50 Words on – Why you can go broke with FXDD?

From where I come, there is a saying: “Never fight with an idiot. He will bring you to his level and will defeat you! He’s got more experience”. And I’ll be damn if FXDD has no experience to rumple the clients. If someone would organize a competition called “the worst broker of the year”, FXDD would never miss it. Every year, they collect nominations and sometimes even “victory cups” from international regulators.

• June 2012:  The NFA has charged FXDD with differential slippage as well as with violations of NFA rules regarding trade cancellations.

• October 2012:  The NFA has file a complaint against FXDD for AML failing to implement an adequate AML Program.

• September 2013:  The NFA and CFTC have fined FXDD approximately $2 million dollars.  The company also must repay $1.8 million to clients for asymmetric slippage.

• January 2014: FXDD Malta has been fined €25,000 by the Malta Financial Services Authority.

If you want to see how they qualified for these nominations, you can see it here [1].

 

 

How can you avoid going broke with FXDD:

• Don’t say bad things about them. You risk getting an invitation to the law court. Raimundas knows it better [2].

• Although this is more like a general rule, especially in this case you should deposit only money that you can afford to lose.

• On their website, in the “about us” section is written: FXDD – “defining the future of online forex trading.” Forget about the “future”. You need to focus on the present: with no money in your trading account, there is no future for you in online Forex trading.

• Don’t trade with FXDD on normal trading sessions. There is high risk of market volatility and could trigger some spreads widening or huge slippage. Is better to trade when everything is calm: in the weekend

• Their minimum deposit is 250$. That’s more than enough to test them and if you are a profitable trader I would ask for weekly withdrawals of the sums above the deposit.

• On the live account section, it says that it takes you around 10 minutes to apply. It takes you even less to leave their website.

 

 

Editor’s Note – Would I Trade with FXDD?

The broker has been around for many years, and it has caught the eye of people from all over the world since it has put its name out there with numerous sponsorships of motorsports teams. This forex broker is looked upon as one of the more popular ones on this planet. I really like the way the website looks and it has a bunch of key information making a trader’s life that much easier. Also, the trading tools, education and services provided are going to be very beneficial for traders. If I will ever run in any motorsports competition, I will give them a call. If I will ever need inspiration to build a forex related website, I might have them as a muse but for hell that I will give them my money. Since there are other brokers available, I don’t think is a good idea to invest my money with FXDD. And if I wasn’t clear until now, I don’t think is a good idea even for you to invest your money with this company.

 

References

1. FPA on FXDD
2. Scam Alert on FDXX

 

50 Words on – Why you can go broke with XForex?

Can you obtain light using water? Yes…wash the windows! XForex is suggesting they could bring more light in the trader’s accounts with good trading signals; however most complaints seems to be very worried of dirty “windows”. Taking into consideration this broker’s standard account allows you to make a small deposit of 100$ but forces you to trade minimum 0.10 lot size position – It could almost be looked at as a guaranteed failure. I don’t know what sophisticated method XForex is using, but if you chose the “water”, you can still be a profitable XForex trader with a little help. Unfortunately for you, the next section will teach you nothing but how to avoid going broke with XForex.

 

How can you Avoid Going Broke with XForex:

I did not know XForex personally and I needed a lot of time and many researches to do to know them, but with the help of almost 100 traders, who left interesting comments around the internet, I managed to develop a relationship with this broker. After many hours of confronting the information on their website with the information obtained from the unsatisfied traders, I reached the conclusion that is not hard to avoid going broke with XForex. Here are a few tips:

• Even if you are a newbie, you should know the bases of technical analysis before going live with your trading account, so every time you receive XForex’s signals, be sure you make your own analysis before introducing the order in the market;
• Always use a lot size that is appropriate to your account, regardless of XForex’s recommendations;
• Ask your account manager (or the signal provider) to send you the signals by email and not by phone. Seeing them as many times as you need, will help you to understand better the trade and gives you time to make your own analysis;
• Close your opened trades any time you feel like, regardless of XForex’s phone calls advising you not to do it as you could get a bigger profit. Remember that you are trading your money and is your right to decide what to do with them;
• Use XForex’s tips or recommendations as an advice and not as an obligation to act;
• Be sure that your deposit is big enough to apply a good risk management, trading 0.10 lot size positions.

