WikiFX Articles and Updates

[WikiFX]

Illegal broker: E-Trans
Regulatory status: cloned-license
Complainant: Mr. Zhu
Cause of complaint: withdrawal failure

Brokers with cloned license account for quite a large proportion of illegal forex brokers. Recently, WikiFX got an investor’s complaint against such a broker E-Trans, who unscrupulously copied the high-rating broker Etrans from logo to company’s name, in order to defraud investors. Here’s how Mr. Zhu became a victim of the illegal broker.

Event recap
When Mr. Zhu downloaded MT4 trading software this July, someone who claimed to be introducing broker of Goldman Sachs Bitcoin found Mr. Zhu and recommended the broker E-Trans, telling him he can sign up at the platform and then select E-Trans in the MT4 software to start trading. On July 9th, Mr. Zhu successfully opened an account on E-Trans and made deposit, and the broker sent him a confirmation email. He later made several more deposits, some were immediately confirmed while others took longer. His last deposit of US$ 1,000, made on July 29th, was never confirmed by the platform. Depositing to E-Trans was bothersome enough, yet withdrawing from it was even worse. Mr. Zhu’s withdrawal application in mid-July had neither been approved, nor did he received the money, while his email request about the matter, sent on July 26th, received no response from the customer service. Besides withdrawal failure, Mr. Zhu also noticed that the broker’s website had become inaccessible since August, and he couldn’t reach anyone from E-Trans. On August 15th, Mr. Zhu again emailed E-Trans customer service, but failed to get a reply, and his later inquiries all met the same fate, even when Mr. Zhu declared he’d take legal actions against E-Trans if the issue remains unsolved. Until now, Mr. Zhu still has unwithdrawn balance in his account, and with E-Trans website closed and its staff inaccessible, it seems unlikely he can get the money back.

Analysis
Forex broker recommended by “IB” and the deceptive camouflage of E-trans are the 2 most worth-noting points in Mr. Zhu’s case.

1.Forex IB is an indispensable part and a permanent topic of the forex circle, yet their promises of high gains to investors could also be hidden traps. While IB agents may have more access to brokers’ information, investors should remain cautious about what these agents said and always check the compliance of a broker before making investment.

2.When looking up E-Trans online, we also found an Australian forex broker Etrans which has a similar name and logo with E-Trans. Further investigation shows that Etrans is a regulated broker with WikiFX rating 8.25 and has been in business for over 5 years, while E-Trans is an illegal broker that cloned Etrans’ MM license no.439303, issued by ASIC(Australia). As the website of E-Trans is no longer accessible, we have no idea whether it also copied the official site of Etrans, but what it had already cloned from Etrans was enough to trick Mr. Zhu who, considering himself experienced with brokers, still fell into the trap.

Conclusion
According to WikiFX App, E-Trans is a cloned-license broker that has been in business for less than a year, with a rating of only 1.12 on WikiFX App. We suggest investors to stay away from this illegal broker.

 

[WikiFX]

WikiFX recently released the 20 largest ad-spending brokers in September, 2019.

First, let’s look at the regulated brokers with largest ad-spending this month.

Forex brokers XM, with WikiFX rating 9.24, and FXTM, rated at 8.55, both enjoyed high rankings on the list, with XM topping the list for 3 months in a row. As a world-renowned forex broker, XM received countless awards during its 10 years in business, offering forex, CFD, stock indices, crude oil and gold trading to investors. Earlier this year, WikiFX team had visited XM’s headquarter in Cyprus and confirmed its real address corresponds to the address of regulatory information. Investors may entrust their assets to this reliable broker.

XM’s rating on the WikiFX App

FXTM’s rating the on WikiFX

In addition, several brokers including FBS, AVATRADE, FXPRO, MARKETS, Tickmill, FOREX.com and GO MARKETS all saw their rankings went up, indicating their increased advertising spending to secure a place on the market in the fierce competition.

Besides high-rating brokers, many dangerous brokers also entered the top ad-spending list.
IC Market which received heavy complaints last month continues to make large marketing investment, while WikiFX has got 46 investors complaints against the broker about margin closeout, serious slippage and blocking withdrawals in the past 3 months. Another heavily complained broker is Pepperstone, which fell out of the list last month yet returned in September as a top 10 ad-spender with renewed marketing efforts.

