Same situation with [I]Forex Broker Inc.[/I] where no SSL is activated, even when signing in under the home page. It will though go through SSL upon [I]clicking[/I] ‘My Account’. All credentials went through plain text either way. No problems with the broker though.
You may have heard of a U.S. broker called [B]Back Bay FX.[/B]
They don’t appear in [I]The Offshore Broker List,[/I] because they are not an offshore broker. However, they are included in the Alphabetical List of Brokers which appears in post #4 in this thread.
Back Bay FX serves as an introducing broker for various retail forex brokers, including some offshore brokers.
[B]This should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up:
The NFA (the Nanny Futures Association) has fined Back Bay FX for introducing foreign (non-U.S.) clients to one or more of the offshore (non-U.S.) brokers which they represent.[/B]
Here is the STORY as reported by [I]Forex Magnates.[/I]
This is grotesque over-reach on the part of the NFA, into an area of the forex business WAY outside their jurisdiction. The little tin-pot dictators running the NFA are so full of themselves that they have lost sight of common sense.
[B]It’s time for the NFA to be prosecuted and fined for gross abuse of their authority.[/B]
•
The CFTC, and their sock-puppet the NFA, are doing everything in their power to destroy the U.S. retail forex industry, and to make it impossible for Americans to trade forex anywhere else in the world.
If you hope to continue in this business in the future, you should act now to provide yourself with options. I think you should have — [I]at a minimum[/I] — at least two top quality retail forex accounts: one with a U.S. broker of your choice, and one with a sound, reputable offshore broker beyond the reach of the U.S. regulatory nannies. Keep both of your accounts well-funded and active.
If one of your two brokers comes under attack by the CFTC and/or the NFA, you might need your second broker to fall back on.
In such a circumstance, don’t count on being able to easily and quickly find and open a new, replacement trading account. Already we are seeing instances of offshore brokers retaining their existing U.S. clients, but refusing to accept new U.S. clients.
Canadian financial regulators are determined to make Canada as big a Nanny-State as the U.S., if that’s even possible.
From [I]Forex Magnates:[/I]
The Canadian FX regulatory environment is one of the strictest in the world and has a very unique structure. Aside from the various provincial regulatory agencies, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) is also at the center of the framework.
Wow. — If they try [I]really[/I] hard, maybe they can make their regulatory framework even [I]more[/I] ridiculously complicated.
Regulators in Canada are eyeing the 50:1 retail forex leverage limit in the U.S., and they’re feeling jealous. So, the Canadian Nannies are going to reduce maximum allowable leverage on retail forex trades in order to get closer to the 50:1 “Gensler Standard”.
On the key USD/CAD pair, they’re reducing the leverage limit from 77:1 down to 62:1.
[I]Who comes up with these numbers? — I’m about to tell you.[/I]
The allowable leverage limit in Canada [I]depends on which currency pair you’re talking about.[/I]
In a stunning bureaucratic triumph, the Canadians have come up with the following bizarre formula for determining changes in the maximum allowable leverage in each individual currency pair — and these changes can occur as often as the formula requires.
This is [I]Canadian bureaucratic nanny-ism[/I] at its finest. Again, from [I]Forex Magnates:[/I]
The requirements cited in the Dealer Member Margin Rules are the following: “The Canadian dollar equivalent closing price on each of the four trading days succeeding the “base day” shall be compared to the base day closing price. The first of four succeeding trading days on which the percentage change in price (negative or positive) between the closing price on the succeeding day and the closing price on the base day is greater than the unhedged margin rate shall be designated an “offside base day”. If an offside base day has been designated, the offside base day shall be designated the base day for the purpose of making further base day closing price comparisons as aforesaid. If the number of offside base days during any 60 trading day period is greater than 3, the currency shall be deemed to have exceeded the volatility threshold of the currency group.”