 

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Speak

Being Wrong Most of the Time

The overall rating that XForex has on various websites is an average of two stars out of five. The first thing a trader thinks about, when he sees this rating, is to be careful when dealing with this broker. These two stars are mostly due to the XForex’s trading recommendations and some withdrawals issues. I am the first to say that being right all the time in Forex is impossible. Being right more times than you are wrong is very hard but being wrong most of the time is unacceptable – for a trading signals provider. Nad from Australia is one of the many traders complaining of XForex’s trading recommendations [1]. Nevertheless, it seems like providing wrong trading signals is not the only controversy for Xforex. On the same website, I found Mohi complaining about withdrawals [2] issues as a reply to another trader with similar problems.

I have to say that while I was looking around to see how many unhappy clients XForex has, I also found many of them satisfied by the services this broker offers. Two of them caught my attention: the first one is Sam from Australia, who seems to be very angry [3] with the traders who posted negative comments. The second trader is shocked to see bad reviews [4] about XForex while for him it’s a blessing to trade with them.

For being an Australian, Nad (also Sam) has a bad English but for being a Forex trader, Nad has no excuse for blindly following any trading recommendation. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Forex Broker who only received positive comments. If I will ever do, I would get suspicious. XForex definitely has to improve their withdrawal service but don’t rely on traders’ comments who claim to receive money from a company, without providing any ID. So yea, XForex has some issues to fix, like to fire their trading signals provider or to make the withdrawals less bureaucratic but overall, I don’t think “scam” is a word to use next to XForex.

 

The Minimum Is Too Big

Even if I don’t approve it, I can understand why many traders are looking to make small deposits using higher leverage for their trading accounts. However, the XForex minimum position size of only 0.10 lots - or 10000 units of the base currency – is way too big for their standard trading account, which allows traders to make deposits as low as 100$. If you trade 0.10 lots on 100$ account is a matter of when and not if you will go broke.

I guess this is very common between Forex brokers, but I noticed on their FAQ section how bureaucratic is to withdraw your money confronting to the multitude of options you have and how easy it is to deposit. First, you have to fill a form, providing your bank details even if you don’t want to withdraw in your bank account, print the form, sign it, then scan it, and send it back to XForex by email. If you want to withdraw money in another way than using your credit card or bank account, you are not done yet, as you have to email XForex to another email address than the one you sent the signed form in the first place and wait for them to call you. No one tells you for how long you have to wait though. Could be days, weeks, years….who knows!? Aren’t the big profits the reason why you started to trade in the first place? Then why is it so easy to deposit -and you have so many options to do it- and yet it’s so hard to put your hands on the profits? Overall, this issue is not so big that it could make a trader run away. If you have patience and you follow all the steps, you have good chances to be a happy trader. However, there are some ugly complaints regarding XForex’s withdrawal process and their recommendations that are supposed to help traders to make money.

 

Custom Tailored Spreads and Hedging Allowed

XForex offers normal spreads (1-5 pips) for their standard accounts but if your intentions are to trade and not to play in the Forex market, you have to open a Premium Account with a minimum 1000$ deposit and they will offer you custom tailored spreads. On their website [5], they also promote a fixed spread as for example 3 pips for eur/usd. Beside the well-known MT4 platform, XForex offers a web-trading platform that doesn’t need any download or installation of any software in your PC. It’s enough for you to have an internet connection and to open a browser from any corner in the world and you can start trading. The last but not the least, if your trading strategy requires hedging, XForex allows you to hedge, but only on their MT4 platform.

 

 

Editor’s Note - Is XForex a Scam?

As I said it at the end of the “ugly” part, I don’t think “scam” is a word to use next to XForex. Yes, it is true that there are many accusations pointing at a scam-like picture, but I also know that when someone loses his money, he finds guilt in anyone else but himself. Until proven otherwise, XForex is not a member of the “club of scammers”.

