Archives: Brokers

Is Aleforex Scam or Legit Broker?

It is not safe to trade with Aleforex. The broker is suspected of being a scam. The broker mentions its FCA license, yet when we investigated further, we do not come up with any evidence as proof. So,  it leaves us with an assumption that Aleforex only pretends to be a regulated broker. 

• This means that Aleforex is not regulated by any world authority and investing with it will put your funds at risk. 

What is Aleforex?

Aleforex is a Forex broker. The company doesn't provide any information about its location or the entity behind this brand name as well as contact details. The website states that Aleforex is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK.

• However, we didn't find any records about this broker in the FCA's register. Also, they provide the list of the affiliate brokerages: Valutrade, MEXGroup, XTB. All three brokers are regulated and have a good reputation, although they don't have any connections with Aleforex. All these facts should be enough to understand that the broker is not reliable, not regulated and better be avoided.
• In addition, Spain's regulator CNMV has issued a warning against Aleforex:
  "Aleforex/forextrading.cat is not authorised to provide the investment services detailed in Article 140 of the Securities Markets Law, which includes investment advice, or to provide the auxiliary services detailed in letters a), b), d), f) and g) of Article 141 of the said Law in relation to the financial instruments detailed in Article 2 of the said Law, including, for those purposes, foreign currency transactions."

Aleforex Review Conclusion

As a general rule dealing with unregulated brokers is risky and we recommend that clients choose properly licensed and supervised brokers. It is safe to trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as HFM and TMGM.

Aleforex Update

Our research revealed that the Aleforex website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is YFX Capital Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with YFX Capital. YFX Capital is owned by T.W capital LTD, registered offshore, in the Marshall Islands.

• The Marshall Islands is notorious for its practically absent requirements and regulations. Due to the setup cost being low, it does not regulate forex trading. Therefore, it became an offshore zone for shady forex brokers such as Globalix, Capital88, and more.

What is YFX Capital?

YFX Capital is a Forex broker offers its clients a variety of trading options and products, including CFDs. The broker doesn't disclose any information about its regulation, as well as its location. There are two contact phone numbers mentioned in the "Contact Us" section, those numbers are Spanish and British. However, the broker is definitely not authorized to provide financial services in those countries.

• Moreover, YFX Capital has been blacklisted by Spain's regulator CNMV in July 2017:

"YFX CAPITAL/www.yfxcapital.com is not authorized to provide the investment services detailed in Article 140 of the Securities Markets Law, which include investment advice, or to provide the auxiliary services detailed in letters a), b), d), f) and g) of Article 141 of the said Law in relation to the financial instruments detailed in Article 2 of the said Law, including, for those purposes, foreign currency transactions."

YFX Capital Review Conclusion

We advise all investors and traders to avoid YFX Capital and other brokers from the Marshall Islands. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FXTM and XM.com.

YFX Capital Update

Our research revealed that the YFX Capital website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is 4xFX Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with 4xFX. 4xFX is a Forex and CFD broker owned and operated by GRF EUROPE OÜ, an Estonia-based company that claims it is registered with a Register of Economic Activities.

• However, it does not mean the broker is regulated and authorized to deliver its service, as the register is just a register without any follow of the company sustainability and delivery of the financial service itself. Despite this, actually, every EU-based company should hold a license that proves the company’s sustainability before its service is offered in the market and to potential clients.

What is 4xFX?

Even though the company mentions its trusted and secure financial service provided through meeting high regulatory and financial standards, the company, in fact, is not regulated or overseen by any reputable authority. Therefore, 4XFX is another non-regulated trading provider among the thousands of other companies we do not advise trading with.

• The broker has also been banned by several regulators:

  "The business listed below (4XFX) has made unsolicited calls or sent emails about investing, financial advice, credit or loans and does not hold a current Australian Financial Services (AFS) license or an Australian Credit license from ASIC." ASIC, 10 January 2019

• "Finantsinspektsioon (the Estonian Financial Supervisory Authority) would like to inform clients and investors that GRF Europe OÜ does not hold an activity license for the provision of investment services in Estonia and therefore GRF Europe OÜ is not authorized to provide investment services in Estonia." Estonian FSA, 14 January 2019

4XFX Review Conclusion 

We advise all investors and traders to avoid 4xFX and other unregulated brokers. Trusting your investments to unregulated Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as IG Markets and XM.com.

