Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Hi Clint, I will give a Yes vote for Paxforex. I have been operating one of my accounts there and never faced any problems. Anyone looking to go offshore with a piece of mind I can only recommend them.

This is interesting. I’m not sure why I am getting quoted different prices from you.

Was your [B]Tallinex ECN-PRO[/B] a demo account or live account?

The Tal-Pro-USD account was a demo account, and all the pairs say “PairName_ecn” so I’m pretty sure it’s the right account. I’m seeing currently a 18 - 24 spread on GBPJPY, which by its self is not bad at all, if it wasn’t for the 6 point commission.

These differences in spread really won’t affect you if you do longer term trades as the spread is minuscule in comparison, but if you do short term trades, it can make a big difference.

Been trading with Traders Way now for 3 weeks. Spreads are tighter than any of the other 5 I have used. .2 on EURUSD, .7 on AUDUSD, 1.6 on GBPJPY as I’m typing. Execution is perfect. I try to spread my capital among several brokers to control risk, but I find myself trading more with Traders Way now. Definitely a yes vote for Traders Way.

Okay, now I see what you are looking at. Profiforex and Sensus have different options for the same pairings. Profiforex seems to be the most confusing of all with I think THREE different options. They also sometimes charge different commissions for different pairs.

Okay, so now I see what you’re talking about. But, I have yet to see if there is any slippage with Profiforex and Sensus. This can be a big hidden cost. I will keep monitoring to figure out the best scenario.

I will join you with your yes vote on Paxforex. As an offshore broker I think they do everything you would want them to which includes accepting US clients.

[U]New votes for “Trusted Broker[/U]”

Since the last update, [B]FxAll, The Last Bear,[/B] and [B]Rambo35[/B] have each voted for PaxForex.
Previously, the PaxForex point-count was -1. It now stands at +2.

Correction: The point-count previously posted for Trader’s Way is off by 1 “yes” vote.
Prior to today, the following 5 members voted “yes” for Trader’s Way:

[B]tomd100[/B] (post #2635)
[B]compounder[/B] (post #2636)
[B]Jean[/B] (post #2650)
[B]HyperScalper[/B] (post #2686)
[B]Dreher[/B] (post #2689)

In addition, [B]frank1234[/B] has voted for Trader’s Way, increasing their point-count to +6.

[U]Updated Vote Tally[/U] — top 6 brokers by point-count

[B]Trader’s Way[/B] — 6 points

[B]Profiforex[/B] — 4 points

[B]Pax Forex[/B] — 2 points

[B]Assets FX[/B] — 1 point (plus a “maybe”)

[B]Sensus Capital Markets[/B] — 1 point (plus a “maybe”)

[B]Forex Broker Inc[/B] — 1 point

The latest broker to join the Babypips Broker Aid Station forum is [B]RubixFX[/B] (Australia).

Like all Australian brokers, they answer to the U.S. CFTC — the World Forex Police — and, therefore, they cannot (or will not) deal with American clients. I have added this broker to Group 2 of our List.

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Hello Clint,
I am voting “No” for Profiforex as a “trusted broker” until I see an improvement in the funding options for US residents. This was a difficult decision. I’ve been using this broker for a couple of years with absolutely no problems. I think they are a reliable broker, plus they offer the “cent” accounts which are great for newbies. But the available funding options for US residents continues to be very limited.

Profiforex does not accept incoming bank wires, so we must choose from their list of credit card and digital payment options. It was my experience that credit cards issued by US banks do not work at Profiforex. When I opened my account I funded it using Paypal, but Paypal has since been removed as a deposit option. The only viable deposit option I see for US residents currently is Bitcoin.

I don’t think the other digital payment options listed will work for US residents. We are banned from using OKPAY, Webmoney, and Perfectmoney. Liqpay requires a credit card issued in CIS. I started to open an account with Yandex Money until I found out I would need to mail my application to Russia. Although Skrill accepts US accounts, they generally won’t allow us to use our wallet to fund financial-related sites – for sure not in Seychelles. Good luck trying to get a China Union Pay card.