 

Would I trade with XForex? Premium Users Only

Twenty-three international authorities regulate this brokerage and this says a lot about their efforts to respect the laws and to protect their customers. If I had limited financial possibilities, I would walk away and look for another broker, who allows me to trade 0.01 lots on my 100$ deposit. The same thing I would do if I would be a scalper as this brokerage does not allow scalping on their trading platforms. However, having so many authorities to back me up in case I need it, I would definitely open a trading account with XForex using their premium account, benefiting the VIP treatment.

References

1. Xforex Page on FPA
2. XForex Case
3. EarnForex on xForex
4. ForexJustice on Xforex
5. Xforex Website Info

50 Words on – Why you can go broke with Easy Forex?

This company offers me about… zero reasons to trust them. I can get over the fact that the website looks old and cheap, I can get over the fact that CySEC fined them $10.000 [1] but I cannot get over the huge number of complaints found all over the internet. People say they are unable to withdraw, platform freezes, spreads widen; basically everything that can go wrong… goes wrong. However, the cherry on top is the fact that Easy Forex threatened to sue Forex Peace Army if they don’t take down a user comment posted on the FPA forums, containing a link to that user’s website which explained in detail and with evidence how Easy Forex scammed traders (he even planned on writing a book about this matter). What happened to freedom of speech, huh? However, all this happened a while back and now the website is not active for unknown reasons [2].

How Can You Avoid Going Broke With EasyForex

• For the Standard trading account there is no minimum deposit amount. Yes, you can deposit as little as you want. So try depositing just one dollar and this way you will avoid going broke.
• Don’t say bad things about them. You risk getting sued and a lawsuit is expensive, I’ve heard.
• Don’t trade at news time, don’t trade in the morning, don’t trade in the evening, don’t trade at all
• Just trade on their Demo account.
• Don’t buy what they are selling.
• Choose another broker… there are so many.

 

 

Editor’s Note – Would I Trade With EasyForex?

I am sorry if I wasn’t too helpful in the section above but the thing is: I don’t know any other way to avoid going broke than just… not trading with them at all. Sure, all brokers have complaints against them, but with Easy Forex is hard to find a positive comment (which is not made by one of their affiliates). They don’t even feel like a Forex broker and I don’t know why a trader would give them money, especially when there are so many other options out there. It’s true that we are all a bit Good, Bad and Ugly, but I believe the Good part of Easy Forex is perfectly captured by an user-comment over at FxEmpire.com: “Pros: they screw over idiots making the world a better place” [3]. Maybe I don’t need to say it but I will anyway: nope, I wouldn’t trade with Easy Forex!

 

References

1. CySec Warning EasyForex 
2. FPA EasyForex Page
3. FXEmpire Users Comments

 

50 Words on - Why you can go broke with Dukascopy?

When a woman is pregnant, everyone touches her belly congratulating her, but no one touches the man’s ankle spanker to say “good job”. The moral: to do great things you need to be in two. When you trade with Dukascopy, the stop loss orders seems to be hunted and the slippage helping to get you out of the business, while no one thinks that is you that is not doing a “good job”. The next section will show you how to be in synonym with Dukascopy.

 

How can you avoid going broke with Dukascopy Bank:

Dukascopy is one of the few brokers that I know personally but I still needed tens of hours of research in order to write a fair review about them. Let’s just say that my experience with Dukascopy was like one of those marriages that falls apart because you asked your partner to marry you before knowing him enough. Dukascopy has a lot to offer and if you know how to manage this relationship you gonna be a happy trader. Here are a few tips for you (remember that we are talking about my ex here:

• On the Dukascopy website, on the client protection area, they speak about the Slippage Control Functionality. You should use it, despite the fact they warn you that reducing the tolerance to slippage, increases the probability of an order reject. It also increases the probability for you to be profitable [1].
• Do not trade during important news releases. Is then when the “market conditions” triggers the slippage.
• Making a bigger deposit than their minimum 100$, will allow you to have wider stop losses and avoid the “hunting”. If they are really doing it, Dukascopy cannot follow your stop loss order endlessly.
• Although long-term trading seems to be the perfect strategy to apply in order to avoid a stop loss hunting, if you adjust your money management, intra-day trading and scalping could work as well.
• I recommend opening trades using limit orders instead of stop orders or “buy/sell at market”. The benefit to these order types is that you are guaranteed not to see any slippage or even to obtain a better price then you requested.
• Use longer time frames to reduce the noise when the things get hairy in the market. Place your orders only after the noise is out as also the “hunters”.

