Monday, December 02, 2013

Trader Beware: Navigating the Forex Market

With the rapid growth of the internet in recent times, more and more people are discovering the potential benefits of trading currencies on the Forex market. Particularly with the development of commercially available Forex software, trading has made real financial gains possible for everyday people. However, be warned. Navigating the Forex market can be risky business, particularly when not all Forex brokers offer the same support and customer satisfaction as you would hope for when investing your hard earned money.

Are There Bad Guys?

Of course there can be no such thing as a categorically 'perfect' or 'best' broker per se, but with many complaints about Forex scams, there are certainly some warning signs that will tell you whether or not your broker has your best interests at heart. On of the most common complaints relating to major broker FXCM is that everything works incredibly smoothly, provided you lose. Once you start trading profitably however, strange things happen; they may close positions or even your account with no real justification. Is seems their customer support is fairly non-existent as well. Similarly, well known broker Plus500, though popular, does not seem entirely legit. To start with, it's not even properly registered at the International Financial Services Commission, nor is it regulated, which should ring alarm bells for anyone from the start. But there are plenty of issues surrounding the misuse of credit card information and claims that the spread is always one pip higher than it's supposed to be due to Plus500 closing the position one pip lower than the platform actually shows. Whilst these issues are not all-encompassing for the brokers concerned, its does not instil potential new traders with a great deal of confidence.

Are There Good Guys?

Unfortunately, ever broker seems to have their pros and cons. And regardless of how high customer satisfaction is for one broker, there will always be instances in which complaints of scamming and poor customer service tarnish their image. Of course, in some instances poor reviews may very well come from rival brokers, so there is no real way of telling the true from the false. For now at least the only broker who does seem to be making the effort and openly delivering the closest thing to total customer satisfaction in a transparent way is Alpari.

Tread Carefully

Whilst trading on the Forex market can be highly profitable and very accessible, it is also a bit of a minefield. So be very careful and do your research before selecting a broker.

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