My deepest condolence for my obstruction of your time but it came to my attention that this broker called “JAFX” is accepting US Customers… but I only found a “?” after that name on this forum, can you guys take a look again?
BTW this is at the bottom of their page and I quote:
Website operated by JAFX Ltd, The Financial Services Centre, Stoney Ground, Kingstown, St Vincent and The Grenadine.
Payment services by JAFX EOOD, Sofia 1463, Triaditsa District, Prestige Business Center, 49 Patriarch Evtimii, 4th floor, Bulgaria
It appears that you joined this forum a few hours ago for the express purpose of bringing JAFX to our attention. Are you an IB for JAFX, or otherwise affiliated with this broker?
Here’s what I have dug up about JAFX –
JAFX Ltd is incorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
Their online documents do not make clear where they are physically located, except that:
• they have call-centers in the U.K. and in Australia (see the Contact Us page on the website)
• clearing and billing services are done by some entity in Montenegro (see Terms and Conditions, upper section, para. 59)
• payment services are provided by a JAFX entity in Bulgaria (see the fine print at the bottom of each webpage)
This broker appears to be catering to U.S. persons (residents and/or citizens), while maintaining “plausible deniability” in the event that they have to deal with U.S. authorities.
At the bottom of each webpage, JAFX states that their site is “not directed towards soliciting citizens or residents of the United States.” However, much of the language in their Terms and Conditions is specifically directed toward U.S. persons — example, the reference (below) to a Section of the Internal Revenue Code, a provision which applies only to U.S. persons.
Most alarmingly, JAFX requires live account holders to certify that the funds they are depositing do not come from the United States. In other words, the U.S. customer must lie about the source of the funds, so as to exonerate JAFX of any knowledge or responsibility regarding the source. In the process, the customer risks charges of fraud or money-laundering for lying about the funds. That’s a great way to start a broker-client relationship, wouldn’t you say?
The following is copied-and-pasted from JAFX’s Terms and Conditions:
• FOREIGN ACCOUNTS. Customers not residing in the United States (”Foreign Accounts”) may be asked to comply with requests for special information by JAFX as required by any governmental unit or regulatory agency. (T&C, upper section, para. 43)
• Customer also hereby confirms that these funds are free of any liens or debts, are clean and non-criminal in origin and do not originate from the United States of America or any country on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) List. As such, Customer agrees to comply with any request to provide additional documentation that is requested by JAFX and its representatives. (T&C, bottom section, un-numbered paragraph following para. 29)
Finally, JAFX makes it very clear that customer funds may be moved from customer’s account to another account, at the sole discretion of JAFX. Furthermore, customer funds will be commingled with the broker’s own funds, and may be used by the broker for any purpose, including security for loans or proprietary trading. Are you comfortable with that?
Here’s additional copy-and-paste:
• Authorization To Transfer Funds. Customer hereby agrees that JAFX may, at any time and from time to time, in the sole discretion of JAFX, apply and transfer from any of Customer’s Accounts with JAFX to any of Customer’s other accounts, whether held at JAFX or other approved financial institutions, any of the Contracts, currencies, securities or other property of Customer held either individually or jointly with others to another account. (T&C, middle section, para. 29)
• Agreement To Use Collateral. Customer authorizes JAFX to sell, pledge, rehypothecate, assign, invest, commingle and otherwise use any Collateral held by JAFX, including, but not limited to, using the Contracts as collateral for a loan to JAFX, and, further trading with the Collateral, as provided in the Customer Agreement (including, but not limited to Paragraph 6 thereof). Where Customer’s Account consists of more than one Account, this authorization shall apply to all of Customer’s Accounts with JAFX. This Agreement to Use Collateral shall remain in effect so long as Customer’s Account with JAFX remains open or Customer has any obligations of any kind to JAFX, under the Customer Agreement. (T&C, middle section, para. 30)
I guess now we can remove the question mark following SVG in the listing for this broker.
Thanks Clint for your prompt response and research. That was the reason I brought up (to know if I could trust them). After your reading your response I’m now convinced that JAFX might not be a good option. I do not hold an IB with them or any type of account/registration, etc. No
I thank you again for steering this vast savanna of knowledge everyday. And yes I’m new but I’ve been reading this forum form top to bottom before posting, always finding my answer.
Thanks for the in-depth response. I also took a look at the reviews on ForexPeaceArmy and Maria is amazing. Idk who she is, but she doesn’t hold back on anyone. Thanks for clearing things up for me. I appreciate it.
… i highly recommend you check out the lmfx review comments on forex peace army because the lmfx employee Maria slays some dummy on there complaining about stuff like that. it’s liberating to read it, because i go to work every day having to treat idiot customers as equals or superiors. Maria is my hero.[/quote]
I also took a look at the reviews on ForexPeaceArmy and Maria is amazing. Idk who she is, but she doesn’t hold back on anyone. Thanks for clearing things up for me. I appreciate it.[/quote]
She is Maria Bachvarova. She has been representing LMFX ever since that broker was first brought to our attention 2 years ago.
Seriously?! That’s nuts. I was going to make the jump to get into LMFX, but if I can’t withdraw a simple $500, I’m not sure I can confidently trade with them.
I’m going to give LMFX a shot over the next two months and see how my experience with them goes. So far, I’m loving their customer support as they’ve gone far beyond my expectations towards helping me get my account verified, answering my questions and overall providing excellent service.
