Metatrader Misery- Part I
What happens when a business deal goes bad? You get bitterness, recriminations, machinations and vows to get even. This appears to be what happened after Poltek FX and FX Open parted company. It was not an amicable divorce and after reading through dozens of threads it appears the two former spouses are still hurling dishes, pots and pans, as well as the kitchen sink and family cat at one another in a fit of rage that even Hillary and Obama canât match.
http://www.forex-tsd.com/metatrader-brokers/12120-poltekfx.html
In this saga there are no good guys or bad guys. All the Savior can do is warn people to stay on the sidelines and watch the spectacle from afar, well out of harmâs way. But if you are looking for a scorecard, well, youâve come to the right place. Letâs pick things up from one of the earliest threads on the subject.
âFX Open Scam Scum.â This is the title of a series of truly head spinning threads over at Forex Factory detailing the misadventures of FX Open, a forex dealer with one of the worst reputations in the business.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=50202
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=50879
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=66136
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=55103
Now if you ask FX Open they blame their poor reputation on the scoundrels at Poltek FX who they claim have been waging a systematic propaganda campaign designed to discredit their firm.
http://fxopen.com/News.aspx?Id=fd4b27b3-6783-4aa1-9039-d1c48b7015bd
But who is FX Open? Well, nobody really knows. There is no business address listed on their website. There is no Board of Directors or head shots of executive officers. If you really press them theyâll give you an address in Egypt or tell you that they are registered in the Seychelles. And if that isnât confusing enough one muckraking trader found out that their website is registered in Florida to a âMr. John Fool.â
http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=1684105&postcount=101
So they could be anywhere and everywhere. They could be someone or no one. In short, they can up and vanish like a fart in the wind if they have to.
FX Open is also one of the too numerous to count unregulated MT4 brokers preying upon the desperation of those traders who have fallen in love with MetaQuotesâ software. And like so many of these unregulated forex brokers they are in the habit of misleading the public about their unregulated status. When a customer asked them if they were regulated this was their response:
http://www.forex-tsd.com/195190-post316.html
FXOpen is offshore broker and FXOpen's business activity is regulated by SIBA.
http://www.fxopen.com/documents.aspx
Now letâs go to the SIBA website and find out just what this means. The following are the key features of the law that supposedly âregulatesâ FX Open:
http://www.siba.net/Pages/siba.htm
⢠No requirement to disclose the beneficial owners of an IBC
⢠No minimum capital stipulation
⢠No need to file accounts with the Registrar
In short, FX Openâs âregulationâ consists of a useless piece of paper that probably cost them a $100 in filing fees. They are no more regulated than is some ten year old kidâs lemonade stand.
That alone should convince traders to
STAY AWAY from them. But the truth is thatâs just the tip of the iceberg with these guys.
FX Open has made a lot of enemies in their brief history. One of them is a Kazakhstan native who goes by the name of Erlan. Erlan was a former customer of FX Openâs and he setup a website completely devoted to getting back $50,000 that he claims FX Open stole from him:
http://fxopen.info/
FX Open then responded to Erlan with a website of their own (
http://erlan.info/) telling a wild story that included accusations that Erlan was sending all of FX Openâs customers âpenis enlargementâ emails, was trying to crash FX Openâs server and hack FX Openâs customer files and was actually the customer of a former business partner of FX Openâs (Poltek FX) based in Russia that was using Erlan to get back at FX Open. (More on Erlan and his shenanigans in Part II of Metatrader Misery.)
http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=1635726&postcount=13
Now seriously, who in their right mind is going to open an account with FX Open after hearing such a loopy tale? And it gets even zanier. Someone claiming to be FX Openâs CEO starts posting at Forex Factory demanding that the forum moderator stop banning supporters of FX Open or else theyâll sue Forex Factory.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost.php?p=1674034&postcount=84
The moderator replies that FX Open is a scam and the man claiming to be FX Openâs CEO quickly slinks out the back door after he sees his threats are being ignored. Indeed, FX Open gets completely banned from the forum and is forced to waddle over to Forex TSD where they cause another huge fight with traders screaming that FX Open is a scam and should be banned.
Is FX Open a scam? Itâs just not clear. FX Openâs lack of transparency is deeply troubling. Their communication with the public is so unprofessional and their English so mangled that one gets the impression that Borat is running the company. They are also as I have stated before unregulated so if they ever get into trouble they are accountable to no one. At the end of the day this is what the trading public should be most concerned about.
The public should also be concerned about the firmâs alleged dealing practices. The number one complaint against FX Open is that they are a ruthless market maker that has no patience for customers who actually make money. Now this is a common complaint against many market makers. But in the threads referenced above Iâve never seen so many traders screaming about a firmâs dealing practices. Trader after trader complains about profits being removed from their accounts. Numerous traders complain of how the firm booted them out only after they made profits. Traders complain about terrible execution in numbers that really call into question the dealing ethics of this firm.
FX Openâs reply is that all these complaining customers are using some kind of secret software that allows them to âcheatâ and make big profits off them. Thus they have no choice but to close the accounts of these cheating customers. Iâm aware that there are some traders out there who are skilled at jumping in and out of the market in short bursts due to price discrepancies and latency issues. But this is very difficult to do. Yet judging from FX Openâs claims you would think that there are hordes of these traders out there raping and pillaging poor little forex dealers like FX Open.
Having said all that are some of these complaints against FX Open being orchestrated by their enemies? It appears so. And in part II of Metatrader Misery weâll take a look at FX Openâs rival âPoltek FXâ to uncover what these guys are up to.