And when a [I]rogue[/I] currency pair exceeds “the volatility threshold of the currency group”, look out! — then the nannies are going to clamp down even harder on the maximum allowable leverage for trading in [I]that pair.[/I]
What a triumph for the busy-bodies who love to run other people’s lives. Canadian financial regulators must be having mini-orgasms as they read that paragraph. Regulators just [I]love[/I] to regulate stuff. It’s how they justify their existence.
[B]Canadian traders need to find a safe place to trade offshore,
away from the meddlesome interference of the Canadian Nanny-State.[/B]
Here’s the Forex Magnates article —
Canadian Self Regulatory Organization Revises FX Margin Requirements
.
That is incredible. I bet it would take quite a while for a regulator to explain how they came up with that! I cannot wrap my head around it - everything seems so arbitrary.
[B]Profiforex Update 01/01/15 (Happy New Year!)[/B]
So I woke up this morning to find multiple deposits in my account from Profiforex. After tabulating the funds received I have now gotten all of the expected funds short of $700 that was processed Tuesday. As such some confidence has been restored. I would still offer a word of caution when using the debit card withdrawal system as my process took an aggravating 16 days.
Thanks for this follow-up, Dreher. I’m glad your issue has finally been resolved.
And thanks for tagging your post #2360 with an update regarding this matter. Your post #2360 is already referenced in the Profiforex listing, and I will add your post #2378 to that listing, as well.
I hope you have smoother sailing with Profiforex in the future. Keep us informed.
I looked over mostly the entire thread and came to these brokers as some of the best choices…
Senus
Assetsfx
FX Choice
Tradersway
Profiforex
So I tested all these brokers looking at their spread and how it is handled during news,new years/low liquidity/average
I had high hopes for Senus but … jesus their spreads are the worst and they range to ridiculous places like 10 pips while the other brokers could keep the spread below 3.
Tradersway/profiforex/tradersway… none of these had the high quality spread I was looking for in a broker. Basically I am looking at a broker that has the lowest spread/commission, for USA FXCM is one of the very best.
I compared all these brokers to FXCM and they couldn’t even come close to how low and stable the spread for FXCM was on my live account.
I listed all the brokers except for AssetsFX and FX Choice.
[B]AssetsFX was the absolute BEST[/B] in spread and commission. Their spread was literally the exact same if not .2 different from FXCM (being .2 lower or higher for some of the pairs compared to fxcm), at all times for the following pairs that I watched - EUR/USD,USD/JPY/GBP/USD/USD/CHF/EUR/JPY/USD/CAD/AUD/USD/NZD/USD. It was ridiculous how good it was, and their commission is even lower than FXCM making them actually better.
AssetsFX for withdrawals does not charge you a commission, and they will pay for half the fee’s on paypal.
FX Choice was good in the spread/commission but not as good as Assets … and FX choice charges you commission on your withdrawals and does not cover transcation fee’s from what I know on paypal.
… Best broker hands down offering very high quality stable spread/commission is Assets, it was literally the exact same as FXCM at all times.
The only downside to AssetsFX that I can find is that I don’t think they offer VPS.
If anyone here is a scalper or is looking for a broker offshore that has very low spreads/commission near exact same as FXCM including how well they handle keeping the spread low at low liquidity; and doesn’t want some ridiculous fee’s for withdrawals… Assets is the best choice. Once again; downside is no VPS. I also did not test how their slippage is / orders going through plus this was on a Demo account.
But simply seeing how incredibly liquid their feed is I would hope it’s the same for placing orders.
As I live in the Northeast, I found the execution on AssetsFX to be excellent. I think that they had a great commission structure and their spreads were also outstanding. The website was a bit wary looking but when I got past that, I deposited via PayPal and was able to make a withdrawal (though I admit that my withdrawal was a bit less than my deposit :D)
In regards to FX Choice, today I received approval for an account with them. The reason I chose them over the other offshore brokers is because of several reasons:
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They are regulated.