IC Markets received 46 investor complaints
Other 2 risky brokers BULLTRADERS and Q8 Trade are both offshore brokers without valid regulation at the moment. Q8 was registered in Kuwait and BULLTRADERS was registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Investors should note that unlike full regulation, offshore regulation only needs brokers to provide a fiscal report and documents proving the company’s financial status, and the requirements are generally loose. Meanwhile, many areas offering offshore regulation also charge lower corporate income tax. Per investigation, Q8 Trade is rated at 1.07 on WikiFX App and ranked no.18 on the ad-spending list, followed by BULLTRADERS which is rated at 1.25 on WikiFX App. Investors need to watch out for such illegal brokers.

Q8 Trade’s rating on the WikiFX App

BULLTRADERS’ rating on the WikiFX App

Conclusion
Many illegal brokers are taking advantage of the relatively slack offshore regulation environment to engage in their unscrupulous practices. Investors should be very careful in choosing offshore brokers and verify the broker’s compliance and regulatory status before your investment. If you’re not sure about a broker, you may easily look it up on WikiFX App by inserting the broker’s name. WikiFX will continue to weed out illegal forex brokers to create investors a better and safer environment.

 

[WikiFX]

The forex market is a mixture of both compliant and illegal brokers, which makes it difficult for investors to distinguish between them. Some unscrupulous illegal brokers thus fake their compliance and defraud unwary investors.

Recently, Mr. Chen reported ZHENXI INVESTMENT to WikiFX. The broker manipulated his account and set it on auto-trading, causing Mr. Chen to lose over US$ 8,000 within 30 days. By exposing how the broker defrauded Mr. Chen, WikiFX hopes to remind investors to stay alert and avoid similar traps.

Mr. Chen provided ID information to ensure authenticity of complaint

Mr. Chen first heard of ZHENXI INVESTMENT in this July through “Zhan Hao Finance”, a popular online live-stream channel. The channel’s signal provider who claimed to be a professional analyst recommended ZHENXI INVESTMENT to Mr. Chen and other followers, assuring them that they can entrust their assets to this broker who has over a decade of experience. The initial deposit soon generated profits, which gave Mr. Chen and other investors much hope of making a fortune. But after that, Mr. Chen’s withdrawal applications were constantly blocked, while his account “automatically” placed orders and denied his attempts to close positions, making him lose over 90% of his account balance. When he contacted the customer service, the latter told him that “there’s no need for them to escape simply to defraud several thousand dollars”, and stopped replying his message altogether. WikiFX learned that at press time, Mr. Chen’s account balance has been wiped out completely, while the customer service hasn’t offered any satisfactory explanation until now.

Analysis of the scam
ZHENXI first advertised on the popular online live-stream channel “Zhan Hao Finance” to attract investors’ attentions, and successfully tricked investors like Mr. Chen into opening accounts on the platform. Once investors have made deposits, ZHENXI would manipulate their accounts, such as set auto-trading or change the password, to block investors from closing positions and swallow up their account balance.

Summary
ZHENXI INVESTMENT claims on the official site that it’s under the supervision of Australia financial regulator. But logging in the website of Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the only financial regulatory body in Australia, we failed to find any regulatory information about “ZHENXI INVESTMENT”. Per checking the WikiFX App, ZHENXI INVESTMENT, with a low rating of 1.12, has been in business for less than a year and is currently unregulated, bearing tremendous risks. Notably, the broker is also related to 7 other white-label brokers, none of which is regulated.

Conclusion

As China continues to strengthen legislation and regulations in the financial sector, more forex scams are being exposed, yet the illegal brokers are also upgrading their tricks in defrauding investors. Investors should watch out for potential risks and stay away from unregulated forex brokers. To find out more about brokers’ information and forex market trends, please visit our website or download the WikiFX App.

 

[WikiFX]

Broker: IG (Singapore)
Visited on: August 29th, 2019
Conclusion: the broker truly exists

On the spot investigation
According to the address from regulatory information, WikiFX recently visited the Singapore office of licensed forex broker IG, located at 9 Battery Road #01-02 MYP Centre.

Upon arriving at MYP Centre, we saw IG’s office on the ground level. The office of another famous forex broker FOREX.com sits next door, sharing the same level with IG, which was quite a surprise for us. The building appeared modern and well-furnished inside. Though we couldn’t enter IG’s office without appointment, we saw many staff members of both IG and FOREX.com, chatting and relaxing themselves in the public lounge nearby. We thus concluded that IG’s Singapore office truly exists.

