from the trade with your profit even if the person that took the other side of the trade fails to pay. This is what we call counterparty risk. Take a moment, have a break and take a look at all the horror stories on forex factory, for instance. Whether you are a large institution or an individual trader, everyone is on equal footing when it comes to pricing currency futures. EVERYBODY gets the same price regardless of who you are (individual or mega bank). Best price wins, it is as simple as that — something that is not always the case in the fragmented OTC FX market. The spreads are also very tight if you trade liquid future contracts. Spot fx brokers also control their price feeds. They can widen the spreads as they see fit and they can really screw you over if they want to. Believe me when I say that most fx brokers don't want you to win! Even the ones that claim to have liquidity providers... Those are nothing but price feeds. Quotes. Nothing more.... And Forex firms offering a "fixed" 3-5 point spread may not be charging traders commission outright, or even in a form that shows up on an account statement, but there are significant costs built into the synthetic market that they provide to you. No middle man, no market maker. Yes, Forex is an electronic market, but your order still ends up on a "dealing desk" where a human handles your order. Or an algorithm... Basically, a Market Maker. He could make you or break you. With E-mini Futures you have a level playing field. You trade on a centralised and CFTC regulated exchange. Whether you're Goldman Sachs or Joe from Idaho, you get equal treatment! If you're worried about Liquidity - 1.5-3m contracts trade hands everyday on the S&P 500 E-mini Futures Contract. If you want in or out of a position, there is almost always someone waiting and willing to take the other side of your trade (24/5) just 1 tick away. This simply isn't true for all Forex Pairs. Low Cost of Doing Business - Commissions on a self directed SP500 E-mini Trade (ES) should be no more than $3.00 per side or $6.00 per round turn. While many Forex Brokers tout "Zero Commission", we all know there's no free lunch. Forex Brokers don't need to charge a commission because they make money off of the bid/ask spread "they create" and then take the other side of your trade. Run the numbers... for every $100 in profits or loss, you will spend a larger % in "cost of doing business" in the Forex Market than you will in the S&P E-mini Market. Don't take my word for it... go take some real trades and you'll quickly see the truth. Zero Interest - If you you trade the ES intraday, expect to put up $500 per contract as a "bond" for lack of a better term. That's it. No hidden cost. Forex however, has a "cost of carry" associated which means interest may be charged or paid on positions taken. Fiduciary Responsibility - Even regulated US Forex firms are not required to segregate customer funds. If a regulated firm goes under, you do not have the protection of the CFTC and the NFA as you do in the Futures Markets. Turn ON The Volume Please - In Forex, since there is no centralised exchange, it is impossible to get a true read on volume. Not so with the S&P 500 "ES" E-mini. Simply turn on the volume indicator and you have exact numbers for Volume Analysis. GS and CITI have huge research departments with hundreds of employees, but they know nothing about volume that you don't know via a free indicator on your direct access trading platform. Just one more example of the level playing field we constantly speak of. Centralised Clearing - All trades are cleared via the CME - Chicago Mercantile Exchange. All trades, including time and sales, are public information and posted in real time. Edit: By the way, if you're worried about discrepancies, currency futures charts look almost exactly the same as their spot fx siblings! So you can easily apply your current strategy to this market, too! A great example would be "M6E" vs "EUUSD" SO GUYS, LET'S ACCEPT REALITY AND LET'S DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. DO YOU AGREE? Source: cfrn.net
Where to register the company for your Forex Brokerage?