 

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Speak

To be or Not to be…an ECN broker! That is the Question! 

I assume that after many years, the Dukascopy are still asking themselves this question. Every time they are accused of NOT being an ECN broker – as stated on their website – their answer is containing the definition of what the ECN means and I’d say that they accomplish the requirements to be considered an ECN Broker. However, their behaviour is more like a Market Maker and the funny thing is that they do notify the traders about this, but they do it in a place that most of the traders don’t look at: the papers that you need to sign when opening an account with them. On the page 7/7 of this document, you will find the following text: “The Client understands that the business model of the SWFX Swiss Forex Marketplace consists in ensuring best execution for the transactions of the Clients and matching the transactions between any of its Clients or Counterparties, each trade being instantly hedged with a countertrade. In that respect, on the SWFX Swiss Forex Marketplace, Dukascopy Bank SA is counterparty to each trade and counter trade. In some circumstances, Dukascopy Bank may not hedge entirely or may not hedge at all certain trades. In such cases, Dukascopy Bank may have opposite positions towards Clients.”You can find the full document here.

Many traders noticed this on their own. Their comments are saying that Dukascopy’ s behaviour is far away from an ECN Broker. Two of them, John Dillinger from US and Christian Riedl from Switzerland, offered some details[2] in their remarks about their experience with Dukascopy.

In the first part of this review, I told you how you could avoid getting broke with Dukascopy. I know it might seem hard to believe that you can be profitable with this broker after reading the “Ugly” part but there are many traders, who seem very happy and satisfied with Dukascopy. For example, “mastergunner99 [3]” from Babypips.com and “some guy [4]” on Forexpeacearmy.com website would tell you to screw the negative comments and to open an account with Dukascopy.

I have no idea if sharing publically your bad experience with a broker makes you a dumb (as “some guy,” said in his comment) but this characteristic is not far from the truth if you don’t gather all the informations you need and weight them, before opening an account and make a deposit. In my opinion, this market is divided in two categories: Forex Brokers and Forex Scammers. In the Forex Brokers category, you will never find the perfect broker. Everyone has something to offer and something to take of the table. Dukascopy Bank is definitely a Forex Broker who has a lot to offer. You only have to decide if their offer suits your needs.

 

Need help? You Better be a Patient Guy

Whatever their complaints are, almost all the time, the traders add some words about a bad support. Too long time needed before they get an answer to their emails, never get the promised call from their account manager or not getting a proper answer to their questions. I’d say this is unacceptable from a broker who looks mostly for traders with big deposits. Seems like you need to have a lot of patience and to send them more than one single message with your problem before getting an answer. By getting it, does not mean you will get the proper answer, so you might need to start all over again with the messages.

As stated on the website, in their willing to differentiate from other brokers, Dukascopy Bank chose not to offer an MT4 platform. From the multitude of tools they could have pickedto apply their strategy, unfortunately they chose the wrong one, in my opinion. Almost all indicators and EA are built for MT4 platform and most of the traders use these tools. As good as their other 5 options are, they still cannot compete with the professionalism that the MT4 trading platform offers. However, they come up with a solution for this: Third Party Bridge to MT4 platform. Well….they think is a solution but I don’t. Using Third Party Bridge, forces the clients to pay a fee for “renting” the MT4 platform. If low spreads plus the commission makes theDukascopy very competitive, the low spreads plus commissions plus MT4 fee, makes the competiveness of the Dukascopy, to vanish.