4XFX Update

Our research revealed that the 4xFX website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is CCM Clearing Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with CCM Clearing. The concern about CCM Clearing, is their non-authorized nature of trading and investment services performance. The broker is regulated or authorized by none of the entities, which is, in fact, mandatory for European-based companies. 

What is CCM Clearing?

The CCM Clearing is a trading platform that claims its true multi-bank liquidity and cross-asset margin trading for Forex, CFDs, and Options from one account. CCM Clearing states its operation and management by a multi-national group of seasoned FX professionals, while the office itself is based in Bulgaria.

• As any authority put its efforts to protect traders and to establish true offerings in the market through authorized activity, New Zealand recently flagged CCM Clearing. The company was detected offering trading activities in New Zealand and other entities without its legal permission to do so. Moreover, the broker was revealed in connection to Rocket Consultant Group, United FCG, and World Advisory Group, meaning the broker in fact operated through other names as well.
• As well, the company reviews show negative responses with issues appearing during withdrawal processing or while trading.

“REASON FOR WARNING: It could be involved in a scam; Unreasonable withholding of client funds; It is not a registered financial service provider in New Zealand.”

FMA, New Zealand. November 2018.

CCM Clearing Review Conclusion

As a result, we recommend avoiding trading with CCM Clearing and its associated entities and strongly avoiding any discussion with non-authorized brokerages, due to their highest risks to lose money. In turn, it is much safer to choose among the regulated forex brokers alike UK’s FCA, Australian ASIC, or other similar authorities. There are many trustworthy companies such as FBS and BlackBull Markets recommended to traders as safe and reliable choices.

CCM Clearing Update

Based on our research, the CCM Clearing website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is CF Merchants Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with CF Merchants. The company is owned and operated by CF Merchants Limited, which is an offshore company registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadine.

• St. Vincent and the Grenadines is notorious for its practically absent requirements and regulations. Due to the setup cost being low, it does not regulate forex trading. Therefore, it became an offshore zone for shady forex brokers such as CapitalXP, TraderUR, and more. You can read our detailed article about the risk of trading with brokers from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

What is CF Merchants?

CF Merchants provides exchanging services for more than 50 currency pairs as well as indices, CFDs, gold, silver, oil and other commodities. According to the website, the organization was established in March 2011 and Company is incorporated in St. Vincent & the Grenadines as an International Trading company with the registration number 24535 IBC 2018.

• However, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has announced that it does not issue any licenses for forex trading or brokerage nor does it regulate, monitor, supervise or license international companies, which engage in such activities. It means that CF Merchants or any other Forex broker that claims to be registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is not allowed to provide its financial services to the public.

Overall CF Merchants Ranking 

We found multiple regulation and safety issues with CF Merchants, thus we do not rank positively CF Merchants, based on our Expert Opinion with over 10 Years of experience in Forex Trading.

• CF Merchants Overall Ranking is 2 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to 500 other brokers, see Our Ranking below compared to other popular and industry Leading Brokers.

CF Merchants Alternative Brokers

We revealed that CF Merchants has a lot of issues, especially in respect of its safety and customer care. Thus, here are much better Alternatives to CF Merchants with tight regulations and favorable trading conditions. We select Good Brokers and reliable options for your comparison below: 

• Dukascopy – Excellent for Shares, Futures Trading
• AvaTrade – Good Instrument and CopyTrading
• InteractiveBrokers – Good for US Trading and Trading of Real Stocks

Deposit & Withdrawal

At CF Merchants, making deposits and withdrawals is simple and quick. The broker offers multiple funding options, including Bank wire transfers, Visa and Mastercard payment cards, plus Skrill, Perfect Money, Neteller, tether, etc. 

• For all deposits/withdrawals through bank wire, there is a limit on the minimum transfer amount without charges. For withdrawals of less than $100, $20 per transaction will be charged as a processing fee.
• Any third-party payments (deposits/withdrawals) are not accepted.
• All withdrawals will be processed the same as the client-adopted payment system. Bank wire to bank wire, Skrill to Skrill, Neteller to Neteller, Perfect Money to Perfect Money, and credit card to credit card.