Thinking about starting your own Forex Brokerage? The first logical question is "Where is the best location to incorporate and license your broker?". However before we proceed on to answer this question, there are other related questions a person who has a serious interest in opening his FX Brokerage needs to answers. Q1) Which regions are your going to concentrate on for retail clients? Q2)When do you plan on launching your company & product? Q3)How much money do you plan on establishing your brokerage? Q4)Which business model are you going to have ? (STP,Market Maker,DD,Mixed) Q5)Which bank will open you a corporate bank account?(depends on license & country of incorporation) Q6)How're you going to collect the payments from your clients? For the purposes of answering the question, we will divide certain geos(regions) in Tiers based on the level of reporting, capital requirement & tight regulated environment each jurisdiction has. 1) Tier 1 : To safeguard investors from fraudulent and ponzi schemes, many countries have established private or state owned organizations to monitor and regulate the Forex Market and are actively supported by the governments. Example of countries in this Tier are JAPAN(FSA JAPAN) & USA(NFA & CFTC). There are profound reporting requirements, broker required to provide high quality in services and prove the availability of $20 Million USD of free liquid capital not including clients money. There is also a compulsion to have local offices and a significant membership fee as well. 2) Tier 2: Regulations like FCA UK & ASIC Australia fall under this category. These jurisdictions require lower initial capital and are committed to reporting. Obtaining a license from these authorities may take anything between 6 months to a year depending on how fast the required documents are submitted. Applying for a license from these regulatory authorities typically requires one to have a minimum of $100,000 USD of non client funds. The cost for this is approximately $35,000 to $50,000(depending on what license you take) for example if you plan to have a Dealing Desk which doesn't forward the liquidity flow to a third party then you need to show a high availability of disposable liquid funds available approximately $1 Million USD where as for STP(Straight Through Processing) models where you forward all the liquidity flow it's about $100,000 USD. 3)Tier 3: Offshore with certain level of protection for investors like Cyprus(CySEC),, Malta(MSA), New Zealand (FSP) are the Tier 3 jurisdictions. These regulators require the availability of a local office, simpler reporting & very low taxes. Specially Cyprus which offers good access to EU and is also ESMA compliant. The cost for CySEC range from 125,000 Euro to 750,000 Euro depending which model you're going for STP or Dealing Desk and the process time remains on par with the Tier 2 regulators. 4)Tier 4: BVI, Marshall Islands, Belize & Seychelles are the Tier 4 jurisdiction and have a official regulation and license the broker needs to obtain if providing FX Instruments. Obtaining a license and getting a license usually takes 3-4 months and cost around $20,000 to $30,000 USD with a $500,000 USD in capital requirement(Belize). Also with these licenses it's easier to open and maintain a bank account. 5)Tier 5: There are certain offshore jurisdictions Like St. Vincent & Grenadines or Bermuda where there getting a Forex license is not compulsory. Setting up a company needs only a little capital and the money saved can then be used on operations or marketing. It's a bit difficult to obtain an account in a credible bank for Tier 5. Most startups go around this issue by listing their company for more than one service for example Consultancy, Marketing,FX, Travel etc or through EMIs which can provide an online IBAN. (B2B accounts mostly). Many big brokers around the world start with small licenses and obtain their bigger licenses much later such examples include big names like Alpari, Admiral, Primus etc. To keep up to date with the latest trends in FX industry or info on brokerages or white labels visit Stratton Forex. We'd love to hear from you. Also check out our Recommended Brokers & Partners or Contact Us for the cheapest brokerage startup solutions in the world guaranteed! Subscribe to our blog for keep up to date with the latest market trends and opportunities.
[Forex Broker Exposure] GPAK Has Been Investigated by the Police
As the financial market with the most frequent transactions, the Forex market is favored by global investors due to its high efficiency, liquidity and flexibility. However, many illegal brokers also lurk around on this lucrative market, attracting investors with appealing yet misleading advertisement such as “starting trading with only US$5” and “speedy deposit and withdrawal”, or promising investors so-called “bonus” for successfully inviting others to open account at the platform. But behind the attractive “high profits” claimed by brokers, there are often great risks or even traps. As one of the victims suffering such broker scams, Mr. Wang reported GPAK to WikiFX and shared his experience of being defrauded to warn other investors against the illegal Forex broker. Complainant: Mr. Wang Forex broker: GPAK Broker website: http://www.gpakcn.com/ Time of opening account: February, 2019 Time of withdrawal: June 20th, 2019 Withdrawal status: in process Customer service: no response Website status: inaccessible Event Recap I opened an account on GPAK in February, 2019 under the recommendation of a friend and made 2 deposits through Alipay. From February to June, I managed to make some profits which added up with the initial deposit to US$3,503.62. I once contacted the customer service in April to withdraw, but was advised to wait, as he claimed my request won't be processed during the May Day holiday. On June 20th, I was informed that my application had been approved. But strangely enough, my trading account showed the application remained in process and I still didnt receive the money a week later. When I tried to log in my GPAK account, I found the website was no longer accessible and the customer service didn't reply any more. Case Study First persuade investors to deposit through “acquaintance's recommendation” , and then postpone their withdrawal applications to prepare for escaping, which is an old trick of illegal brokers. In Mr. Wang's case, GPAK first got Mr. Wang to deposit through the marketing strategy of “acquaintance's recommendation” and further lured him into making more investments with attractive profits. When Mr. Wang tried to withdraw, the customer service began to pull up all kinds of excuses such as withdrawal can't be processed during the holiday in order to postpone withdrawal and perhaps win themselves more time for running away. Case Summary As more Forex scams have been exposed, the illegal brokers also become more sophisticated in their tricks. We conclude the following tips based on Mr. Wang's case:
Investors should always check a broker's qualification and stay prudent about the recommendations of others, even from your friends.