 

Low Spreads and Exclusive Capital Protection

Although Dukascopy charges a trading commission of $35 for every 1 million USD traded, for deposits lower than 5000$, they remain very competitive with their spreads as for example 0.2 pips for eur/usd or 0.4 pips for usd/jpy. Putting it another way, a 35-cent charge is applied when you trade just 0.1 of a lot (10,000 currency pairs). The commission prices get lower the more money you deposit [5].

Should your funds be managed by a money manager or by any other third party, Dukascopy gives you the unique opportunity to limit the possible losses on your account through its “Stop-Loss” functionality. Should your account reach the Stop-Loss level set by you, the trading would be instantly deactivated and all open positions would be closed, to protect your remaining capital against further losses.

Speaking about the capital protection, the deposits of clients who joined via Dukascopy Europe are protected by EU Regulation – up to 20.000 euros for each client while larger deposits, up to 100 000 CHF, are protected by the Swiss Government because before being a Forex Broker, Dukascopy is a bank and your money are covered by the local banking laws.

 

 

Editor’s Note - Is Dukascopy Bank a Scam?

Definitely not! I don’t know the laws regarding the banking sector in Switzerland, but I am sure the Swiss Government doesn’t just give the licence to operate in the financial markets to anyone that comes and asks for it.

 

Bottom Line - Would I Trade with Dukascopy Bank?

The ECN liquidity and transparent pricing make Dukascopy a worthwhile trading platform for an advanced forex trader. Large volume trading is handled well at Dukascopy with traders having the capacity to make trades going up to a couple of million U.S. dollars. There are better discounts in addition to nicer platforms and top-notch services available to traders with account balances running more than $100,000 USD. Therefore, Dukascopy is better suited for active and professional traders, banks and hedge funds and as I am not ready to through me into the market with 100 000$ or more, I will just walk away and look for another broker.

 

References

1. Dukascopy Client Protection
2. FPA review for Dukascopy
3. Forum Babypips.com review for Dukascopy
4. FPA review for Dukascopy
5. Dukascopy Trading Commissions

 

50 Words on - Why you can go broke with ForexYard?

Do you know how you can drive a woman crazy? Give her all the money in the world and close down all shops. Do you know how you can drive a Forex Trader crazy? Keep everything open but don’t give him his money. On FPA.com, Forexyard has only two stars, however for Forexiswhyisbroke.com standards it seems to be too high. It seems that not only the clients have problems to withdraw their money, but even their partners, such as affiliate rebate companies.

 

How can you avoid going broke with ForexYard:

15 Hours of research, and 16 minutes to be accurate. That’s how long it took me to write about 1300 words on a broker I never really knew before. Is that too much, or too little? I don’t really know. All I know is that complaints are very easy to find when it comes to ForexYard, and those don’t only come from traders, or should I call them clients. I had to dig deeper into their terms and conditions just to be sure my eyes are not getting blinded from the long hours staring at small letters, sometimes CAPS or angry marks of user’s feedback. Those last 16 minutes by the way, were the easiest; this is how you can avoid going broke with ForexYard.

• Try not to use any of their bonuses so you will not be bonded to any requirements in order to make withdrawals.
• Make small, weekly withdrawals rather than waiting to accumulate bigger profits.
• If your withdrawal was not processed within 3-5 days since you requested it, be sure to add the regulator email address in the CC when you email them the second time for the same issue.
• Make sure that you close all your positions before asking for a withdrawal. On their website (Click Here) is stated that “we will not comply with the request until you have closed sufficient positions to allow you to make the withdrawal.” In my opinion, “all your positions closed” is better than “sufficient positions”.
• In order to see your withdrawal request processed, please ensure that the funds remaining on your account following your withdrawal is at least twice of the margin needed to open your regular positions size.
• Make sure that the credit/debit card you used to make the deposit is not expired or close to expiring date when you make the withdrawal request. (this is valid for all brokers)