Anyway, it would make me nervous to open a new account with this broker if my only deposit/withdrawal option was Bitcoin. That said, if there are any US residents out there who can report they’ve successfully deposited funds at Profiforex using some other method besides Bitcoin, [U]I will happily change my vote to “Yes”[/U]!

I do have a live account with Profiforex, and I could of sworn I saw Skrill as an available payment option so I went into a live chat with someone from Profiforex. They told me that they absolutely accept payments from Skrill and also send payments from Skrill. They also told me that they hopefully will have Paypall as an accepted payment method this week. I was told Paypall (when it comes available) / Skrill / Credit card would be the best payment methods for U.S clients.

I would like to add a vote for trusted broker on Tallinex, i have been trading with them since the account transfer and have had positive experiences thus far. My only gripe is that they want me to deposit the difference between my current account balance and the minimum opening deposit of 2000$ which i found frustrating as i wanted to deposit less…I told customer service they had lost a customer, however upon reflection i realize that they are simply trying to ensure that the accounts enjoying the benefits of their Pro account-type are sufficiently capitalized and that this capitalization is maintained across their account books…So i know Tallinex is a participant in this forum and i would like to take this opportunity to personally apologize for my respectful by impetuous response to their deposit policy, and to again thank them:53:…I have not made a withdrawal and if anyone thinks this should be a criteria before voting yes for “trusted” then by all means weigh in…Tallinex_“trusted”:54:

On another note I have recently opened an account with Assetsfx and am very much looking forward to trading this account and for right now with the experience i have had to this point i would vote for Assetsfx with a maybe, with the idea of confirming it at a later date…Again thanks Clint for keeping track…

This question is for Tallinex (or anyone else of whom knows the answer) :

On the Tallinex website it says for the ECN-PRO account the commission charge is $6 per lot (round turn). Is that meant for trades of $10 per pip? If it includes smaller trades of $1 per pip, then there are going to be issues with a lot of people. For example: What if I make trades of 1 lot of $1 per pip and I make 5 pips per trade? That means I will come out losing money due to the $6 dollar lot charge. Therefore, does Tallinex adjust for $1 per pip trades? Other brokers (or at the very least some of them) adjust their commission charge to fit the $1 per pip mini-lot size by charging 60 cents for the mini-lot trade, instead of the full $6. Does Tallinex do that?

If Tallinex adjusts their commission charge to appropriately fit the trade size, then I am heavily favoring Tallinex to be my broker. However, I will have to look elsewhere if they charge $6 commission everytime I make a 1$ per pip mini-lot trade.

By the way, I understand they have a ECN-MICRO account I can trade with, but the spreads of that account are a little too high.

Hi TimF,
That is great news about Skrill, if true. In the past, Skrill blocked transactions by US residents trying to fund Profiforex. I recall Profiforex used to have a note under the Skrill tab stating this method would not work for US residents due to Skrill policy. Interesting that note is gone now. Did Skrill have a change of heart? It might be the case that Skrill will now process a credit card transaction, but not let us use the digital wallet. Maybe I will re-open my Skrill account and play around with it.

Not sure what’s going on at Profiforex with regards to Paypal. In the past it was available as a deposit option. In fact, I used it to fund my account. But several months ago it disappeared from the list. Then it came back again. Recently it has disappeared again. But customer support says it will be coming back again? Wish they would make up their mind.

This morning I needed to add a little money, as I experiment with new strategies, to my Profiforex account, Shatners Last Stand, so I successfully deposited some using MasterCard (issued by the domestic Capital One Bank) which took about 4 seconds after I clicked “submit.” I typed in my first name only in the “card holder’s name” rectangle and my last name in the “card holder’s surname” rectangle. Went very smoothly. So I really think that you should not vote no for Profiforex, which does have one or more advantages over some brokers.

