Smarttradefx

Does anyone have experience with Smarttradefx?

Other than the demo and an e-mail asking some important questions, I have no live experience, and I'm not likely planning to.

Their MT4 platform is lightning quick and among the best I've seen. Problem is, although they're Canadian, your funds are in no way insured, and their history and solvency is concerning to me. Read their sign-up agreement; it basically says if they go belly up, you're a meaningless creditor who gets in line behind other dues, and you're likely to get nothing. Also states about not sending your orders to the market, although they state they have no dealing desk. I'd asked about segregated bank deposit holding of your trading funds, and the question was evaded, meaning, you deposit directly into their account.

Their liquidity seems OK, but that's just based on a few rudimentary tests and mostly comparing BetterVolume data/quantities that are echoed back - it seems pretty decent volume, which would indicate an OK liquidity provider. But, when asked about that via e-mail, they said "they don't provide that information." That's a red flag - the majority (at least the brand names) of MT4 brokers will provide that. Why hide it?

While it's possible to put in a smallish amount to "test" them, that doesn't alter the solvency/creditor concern in a worst case scenario should you put in say 5-figure trading funds.

P.S. - There's a thread around here on them - you might want to use search.

Thanks, Beljevina. The only info that I've found beyond what you've offered is that Smartradefx is headquartered in Hong Kong (one office is in Canada) and is registered in Cyprus, although the company wasn't listed on the government site when I checked. On another thread, someone mentioned that the company is registered in Cyprus but not as Smarttradefx. Evidently a Smarttradefx rep wouldn't release that info. I have heard good things about their platform, ECN/STP, etc.
Swamper

Anyone else have Smarttradefx experience and/or info?

Hi All,

I also just recently started looking at SmartTradeFX. I had the same concerns that Beljevina mentioned, and have sent them an email asking about safety of clients' funds. so far no response today.

I really like the ACT Forex SmartTrader platform they use, so have also sent an email to ACT Forex to see if they have any other brokers using that platform.

SmartTradeFX's demo seems great, but with no assurance of client fund protections, I am too leary to open a live account with them.

Would love to hear from anyone who has actual live experience with them.

Thanks, Talia

Also, they did tell me they are registered in Hong Kong and are currently unregulated, and "The funds are held with our bank in Switzerland, BKB Private Bank."

Ipndasno says on

http://cdn.forexfactory.com/images/m..._finallink.gif MT4 favorite Brokers - as low as 1 Pip spreads

thread that has been trading live for a month, and that was posted Nov 25, 2010.

Hopefully Ipndasno will see this thread and update with latest experience.

Thanks nmmagick for the info. As far as the Hong Kong registration, I tried to find evidence of this by checking the HG FSA registry, but I was unable locate a broker listed under the Smarttradefx name.
Swamper

Expressed my thoughts about "Smart"tradeFX on this thread, I would avoid them.

They don't even publish a company address in their website or say where they're based. They don't publish whether they're regulated or not.

What does that tell you? Is that a company where serious traders/investors would trade, or is it only some internet bucketshop holding some accounts of wannabe traders?

I mean seriously, would you as a serious trader send your money to some internet company whose country/jurisdiction you don't know, and who is most probably unregulated? Do you realize that the day they decide to shut down and take your and everybody's money with them, there is absolutely nothing you can do about it?

You don't have to do any research or start threads asking about these brökers. It's very easy to tell whether they're serious or not. All you need is some commonsense.

From the STFX website (with a little common sense), Canadian office--100 West Street West, Suite 5700, Toronto, Canada M5X1C7 1.888.613.7839 and the Hong Kong office--Unit 501, Ivey House 18-20, Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong. Granted STFX offers no regulatory info and without that I would never open an account there, even though some regulatory agencies aren't very effective. My initial question about STFX was the result of rave reviews on FPA site.

Either they added that recently or I missed it when I browsed their website.

I would stay away nevertheless. Choose a well-established, well-capitalized, well-regulated broker with at least 5 years in the business.

I completely agree with you, Marv. As I said the FPA reviews are over the top which makes me wonder about the credibility of the posts. Who would you recommend?
Swamper

If I'm low-capitalized (less than 1K) I'd go with Oanda. If I have a medium sized starting capital (1k to 10K) I'd go with either Dukascopy or MBT. If I have 10K or more I'd go with IB. All of these I know are quality brökers.

Thanks, Marv. I've been using a Dukascopy demo for a few months.
Swamper

I sent the following questions to SmartTradeFX a couple of days ago, and following it is their reply.