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on ForexYard

The Money: Easy In…Never Out

After reading many comments about Forexyard, I imagine their clients (and partners) in the Tom Cruise’s role in “Jerry Maguire”: staying in the front of their computers, with the phone at their ear yelling, “SHOW ME THE MONEYYY.” Do you remember the scene? Seems like Forexyard has a hard time to process the withdrawal requests or even to pay their partners. Phillip[1] from Singapore or Thomas Ewing[2] – a private affiliate – are only two of many traders who had problems to withdraw the money from Forexyard. While on forexpeacearmy.com, the clients are complaining about not being able to withdraw, on some other websites – like Babypips.com – the Forexyard thought to test the administrator’s intelligence by signing in as a normal trader who wants to tell the world how great the Forexyard is. The only user I found speaking about Forexyard, was a user named fxyard1 who has been banned. This user appears to be Forexyard itself when considering the location that has been listed – an address in Nicosia, Cyprus. Anyway, this user has had 314 posts [3] on the forum, Now he is banned.

However, some good comments I did found on the internet but after the Babypips.com experience, I am asking myself if Simon Wood or Talco12 from London are real. Anyway, here is what Talco12 has to say about Forexyard[4]. Not even Simon Wood from UK seems very convincing [5].

While the negative comments have details and specific information, the positive ones are more general and rare J I was also surprised to see that Forexyard offered something for free (see the Talco12’s comment where he says he got 2 hours of coaching for free) while they are not paying not even their partners. I am sure those 2 hours had no cost for Forexyard, but “free” and “offer” next to “forexyard” seem to be utopic.

 

Dealing Desk Taking the Clients by the Horns

The first thing I noted as soon as I opened their website was the motto: “take the market by the horns”. On the same website, is stated that the dealing desk is open 24 hours a day from Sunday to Friday so they are not hiding the fact the trades are placed through a dealing desk. Personally, I have nothing against brokers using dealing desks if they know how to do their job but this does not seem to be the case of Forexyard as I noticed many traders’ complaints saying too many re-quotes and trades going on false positions. Trading through a dealing desk, makes it pretty difficult to get the most competitive bid and ask prices and if the liquidity provider is not a big bank, the re-quotes are as normal as the coffee in the morning.

While they are bragging all over the internet with their fix spreads, I found that the spreads are doubled between 22:00 GMT till 04:00 (AM) GMT. This remembered me a funny commercial made for an investment company that went in bankruptcy. The slogan was something like this: “while you are sleeping, we take care of your money.” But the picture was a thief all dressed in black who was rubbing the safe-deposit box.(:

Before I forget about it, here is the place where you can find the information about the doubled spread [6].

 

Guaranteed Fixed Spreads and Squawk Service

Although the fixed spreads are not the lowest in this industry, the traders could be happy with Forexyard, as they offer a fixed dealing spread of 3 pips on EUR/USD and 3-5 pips on other major currency pairs. The variable spreads start from 1.2 pips for Pro accounts (minimum 25 000$ deposit) but there are additional commission charged. For a standard account (minimum 100$ deposit) the variable spreads start from 2.2 pips, which is not bad, in my opinion. Be aware that the fixed spreads are available exclusively during the London and US trading sessions.

Very unusual for this industry, the Forexyard Squawk is a streaming audio news service, bringing to traders breaking market news. The audio broadcasts are detailed and wide-ranging, covering Forex, stocks, commodities, bonds, and market indices. This tool can be very helpful for news traders as for the traders using a single monitor in their trading activity. Instead switching from a page to another and then to their trading platform to place a trade, they can win valuable time, concentrating on their charts while they are listening the news.

 

 

Editor’s Note - Is ForexYard a scam?

Although there are so many complaints regarding withdrawal issues, I have no prove that ForexYard is a scammer and I think that at least one of the nine European regulators or the FSB from South Africa would have withdrawn ForexYard’s license, if they would have any evidence that this brokerage is a scam. My conclusion is that I don’t know if Forexyard is a scam but I am inclined to believe that they are not.

 

Bottom Line - Would I Trade with Forexyard? Probably Not.