I agree with you that funding can be a very unpleasant hassle with some brokers. Some of their exotic funding options [B]really stink[/B]. They all need to use the great American invention of slick PayPal which is my favorite.

If you have a [B]Tallinex ECN-PRO[/B] account and trade a .10 lot size your commission will only be .60 cents. But, you still need to have $2,000 to open the account with.

Hello, Shatner

I’m going to wait until the dust settles on this funding issue, before adding your Profiforex vote to the tally. Please keep me updated.


Tallinex has already been designated as a “trusted broker”, so we’re not adding votes for Tallinex (or for FX Choice). But, I’m sure that Tallinex appreciates your vote of confidence.


Thanks, adamco. — I will add your “maybe” for AssetsFX to the next updated tally.


Correct. The commission is $6 per 100,000 units of base currency.

Which translates to 6¢ per 1,000 units.

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FX3422271, thank you very much for answering my question. That is good to hear that the commission for a .10 lot size will be only 60 cents instead of 6 dollars (provided that we have at least $2000 to open the account).

My next question to everyone in regards to Tallinex is: would I be better off trading $2000 with the ECN-PRO account or the ECN-MICRO account? With the ECN-MICRO account, there is no commission, but the spreads are higher. However, with the ECN-PRO, there IS a commission. BUT the spreads are lower. In the long run, when you add everything up, which is the cheaper way to go?

Just in case you need to know how many trades I make, I generally make between 5 - 10 trades a week (that averages 1 - 2 trades per day). And by the way, since the Pro 1:500 and the Micro 1:1000 leverages are both very good, then either leverage will work fine for me.

Hello Clint,
Based on confirmation from compounder that [B]Profiforex[/B] accepts US bank issued credit cards, I would like to give them a “[U]Yes[/U]” vote for Trusted Broker.

For me, a trusted broker, among other things, should offer at least 2 viable deposit/withdrawal options for US residents. Profiforex offers: Credit Card, Bitcoin, and (occasionally) Paypal. TimF mentioned US residents might now be able to use Skrill, as well, though I suspect it is for credit card processing only not their digital wallet. I’ll do some research on that.

Incidentally, I’m also interested in trying out the broker’s recently added Bitcoin funding method. Some people are probably avoiding this method because it seems bizarre, but it may actually turn out to be the cheapest. USD is deposited into the account. It appears Profiforex does not add any fees to the Dollar/Bitcoin conversion for both deposit and withdrawal. There is just the usual .0001 BTC fee to use the network.

Of course, there is still the issue of where to get the Bitcoins initially to send to Profiforex, and how best to cash out the Bitcoin withdrawal to a bank account. In the past, Coinbase would charge a 1% fee for these transactions, but the new Coinbase exchange does not charge a fee for limit orders (.25% for market orders). Once the Bitcoins are exchanged for USD, the funds can be sent to a bank account via ACH transfer. Coinbase does not charge a fee for ACH transfers.

Anyway, FX Choice, Traders Way, and Forex Metal also offer Bitcoin deposit/withdrawals, so I’m starting to take this Bitcoin thing more seriously.

Thanks for the update, Shatner. I’ll add your vote at the next posting of the tally.

Good luck with the Bitcoin thing. It ain’t my cup of tea.

And I’m surprised that you mention Forex Metal in the same breath as FX Choice and Trader’s Way.

I’m highly suspicious of Forex Metal. See 301 Moved Permanently.

Do you know something about Forex Metal that I don’t?

[U]Updated Vote Tally[/U] — the top 6 brokers by point-count

[B]Trader’s Way[/B] — 6 points

[B]Profiforex[/B] — 5 points

[B]Pax Forex[/B] — 2 points

[B]Assets FX[/B] — 1 point (plus 2 “maybe’s”)

[B]Sensus Capital Markets[/B] — 1 point (plus 1 “maybe”)

[B]Forex Broker Inc[/B] — 1 point