Smarttradefx

Hi all,

I finally opened an account with SmartTradeFX, using the SmartTrade platform. See my post on forexpeacearmy.com for some initial issues (I am TM,,USA at http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public...arttradefx.com).

Normally, I place orders, rather than trading live, and only check in once in a while, so I had no problems last month. Yesterday and today, I was trading live during the volatile time.

Wow, their performance is a disaster! They have a FIVE MINUTE delay on the charts. This would be incredible if they let you trade, because you would literally know the "future". Unfortunately, they simply do not let you trade!

Problems:
1) click to enter a new trade, or even an order for a new trade at a future price (limit/stop order), and you get the error "No Instrument Available"

2) if the order/trade window does open, once you approve the trade, even at what it is showing as market price, it gives you an error saying the price is different, kind of like a requote, but seemed different. It did not allow you to accept a requote price; rather, it said something about entering a different price when you place the trade. Bottom line, I could not figure out how to enter the trade, even at the REAL market price.

3) if you do happen to have an open order, and its price gets hit, it sometimes reflects the execution right away, and sometimes has a several minute lag. Yesterday, a trade executed and showed in open positions about 3 minutes before the price actually reached there on the chart/dealing rates windows (although it had reached it on Oanda, Tadawul, and ForexFactory).

Today, unless the market has slowed down some, I have not been able to open a trade window to place a trade.

I sent them an email. Will see what happens. Obviously, if this continues I will be on the prowl again for another broker who accepts USA residents and allows hedging. I sure wish Tadawul was still allowing US, they had great performance.

PS - if you see my forexpeacearmy.com post, I had one issue still open - spreads. I looked at their MT4 spreads, and they are about 3-4, making them match the fees/commissions being charged to me on Smarttrader platform. Personally, I prefer the fees/commissions to spreads, because you have a greater chance of your trade prices actually executing. But just understand, the true cost is about 1.1 pips per 100k lot, and then add the market spread.

Well it's obvious that you have a connection problem. I had the same trouble with FXCM last year only because of my geographical location (internet wise) to their servers. I had to close that account and go with someone else because of it but it was not them it was me and this my friend is you.

I have a friend that trades alot and I asked him if he knew any good brokers and he suggested Smartradefx. After talking to him a bit, he said he's been with this broker for over a year and has withdrawn money several times and says they are spot on and the money comes right away without delay. He says he's had as much as 25k in there at a time and withdraws about 10k at a time with never a problem at all.

Anyway I am about to open an account with them too and I should mention that I have been running a couple of demos of theirs for a few weeks and so far all seems well and since they say their demos are exactly the same at their live accounts things are looking good so far.

Trust me, if anything is or goes arry I will be the first to report it here and everywhere else for that matter although I do plan to start with just 1k then add once I see everything is going well.

Anyone that thinks I'm a front for Smartradefx would have to be an absolute moron since I've been here for a long long time and have never mentioned them or any other broker.

theOriginal!
TraderJoe

I also have an account with SmartTrade for a year now under $500 account. The demo spreads are the same as the real ones. Except for an account under $5000 you will pay an additional .04 mark up per 1,000 or .40 per 10,000 or 4.00 per 100,000 lot traded. Also they have a minimum take profit of 2 pips. How many real ECN brokers do this? So that is why I now trade with another broker.

[quote]
TraderJoe, you are wrong. And for you to post such a conclusion is highly suspicious.
It is NOT my system/internet - it was SmartTrade. I was also trading on two other platforms with two other brokers at the same time (Oanda fxTrade & Tadawul MT4), as well as watching ForexFactory market and fxstreet live charts. All other platforms worked fine, which is why I was able to see that it was actually a 5 minute delay. And, once the volatility died down, SmartTrade went back to normal. But it repeated this pattern several times, over a couple of days, which is why I felt it important enough to mention here.

Perhaps it was a temporary problem and they fixed it, because I have been watching for it, and it has not happened recently, even in pretty volatile times.

I am still with SmartTradeFX and continue to hope for the best, but will be honest and matter of fact either way.

Checked with them today, they no longer accept Us citizens and their main address is not complete on the contact page. Hmmm
I was demoing them when they first started, awsome liquidity server performance, I had many questions of course and ended up talking to the owner about the bank issues. He told me that people with alot more money than me did not ask so many questions, while not answering my questions. Now they have evidently several offices around the world and still not regulated by any at all. I do not mind regulated by Cypress or Australia...etc... but not regulated at all is a no go for me. And as for belittling my initial deposit, they were not worth that if you ask me.

this company's platform is the worst lag and misquotes ive ever seen. horrible server uptime and terrible website with no account info details. but thats just my experience.

Hello Stanley, 7/29/2015

I have replied to you earlier, and since I haven't heard back I thought you got the reply. Sorry if it didn't reach you and hopefully you'll get this now.

I'm sure you are aware of the unprecedented rally of Swiss Franc (CHF) in January 2015 and of its consequences upon the FX markets worldwide. Due to resultant volatility and illiquidity many of you have sustained severe trading losses, and so did SmartTradeFX along with a number of other brokerages. Many of the liquidity providers went out of business forthwith. Such a giant firm as Alpari declared bankruptcy and stopped its operativity. Another industry giant, FXCM, publicly traded on NYSE, sustained a loss of $ 225 million and froze its shares. A significant number of other large brokers were eliminated as well. We are remaining, although our prime broker went bankrupt.

To avoid declaration of insolvency on our part, we would like to rely on your support and understanding in our recovery effort. We are raising funds privately and in between 60 to 90 days (perhaps even sooner) from now we will pay everybody off.

