Not regulated in the United States – Definitely
Not regulated anywhere else – You must do your due diligence with them twice as you will have no agency to run to if something goes wrong.
Just a personal update on [B]ForexBrokerInc[/B].
I have personally used them for several years. I have 3 live accounts and have never had any issues with them. One of the main reasons I went with them is they offered a micro account.
Well…no longer. Got an email today stating that as of this Friday the account will have to close any orders with lot sizes under 1 full micro lot, which is equivalent to .01 standard lot of 1,000 units.
They’ll automatically close orders not meeting the new criteria.
Too bad…
I have heard today that FinFX are no longer accepting US clients!!!
Apparently they are suggesting people move to Tallinex.
FinFx is closing its doors to US clients. I’m really not happy about this. I’ve been with them for 2 years and never had an issue with latency or withdrawals of several k. They’re moving clients over to Tallinex which, to me, seems like a better option with the higher leverage and more commodities to trade. But I’m wary about how long it will be before Tallinex cuts off US clients, too. I hope upcomding revisions to dodd frank will once again enable US Forex brokers to offer high leverage. Other thoughts: I successfully opened an acount with UPFX a week ago and everything seems in order. One MAJOR complaint I have about UPFX, though, is that on every trade I have a full3-second lag.
Yes, I just got the email too. No more FinFX!
And then there were 15…
Actually, I am wondering now about AssetsFX which was also in Finland…
Just chatted with AssetsFX. They said they were unaware of what happened with FinFX and will investigate. They will be emailing me when they have information and I will let the community know.
FinFX is regulated in Finland. Tallinex is now in St Vincent and Grenadines, so I doubt they will become regulated…I am not happy that that there are so few recent reviews though, and also that client funds are kept in Bulgaria, with TBI Bank. They told me today that commission rates are fixed, non-negotiable, even for very large accounts, and that maximum lot size is 100.
Doesn’t look that way. Seems that they’re going to be holding client funds the same way FinFx does. And, uhh, you plan on moving more than 100 standard lots? $1000 per pip movement? I’m thinking you’re used to trading micro lots. 100 mico lots would be equivalent to one standard lot. And on their micro account they don’t charge commission. I’ll be funded with them in a few weeks. I’ll post my experience with them. I’m OK with taking risks in order to find a good broker. If they keep my $500 to $1000 deposit then I know not to trade with them. But actually trying them out seems like the only way to really know.
I’ve never heard of anyone not getting their funds on withdrawal requests…with any broker…anywhere. What I have seen is a few people here and there complaining about the timliness of withdrawals for various brokers. At one time I even got Hot Forex to fund my account with 5k due to an erroneous stopout. They honored my TP’s. Took me two weeks of fighting for that, though.
[B][U]AssetsFX[/U][/B]
Thanks to [I]validrit, pipfreak,[/I] and [I]tomd100[/I] for information and discussion on AssetsFX.
I will link the following posts to our AssetsFX listing: #2380, #2381, and #2392.
From the AssetsFX Trading Conditions page —
“Default leverage 1:100, max leverage 1:200 for accounts up to $10000”
[B][U]FinFX[/U][/B]
Thanks to [I]jikkie, JakkFrosted,[/I] and [I]tomd100[/I] for the bad news on FinFX.
I will link the following posts to our FinFX listing: #2396, #2397, and #2398 — [I]temporarily.[/I] After we get final confirmation that FinFX will no longer deal with us, I will move them to Group 2. Then, as Tom says, there will be 15 (unless and until we can build our List back up).
Tom, when you hear more from AssetsFX and/or FinFX, please give us an update.
[B][U]ForexBrokerInc[/U][/B]
[I]Spyderman,[/I] if ForexBrokerInc is changing their Gold (micro-lot) Account policy to dis-allow position sizes smaller than 1 micro-lot, they are really just bringing their policy in line with the rest of the industry. Standard practice among brokers who provide micro accounts is that 1 micro-lot is the minimum increment of position size. It’s not common for micro-lot accounts to allow trading in fractions of a micro-lot.