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They have received excellent reviews at the Forex Peace Army website. When you combine the high number of reviews they have gotten (at least when compared to the low number of reviews of most other brokers there) AND of course when you compare their high score they received from reviewers, then you will see they are among the top of the list for brokers.
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They have 1:200 leverage. This leverage is certainly better than the 1:50 of the brokers in the U.S., and it is also better than the 1:100 leverage of some of the other offshore brokers such as AssetsFX.
By the way, AssetsFX has only 9 total reviews and only a 2.7 star rating (out of a possible 5 stars) at Forex Peace Army. And, just as much to be concerned with - if not more - is the fact that Forex Peace Army has issued this warning about AssetsFX (I copied and pasted it below) :
[B]WARNING: August-October 2013: Multiple highly suspicious and obviously fake positive reviews submitted.
The FPA advises a very high level of caution dealing with this AssetsFx. [/B]
One more bit of concern that I almost forgot to mention is that they (AssetsFX) are not regulated.
Yes, they may have somewhat better spreads than FX Choice, but better spreads doesn’t necessarily mean a better broker…
Nice, I imagined that there execution would be wonderful with the type of high quality feed that they have, the fact that it is at exact liquid as FXCM is amazing.
There website is definitely one of the worst parts about them, I don’t know why they don’t even try to improve their website but their commission,spread,liquidity,withdrawal system etc make ASSETSFX in the very top if not number 1 for brokers to go to that accept US.
…
To the post above; It is true about the regulation … i’ll have to look more into that.
BUT, for forex peace army… that doesn’t mean much because it was a spammer and that is mainly what the reviews were exposed too, as there isn’t many reviews.
The internet doesn’t seem to be exposed about the existence of AssetsFX yet and they don’t seem to encourage any of their clients to post reviews about them on these websites like Tradersway does . It just seems that you can not judge assets by forex peace army so much because there is not enough valid reviews.
Assets has 1:200 leverage for larger size accounts, I think over 2500
AssetsFX replied on peace army saying sorry about it, they hired someone for some PR but it was a horrible service, you can’t really blame them as looking at the website it looks like they are not so smart on website/advertisement but it does seem they are very concerned of a stable liquidity and low costs AND they do not charge for withdrawal, any broker that takes a commission from your withdrawal is a joke.
I don’t think tradersway charges on withdrawals like fxchoice does and a lot of others BUT a spread that can’t maintain being in the 0. and only ranging to around 2+ at very low liquidity is a broker I can’t be with…
For scalping or swing trading. I see a lot of these brokers have their spreads go to the 8+ range with low liquidity which will effect [B]all [/B]kinds of trading.
with brokers like FXCM / Oanda / and hopefully AssetsFX … they do keep very stable spreads even with low liquidity.
Atleast to me, great liquidity and spread/commission prices are very important, most the time you would open a 100k+ account with institutional brokers to be able to have access to the advantage of lower cost spreads and such, so the existence of these brokers with 100$ accounts that offer institutional level liquidity is amazing.
A broker with GREAT liquidity / execution / low spread/commission / low cost withdrawal is certainly what you want in a broker, well you want your money to be in safe hands too on top of it so the regulation is the only problem.
FX Choice I think is the second best in terms of all that I said above, they still have very good spread (about 1 pip more than assets FX and they charge same amount of commission BUUUT on the plus side their spread seems liquid) and more regulated plus VPS. This could easily make it 1. for others.
For the guys who have opened live accounts with AssetsFX (as US clients) - Are your live accounts hitting the NY server, or were you defaulted to the London server (where I beleive their primary server location is)?
Well, I actually uninstalled their platform last week because they seemed to have deleted all of the symbols from my live account (I had no funds in it, so I guess it makes sense). It was very weird as the account was not disabled. All of the symbols were just gone. However, I remember that I had 22ms latency, so I was hitting a server in either NY or NJ I would say (as I live in that vicinity).