It is important to understand that the only alternative to these temporary recovery measures, including putting withdrawals on hold, is insolvency of SmartTradeFX, in which case we all lose.



Kindest regards,
Catriel

Customer Service Department
SmartTradeFX ECN Broker
England: +44 20 351 42936
North America: +1 888 613 STFX (7839)
Russia: +7 499 638 4718
Spain: + 34 94 123 8955
Australia: +612 852 03520

Traders beware!!!!

Their scammers guys... I received the exact same email PIPTALK got but I received mine on MARCH 8 and it is now JULY 31 so nearly 5 months ago! Yet they say in their carbon copy email to both myself and PIPTALK that they would pay everybody off within 3 months! Yea right.

SmartTradeFX <[email protected]>
Mar 8
to me

Hello XXXXXXXX,

You are aware of the unprecedented rally of Swiss Franc (CHF) in January and of its consequences upon the FX markets worldwide. Due to resultant volatility and illiquidity many of the clients have sustained severe trading losses, and so did SmartTradeFX along with a number of other brokerages. Many of the liquidity providers went out of business forthwith. Such a giant firm as Alpari declared bankruptcy and stopped its operativity. Another industry giant, FXCM, publicly traded on NYSE, sustained a loss of $ 225 million and froze its shares. A significant number of other large brokers were eliminated as well. We are remaining.

To avoid declaration of insolvency on our part, we would like to rely on your support and understanding in our recovery effort. We are raising funds privately and in between 3 to 6 months from now we will pay everybody off.

It is important to understand that the only alternative to these temporary recovery measures, including putting withdrawals on hold, is insolvency of SmartTradeFX, in which case we all lose.


Kindest regards,
Catriel

Not sure what they really intend to do, but the (only) good sign is they still communicate.

On the other hand, everything else is weird. Here is my latest experience, giving very little hope for money withdrawal any time.
In the last year they changed T&C without a note to users (I used the Waybackmachine to learn when it changed), adding a fine for accounts not traded for every month.
Next, in 2014/12 I realized my account had been "withdrawn" to zero. They finally "corrected" back the account funds after a bunch of emails in 2015/01. A few months later I asked for funds withdrawal, but no reply. In a couple of days I asked again and received the above reprinted reply about insolvency, while their site still reads "you can withdraw any time".
End of the last month, the funds disappered again, now with a more clever note "transf to new platf". Again, I asked for explanation, and they gave me a link and login to another MT4 server, having name DMA Clearing Server.
I googled for DMA Clearing, and realized it was just another face of SmarttradeFx, which has currently the title page replaced by a permanent "under maintenance" message, though the rest of the site is still accessible.
I have a few thousands with them, but I already lost hope.

Where is their office?
i can`t find on their web site.
Who is their regulator?
i can`t find on their web site.

Where is their office? Likely from their own homes... Who is their regulator? NO ONE... Trying to make a withdrawal? This was their last communication with me when I tried making one in August:

Unfortunately, withdrawals are still on hold. Few months ago SmartTradeFX suffered tremendous losses, and our Prime Broker, an entity worth $1.3bn, has gone bankrupt. In order to avoid declaration of bankruptcy on our part, the owner of SmartTradeFX has been gathering funds by taking loans against his personal assets (such as house, car etc.). We have managed to obtain a new Prime Broker, but it has proven untrustworthy and blocked all the clients' funds.

We are in a process of litigation with the new Prime Broker. As soon as the litigation is over and the funds are released we will start processing withdrawals. We expect that to occur in approximately six months' time.


Kindest regards,
Catrie

So obviously their scamming, taking in new deposits but not honoring any withdrawals! If that isn't scamming nothing is. Do not deposit funds there guys/girls.

They seem they prepared another surprise.
After they moved me to a new &quot;tranf to new platf&quot; server two weeks ago, the account turned invalid a while ago. I am not able to log in any more, though (or because??) I did a trade earlier today. No explanation from them so far, I am looking forward for another funny excuse.

So a month has passed and my situation is still the same - no money at home, no account to log in, no money in the web login (zero balance).

When I asked for some explanation, they answered, that my account is &quot;under investigation&quot;. I asked, who was in charge for the investigation, the answer was &quot;our liquidity provider&quot; and &quot;we will inform you&quot;. I asked for a trading log, and they really provided me with it, so at least I have an email from them with some weak evidence.

I focused on the regulator, and I found out that the institution they mention (IFSA), is not easy to find, and very probably they mean svgfsa.com for registering offshore companies (The Financial Services Authority regulates and supervises the international financial services sector...), which however warns:
The Financial Services Authority wishes to advise that it does not Regulate, Monitor or Supervise International Business Companies (IBCs) which engage in FOREX Trading or Brokerage. Statements of this nature are a misrepresentation of the Authoritys supervisory powers with respect to IBCs.&quot;

Both companies (SmartForex &DMA Clearing) seem to be founded by a single Swiss owner.

It seems the chances to get money from them are even lower now.

According to publicly available internet records, domains for the St. Vincent's offshore companies smarttradefx.com and dmaclearing.com were registered by:
Secure Investments GmbH, Josefstrasse 92, 8005 Zrich,
This company's web www.siswiss.com also runs on the same server as the dmaclearing.com and smarttradefx.com
According to the public Swiss business registry www.zefix.ch the company turned officially bankrupt on September 29, 2015 (document) with no capital left behind on October 22, 2015 (document)
The brokers are evidently no longer in possession of the company (no capital statement), but no doubt the same people are involved, namely Uri Tadelis (CA and IL passports).