Think twice when you seem to be profiting and want to double down your deposit, as no investment comes without risks.
Asset safety should always be your priority. Only deposits made through UnionPay or in escrow are under the regulation of the People's Bank of China, and there's still a chance of getting the money back even if you' re defrauded. However, if the deposit is made through Alipay, WeChat Pay or personal transfer, investors risk suffering great loss.
Conclusion According to the information on WikiFX App, the licenses from FCA(UK) and NFA(US) which GPAK claims to hold are suspected to be cloned, while its AR license from FCA(UK) has been revoked. Currently without valid regulatory status, the broker is rated at only 1.93 on the WikiFX App and bears significant risks, please stay away from it.
Do you know some financial regulators in the world?
The strictest financial regulators are from UK,US,HK and AUS. FCA - full name of Financial Conduct Authority. UK currently has the most complete and sound financial service, and FCA strictly regulates all financial institutions registered in UK. NFA - full name of National Futures Association. The main function of NFA is to supervise their members to strictly abide by federal laws and the CFTC rules through rigid management. In addition, NFA also has its own rules to supervise the practices of Forex brokers, thus traders and investors can be protected from deceiving. SFC - full name of Securities and Futures Commission of Hongkong. SFC is a statutory body independent of the civil service structure of the Government. It is responsible for regulate the securities and futures market in HongKong. Through effective supervision and guidance, SFC has promoted the HongKong securities and futures market in a fair, efficient and orderly manner. ASIC - full name of Australian Securities and Investment Commission. ASIC is an independent government department that exercises regulatory functions for companies, investment behavior, financial products and services independently. It is the regulator of the Australian banking, securities and Forex retail industries.
As of last week ILQ is leaving the United States Forex business, and selling the firm to Advantage Futures. This is huge news as they are the guarantee broker to many IBs here in the states, including Axitrader USA. http://ilq.com/
Copy trading has led to the development of a new type of investment portfolio, which some industry insiders call "people-based" portfolios. People-based portfolios differ from traditional investment portfolios in that funds are invested in other traders, rather than traditional market-based instruments. The system has become increasingly popular in recent years. Prominent copy trading providers include eToro, ZuluTrade, Cmstrader, and many more. eToro was founded in 2007, and is domiciled in Limassol, Cyprus. The platform is currently used by more than 5,000,000 traders. It is regulated by NFA, CySEC, ASIC, CFTC, MiFID, FCA and has been the recipient of several awards. ZuluTrade was also founded in 2007, enables traders to share their knowledge with people interested in their strategies. In the strictest sense, ZuluTrade is considered a Forex autotrading platform, as it allows traders to automatically copy the trades of others into their own trading platform. Many also consider it a social trading platform, however, because traders can leave comments and feedback and see live feeds of other traders' activities. Cmstrader is a relative newcomer to the Forex scene. Since opening its doors in 2013, it has won several international awards including one for being the leading Forex broker and for having best customer service in 2013. Cmstrader is headquartered in the UK and has service offices in Cyprus, Hong Kong, France and the Kingdom of Bahrain. It offers a host of features but most outstanding is its customer support which is provided in a number of ways including by remote control through team viewer, a high tech and timely system not offered by any other broker.
Good Friday to learn something about regulation in Forex industry
Sorry for the pun! I've tried to compile a comprehensive guide to several Forex regulatory jurisdictions: CFTC/NFA, FCA, CySEC, ASIC, FMA (New Zealand, FINMA, FSA (Japan), IFSC. I hope it helps understand better what are traders' options are inside and outs the USA. Also, it helps to know what actual punishments could brokers receive under different regulations. TL;DR: FINMA and FSA seem to be the strictest guys out there.