It was great! Any broker with a server in that area is actually a pleasure to trade with. Too bad there any not many who will accept us. =[
22ms latency is excellent, you’re quite lucky. I was pinging off AssetsFX live server at 130ms (I’m in TX), but hitting Sensus’ live server in NY at around 45ms. I agree with the spreads assessment thus far from you guys. I trade crosses, and AssetsFX spreads are almost half of those I’m getting with Sensus. Just curious - when you submitted for your live account with AssetsFX, did they require a W-9?
No overseas brokers I have ever dealt with asked for any tax identification information. It is up to us to file our taxes as appropriate. They don’t deal with that sort of thing.
I looked at their Forex Peace Army page and was very surprised I had not seen it earlier. Apparently they were spamming the reviews quite considerably to such a point as to cause the FPA to make a note of it on the top of the page. That disappoints me.
I actually like Sensus and am considering trying them out – I just need to do a bit more research before depositing the $1,000 minimum =)
Have you tried FinFX? I think their latency was a bit higher but on their higher deposit account (forgot what it is called, “Pro” maybe) it says that their server is in NY so I imagine the execution will also be excellent. With them I hear you need to submit a passport. However I have heard from others that a Social Security Card (which is required for a passport) along with your ID will suffice.
When I looked over lots of these brokers I had high hopes for Senus the most but I was really disappointed by the spreads, it is considerably higher than other brokers by 3+ pips & when the market has low liquidity i seen the pairs go in 8+ pip range for their spread.
For the forexpeace & assets… It just looks like they hired crappy service to advertise them; I don’t think they were aware of the situation on what was happening till forex peace army flagged them probably causing them to only then know what happened by the service they hired.
I’m only concerned with regulation for assets at this point.
valdrit, I hope you are right in your explanation of the possible negatives of AssetsFX that I talked about. If they have only a few reviews and if their website is not as good as it should be, then it makes me wonder… are they a fairly new company? Maybe that would be a hint as to why they have some of those negatives. Maybe they are not an experienced and “polished” company yet (compared to brokers that have been around for many years). Again, I haven’t checked their history and I don’t know how new (or old) they are. And in regards to their leverage, the reason I pointed out they have 1:100 leverage is because Clint posted that information in the very first post of this thread. If it is wrong then maybe Clint will need to change it.
And with the issue of them not being regulated, yes I would much prefer they were regulated, but not being regulated doesn’t automatically signal they are bad. I’m sure there are brokers out there that are not regulated but are very honest & trustworthy. Still, as I’ve said, I’d still prefer a broker to be regulated. I know it is not a guarantee a regulated broker will be a perfect broker, but I admit I would have at least at least a little more peace of mind with a regulated broker versus a non-regulated broker.
Providers actually do this a lot. They seem to have gained advantage on doing this. 
What do you mean when you say “providers actually do this a lot”? What are you talking about? What do they do a lot? You didn’t explain what it is they do.
I believe he is referring to how brokers spam different websites and forums posing as clients or everyday traders (as opposed to an employee or agent of the company). However, doncht, while I understand that this seems to happen a lot, this does not mean that it should be excusable - and I would like to clarify that I am not insinuating that you believe it is so, I am just stating my opinion on this.
Brokers that do this (and based on my observations around various places, a lot of them are caught) are taking a risk being caught. When they are, it has the completely opposite affect from what they were trying to achieve in the first place. It paints them in a dishonest light which makes us even more wary about sending our money offshore (speaking from an American perspective, as I dislike trading on US platforms).
I do however believe that [B]AssetsFX [/B]is a true ECN. I have not withdrawn more money from them than I had originally deposited, so I cannot speak to that part of their integrity. I really liked their spreads, commissions and execution as I had only 22-25ms latency from my home to their server. More or less instantaneous.
Hopefully these guys at [B]AssetsFX [/B]have matured and will not resort to stupid measures such as this.
Is there any advantage to the broker not being regulated