Have you ever posted a review for a fintechzoom best forex broker review, or post?
There are heaps of Forex review sites out there that allow any user to post reviews. From the big boys like ForexPeaceArmy.com to the smaller guys like ReviewPips.com and ForexReviews.com. These review sites can be pretty useful when it comes to buying Forex products. However, if you’re looking for fintechzoom best forex broker reviews these sites are worse than useless!
It is not the websites fault, for the most part the review sites themselves are unbiased. However, many of the users who leave reviews are biased or just idiots.
We all know the Forex market is full of people who never make it. And we all know how it goes:
- They open a live account.
- They blow all their money.
And then, instead of taking responsibility for their losses (most of the time it’s their own fault) they blame their broker. For some reason they believe their broker is so interested in stealing their $100 account that they were singled out for stop hunting. This is a ridiculous notion when you consider the big boy brokers make tens of millions per year.
Do you think they really care about ripping off tiny accounts?
Trust me the brokers know the odds. They know most newbie traders are perfectly capable of blowing their own accounts. The broker doesn’t need to do anything but give them the opportunity to trade. The newbies take care of the rest, taking dumb trades and losing money is what newbies do (when I was a newbie I blew my first two accounts in a few weeks).
When these newbies blow their accounts what do they do?
- They run to a Forex review site.
- They write a review about how they got ripped off by their broker.
- They give the broker a very low rating.
So instead of taking responsibility for their own screw-ups they blame their broker for them. This absolutely sucks for the brokers themselves. They have done nothing but offer the opportunity to trade and they get reamed by newbie’s for it. It also sucks for other newbie’s looking for a broker. All you can find online is biased reviews from clueless newbie’s.
The whole concept of Forex broker review sites is flawed. Some awesome brokers like GFT Forex (My fav broker) and MB Trading (another fav of mine) have 3 stars on ForexPeaceArmy.
That is ridiculous!
I have used both those brokers for years and I have rarely if ever had a problem. When I do have issues the support staff are very helpful. For example, MB trading once even handed me the money back for a trade that I took. Their price feed had a problem that day and it went higher than it was meant to go. I entered a trade based on a spike that didn’t really happen. The trade ended up losing. I called up and they apologized profusely and gave me back all my losses.
With reviews what happens is a bunch of newbies sign up with a good broker. Through their own mistakes they lose all their money. Then instead of taking responsibility they leave negative reviews about the brokers performance.
One of the most commonly used accusations levelled against brokers is slippage during highly volatile period. Well yeh…… if you jump in a trade the second NFP is released don’t be surprised if you’re slipped 30 pips. It is the nature of trading, you do not get perfect fills when the market is jumping up 20 pips per second. If you’re silly enough to take trades in highly volatile periods expect to be slipped.
What this all boils down to is that review websites are useless when it comes to broker reviews. The majority of reviews are submitted by clueless newbie’s who blame their broker for their own screw ups. I you’re looking for a broker to trade with ask a professional trader for advice. Professional traders have been around long enough and know their stuff. For example here is my short list of good brokers:
- GFT Forex (awesome charts, great customer support and great to trade with).
- MBTrading – If you want an ECN instead of a market maker MBTrading is the best out there for smaller accounts.
- ODL – If you cannot live without the MT4 platform give GooeyTrade a shot its a great trading platform.
- Dukascopy – If you want a ECN and you have the minimum $10k account size requirement Dukascopy is one of the best ECN’s out there. With a $10k buy in though it is not for everybody.
I have traded with all these brokers and I personally recommend them all.
However, according to the reviewers on ForexPeaceArmy.com
- GFT has 3 stars.
- MBTrading also has 3 stars.
- ODL has a measly 2 stars.
And surprise surprise!
- Dukascopy has 4 stars!
