Beware! Billion Forex is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
How much do you know about brokerages that trade CFD on commodities, forex, spot metals and futures? Let us take a look at Billion Forex which is one of the brokerages that offers this type of trade and see what we can learn from it.
If you choose to engage as a trader in a Contract for Difference (CFD), it means that you’ll be engaging in a contract between yourself and a broker that speculates on the price of an asses in market conditions. Profit and losses will be calculated based on the difference in price when a contract is entered and when it’s exited. In such cases, having an experienced and legitimate broker is crucial as your wins and losses depend on it. Some statistics show that around 70-90% of CFD traders lose money. With such high percentage of loss, you need to be extra cautious if you are planning to engage in this type of trade.
As per the information on its website, Billion Forex offers 3 types of accounts – Micro, Standard and VIP, in addition to a demo account. Registration is simple – you only need to enter your name, phone number, email address and password. Both demo and live accounts opened without much fuss.
Billion Forex Regulation and safety of funds
We already mentioned above that CFD trading is very risky in its nature and a lot depends on its broker. That is why, dealing with a legitimate and regulated forex brokerage is pivotal to your CFD transactions. So, we checked if this company that shows its address and registration to be in Estonia is in the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA) register. It is not.
It’s like this company does not exist anywhere and we don’t have to spell it our for you – it’s because this company is scam!
Although Estonia is in the well-established jurisdiction of EU, as you can see, there is no guarantee that dodgy forex companies won’t try to scam you. Our advice is to always check the company’s name in the registers of the respective jurisdictions, as well as the visibility of the company in the public eye. Only a registered and regulated forex company will provide you with some sort of protection by putting your money in a segregated account and will adhere to the Investor Compensation Fund where clients can recover up to 20,000 EUR in case of broker bankruptcy. Dodgy forex companies without proof of registration cannot and will not do that for you.
As safety of funds precautions, the company claims to keep the clients funds segregated from Billion Forex own funds and that its clients might be eligible to receive compensation in case of financial loss without specifying the amount, though. In addition to that, the company assures its clients that its trading platform provides an automated risk-management system so the client’s balance won’t go negative. It could be true, of course, but the fact that this company does not look legit is something to worry about.
Billion Forex Trading software
The trading platform for Billion Forex is Sirix Webtrader for web, desktop, Mac and mobile phone. What we see when we open the platform is the forex pairs with their bid/ask price on the left, the fluctuation of the price in a given time frame, in the middle. And in the far right – the menu for social trading. The spread for EUR/USD on the screen below is shown as 2.7 pips and the required margin is 2.5 which gives us a leverage of 1:400. High leverage in forex trade brings also a high level of risk for possible loss. We already mentioned that a high percentage of traders experience financial loss in CFD trade and having such high leverage means that if you trade via this brokerage, you’ll be at risk of losing your money really fast.
We want to add here that some well-established jurisdictions in the forex trade have a cap on leverage to limit the danger of possible loss. For example, in USA, the cap on leverage is 1:50 and in Europe, it’s even less – 1:30. Now compare these caps with the 1:400 leverage on this company’s trading platform and estimate how much your risk of financial loss will increase should you choose to trade via this brokerage.
Another feature available on this trading platform, that we want to mention, is the social trading which provides real time interaction between forex traders. You can share knowledge and expertise, help each other, compare trading strategies and follow and mirror the trading of experienced traders. Social trading is not necessarily a bad thing if you follow a trusted trader and have chosen a good social trading network. However, it also bears risks, should the ‘successful’ trader you decide to follow happen to be a scammer or a bot.
If we compare this trading platform with other trading platforms, such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, we’ll find out that the latter have a lot more advantages than the one offered by Billion Forex. For example, MT4 and MT5 give better option in following the changes on the markets. They have an auto trading option, and various trading indicators, tools and instruments – an app market, a financial calendar, VPS and code base with customs scripts, to name a few. We always advise our readers when it comes to choosing a trading platform to consider these two well reputed and popular among brokers trading platforms.
Billion Forex Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
The initial deposit for the Micro account is $500. For the other 2 accounts, the initial deposits are 5,000 and 50,000 USD respectively.
We find the deposit/withdrawal methods rather strange. For example, if you need to fund your account, the only options available are crypto exchanges, such as Azimo, Coin Mama, Bit Panda and Coin Base.
Withdrawal can be made only via bank transfer. We find such system rather complicated and not user friendly. For example, if you want to trade in forex pairs, you need to have an eWallet to fund your account with cryptocurrency and a bank account if you withdraw funds. We find such discrepancies alarming. Deposit/withdrawal methods should be simple and straightforward if the brokerage you are dealing with is legitimate, transparent and regulated.
To support this, in the Terms and Conditions document we find more information on those methods. First of all, in the Deposit and bonuses policy section, we find that the client will have to maintain ‘guarantees’ in amounts that the company may require as per its discretion. We are not sure here what ‘guarantees’ mean but we are guessing, it’s about depositing funds. Further down in the same policy, it says that the company may require additional ‘guarantees’ which the client must oblige to deposit when and as much required again ‘by the company’s sole discretion’! And, note this, the company reserves the right to liquidate the client’s account if the ‘guarantees’ do not meet the company’s requirements.
Also, it is interesting to know that the company may offer trading bonuses if the client makes a minimum deposit of $1,000. The client will be eligible to withdraw if o.1 standard lot round turn transactions per $1 of profit.
How does scam work?
A lot of people get scammed everyday, not because they are naive or stupid, but because scammers are inventive and they are masters of manipulation. Often, as you scroll up and down on the Internet or social media, you come across ads for a quick and easy profit which sometimes sound too tempting not to fall into their traps. So you deposit some money into the account and what happens next is the incessant calls of the scammers. First, they congratulate you for taking the first steps towards becoming rich and next, they try to convince you to invest even more money into their ‘profitable’ business. What you probably don’t know is that your money has just gone as a commission to some scammers. And so, you wait and build the sandcastles of your dreams for a better and ‘richer’ future. And you wait, and you wait, for the money to come. But where is it? Now is your turn to call the scammers and to ask what’s going on. They try to placate you and ask you to be more patient. But have had enough and all you want is to get your money back. The scammers kind of promise, but now they are asking you to provide this document or fill out that form, etc., etc., all done in an attempt to delay you from filing for chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
If this happens to you, our advice is to act immediately and if you have paid your deposit via credit/debit card, to file for chargeback which is retroactive cancellation and refund of your previous transaction. Visa and MasterCard give you 540 days time limit to file for chargeback which gives you a fighting chance to recover your money.
However, if you have used Bitcoin or bank wire for your payment, the chances of you recovering your money are really slim.
Whatever you do to recover your funds, beware of the so-called recovery agents. Please make sure that you are dealing with a genuine one by checking their credentials and company’s information transparency. Otherwise, you may fall victim to another form of scam.
Cancelling your credit/debit card in case you have given the scammers your CVV code may be another good idea. Also, make sure to remove from your PC any software that my give scammers access to your private data stored on your computer.