I do not have words to describe my happiness when my first child was born. But I do have words to describe you my sleep in the last 6 months and believe me when I tell you that “sleeping like a baby” is not what you think it is. My newborn wakes up every two hours to cry and lately, so do I.(: If you are asking what Forexyard has to do with this, let me just tell you that I am not quite satisfied with what I’ve read about them on the Internet and so I wouldn’t open a live account with Forexyard. I do not want to sleep like my baby, more than necessary.

 

References

1. FPA review page for ForexYard
2. FPA review page for ForexYard
3. Search User on (Registered Users Only) http://forums.babypips.com/
4. Trustpilot review page for ForexYard
5. Fxempire review page for ForexYard
6. hForexYard Pro Dealing Details

 

50 Words on - Why you can go Broke with FxPro?

Slippage and the fact that order execution is not guaranteed are apparently big problems of this broker and in large quantities could cause you to go broke!!! It’s true that slippage cannot be completely avoided in trading and there are very few brokers who guarantee your orders but the Internet complaints regarding these FxPro issues are piling up.

 

How can you avoid going broke with FxPro?

Well, it took me about five years of research to write this review. Let me explain – I didn’t actually spent five full years on their website or on the Internet looking for information about them but about five years ago, when I was a green trader (I still am, because learning never stops), I stumbled upon this broker and I considered them one of the best I’ve seen. Unfortunately for me, their minimum deposit was 10 thousand bucks if I remember correctly. Definitely out of my league at the time. So I figured this is gonna be my broker when I have enough money. During the five years that passed I kept going back to FxPro, comparing them to other brokers I was interested in, but I never opened an account with FxPro, although they lowered the initial deposit requirement in the mean time. Why didn’t I open an account? Not sure. Probably because I’m satisfied with my broker and I didn’t feel the need for a change. Anyway, if you want to open an account with FxPro, here’s how to avoid going broke:

• Do not trade during news releases or at times of high volatility
• Do not trade when the market lacks volume and price has no direction. Spreads usually increase in times of low liquidity.
• Try to avoid EA trading because EAs are highly affected by slippages or missed trades.
• Use sound money management to protect against big draw downs generated by gaps
• Check your leverage and never allow your account to become over-leveraged. A 3 pip delay will be almost irrelevant to your account if you are using the correct leverage.
• Try to avoid scalping as much as possible and go for a higher time frame.

 

 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly on FXPro

Old Timers with a Fresh Attitude

FxPro has been in business since 2006 and was granted a license by the CySEC in March 2007. In early 2010, they received regulation from the UK Financial Services Authority, a regulation which was renewed in April 2013 by the newly formed Financial Conduct Authority. This little history lesson shows us that FxPro has been in business long enough to earn respect and to have their professionalism recognized by two major regulatory authorities. A scam broker or simply a bad one can “live” a year, two or maybe even three, but a lot of time has passed since 2006 and FxPro is still here, continuing to be one of the biggest players in the industry.

Moving to more concrete information: FxPro offers both a standard MT4 account with a minimum deposit of $500 and an ECN account (available only on their proprietary platform cTrader) with a minimum deposit of $1,000. Leverage goes as high as 500:1, spreads are reasonable for the Meta Trader 4 account and on the ECN account, they can be as low as zero but a $65 commission is charged for every 1 million USD traded. There are no restrictions regarding scalping or EA usage and hedging is allowed. More than that, FxPro operates under the Agency Model, thus eliminating the conflict of interests between broker and client. Considering their “longevity” and long time double regulation, FxPro is regarded by us as one of the top-tier brokers in the industry and one we highly recommend, although it does have some Bad parts… just like everyone.

 

Dark Side of the Moon

Remember the $65 commission for every million bucks traded (that’s 10 standard lots)? Well, this commission applies once upon opening a trade and again for closing the trade, making your actual cost $130 for each million dollars traded. This is understandable, considering the fact that in Forex when you are closing a transaction you are actually taking the opposite side of the market so you could say you are opening a new trade which nullifies the first one. Ok, it’s understandable but it’s still something that we don’t like; however, we appreciate the fact that FxPro’s website clearly informs clients about this “double” charge in their FAQ section.