[B][U]Profiforex[/U][/B]
Thanks, [I]rossiya[/I]
I will link your post #2371 to our Profiforex listing.
[B][U]U.S. regulatory BS[/U][/B]
The CFTC will do anything to destroy off-exchange spot forex trading in the United States. They’ve actually gone to court to argue [B][I]against[/I][/B] protecting institutional FX clients of Lehman Brothers, in the ongoing Lehman bankruptcy proceedings.
Article — CFTC Warns Court against Granting Investor Protections to FX Traders | Forex Magnates
[B][U]Canadian regulatory BS[/U][/B]
Today [I]Forex Magnates[/I] reports —
"IIROC has issued a revised table for all margin requirements of different currency pairs, with the notable change in the leverage ratio of the US dollar to the Canadian dollar and the Norwegian Krone versus the US dollar.
"Starting from January 15th, the margin requirements on the USD/CAD pair will be raised from 1.6% (1:62) to 1.9% (1:52), while on the USD/NOK, forex traders in Canada will have to put up 3.40% or 1:29 (up from 3.00% or 1:33).
“The list is updated by IIROC every time there are changes to the margin requirements in the most popular traded currencies. The organization determines the appropriate FX margin requirements according to a certain volatility threshold which is different for every currency group.”
Article — Canadian Dollar Decline Prompts Margin Requirement Hike
More on [B]FinFX[/B]
The FAQ page on their website still indicates that U.S. clients are welcome. However, their long and detailed answer to the question about regulation [I]implies[/I] that they will soon be getting into bed with the U.S. CFTC (through the infamous Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Finland) — and that will mean that FinFX will no longer deal with us. The little twirps at the CFTC must be giggling.
Here’s a copy-and-paste of two questions and answers from their FAQ page:
[B]Most popular questions[/B]
• Do you accept US / American clients?
Yes. Please, select the “American” as nationality in the application. Click for a new account.
• Is FinFX regulated?
We at FinFX were very happy to find out about the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority’s decision to require authorization for investment services relating to foreign exchange trading.
This is a very positive change and having the possibility to be regulated in Finland would provide a different level of security to our clients.
FinFX has been communicating with Finnish FSA for a long period of time in search for a possible regulation to be applied to Forex Brokers in Finland. Therefore, the decision made by Finnish FSA is exactly what we have been looking for. FinFX is one of the first ones to apply for Finnish FSA regulation and at the moment we are waiting for the application to process.
I asked Tallinex exactly which bank client funds would be held in, and was told TBI… I queried that and was supplied with the link. TBI Bank is in Bulgaria.
Why do you say it seems they are going to be holding client funds the same way as FinFX? The reference on their website to major banks is related to trading liquidity, as I understand it.
Yes, 100 standard lots. FinFX max is 200 standard lots.
Hi, Jikkie
Yes - some clients have contacted Tallinex based on information from FinFX stating that, due to regulatory reasons, FinFX will no longer offer brokerage services to U.S. citizens after 30/01/2015. Tallinex is based in St Vincent to ensure that we can continue providing the same good-quality trading facilities to everyone and, while regulation is not the most important thing from our perspective (because it doesn’t guarantee anything), we already conduct ourselves in all respects as though we were regulated. The main thing to keep in mind here is that companies such as PFG Best, MF Global, Refco, and the ever-popular Madoff Investments were regulated… and, between them, they managed to make about $20 BILLION disappear! :33:
So, the real result of regulation is not protection for clients - it’s huge amounts of additional paperwork, government reporting (which achieves nothing) and additional staff costs. The knock-on effect is restrictions on the clients a brokerage is allowed to accept and delays processing account applications.