CF Merchants Review Conclusion

We advise all investors and traders to avoid CF Merchants and other brokers from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Traders should trade with well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as IG Markets and BlackBull Markets.

• Overall ranking and experience for CF Merchants is Negative

Is MCH Investment Strategies Scam or Legit Broker?

No, it is not safe to trade with MCH Investment Strategies. The broker claims to be located in London, the UK, however, it is not regulated by the UK's regulator FCA, which is obligatory for brokerage companies in the United Kingdom.

• This means that the services the broker offers might put the trader's investments at risk. We recommend choosing only regulated brokers to stay away from financial fraud. 

What is MCH Investment Strategies?

MCH Investment Strategies is a Forex, CFD, and cryptocurrency broker. The company doesn't provide information about the companies behind the brand as well as regulations. 

• It gets a bit confusing when terms and conditions give the details about some other, not connected to MCH Investment Strategies companies: "HexaBank is the trading name of Partner Communication LTD" and "Activities Regulated Markets Law of 2007 (Law 144(I)/2007) through the website www.gmt-crypto.com". It looks like the website used to have a different name, but they forgot to change the terms and conditions.
  Moreover, Spain's regulator CNMV has recently issued a warning against MCH Investment Strategies:
  " MCH INVESTMENT STRATEGIES/www.mchinvestment.com is not authorized to provide the investment services detailed in Article 140 of the Securities Markets Law, which include investment advice, or to provide the auxiliary services detailed in letters a), b), d), f) and g) of Article 141 of the said Law in relation to the financial instruments detailed in Article 2 of the said Law, including, for those purposes, foreign currency transactions."

MCH Investment Strategies Review Conclusion

We strongly advise traders to avoid unregulated brokers such as MCH Investment Strategies, especially when there are warnings against them. It is always safer to deal with companies licensed by reputable financial watchdogs such as UK’s FCA or Australia’s ASIC. Here you may check our list of brokers licensed by the FCA.

MCH Investment Strategies Update

Our research revealed that the MCH Investment Strategies website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is TheCryptoLimited Scam or Legit Broker?

TheCryptoLimited is not a secure Forex broker since it does not hold a license from any worldwide serious Forex authority. Meaning the broker is suspected of being a fraud company since it was not checked for its compliance before establishment, was never monitored in terms of its safety, and simply may operate the business in any way it wishes.

What is TheCryptoLimited?

TheCryptoLimited is a trading provider that claims its transparent real trades and rates through an innovative trading platform and reliable operation. The address of the firm states United Kingdom with the registration name of the company Crypto Consultancy Ltd. However, the facts show that every financial investment firm incorporated in the UK jurisdiction should hold a license from FCA. Since TheCryptoLimited is not a registered firm, even the address might be fake.

• The broker states its several prizes received for innovations, as well as the highest ratings for reliability and trust, and was supposedly Voted best Bitcoin broker in 2017. However, the information doesn’t seem to be true as there is no any mentioning of the official sources or confirmation of the status. In addition, the broker received a warning from a France authority while further, the EU regulators followed an alert, since the broker used heavy advertising tactics to attract potential clients.

  “The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the Autorité de contrôle prudential et de resolution (ACPR) warn the public about a number of unauthorized online investment services in France for derivatives whose underlying include crypto assets. A list of unauthorized sites offers trading of derivatives without its permission to do so.”

  AMF, France. December 2018.

TheCryptoLimited Review Conclusion

As we recommend to any trader, especially beginner ones choose the broker carefully and ensure that the entity offering regulated services that ensure clients' protection. Scams often fake information they provide, thus the lists of registrations assist in verification through official regulatory websites at all times. In order not to fall under fraud trade only with regulated entities and trading providers.

Choose well-regulated brokers such as UK brokers or brokers in Australia and reliable brokers such as FXTM, eToro (Read about eToro forex broker), and Alpari.

TheCryptoLimited Update

Based on our research, the TheCryptoLimited website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is Capital Traders Scam or Legit Broker?