The spreads offered by FxPro for Meta Trader 4 accounts are not the best we’ve seen; not the worst either, but frankly, I would have expected more from them. Not having extremely tight spreads makes trading difficult for scalpers who aim for 2-5 pips but the issue almost goes away if you are trading a higher time-frame. Another somewhat annoying thing is the fact that you are not allowed to withdraw to a credit card more than you have deposited with that card. Profits will be sent via wire transfer and international bank transfers carry additional fees which no one is happy to pay. Overall, the Bad things mentioned are not a deal-breaker and not something that would make a trader run away, but there are some Ugly complaints regarding their order execution and the almost usual “It’s a Scam” allegation:

 

Overzealous employee? Not Necessarily a Bad Thing.

The first thing that stands out when looking for client-reviews on ForexPeaceArmy.com is actually a begging plea from FXPro employees to stop “pretending to be clients leaving review…” [1]. Well what were you thinking guys?? You have the option to leave comments and reviews, and as it turns out, excited employees sometimes take advantage of it. Is that a bad thing? Would I avoid trading with this broker just because the staff is leaving “fake” comment? I don’t think so. I actually think it shows lots of commitment from FXpro personnel, for good or for worse.

Anyhow, FPA’s page dedicated to FXpro is quite extensive. Right at the beginning of the thread dedicated to FxPro user reviews, you can find that warning issued by FPA. What can I say… that’s a cheap move coming from FxPro and I think they should let their clients speak their minds, not spam the forums. I only hope that an overzealous employee (without the consent of upper level management) wanted to boost up their ratings and ended up doing more harm than good. Well, if that’s the case, fire him/her please and let’s end the charade.

Other angry and sometimes unintelligible users are opening big nasty mouth against FXPro.The first guy wrote his comment in June 2012 warning us FxPro is about to close (he must have heard it through the grapevine)… [2] but in April 2013 the FCA renewed their regulation license. Do you actually believe that if all those complaints were true, such a major authority wouldn’t step in and do something instead of renewing the license? And about the second guy… well, I can hardly understand what he is babbling about and I can only imagine how his trading must be so I’m not really surprised he lost money and is now angry. Sure, let’s blame it all on the broker… “totally sceam,,,all frood” (sorry, no translation available) [3].

Of course, there are tons on positive reviews as well, but I am not gonna bore you with all of them. What’s obvious about most of this positive feedback is their authenticity. After long time in business, I feel I could tell the fake and non-personal comments from the real ones. This one here is a good example of very personal and genuine review. What I like about it is that the trader is talking technically. Not just emotions, but rational explanation:

“Fast Deposit and WITHDRAWAL by wire transfer. Very impressed with the withdrawal processing. I am a medium-long term trader, not using any EA, set once and forget it - either hit SL or TP . So far no problem with the trading” [4].

As you can see from the links above (both FPA [1, 2-4] and ForexFactory [5]), happy customers are easy to find and the thing is that almost all FX brokers have both good and bad user reviews. It’s no secret that a lot of traders lose their money in Forex and frustration brings out the worst in people; this materializes in the form of angry comments, abusing Caps Lock and blaming everyone else but themselves. I’m not saying that all negative comments are generated by the poor trading skills of the users and I agree that Fxpro has some Ugly sides, but then again, all brokers do.

 

 

Editor’s Note – Is FxPro a Scam?

Calling FxPro a scam is like saying the Sun scammed you because it went into the clouds right after you decided to wear shorts and a t-shirt. There is no scam suspicion hovering above FxPro’s head as far as I am concerned. Sure there are unsatisfied clients, but McDonald’s has them too and you wouldn’t call them a scam, would you?

 

Bottom Line – Would I trade with FxPro? Yes!

I’m gonna give you a blunt answer: Yes, I would. In fact, I am honestly thinking about opening an account with them. I am not a news trader so slippage shouldn’t be a big concern (if any) and I consider they have successfully withstood the test of time, not to mention their solid regulation which is a major positive in my book.

 

References

1. For 1,2,3,4 visit FPA Reviews
2. Visit ForexPros Comments