Analysis
Singapore is a major financial hub in the SE Asia region as well as around the globe. The recent forex market boom in Singapore has attracted many prestigious forex brokers to open a branch here, while the reputable regulation of MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) also adds to the strengths of these brokers. IG is an example of such brokers.

The official website suggests that IG, established in London, UK in 1974, has been the world’s first company to offer CFD trading. As a forerunner of the industry, IG now has offices in 14 countries across the globe and helps clients to grasp trading opportunities through the pioneering trading platform and App developed, developed by the company. Per checking MAS’ website, IG holds retail forex brokerage license from MAS, and the information on its website corresponds to the regulatory information. In recent years, MAS has improved its WOM through providing secure and efficient regulatory infrastructure and highly transparent market information, attracting many world-renowned brokers to Singapore. Their arrival in turn promotes enhancement of the MAS regulatory mechanism.

Conclusion
The WikiFX App shows that IG holds forex brokerage licenses issued by regulators including ASIC (Australia), FCA (UK), FSA (Japan), FMA (New Zealand) and MAS (Singapore). With over 15 years of professional experience, IG is a compliant broker of considerable size and strength under regulation of multiple institutions. It has a high rating of 9.20 on the WikiFX App, and investors may safely choose the reliable broker.

 

[WikiFX]

Wiki EXPO HCMC successfully wrapped up on September 21st. After countless days and nights of hard work, the devoted efforts of WikiFX members had finally paid off as the EXPO turned out even better than our expectations, attracting unprecedented number of attendees and over 50% of the local forex brokers while receiving wide acclaims from exhibitors and investors in unison.

Backed by WikiFX’s Vietnam branch and rooted in the local market, Wiki EXPO not only presented investors a dynamic show of financial services, but also built a stage for forex brokers to thoroughly showcase their products and services in all dimension, thus facilitating more brokers to smoothly launch on the local forex market.

With a grand vision and ambition, Wiki EXPO will roll out in Bangkok, Thailand on November 24th, and is now open for exhibitors’ reservation and sponsorship.

To make a reservation please visit: https://www.wikiexpo.net/ThailandEn/index.html

During the HCMC Exposition, Wiki EXPO team had further refined the details in order to offer exhibitors an even better experience.

An all-dimensional exposure of brands

Wiki EXPO understands the significance of market exposure for exhibitors and strove to create more opportunities for brokers’ branding efforts in the agenda and venue arrangement.

As the host of the event, Wiki EXPO had shown much dedication and consideration, which was evident in many details at the venue. From the posters on the pillars to logos on charging stands and drink booths, Wiki EXPO offered the exhibitors more opportunities to display their brands and logos.

In addition, HCMC Exposition also offered free Wi-Fi that covered the whole venue. This specially-designed system can display the names and logos of exhibitors when users log in the wireless network, offering brokers more brand exposures while accommodating for participants’ need for internet access.

Introducing the brand to investors

As the most attractive Exposition highlight and investors’ favourite part, the speech session also offered brokers great branding opportunities, allowing them to promote their brands through presenting company profiles, market trends or trading strategies.

The HCMC Wiki EXPO thoughtfully arranged 2 speech sections which allowed brokers’ presentations and KOL speeches to run in parallel, thus increasing time efficiency of the Exposition. Investors had more choices during the same period, while more brokers also benefited from having adequate time to introduce their brands.

Full interactions between investors and exhibitors

Attracting more investors to the Exposition is only the beginning, the ultimate goal is to encourage their direct interactions with the exhibitors.

Therefore, Wiki EXPO introduced the activity of stamp-collecting- investors could get a prize once they had gathered the stamps of all 15 exhibitors. Through this very interactive game, Wiki EXPO hopes to provide more equal chances for brokers to engage in in-depth communication with their potential clients.

The Exposition is an open platform for the whole industry, and as the host, Wiki EXPO team tried their very best to discover and fulfil the underlying demands of brokers, investors and other professionals, in order to bring all participants a premium experience at Wiki EXPO.

On November 24th, Wiki EXPO will come to Bangkok, Thailand with renewed brand influence, larger venue and more diverse agendas. We look forward to meeting you in Bangkok at Wiki EXPO!

 

[WikiFX]

Illegal forex brokers always try to defraud investors with all kinds of tricks, but none of the tricks can fool investors all the time. To help investors avoid the traps of illegal brokers, WikiFX reviews investors’ reports of broker scams in September and lists the top 10 most-complained forex brokers as follows.

