Are there any trustworthy brokers?

Hi there everyone, i’m new to this forum and would like to ask a few questions. i have been practicing on demo accounts on alpari and fxpro for some time now and think i’m ready to go for a live account, but when i was searching around for reviews, almost most of the forex brokers seem to have many bad feedbacks.

Many clients said they got their accounts banned, brokers did not pay the clients back their money, withdrawal’s had issues, S/L hunting, ridiculous reasons to cancel any payment, sudden moves in spreads and taking out stop losses etc…

So this really got me worried now. Are all/most of the forex brokers dishonest?

If i took a video and recorded while i traded and if at any point i feel that i got scammed , is there really anything i can do to get my money/profits back? Like complain to the regulators?

Is there any place i could complain if such a thing happens? I understand that they are regulated and so is alpari and fxpro but still looks like they still play dirty tricks?

How do i safe guard myself? i’m worried once i start making profits, they don’t pay me my winnings/profits and close my accounts? That would be a great waste of time and effort for me.

The brokers mention that they are ecn but are bucket shop/market movers? I had no idea so much scams are happening with the brokers… like i am so confused to the point that i am not sure if honest brokers exist… any advise or help would be much appreciated, thank you for your time reading this.

Brokers are not saints, but that doesn’t mean they are all running scams. You just need to find a broker with a lot to lose, including their reputation.

My first broker, for example, was XM.co.uk. Regulated by the FCA and traded on the LSE as Trading Point Financial, these guys also put a lot of money and effort into interacting with traders on forums around the web. In other words, they have a lot to lose by running off with my piddling trading deposit.

Of course, their spreads weren’t great, but they were a totally decent starting broker.

http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-reviews/7214/xm-forex-brokers?page=2&per-page=10

Hi i was thinking about going with them but if you see the reviews at the link i provided, there is to many cases where the clients did not get the money they requested to withdraw, and many other issues… And strange thing is… not one broker has a good review.

My main concern is, what if i made profits(maybe a few grands) and they won’t withdraw, or ban my account with insane reasons etc… So if they are regulated by fca, how does that make it safe? Will i be able to get my money and profits if i complained to fca(not sure if i could do that)?

p.s:i was also thinking of recording video live of my trades but does or will that help in anyway? Thanks

A couple of things, here.

First, you are making the very common mistake of thinking two associated organizations - in this case XM.com and XM.co.uk - are the same organisation. They are not. As much as they try to maintain consistency across their brand, they are two separate legal entities.

Second, half the world’s population is of below average intelligence, and a disproportionate number of those people are attracted to the ‘get rich quick’ side of trading. As such, any major broker is going to have a string of idiots yelling ‘scam’ when they lose money from not understanding the spread or when they can’t get their money out without first complying with Europe’s very stringent anti-money laundering regulations. As you gain experience you’ll start recognising the (many) cases where the fault is entirely with the trader.

As to your questions, the FCA has the power to levy fines on brokers that fail to uphold standards. They are unlikely to directly help you get your money back, but XM has to drain a huge number of of 1k accounts to pay for a multi-million GBP fine that is coming it’s way. And that’s before their stock price tanks. Overall, it’s easier to just be a (mostly) honest broker.

I would’t bother with a video feed, but I would record all my trades outside of my trading platform. This can be as simple as printing out the transaction reports that Metatrader generates.

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HI so what you’re saying is that it’s safe to go with those brokers who are regulated? there were many reviews where many said that they had problems and long delays when they tried to withdraw funds from their accounts… and the brokers closed accounts of those clients who were profitable… This was what got me worried as almost all brokers had reviews saying they did not get their money/profits …

So if the brokers decided not to pay my earnings, there is not much i could do about it?

No. I’m telling what I did. You need to make up your own mind. Your choices are you own and I take no responsibility for them.

what are your thoughts about fxpro? they are regulated with fca too if i’m not wrong.

P.s: i like their ctrader platform

I use Pepperstone. They have the cTrader platform which I love using. I did hear some chatter about FXPro, worth googling. Don’t believe every negative comment though.
When I found Pepperstone they had some serious negative feedback, but 99% of comments left they replied to. I came to the conclusion that most people have no idea about how a broker works and they were just pissed off that they blew up an account.
P.S - Ive tried a few other brokers with their platform and I keep going back to cTrader, it’s so simple, even their web based version, which I use on my MacBook Pro, feels like a platform on windows and I’ve even discovered that tools are best used on Web Based platform.

It’s important to understand that unless a forex broker is brand new or has a small client base, you’re likely to find some negative reviews simply due to the percentages. While some are valid, others could be from people blaming their broker for their own trading mistakes. It’s also hard to verify whether a particular review was posted by a genuine client instead of a competing broker.

Generally speaking, you should consider brokers regulated in major financial centers appropriate for your region. That can go a long way to addressing a lot of the concerns you have.

The advantage of trading with a well-regulated broker is that there are minimum standards both financial and trading, ongoing monitoring by the regulators to ensure compliance, a framework for handling complaints from customers, and the power to enforce actions against regulated brokers for violations.

For example, the CFTC and NFA set the requirements a broker must meet in order to offer forex trading to US residents. Though not an exhaustive list, this membership application will give you an idea of some of those requirements: Compliance Requirements for Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) Applicants | NFA

  • In the US, forex is regulated by the CFTC and NFA, and brokers are required to maintain net capital of $20 million.
  • In the UK, forex trading is regulated by the FCA and funds are protected for up to £50,000 per client by the FSCS.
  • In Canada, forex trading is regulated by IIROC and funds are protected for up to $1 million per client by the CIPF.

Where do you live, @hayabusa1208?

Thank you for that info. i will take a look at pepperstone.Thanks

Hi , thank you for taking your time to reply. I’m from singapore… not sure if there is any regulated brokers here and if there is, maybe their spreads/costs should be higher? Thanks

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Our parent company GAIN Capital is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore where it offers forex trading services through City Index.

Oh ok , how much leverage do they allow? i usually trade a few pairs at the same time and would need higher leverage, thanks

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has set the minimum margin requirement for forex trading in the country at 2%. This minimum applies to all forex brokers authorized to offer forex trading services to residents of Singapore. Forex trading with a 2% margin requirement allows you to use up to 50:1 leverage to magnify your gains and losses.

I was able to trade with FGSMARKETS.COM for the last couple of months and everything is working fine. I made good profit with the help of my trading specialist (arround 15-20% monthly) and everytime i withraw it reaches my bank account in maximum 5 working days !
They use MT4 and the execution of the positions is on the second i click BUY or SELL.
I don’t know EXACTLY what you mean by "trustworthy"but as far as Im concirned on my trading account I depend on their professionalism !

There definitely are trustworthy brokers in forex, in binary it is much harder.
Personally I use JAFX and have done for 9 months now and I am very happy.
I also have friends who use Pepperstone and IC Markets and both seem happy enough.

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Hey guys,

Is anyone currently trading Cryptos with XM?

Thanks.

Well I am afraid I haven’t used XM but I have been trading cryptos and I can tell you that my experience has been nothing short of amazing. I think it could be partly due to the fact that my broker Coinexx is really good on spreads and commissions. You can check them out as well while you are looking for XM. Beautiful conditions.