Does that mean Dukascopy are better than GFT and MBTrading….. No! I believe that Dukascopy has a higher rating for another reason. You see, until recently Dukascopy only allowed traders with $50k capital to open accounts. That means that Dukascopy limited its clientele to professional traders (not many newbie’s have $50k). Professional traders leave real reviews because they know what they’re talking about. Therefore Dukascopy has 4 stars. Just goes to show how little cry baby newbie’s screw up review systems.
So the tip of the week….. Take fintechzoom best forex broker reviews with a grain of salt. Newbies have no clue how to trade so they have no right to jump up on their soap box and tell the world if a broker is good or not.
judd
Great story nick i agree 100%, i am a newbie and yes i blew my first 500$ accout prity quick, my folt, clueless i think is the word, but that was 10 months ago ,still trading still having dodgy days, but a lot more good days, Judd.
PipperySlipples
I know a lot of peeps that love Oanda but apparently the charting leaves a bit to be desired, so most of them use MT4 demo accounts for technical analysis.
Personally I have accounts with GFT and GoMarkets. I have found both to be great and also have downsides in their own way but it’s nothing you cant work around. I’ve heard a lot of complaints on other forums about GoMarkets order entry speed recently on live accounts … personally I have no issue but maybe if you’re silly enough to trade a 1 min chart then a few seconds delay is crucial … on a 4hr chart I barely notice, as long as it’s not 10-20 pips of slippage then the market movements compensate with interest.
shaun
Makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Adam
Great piece Nick, glad to see someone can see through the murky water!
Russ
I used GFT for a while too and found them excellent. The only problem I had was the Vista computer wouldn’t run it properly. Also the charts are slow to respond. I tried for 5 months to get it to run properly so I liked it a lot. I am with FxPro now and love it. It came highly recommended by profitable traders. Been using it for Demo trading only now for 18 months no prob, although I do have a huge $2K USD in it too.
NickB
@Russ:
It did have a few issues on the initial release of Vista which I have to say was ridiculous. Vista was available in Beta for a year before it was released. They should have been prepared for it’s release. I was very pissed of with GFT for that, I do not see how a company as large as that could not update software essential to their business.
However, it seems with Windows 7 they got their act together as I was able to install and use Dealbook and I had Windows 7 on release day.
The program itself is a little resource intensive and it is slow to react at times. However, it does work for me consistently and I have been using it for roughly 4 years.
TNT
Hi
I think i am agree with that. Open a $100 account and then wupti $10000 it’s not that easy to trade. But in your curse you talk about brokers stop hunting. What do you exatly mean with that? and when do i now if it’s a brokers hunting?
I gues it’s only on spread-betting accounts and marketmaker accounts things like that can happen or what?
phreddy
“Newbies have no clue how to trade so they have no right to jump up on their soap box and tell the world if a broker is good or not.”
Had I not been a newbie I would have had comments to make about the attitude taken in this piece.
Since my view would be discounted I will not bother other than to add that although new to forex I have a wealth of other experience.
Visulube
I also use GFT Nick, the dealbook is a great program, lets you trade straight off charts.
JL Trader
One of the problems is that new traders don’t really invest the time, energy and money that it takes to learn how to trade. Of course, brokers know the basic maths: if more than 90% of newbies lose, they just have to trade against them and they will win at least 90% of the times. Anyway, the brokers can (and they do it) improve their results even more if they “slightly” manipulate the quotations in their favor at critical moments. For instance, MT4 is a platform that was designed to work in a dealing desk environment. Because a lot of newbies do not want to trade on another platform, companies like MB Trading had to modify the entire code of MT4 in order to get rid of the dealing desk back-office operation mode.
It is certainly much easier to trade with MT4, which is a user friendly platform, that to learn how to use a platform like MB Trading’s Navigator. To use the Navigator you must know how to trade, you must learn it and you must know what to do with all those “complicated” orders. MB Trading’s charts are also useless for a professional trader, so you must pay for external charts, like eSignal. And spreads are not fixed spreads. A new trader doesn’t care that the spread for the EURUSD is less than 1 pip most of the day, because he doesn’t know how the work with it. For all those reasons, the new guys come in an give three stars to the good brokers.