KP which ranks no.1 on the list got 31 complaints this month, mostly for deceiving customers through misleading advertisements. Investigation suggests the broker forged the cooperation deals with TRADE REAL and other companies on its website. According to the WikiFX App, KP’s ASIC license for financial services is cloned and the broker is unregulated, while its website has lied about KP’s trading software, which is not MT4 software. The broker offers deceptive advertisements and deserves no trust.

JINRONG is the second-most-complained broker in September. According to investors, JINRONG lured investors into making deposits by promising so-called “bonuses”, gave misleading signals that left investors in heavy loss and even deactivated investor’s account for no reason. Per investigation, deposits of investors ended up in the broker’s private account instead of segregated account supervised by CGSE(Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange). Although WikiFX App shows that JINRONG holds an AA license from CGSE, this type of license isn’t strictly regulated, so investors should stay alert about the broker.

ShengTong which had been exposed not long ago is also listed. Investor accused it for wiping out his account balance of 6,000 USD within a month, while trying to pass the buck to “the problem of third-party withdrawal channel”. The WikiFX App shows that ShengTong, rated at only 1.26, has no valid regulation at the moment and bears significant risks.

Notably, a high-rating broker MARKETS also appears on the list. As many investors recently complained against MARKETS for their withdrawal failure, the broker faces serious trust crisis. Per checking the WikiFX App, MARKETS holds MM license from ASIC(Australia) and has been in business for over 5 years. However, the frequent investor complaints it has been getting suggests even high-rating brokers are not 100% risk-free, so investors need to be extremely careful.

The forex industry is a lucrative market where many illegal brokers also scramble for a share of the pie. In releasing the monthly brokers rankings, WikiFX wants to help investors, whether beginners or those with more experience, to choose a reliable broker and avoid the traps of illegal brokers. For more forex information and updates, please download the WikiFX App or visit WikiFX website.

 

[WikiFX]

In the age of big data, it’s increasingly difficult for investors to verify the qualification and compliance of forex brokers. The internet has also become many illegal brokers’ tool for defrauding investors. Some make heavy advertising spending in order to increase market awareness, others set sophisticated traps that unwary investors easily fall into. Some brokers even attempt to cover up the truth and mislead investors by manipulating public opinions, such as deleting the unfavorable comments. The many questions and messages that WikiFX gets from investors also reflect their concerns about how to find a truly reliable broker in this complicated environment. On thing to be sure, the best way to decide whether a broker is trustworthy is to do a thorough research and check its information in all aspects. With that being said, finding authentic and comprehensive information about brokers efficiently may be quite a challenge for most investors.

As an App dedicated to helping investors verify compliant and illegal brokers, the WikiFX App had won wide acclaim among investors since it was launched in 2018, receiving a 5-star rating from many users. The handy little App can be downloaded for free in Apple Store, Tencent MyApp, 360 App Store, Xiaomi App Store, Huawei App Store. It has the unique advantage of offering investors practically everything they need to know about forex brokers.

1.Comprehensive data and compact size
The WikiFX App only takes up 25.9M of storage, but includes comprehensive data of the forex industry. It has currently archived information from forex regulators across 30 countries/ regions and profiles of over 10 thousand brokers.

2.Smart with high precision
With the help of VR technology, the WikiFX App is able to show the broker’s environment in reality from all perspectives. By providing precise data, professional information services and rigorous and impartial exposure of illegal forex brokers, WikiFX aims to safeguard more investors in their trading and promote a healthy development of the forex industry.

3.Efficient and versatile
The WikiFX App allows users to easily search for information, check market trends, explore trading environment and view field-survey report, risks warning and credit assessment of brokers. If you have doubts about a broker, you can conveniently look up its comprehensive information in the WikiFX App within a few seconds.

4.Multilingual with wide coverage
In order to better serve global users, the WikiFX App offers various languages to meet their demands. In addition to the default Chinese(Simplified), investors may also switch other languages such as Chinese(Traditional), English, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Russian, German, French and Spanish.

In the future, the WikiFX App will continue to be investors’ reliable guide and offer them an even better professional search platform where they can access useful information such as brokers’ profiles and evaluation reports based on big data. Next time you need any information of a broker, you know where to look for it!

