Going offshore to escape the CFTC

[Clint]

Let’s deal with some recommendations that have been on the table for awhile.

MidasFX (SVG) — first mentioned by tomd100 back in March. https://my.midasfx.com/ – FWIW: Opening an account with Midas took me 30 seconds. I just entered my email address, selected one of 4 account types, chose my account currency, and instantly I was welcomed, and ready to deposit.

FxSway (St. Lucia) — also first menttioned by tomd100. https://fxsway.com/ — Physical location: Sofia, Bulgaria (that’s different). I didn’t play around with this one.

Number One Capital Markets (Vanuatu) — aka 1NCM — first mentioned 3 months ago, and a couple of times since. https://www.n1cm.com/

Capital Street FX (Mauritius and SVG) — mentioned recently. Capital Street FX - CFD & Forex Trading | Online Trading | Trading

GCI Financial (St. Lucia) — mentioned recently by whywescalp. https://www.gcitrading.com/ — They have a pretty harsh statement regarding the U.S.: “GCI Financial LTD does not offer its services if you are a citizen or resident of … Yemen, Uganda or the United States of America.” — I didn’t probe, to see whether they actually adhere to this policy.

---

Let me know what, if anything, you guys want to do with these recommendations.

[SmallPaul]

@Clint

MidasFX (SVG) — first mentioned by tomd100 back in March. https://my.midasfx.com/ – FWIW: Opening an account with Midas took me 30 seconds. I just entered my email address, selected one of 4 account types, chose my account currency, and instantly I was welcomed, and ready to deposit.

FxSway (St. Lucia) — also first menttioned by tomd100. https://fxsway.com/ — Physical location: Sofia, Bulgaria (that’s different). I didn’t play around with this one.

The two are on my list, but I only traded with Fxway when they had MT4, I’d add both to our list.

[_METHOS]

@Clint

Let me know what, if anything, you guys want to do with these recommendations.

-I think that having a candidates list, as well as a trusted list, is probably the best way to go about this. That way, as people try out the various brokers on the candidates list, they can report their findings back to this thread so that said brokerages can eventually be considered for the trusted list.

Probably, any firm that accepts US traders should qualify for the candidates list unless proven to be a scam or something. Just my take on it, since the opportunities seem to be dwindling by the day.

[_METHOS]

Had an interesting conversation with N1CM support.

After realizing that I could not open up a demo account to check their conditions without first finishing my KYC (uploading documents), I asked about it and was offered to have a demo account set up for me. I asked why traders needed to jump through hoops in order to set up a demo account and was told that they must do this in order to keep their licenses.

I told him that other brokers are not doing this, and he told me that most of them have lost their meta licenses due to new requirements. He also suspected that some of them may have more licenses than N1CM has at the moment (whatever that means; maybe bigger/VIP firms are getting away with more?).

I asked him why META was imposing these new requirements, and if they were being pressured by regulators, or, if this move was being done at META’s own discretion. He told me that they were being pressured as a result of the money laundering case with Binance. He said that most of the brokers are required to do more and that some of them had to change their platforms (presumably because they were unable/unwilling to comply).

If there is any truth to this, then it would seem that regulators are targeting platform providers instead of individual brokers, which is really setting a bad precedent. We know that this is how they operate, but this just seems like a huge overstep to me. Instead of holding brokers accountable, they are bullying META into taking on that responsibility to ensure that all brokers are operating above board (especially the brokers that are unreachable to regulators, no doubt).

This is little different than going after gun manufacturers and holding them responsible for any wrongdoing (lack of checks) that gun resellers/vendors may decide to carry out. This just seems totally insane to me that they are getting away with this.

[SmallPaul]

@_METHOS

they are bullying META into taking on that responsibility to ensure that all brokers are operating above board (especially the brokers that are unreachable to regulators, no doubt).

We shouldn’t be surprised if U.S. regulators take their list of offshore brokers that accept US citizens and then come up with some BS excuse to force Metatrader to provide the names and contact information for those brokers.

If I were an offshore broker using Metatrader and accepting U.S. traders, I would be very concerned

[Elmer013]

Hey, Ive been using Hugosway for a long time, just recently theyre not allowing withdrawals. Whilst looking for a solution i came across this thread. Does anyone share the same issue with withdrawals? They have worked great for a lot of years. Is there anything that can be dont besides patience or does anyone have more informaion?

[Clint]

@_METHOS

@Clint

Let me know what, if anything, you guys want to do with these recommendations.

I think that having a candidates list, as well as a trusted list, is probably the best way to go about this.

Probably, any firm that accepts US traders should qualify for the candidates list unless proven to be a scam or something.

A candidates list? That’s what we’ve been developing for 13 years — it’s referred to as Group 1 of our Offshore Brokers List.

A trusted list? That’s what you will find within Group 1 — the two brokers designated as Trusted Brokers.

[_METHOS]

@Clint

A candidates list? That’s what we’ve been developing for 13 years — it’s referred to as Group 1 of our Offshore Brokers List.

A trusted list? That’s what you will find within Group 1 — the two brokers designated as Trusted Brokers.

-You asked what we should do with the recommendations. This is what I think should be done. If a broker accepts US traders and is not a known scammer, then put them on list 1. Over time, move to list 2 if enough traders can vouch for them.

[HATCH13]

You can ass pat him/her all you want.

They’ve been pumping Hanko and that their shitty act platform in every last post up till.

It’s pretty clear what the agenda is.

I was gonna be nice, but here’s my agenda. Hanko is a sketchy broker to deal with regardless.

Here’s a set of trades put on during the Asian session when there was NO volatility and the ADR was around .0007…No news, no volatility, the spread was tight, NOTHING…the market was dead quiet.