2. What is the benefit of being unregulated?

3. What safeguards are there to protect your clients' funds? I see on the risk disclosure documents that clients' funds have no protection in bankruptcy. What do you show clients that makes them willing to give you their money?

2) The benefit of being unregulated is that we remain in a position to continue to service our clients with 200:1 leverage and hedging capabilities.
3) We just noticed our risk disclosure misstated our current practices. That is currently being updated to reflect our current practices. Our procedures are that all client funds are kept in a segregated account separate from the company funds. This is to protect our clients from creditors in the case that anything should happen.

Thanks for sharing this. Interesting response. By that I mean i) evasive and ii) misleading, among other things.

200:1 is not necessary to make millions; you can easily do the same on 100:1. 200:1 will though dwindle your account quickly, esp. on the unnecessary margin limits they have set, esp., since most targeted traders will be depositing less than 5 figures; anyone with more would not be trading on 200:1, since if you absolutely have to, you can achieve the same return with increased lot sizes. If you still think 200:1 is fantastic you probably should not be in forex.

And while #3 sounds great, the Customer Agreement will always supercede, and currently states you as a customer are irrelevant. No sane brokerage "just notices" the binding and unwavering formal and legally binding Customer Risk Assessment "has a boo-boo" in it. Thus, their e-mail response is another lie. (Oh, and if someone can explain "not traded on the exchange" means something other than bucketshop, I'd like to hear it.)

The transactions you are entering into with SMARTTRADEFX, Inc (STFX) are not traded on the exchange. Therefore, your funds may not receive the same protections as funds used to margin or guarantee exchange-traded futures and options contracts, which receive a priority in bankruptcy. Since that same priority has not been given to funds used for offexchange Forex trading, if STFX becomes insolvent and you have a claim for amounts deposited or profits earned on transactions with STFX, your claim may not receive a priority. Without a priority, you are a general creditor and your claim will be paid, along with the claims of other general creditors, from any monies still available after priority claims are paid. Even customer funds that STFX keeps separate from its own operation funds may not be safe from the claims of other general and priority creditors.

That's an interesting twist on regulation. At times we probably overestimate the effectiveness of regulation and what it means as far as total account protection. But to simply dismiss regulation of any kind because it might limit trading flexibility is a new kind of brokerspeak.
Swamper

Hello all,

This is my first post here, and I thought that I would share my experience with this dealer. I am new to the FX world, but did check out a number of dealers before jumping in with SmarttradeFX.

So far, I can't say that I have had any problems with them. If fact, I have been pleasantly surprised when I requested help when I was facing a possible margin call. They credited my margin account temporarily until I could sent them funds. Their bank is in Switzerland and I had to wire money to them.

My main reason for choosing STFX was that they are officed in Canada. I wanted a dealer that I could call upon easilly. I asked their COO a number of questions before signing up with them. Here is part of his response:


"We don’t hold back any funds, clients money is clients money. When a client requests a withdrawal we process it within 24h. if he has a position open, which might result in a margin call, we call to advise him to either close out the position or adjust the amount. But we would never hold back clients money, its not ours.

We do not use any plugins as all orders get directed to ECN, and adjustment like you mentioned would negate the whole STP NDD part.
We are unregulated, if we join IIROC we would be forced to lower the maximum leverage to 33 to 1, our clients don’t want that, no our client funds are not protected by the CIPF, but then again, no US dollar denominated account is protected by this.
When checking out forums, it’s the bad news that you should be looking for, if you don’t find any, its not because we are new, its because we make sure our clients are happy with their execution, and when ever there is a problem we investigate it and try to solve it as fair as possible.

I didn’t get offended by your questions, the smart clients ask first, we love those type of clients, as they are the ones who will make money and trade with you for a long time, and since we only make money on volume, its music to my ears.
We got a lot of positive entries on Forex Peace Army, if the only negative comment we have on us is that our chat isn’t working I think we are doing a great job, as for our phone number, its posted on every page except the first one, so id think that this was just a person who wanted to rant… ( especially since it’s the same person in both posts)
We don’t have any benefit to create losing trades, we are not a market maker…
You can deposit funds via paypal, credit card and bank wire. You can get money back through paypal and bank wire

Spreads are usually stable, when news comes, I know during nfp, we had euro/usd peak at 9pips, but if you didn’t have any slippage, as there was no dealing desk to hedge with… it’s the benefit of trading with us, no market makers or dealing desk
The demo and real are exactly the same, if you find it lagging, just let us know we will fix it. "

I have called their 800 number a few times, and every time the phone was answered promptly - no problem.I haven't had a chance to request money from them yet as my trades have been negative so far. Hoping this will soon change.

Hi STFX,

Nice spamming.