Somebody told me that International Brokers work in an ecn manner, very similar to MB Trading, but I didn’t check it.
John Edwards
What, no love for FXCM? I love the Trading Station II platform with Marketscope. I’ve never liked the clunky interface with MT4, even though it is so customizable and you can use it with FXCM.
nbcexchange
I completely agree with Nick. As a matter of fact, the one thing that is also true, that wasn’t mentioned is that most of these reviews are done by folk who lose money. Rarely do the rest of us, who are actually successful, give reviews on these sites. Those are having GREAT experiences with these Brokers, just keep trading; while those who had bad experiences, want the world to know.
My advice, start with a Broker with a very small account. Trade with them for a while and test them and see how you like ’em. If they prove to work for you keep ’em, if not, go somewhere else.
Doug
oanda is my broker and I love them to bits – brilliant ordering system, clean charts, lightening fast execution and low low spreads. 5 stars there for me.
Russ
I have a feeling GFT guarantee their stops even during announcements. Can anyone support me on this, I am uncertain about it. Seems brave.
Jakob
I agree. Marketers try to sell EA´s on the same idea; that only a limited number of copies can be sold, because otherwise the brokers will ban the use of that EA, etc. This is nothing but a sales pitch. John Forman wrote a blog post some time ago, stating that retails trading accounts for roughly 3% of the entire trading volume on the forex market. Additionally, people using EA´s is most likely not the ones with large accounts, so this makes no sense. Although I agree with you, I do think that this is true about signal services as well. Obviously there are a lot of scammers, but there are a few good ones among, but new traders over leverage, blow their account and blame the signal provider. Great post Nick!
dallia
I go along with much of what Nick is saying about reviews, but bad reviews based on customer service should be taken seriously. we all know if your stop is set to a psych level your going to get ‘stopped’ hunted. Not getting your money returned on a platform error or long delays remitting money are inexcusable. I would also toss OANDA into the mix. Great customer service low spreads.
Tom
A good summary for sure. Overall great website and great material being shared. Thank you.
dontbelieve
good job nick, you actually hit the nail on the head.
Joshua Bulus Bulus
Sir Nick,
Thanks for the above tips about forex reviews where some traders try to
shift blame to brokerage firms in attempts to cover up what obvious. Trading is a game whereby a winner must emerge and the other at disadvantage. But I wonder what they stand to gain from such retrogressive attitude. Accepting responsibility is pathway to improvement not in trading but in all live endeavor.
Personally am always ready to assume responsibility for outcomes resulting from
decisions I took. I do hope my peer newbies contribute to reviews rationally. Thanks.
Jonathan M
Thanks for the sensible perspective. I’m using GFT and yes, they couldn’t be nicer and more patient – a big encouragement for newbies. Their Dealbook 360 is pretty clunky, however, which is a bit surprising for such a serious player. Their tech. support is top-notch. There are many other brokers with great reputations I will also try soon for alittle breadth of experience.
noob4ever
Thank you, Nick, for a brilliant article. I am not entirely new to trading although I am new to Forex. I am now at the point where I am looking for a broker and after a few days looking at FPA reviews, I felt like I was getting nowhere (except for a few reviews like the ones for Dukascopy) and was getting more sob stories than the daily news would print in a gossip column. I am looking at Go Markets (thanks to the previous reviewer for your comments) and I will check out GFT today. Thanks again and perfect timing.
Lancer
Nice article Nick. Shout out too to MBT. Don’t use them atm but I did way back in the day when online trading started and they were always really good. Didn’t enjoy having to pay like $300 a month or whatever for nas L2 quotes but everyone charged back then :)
Rotodyne
I have some love for FXCM
I’ve been trading live with them for two years and three account reloads(Still a newbe) thanks Nick for all your work with this site to help newbes like me.
Martin
Hi Nick.
Thanks for the posts and all the material.
I have a question, if you don’t mind, about the server time at the brokerage.