Their pricing was ■■■■■■■ up since it was last day before their “migration”.

This is their actual reply:

"These were BUY trades of EURUSD opened on 4th December 2023.

Kindly note that even if a trader wants to buy/sell at a specific price, they may not actually receive that price; instead, they may receive the best price available in the market, which depends on the time the order closes, the volume, and market volatility.

The market was extremely volatile during the duration of these trades.

Since we are a pure ECN broker, we aggregate the price from the liquidity providers, so low market volume and high market volatility cause price fluctuations, resulting in trades not stopping at the exact price assigned and being executed at the next best available price.

This is normal during times when the price movements from one tick to another tick are high. It is a general market phenomenon over which we, as brokers, have no control."

These ■■■■■■■ will LIE to the point they think they’re speaking to some mouth breather that doesn’t know what they’re doing, let alone see sketchy pricing/fills.

Hanko is on my list of top sketchiest off-shore brokers.

That’s MY honest opinion and experience…

[SmallPaul]

@Elmer013

Hey, Ive been using Hugosway for a long time, just recently theyre not allowing withdrawals. Whilst looking for a solution i came across this thread. Does anyone share the same issue with withdrawals? They have worked great for a lot of years. Is there anything that can be dont besides patience or does anyone have more informaion?

You should also post this problem on Forexpeacearmy, Trustpilot and on hugosway social media pages.

This problem first came to my attention around the time they stopped using Metatrader, but they eventually brought it back and the problem still ongoing.

[Clint]

• I will add the following 4 brokers to our List, with details, specs and trading conditions to follow, as time permits in the next few days:

MidasFX (SVG) — https://my.midasfx.com/

FxSway (St. Lucia) — https://fxsway.com/

Number One Capital Markets (Vanuatu) — aka 1NCM — https://www.n1cm.com/

Capital Street FX (Mauritius and SVG) — Capital Street FX - CFD & Forex Online Trading

---

• I will wait to add the following broker to our List, pending confirmation that they do, in fact, host U.S. clients:

GCI Financial (St. Lucia) — https://www.gcitrading.com/

[Em3]

Has anyone been able to find out more information on what is going on with FxChoice and their future?

I’m still a bit spooked and unsure if to even keep any money there. The original message made it seem like they were shutting down but I’ve tried getting some limited information thru their chat and I’ve gotten this.

“We are not closing up. We were just forced to divest ourselves of all crypto holdings. There will be alternative deposit methods starting in the new year.”

“You will be able to trade again.”

Thoughts? Anyone keeping their money there?

[SmallPaul]

@Em3

“You will be able to trade again.”

are you not able to trade?

[Xanaphlaxes]

FXChoice has made it clear they will no longer allow deposit/withdrawal using crypto after Christmas. I don’t see any other current method that a US trader can use to withdraw.
Therefore, I withdrew all of my crypto.

If they add a new option, I will evaluate it at that time.

[Em3]

I believe on the 19th all accounts were made into close only for trades

[Xanaphlaxes]

So many questions

"Starting 12 December, we will not be accepting any new deposits, in crypto or traditional currencies.

Starting 19 December, all trading accounts will be in close-only mode. You will be able to close old trades but not open new ones."

If they have a new way to make deposits and withdrawals that is not cryptos or traditional currencies, what could it be?
Hey, if we have to start using gold bars, or goats and chickens, ok. We are in unusual times!

[SmallPaul]

@Xanaphlaxes

Starting 19 December, all trading accounts will be in close-only mode. You will be able to close old trades but not open new ones."

@Xanaphlaxes

"Starting 12 December, we will not be accepting any new deposits, in crypto or traditional currencies.

If they are not accepting crypto or traditional currencies for deposits, they must be going out of business.

Also, are withdrawals permitted? If so, how?

[_METHOS]

@Xanaphlaxes

If they have a new way to make deposits and withdrawals that is not cryptos or traditional currencies, what could it be?
Hey, if we have to start using gold bars, or goats and chickens, ok. We are in unusual times!

-I suspect that their meaning is that they are temporarily suspending all deposit methods until the new system is in place (and all trades have been closed out etc.), in other words, not accepting any NEW deposits during that time. Once in place, they will likely accept traditional fiat deposits again. I can only guess, though.

In terms of how, it could be some kind of online payment processor. I have seen some brokers offering transfers through 3rd-parties (Perfect Money, FasaPay, PaymentAsia, SticPay etc.), but the company websites usually leave much to be desired and do not give off a very secure vibe. I am not entirely sure if these options are available to US traders, though.

[SmallPaul]

here is a list of fxchoice deposit and withdrawal methods

Method		Deposit	Withdrawal
[

Visa
](Visa - FXChoice)|||Refunds only|
|

Mastercard
|||Refunds only|
|

Airtm
|0% Fee|||
|

Skrill
|0% Fee|||
|

NETELLER
||||
|

Perfect Money
||||
|

PaySafeCard
||||
|

Astropay
|0% Fee|||
|

Poli
||||
|

Payredeem
||||
|

SPEI®
|0% Fee|||
|

Deposit Express
|0% Fee|||
|

Boleto
|0% Fee|||
|

OXXO
|0% Fee|||
|

Todito
|0% Fee|||
|

Pix
|0% Fee|||
|

Loterias Caixa
|0% Fee|||
|

Sticpay
||||
|

Payop
|||Refunds only|
|

Advсash
||||
|

PromptPay
||||
|

Epay
|0% Fee|||
|

FasaPay
|

[SmallPaul]

There are so many deposit methods. I’m not sure what else they can use. Business-wise, it doesn’t look good