As for recent reviews, of course it would be nice to see more of them, but what are they going to tell you in reality? Usually nothing more (and usually less!) than you could discover by reading our website. Remember that everyone’s circumstances are different so the best solution, by far, is to get some first-hand experience by opening a small live account and make your own decisions.
Regarding banking, funds are not kept in Bulgaria - we just use TBI to receive deposits, after which they are distributed between various financial institutions - our “Safety of funds” page (tallinex dot com/safety-of-funds) provides details.
As for our commission rates, yes - they are fixed, regardless of account balance as they are already extremely low.
Your actual comment to our support team was “even if depositing $1m?” …well, why would/should we reduce our commission rates just because someone deposits $1m? - you can have a $1m account and trade less than someone with a $100 account!
Finally, as JakkFrosted picked up, are you thinking of trading more than $1,000 per pip? Probably not… but if you are, and have an account balance to support that level of trading, then larger lot sizes are possible by arrangement… but not as standard.
First of all, we require a bank that will allow deposits from a wide spectrum of countries - once deposits are received, however, they are distributed between other financial institutions.
As for the issue of maximum lot size, FinFx may well allow 200 lots as standard, but they also limit you to 1:200 leverage - by contrast, our maximum leverage is 1:1000 and our default leverage is 1:400 (micro accounts) so the initial limitation on lot size ultimately comes down to risk.
With 1:200 leverage, you need a $100,000 account to trade 200 lots at FinFx.
At Tallinex, you would only need a $50,000 account which, at $2,000 per pip, would only allow 25 pips breathing space. For that reason, we have a lower initial limit for lot size.
Hi, Clint
It’s good to see you maintaining this list of brokers - it would just be nice not to see terms like “use extra due diligence” and “not regulated” without good cause, because they have such negative connotations.
To begin with, whether or not a broker is “regulated” depends on jurisdictional government - if local law views Spot Forex as a securities product then the broker must be regulated. If not, the broker has no obligation to impose regulatory burden upon itself.
Clearly, some brokers who have no need to be regulated will still go that “extra mile” and embrace regulation - simply to appear more “legitimate” to potential clients. However, doing so is almost guaranteed to preclude them from accepting US clients, so the move can be quite counter-productive for any broker looking beyond their own borders.
In terms of regulation itself, it really brings no advantages to the trader… but it usually brings a bunch of disadvantages and adds a huge staffing and reporting burden to the broker - essentially, nobody wins.
Sure, the “powers that be” will delight in telling the uninformed public how a tightly regulated environment ensures that their best interests are being looked out for.
I only have four things to say in response to that:
- PFG Best
- MF Global
- Refco
- Madoff Investments
As far as I can see, your “use extra due diligence” tag seems to be based on the location of the broker. I didn’t see this thread before today, but I presume that was not an attribute of our listing when we were based in Estonia. Interestingly, Estonian law didn’t consider Spot Forex a securities product back then, so our current regulatory environment in St Vincent is no different from our previous regulatory environment in Estonia.
That aside, the sole reason for relocating was one of principle - Tallinex certainly could have become regulated in Estonia, but doing so would require all US clients to be terminated… an unacceptable condition. Rather than bow to draconian rules, the decision was made to relocate to a British Commonwealth territory offering English law, stable government and a conducive regulatory environment.
Realistically, conditions for Tallinex clients are just as good as they were before - possibly even better.
I understand that properly researching each broker on the list is a huge task, but it would be a step in the right direction to at least contact brokers for some background information before simply tarring them all with the same “not regulated - use extra due diligence” brush.
Post #2404 has been linked to the [B]FinFX[/B] listing.
Posts #2406 and #2407 have been linked to the [B]Tallinex[/B] listing.
Clint, please do not remove any of the due diligence warnings on the first page.
Haven’t considered doing so. Why are you mentioning this?
Confused too. Not really sure what the purpose of removing it will be. 
I am responding to what Tallinex said to Clint two posts before my last one.