Help me to choose a broker -- Oanda, FXCM, forex.com, FXDD
Hi all, I posted this thread on a Forex forum, I re-post it here hoping to get more advice. I live in China, and I'm a newbie to Forex trading. I plan to deposit 5,000 USD to experiment Forex trading after I get used to the demo account. After I'm OK with 5K USD, I may invest not less than 10K. I'm struggling to choose a broker, here are my criteria, 1, Allow hedging. I'm 100% wanting this. Indeed I'm not going to hedge the same amount of money at the same time to earn quick money (which is often used in big news event). What I want to do is, I have a long term position which will be there for several weeks, then I do some short term positions (intraday or several days). That's possible that I have two positions in two directions at the same time. 2, Money safety. During my Googling, I found that some brokers close a trader's account just because he/she earns too much money. 3, 100:1 leverage. 50:1 is not too bad but 100:1 gives me more flexibility. 4, Prefer to NDD (ECN or STP), but DD and MM is acceptable if money safety is guaranteed. 5, Regulates with NFA or FCA. 6, Support depositing using credit card. This is cheapest way for me, at least cheaper than wire transfer. 7, Easy to open an account. I prefer to open an account via internet only so I don't need post a lot of certifications to the broker. The other points except 1 are tolerant, but I really want point 1 and I think it will be important to me. Now comes to the brokers I've done some research on. I've checked a little with Oanda, FXCM, forex.com, and FXDD. Oanda, the most money safety one. 50 leverage. However, it doesn't allow hedging. All other brokers in my list are not as same money safety as Oanda. FXCM, the one that's really annoying me is the margin. Why margin for a lot of EURUSD is $750? That's really weird and is not connected to the real price. Can any one explain to me? Forex.com, as big as FXCM, but in the event that ECB put down the interest to 0.25% at Nov.7 this year, a lot of Chinese traders get network error and lost money. That scared me. FXDD, not as old as Oanda, and not as big as FXCM and Forex.com, and registered in Malta... So, what's your advice of a proper broker for me? The one not on my list is OK too. Thanks EDIT: another disadvantage of Oanda is that they have 6 candles a week, but it's a trivial problem since I can use other broker's MT4 for technical analysis.
Below is a list of NFA/CFTC registered forex brokers. Related News. XM applies for a forex dealer license in the US Jan 11 2019 13:39:14 Jonathan Smith in Brokers The US subsidiary of major forex brokerage XM has applied for a membership with the National Futures Association (NFA). This became clear from a filing by the broker’s US entity Trading.com Markets Inc. (previously Trading Point US ... Best NFA Regulated Forex Brokers 2019. The fierce competition in the online trading industry has created space for many brokers. Regulation reduces the fears of having to deal with a non-compliant broker and reinsures the trader that the brokerage house operates a legitimate business. Different jurisdictions have different rules. For example, regulating financial services in Australia is ... Die besten NFA-regulierten Forex Brokers im Jahr 2020. Finden Sie alle regulierten Forex-Unternehmen der National Futures Association auf Topbrokers.com All Forex brokers able to offer their services within the United States, even including “introducing” Forex brokers, must secure registration as a retail foreign exchange dealer from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and as a futures commission merchant from the National Futures Association (NFA). Regulated Forex brokerages in the United States are subject to very stringent ... NFA regulated brokers in the US are expected to hold an upward of $20 million in capital reserves. The main rationale behind this is to ensure that the position of every broker is guaranteed and that any withdrawal requests made can be swiftly processed. There have been instances, in other jurisdictions, where forex brokers have been unable to meet the withdrawal requirements for their clients ... Always look for broker companies that work in your favor, care for your rights and justify their trust by transparent actions. The very best NFA regulated brokers will offer all of these and more, making sure you get all the services you pay for and are entitled to. Top 3 Forex Brokers 2020. XM Group review; FPMarkets review; HYCM review FXGBPMarkets says to be a regulated UK broker, with multiple awards, including a most trusted forex brand award, offering access to over 7000 trading instruments, across nine asset classes, ranging from forex pairs and CFDs on indices, shares, commodities and spot metals, to bonds, vanilla options and ETFs. NFA - USA Regulated FX Brokers. The National Futures Association (NFA) is the regulatory authority in the USA. Probably the most well-known authority worldwide due to the restrictions imposed to regulated Forex Brokers and the importance it holds as the watchdog and protector for the USA traders. The NFA is the sole regulator of Forex brokers (FX brokers)in the U.S., meaning all U.S. based Forex brokers must be licensed and regulated by them. As well, U.S. Congress has required that other financial companies including SWAP dealers, hedge fund managers, signals service providers, and every other similar financial entity to be regulated by the NFA. Currently, there are more than 4,200 ... The NFA is the sole regulator of Forex brokers in the U.S., meaning all U.S. based Forex brokers must be licensed and regulated by them. As well, U.S. Congress has required that other financial ...
Best Offshore Forex Brokers for US Citizens (2020)
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