 

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[WikiFX]

On Monday, September 16th EST, the US Department of Justice charged 3 JP Morgan traders of gold and other precious metals for alleged market manipulation. The alleged scheme caused investors heavy losses while bringing great profits to the company.

JP Morgan Chase & Co enjoys the reputation of “the godfather of US modern finance industry”. In 2018, JP Morgan beat Citigroup in becoming the largest currency trader in the world, with a total asset exceeding US$2.6 trillion and business across the world. This August, JP Morgan announced its plan to establish electronic forex trading and pricing platform in Singapore in 2020, in order to further expand its business on the Asia-pacific market and take over the vantage point of a major finance centre in Asia.

Asia-pacific has always been a major battleground for global forex companies to expand their market share, and Southeast Asia is particularly attractive with its great geographical location, relaxed policy environment and large investor group. Notably, according to a survey on the best investment destinations in 2017-2018, jointly launched by Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania and BAV Consulting in New York, Malaysia is the most attractive spot for investment among nearly 80 countries around the world thanks to outstanding business-friendly environment and steady economic growth. With the rapid growth of global economy in recent years, Malaysia is eventually lifting restrictions in forex trading. And because the Malaysian-regulated LFSA license has numerous advantages such as fast application approval and license issuance, cheap operational cost and relaxed regulation, it has gained wide appeal among many global forex companies, including JP Morgan.

JP Morgan is regulated by LFSA (Labuan Financial Service Authority) and holds LFSA’s MM license. WikiFX had visited the licensed branch of JP Morgan in Malaysia and confirmed the company’s location at Labuan’s highest office building Financial Park Complex matches the address from LFSA regulatory information. JP Morgan is rated 7.39 on the WikiFX App and is a compliant forex broker under regulation. Investors may entrust your assets to this broker, while WikiFX will continue to offer you more updates about JP Morgan.

Despite the recent “spoofing” scandal, JP Morgan remains ambitious about expanding on the Asia-pacific market. Statistics show that since 2018, over 340 banks worldwide have joined JP Morgan’s Interbank Information Network (INN), of which 134 are from the Asia-pacific region, which accounts for almost 40% of the total. JP Morgan’s Head of Global Clearing John Hunter noted: “INN has expanded significantly within just a year, and it’s exciting to see that more development can be expected in the future”.

 

[WikiFX]

Broker: AGRODANA (Indonesia)
Visited on: August 23rd, 2019
Conclusion: the broker really exists

On-the-spot investigation
Regulatory information suggests AGRODANA’s licensed branch in Indonesia is at Menara Batavia Lantai 3A, Jl. KH. Mas Mansyur Kav. 126, Jakarta Pusat, and WikiFX recently visited the broker at the site.

Menara Batavia is a magnificent office building. We took the elevator to the 3rd floor and found AGRODANA’s sign. Following the direction, we soon arrived at AGRODANA’s office. Information on the two posters at the entrance corresponds to that of the company’s website. The office looks bright and spacious with about 30 office cubicles. After a brief communication with the staff members, we concluded that AGRODANA’s Indonesian office truly exists.

Analysis
SE Asia has become an emerging forex market in recent years, and the forex industry in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia continues to thrive. Amidst the proliferation of forex brokers, investors remain unfamiliar and skeptical about brokers from this region due to slack regulation policy and authorites’ relatively weak enforcement of rules. Therefore, WikiFX is visiting brokers in Indonesia and other SE Asian countries to bring investors more reliable details about them.

According to AGRODANA’s official site, it’s a licensed Indonesian futures brokerage company established in May, 2000, with headquarter in Jakarta and branches in Bandung, Surabaya and Lampung. Focused on forex, commodities, and stock indices in Asia and around the world, the company is well-versed in finance and has acquired licenses and membership from financial institutions including BAPPEBTI (Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency), ICDX (Indonesia Commodity & Derivatives Exchange), The Business Information & Communication Centre and JFX (Jakarta Futures Exchange). Regulatory information from BAPPEBTI shows AGRODANA holds retail forex license and is authorized for conducting retail forex brokerage.

Conclusion
Per checking the WikiFX App, AGRODANA is under Indonesian regulation and holds BAPPEBTI’s license for retail forex brokerage. It uses main-label MT4 trading software and has a WikiFX rating of 6.25, suggesting moderate credibility. However, since AGRODANA has been in business for less than a year, the overall qualification of the broker remains to be tested and investors should be cautious during investment to ensure the asset safety.