I use MBT and I’m quite impressed with the execution and most things in general. It’s just that they seem to be tuned in to the timezone of the Island from LOST. My candles hardly ever look like yours. I can still trade them and get pretty good results. But in your opinion, does this put me out of sync with the trading fraternity? A lot of people out there react to the same 4HR price action, usually synchronized on GMT +0, and then there’s me, the Lone Trader, hooking it on my ace. I’m assuming that the majority of traders are with the market makers, and a smaller group with the likes of MBT. So far there doesn’t seem to be a problem, I get good trades. But do you have any thoughts on this?
Thanks…
Romsy
Thanks Nick for you observation on the subject of broker review. I was just scrolling these days thru various forums including FPA (FX Peace Army) so what the peole are complaining about is disaster.
Actually some of those new traders were insisting from broker on returning of $10 or so from their $100 acc. because of broker’s mistake. That’s why they rated the broker with one star and they were calling the Support for the money back.
Very few of them will admit they loose because of their mistakes.
Ciao
Russell Sparks
Skipw, you sure it isn’t a bunch of ignorant policy-makers wanting to appear to be doing something to alleviate the GFC crisis without actually addressing the problem because to address the problem is too hard? and the people who control the real causes of the problem are too powerful and probably are profiting from the GFC anyway? I think the newbie traders are not significant enough to bring on a change in leverage. It is just an excuse to be seen to be doing something. The change in leverage will only be shortlived probably anyway as the bigger players will simply move off shore (there’s a bit of room on my couch here in Australia for a couple of profitable traders who want to take advantage of the full leverage)
Skipw
All the newbies who are crying about their brokers and not taking responsibility for their poor trading are the ones who are influencing CFTC to take away the 100:1 leverage here in the United States. Leverage has already been reduced from 200:1 and 300:1 to the current 100:1. Now they want to make it 10:1 because of wantabe get rich newbie Forex traders. It sucks to be a trader in the US.
lisahenry
Thanks for posting the tips for forex broker review. These tips are very useful to the people who are intrested in forex trading.
Caryl Beumer
for everyone that has been published advantageous points to read i have an extremely loved it
Mischelle
In Europe things are better as high leverage still exists. I have an account in AAAFX cause I receive signals from zulu and noticed that execution is faster. In general I believe that there are 2 categories of newbies. The first ones who take themselves as forex experts cause they have managed to earn some pips and the second ones who learn forex but have no help in understanding the forex terms. Both open live accounts and end up loosing their money.
Do you really believe is their fault?
Forex is too attractive…to stay in a demo for 1 year.
Samuel Cohen
Here is my contact information if you want to discuss more:
hot forex reviews
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Milwaukee carpet cleaning
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sleazyforex
Here is an example of easy forex, what you might claim as an “honest” broker.
They disable trading purposely seconds before till seconds after big news that may cause volatility.
They pay employees commissions on client deposits minus client withdrawals meaning if a client profits and actually takes their money, the account manager won’t get paid.
They target only amateur traders.
They tamper with trade terms eg. Increasing stop loss limit bands to force traders into taking greater risks before increased volatility.
They have the least responsive financial services site in the world, run on archaic hardware with no redundant backup systems in place, when it goes down as it so often does, there is no fail safe.
They have the worst financial calendar one could imagine, it must be updated manually therefore is full of errors and always late.
Their website suffers caching issues often
They recently changed the company name to blue capital markets but have not made the change public likely because it was changed only to avoid legal issues fro a client suing them for wrongful losses and account tampering worth over one million usd
The prior head of the dealing room Nicolas shamtanis had to be transferred from his position to one in marketing due to unethical actions and comments relating to significant client losses.
I might add easy forex is registered in the Marshall Islands, yet has NO office there, how in the world is that NOT fraudulent?
Doherty Dan
I read your blog and I like the way represents the truth about Online Broker Reviews. It writes in so informative manner that it become too easy to understand even for the beginner investors.