Capital Traders has been suspected as scam broker. According to the website, Capital Traders is providing financial services and is located in Estonia. However, the broker does not hold any license in the country, thus being an unreliable broker for investments.

What is Capital Traders?

Capital Traders position themselves as the ultimate choice for crypto traders with a huge variety of assets and elegant trading platform, as well as a professional partnership with 300+ banks. Moreover, the company mentions its authorized and regulated status, however, does not hold any reputable license apart from the establishment certificate. In addition, the legal consultation is provided by the PANAMERA CAPITAL GROUP LTD which is located in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a known offshore zone.

• As long as the company is incorporated within the EU, the broker should confirm its reliability status along with the necessary proves of safe service, that are crucial for a good trading provider. The above-mentioned issue, as well as other international compliance with a constant overseen of operation,  is provided by the specific authorities that monitor markets. These reputable entities include UK’s FCA Brokers, Australian ASIC Brokers, and other regulated companies, thus it is much safer to choose among those brokers.
• The Capital Traders, yet, cannot be proud of a reliability status, due to lack of serious regulation and therefore the company appeared in a blacklisting of the Belgium FSMA. The authority received complaints from the investors and strongly advises to protect potential traders from a fraud offering. The unregulated firms, in fact, cause highest risks while the trader may fall under the uncertain situation of fund management, market manipulation or typical issue with money withdraws.

“You may be approached after having expressed interest in an advertisement published on social media or other websites that sings the praises of cryptocurrencies. If you click on such an advertisement, you will be asked to fill in a contact form with your email address and phone number. In the next few days, you will first receive a phone call from a telephone salesperson, who will offer you some explanations of cryptocurrencies and direct you to the 'company’s' website.”

FMSA, Belgium. October 2018.

Capital Traders Review Conclusion

We advise to stay away from Capital Traders and sign in with Regulated Brokers only that hold a reliable license and are constantly overseen.  There are many companies that are licensed by the regulators like UK’s FCA brokers such as FBS and BlackBull Markets recommended as the best trading company provider.

Capital Traders Update

Based on our research, the Capital Traders website is inactive. This means the broker has muted its trading offering and does not operate. However, we recommend avoiding and staying alert in case of any proposals. 

Is CentroBanc Scam or Legit Broker?

CentroBanc is a 100% fraud company. The broker is registered offshore and does not hold any proper license from a well-known reliable financial regulator. It is NOT SAFE to trade with CentroBanc. We never advise trading with an offshore broker, since the financial investment service they deliver is not trustable.

• The reason is simple: the broker may promise the most ever competitive trading conditions or the trading environment, yet the trader has no guarantee from the official entities overseeing the Forex industry. Thus, engaging in trading with such a company means the trader will believe only in the broker’s words, and of course, it is a high risk.

What is CentroBanc?

CentroBanc is a broker offering a variety of Forex pairs and CFDs. The company is owned and operated by Sucaba Enterprise Ltd. based in the Marshall Islands.

The Centrobanc itself is located in Liechtenstein and judging from the phone numbers of Customer Support (Italian, English, German and Spanish) is targeting EU residents without being authorized in any of those countries.

• Moreover, the Austrian FMA has recently issued a warning against Sucaba Enterprise Ltd. (CentroBanc) stating that the firm is not entitled to carry out banking transactions in Austria that require a license.
• Also, they emphasize that there is no connection between the operator of the website www.centrobanc.com and Raiffeisen Centrobank AG (a regulated and trustworthy entity).

CentroBanc Review Conclusion

We recommend dealing only with adequately licensed brokers that provide sufficient security to clients' funds. Reliable and well-respected financial authorities such as UK's FCA or Australia's ASIC have strict requirements for licensed brokers (Read about forex trading Australia) and participate in funds compensation schemes (for example, Financial Services Compensation Scheme from FCA that ensures up to 50 000 GBP of the traders' capital). Check the list of FCA-regulated brokers here. We advise to sign in with trustworthy brokers, such as Eightcap and BlackBull Markets.

CentroBanc Update

Our findings showed that CentroBanc is no longer active. The broker’s website is unavailable to reach. Besides, there is no evidence of whether the broker operates or not. We recommend avoiding any offshore-based brokers due to their instability and lack of serious regulations.