Further information, i’m using their premium account. I signed up with no bonuses (assured that with customer support) and will be investing little by little and i’ll make a monthly withdrawal to see the process.
Talking to the customer service line, they mentioned that you can withdraw the full amount that you deposit with your Visa/Mastercard (i.e. deposit $5,000, make a profit of $2,000…$5,000 will return back to your account via same method of deposit, and profits will be deposited via wire transfer).
I’d like to suggest that Cryptos can be of assistance in transferring funds
to/from the brokers who provide a Crypto wallet, whether or not they have
“native” crypto funding.
For example, FinProTrading USD accounts can be funded through
Crypto transfers to/from their wallet. Funds would be held in the
Crypto wallet only as long as the transfer requires, so we are not here
“trading” BTC/USD or anything like that (although that is possible).
BTC can be used, in my view, now that BTC is fairly stable. We are
not concerned with the BTC/USD exchange rate if we’re going to
do a quick transaction USD (from broker) --> BTC (in broker’s wallet)
and then send BTC to (for example) a Coinbase BTC wallet and
then finally Sell BTC into USD for transfer to your Bank.
If you would prefer not to use BTC, and use LiteCoin or
Ethereum instead; then transfers to/from BTC–>AltCoin
are easily done through Shapeshift.io as an Intermediate
step (requires some practice).
So I’m saying that Cryptos can be used as a Funds Transfer
mechanism while exposure to Crypto/USD exchange rate
fluctuations can be minimized.
Would be interested to hear others’ reaction to this approach to
funds transfers.
For safety reasons (and for my suspiciousness), I decided to test out the payment and withdrawal system. Each time I made an attempt to deposit the minimum amount ($50), I kept receiving an error code: ZM-ERR1. According to the customer representative, the error came up due to either (a) error’s in my typing or (b) my bank placing a restriction on the merchant.
option (a) is easy to fix, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I made 2 attempts to make the transaction but as I couldn’t get my bank to remove the transaction, I decided to try and make an attempt with Skrill (depositing money to Skrill, and authorizing Skrill to fund my account)
Attempting that method failed as well. At this point, it’s been too much of a hassle to go try anything with LMFX. Their customer service is amazing, but due to the many attempts to simply fund my account didn’t work, I’m not going to pursue my ventures with them any further.
It seems that I’m not the only one with issues with their payment processor. A few members in this forum had withdrawals that weren’t seen in their account (or still pending) for more than 40 days.
Instead, I’m going forward to try with Trader’s Way and start things off. So far, the registration process has been smooth. I’m waiting for 48 hrs to get my account verified before I deposit any funds. They due in the assets available to trade (indices, commodities), but i’ll I can work with that.
TL:DR - Tried to deposit funds in LMFX, failed miserably due to the US banks blocking the merchant. Moving forward to Trader’s Way.
Anyone have news re: Dodd-Frank repeal?? Google didn’t yield much. Bill S. 2155 passed out of committee at end of year, but I can’t figure how it will impact our trading or when it will go to Trump for signature.
I must admit that I’ve been busy on other things, and have not
had much direct interaction with TurnkeyForex.com other than
opening an account. But we know they use TurnkeyFX.com as
a service provider so technicals will match FinProTrading.com …
Thanks for linking us to this. I’ve been having a hard time searching for the right broker to go to as most of them have issues with withdrawal (funny how they accept deposits easily, but withdrawals are damn near impossible).
I just wanted to write a quick note thanking everyone involved with this thread and the countless hours that is has taken them to maintain such information.
I am from the US and have had multiple brokerage accounts with numerous brokers including the ill fated Interbank FX and FXCM. I wanted to chime in and let everyone know that after years of reading the posts on this website that I recently registered and decided to post.
I am so tired with the stupid rules that the so called financial regulators have imposed on us in the US. Based on the information contained in this post I picked my next broker, TURNKEYFOREX.COM. Their customer service to get the account opened was great. I spoke with 2 guys, Ben and Barry. I am now going to deposit a small amount, 1k, in an account and see how it goes. I know they are not regulated but I have been burned before by the so called REGULATED brokers so I am giving these guys a try.
I will chime in with more info in the next few months as I progress with them,
I, also, opened an ECN account with TurnKey Forex last week and the team there provides great customer services. Barry was one of the gentlemen I spoke with too and he helped me with everything right away.
They gave me a call the next day to ask if I had any questions and the bitcoin transfer to deposit funds into the account is phenomenal. The deposit from my bitcoin wallet posted to my account in the matter of 10 mins. (Same with FinPro).
The execution in the market has been great thus far, so I hope to bring more good news back into the feed soon.
Also, If there’s any one who has had the opportunity to withdraw from either TurnKeyForex or FinPro, please provide your feedback.
I’m really happy to see they are improving their client portal, and
are clearly ramping up an operation. This is an opportunity to
get a good deal and good service. My interest is to have a broker
this is also competitive with FinProTrading.com since, as I’ve
said before, it looks like TurnkeyForex.com as a broker is
relying on the same service provider TurnkeyFX.com as the
FinProTrading operation. This is technically the very best
couple of brokers we have for Forex.
I don’t do anything but mainstream Forex, so my comments
don’t apply to CFD’s or whatever else is out there…
BOTH are fundable by crypto currency, specifically BitCoin
(BTC) but, as I’ve said before, any Crypto can be “shapeshifted”
into or out of BTC by using a service such as ShapeShift.io …