Forex Broker Scams?

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1

Hi,

I recently started learning about forex. I opened a demo account with Alpari (using the MT4 platform) and so far, i have been doing pretty well. I’ve been soaking in tons of information and have been developing my own strategies. I enjoy trading standard lots (or larger) and have been consistently making good gains.

Now for my question(s)

I’ve been doing good with my demo account, but my fear is when i go live im going to get my ass handed to me. Are demo accounts easier? Can brokers make demo accounts easier to earn profits, so you sign up with them? I realize that there is the lack of emotion because you are not trading with real money, but other than that what is different about demo accounts? i.e. market conditions, price movements ect…can those be different for demo accounts?

I’ve been hearing a lot of negativity about forex brokers. I read about all kinds of fraud stories. I’ve heard a lot about glitches, MT4 profits being different that profits that show up in your broker account. Anyone have a take on these problems?

What forex brokers do you recommend? For me i prefer a broker with decent spreads, low commission, multiple trading platforms, accurate charts, no glitches and no fraud complaints.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

2

Most complaints come from losing traders looking to blame anyone but themselves.

Unless you are scalping, issues such as slippage in live accounts won’t really affect you.

Your own psychology is your greatest enemy. Most demo traders blow account after account without worry. You start to think different of those dollars when it’s real.

Oanda would be a good start as a broker.

3

I just did a reply but i guess it didnt go through.

I treat my demo accounts as if they were live. I make calculated decisions, and most of my trades are profitable.

However, whenever i see a post about someone doing well with their demo accounts, the replies are always something like, “demo accounts a far different than live accounts, just because you are doing well with a demo account does not mean you will do well with a live account.”

What are these people talking about? What is so different besides the fact that you are not playing with real money. The market conditions/charts/data/spreads are the same, are they not? I just dont understand what is so different?

4

The main difference is emotions. Without emotions they are almost the same.

I have a strategy that wins the same on demo and in live. But it is managed by an emotionless bot.

I tried the same strat manually an I did it better on demo, so my only conclusion is that emotions were the problem.

5

By the way, my main broker is liteforex, and had tested ibfx and fxcm

6

Thanks for the info.

Have you had any problems with liteforex? There are literally dozens of complaints about them withholding funds, changing rules, and not paying their clients.

7

some small problems but now with money, but mainly with CFDs that are pretty new. Last time I had a problem was about #KO CFD that had a 4:1 split on the stock market but that was not reflected on the CFD price. But all the problems were solved. Some take 1-2 days, some others 1-2 weeks.

Deposits are pretty easy and fast, I use okpay, moneybookers and bitcoins to deposit (that last bitcoin is pretty neat!)

Withdrawals are with the same, and also with a debit card (liteforex card) I did withdrawals with moneybookers (I had my money the same day on may MB account) and with the liteforex card, it took about 3 days for it, but I can spend or withdraw from an ATM any place VISA is accepted.

Spreads on floating spread account are good. I get about 1.7 pips on EUR/USD and USD/JPY and 2 pips on GBP/USD and other majors almost all the time, except Friday on the last hour when the spreads are about 5-10 pips, not too good time to trade hehehe.

Never had a problem with stops or take profits. There is some requote if you don’t allow slippage, but with 2 pip slippage there is no problem.

You have 500 leverage (you can configure it! if you wish to have only 50:1 leverage, you can configure that), have multiple accounts on the same “cabinet”, on floating spread you are trading with mini lots, that’s it 1 lot = 10,000 units instead of full lots of 100,000 units, so on the smallest lot (0.01) every pip is about 1 US cent for majors, pretty good to test strats.

Swap interests are a little weird, they varies frequently but it is small. You can get a 3.5 % interest rate on the money that is not used as a margin, much better than the 1.5-1.8 % you get with threasuries.

They have also gold/USD, silver/USD and the gold,silver/EURO symbols. Almost all the DowJones on CFDs and some popular symbols like AAPL.

Also there are the minors and exotics. I’m mexican, so I like to see the USD/MXN with a so small spread of 0.5 pips.

I think is a good broker, but as some people in the forum says, never put all the eggs on one basket, so if you have a very big basket, don’t put all your money on any single broker.

Ah! an the timezone of liteforex is UTC+3, support MT4/MT5, have iOS and Android applications and PAMM accounts (I just created mine to share my trading experience and profit a little from that).

And no, I’m not a member of liteforex hehehehe.

8

Thanks for the info!

9

On demo, it’s great you are starting with one rather than start off with a live acc…
On broker scams, do the research and yes, there are a few shady brokers so you may want to start a live account, pref a small one [nano].
On brokers, currently using Trader’s Way, FXCM and Alpari - would recommend the lot or you can opt to get started with FXCM, nice platform and great for beginners (after a few months of demo). Good luck!

10

I was advised to use Alpari - I like it at the moment.

11

If you use most of the top brokers/spreadbetters then each will have their own little ways but they are all pretty good. Not sure if you are from the US but I use FXDD and GKFX which I have found are both great. I have traded many years and never a problem with withdrawal, funds upload, very little requotes and both are regulated. GKFX in the UK are FSA regulated and the FSA is a cruel master so they need to be top drawer as their audits on dodgy practices are intense.