Beware! ProLiveTrading 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.
ProLiveTrading is a forex broker offering CFD trading on forex, commodities, indices and stocks. At first glance, everything seems to be in order, however, we are going to look at some key features and advise you whether it is safe to trade with this broker or not.
ProLiveTrading Regulation and safety of funds
Aronex Corporation Limited is the company operating ProLiveTrading. The company claims to be authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority in Seychelles. Being an offshore zone, Seychelles brokers are regulated to some extent, i.e., they must have a share capital of at least $50,000 which, however, can be used for the day to day business activities of the broker and there are no segregated accounts for the traders. What we are trying to say here is that these are not the best conditions a broker can offer you.
We suggest that you choose a broker from a well-established jurisdiction, such as EU, UK, US or Australia. Brokers regulated in those jurisdictions can provide you with a guarantee for the safety of your funds and also, the fact that they are licensed will give you peace of mind that you won’t be scammed. To be regulated, forex brokers must have an initial capital which for the US is $20 million, for Australia – 1 million AUD, and for EU and UK – 730,000 EUR. No scammer will ever invest so much money just to look legit. Another advantage in choosing a licensed broker is that traders will be compensated if the broker declares bankruptcy. Forex brokers in EU and UK must contribute to a compensation scheme from which traders can be compensated by up to 20,000 EUR per person if the broker is regulated by CySEC, or, by up to 85,000 GBP per person if the broker is regulated by FCA. Undoubtedly, these are the best conditions you can expect when choosing a broker.
ProLiveTrading Trading platform
In the Terms and Conditions document, there is mention that the trading platform is MetaTrader 4. However, when you register and open a trading account, what you have available is a browser-based platform, offering a very basic functionality and a third-party chart developed by TradingView (see the screenshot below). In the top horizontal bar of the web trader, you see the auto trading option of questionable merit. In the centеr of the screen, you see the chart showing the price fluctuation of the currency pair EUR/USD. Orders are placed after you select the sell or buy button and set the parameters for the trading product, market execution or pending order and stop loss. The problem with this browser-based platform is that the trader has very little control over the whole transaction.
If you are looking for a really excellent trading platform, we suggest that you choose a licensed broker that offers either MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 platforms. Both platforms have an excellent selection of trading tools and instruments, such as an auto trading option, VPS and code base with customs scripts, an app market, trading signals, a financial calendar, etc. The charting options of these two platforms are out of this world. They contain technical analysis indicators, such as Fibonacci retracement, moving averages, Bollinger Bands, etc., that help traders predict the future direction of exchange rates and make a profit. Sadly, the browser-based platform offered by ProLiveTrading cannot compare to these two number one platforms.
ProLiveTrading Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
Pro Live Trading offers 6 different account types – Trial, Bronze, Premium, Silver, Gold and VIP. The minimum initial deposit for the Trial account is $250. On the company’s website, in the horizontal bar, we noticed different payment methods, such as VISA, MasterCard, Skrill, Neteller, V Pay and Bitcoin. However, when we opened a trading account and open the deposit box, the only options available were credit card and Bitcoin. The same applies for the withdrawal methods.
In the Terms and Conditions document, there is a stipulation regarding inactive accounts. If in a period of 60 days there is no trading done or no funds deposited within the last two calendar months or any trades executed, then the account will be considered dormant. In that case, a fee of 80 EUR will apply for every month when the account is inactive. After the 91st day of inactivity, the fee will increase to 120 EUR, after the 6th month, it will be 200 EUR and from the 271st day – 500EUR. We must say that the conditions for the inactive/dormant account are rather harsh and the amount of the fee is high, too.
When you look at the account types’ information, you may also notice that there gift bonuses offered for each account except for the Trial account. In the Terms and Conditions document, there is a clause about the company giving bonuses or awards. However, there is no specific information about how this is regulated and what conditions have to be met in order to withdraw the bonus amount. You must be aware that bonuses usually come with heavy requirements attached to them that are hard to fulfil and traders often find themselves in a mess of not being able to withdraw their funds. Be warned that bonuses, even if it says ‘gift bonus’ are not free gifts and that you may have to pay dearly for them if you choose to accept them. Also, for your information, licensed brokers do not offer any bonuses or free gifts. It is very likely that brokers who offer bonuses or free gifts are scammers.
How does scam work?
A lot of people get scammed every day, 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 a 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.
