Beware! GT.IO 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.
GT.IO is a forex broker which, in its own words is the upshot of the digital transformation of currency markets and the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. After such a big claim, we are bound to check how reliable this broker is in reality and advise you whether it is safe to trade with it or not.
GT.IO Regulation and safety of funds
GT.IO is a forex broker trading in forex, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, energies, equity indices and stocks. The website is owned by 360 Degrees Markets Ltd with registration and authorisation in Seychelles. Seychelles is an offshore zone where clients’ money is not kept in segregated accounts as it is in the EU and the US . Also, there are no provisions to guarantee the safety of clients’ funds. We definitely advise against trading with brokers from offshore zones.
Instead, we recommend you to research and select a broker from one of the well-established jurisdictions around the world. On top of our list are the brokers from the EU and the UK where the best conditions exist. First of all, there are rigid requirements that the brokes must meed in order to be licensed and that among other things serve as a barrier against scammers sneaking in. For example, brokers in the EU and the UK must have an initial capital of no less than 730,000 EUR. No scammer will invest so much money just to look legit. In addition to that, brokers in the UK must contribute to a local compensation fund from which traders will be compensated if the broker goes bankrupt by up to 85,000 GBP per person. Similarly, in the EU, brokers regulated by the CySEC must contribute to a local compensation fund from which traders will be compensated up to 20,000 EUR per person in case of bankruptcy.
In the US and Australia, there are also some provisions set in place to protect traders’ funds. In the US, licensed brokers must have an initial capital of $20 million and in Australia, the initial capital is 1 million AUD. Australia will also shortly follow in the steps of the UK and the EU and introduce in March next year some changes in the regulation of the forex brokers that aim at protecting the clients’ funds.
GT.IO Trading software
The trading platform offered by GT.IO is the MetaTrader 5 in its variations for desktop, web trader and mobile trader. We must say that MT5 is an excellent choice of a trading platform as it offers an excellent package of trading tools and instruments and is preferred by the majority of the forex brokers. This is easy to explain why, as the MT5 offers an auto trading option, VPS, trading signals that can be obtained for a fee, code base with customs scripts, an app market and a financial calendar. It is also famous for its charting options that help traders analyse and predict the fluctuation in price in a given time frame and make a profit.
However, what you should remember is that the most important thing is to choose a licensed broker, the trading platform comes in second place.
If we take a look at the screenshot below, we’ll see that this is an image of the MT5 web trader demo account. On the left, you see the major forex pairs with their bid/ask price. In the middle, you see the chart of the EUR/USD currency pair with the price fluctuation. Trade is done as you click on the sell or buy buttons after setting some parameters for volume, price, etc. From the bid/ask price for the same currency pair, we can calculate that the spread is 0.4 pips in this demo account. When exploring the company’s website, we saw that the leverage is very high – 1:500. Such high leverage will undoubtedly present a risk for the traders’ funds. Lots of traders get tempted when the broker offers high leverage thinking that it will result in big profit. What they might not know is that around 70% of traders mark financial loss in forex transactions and in fact, high leverage most probably will result in a big loss, not a big win. Furthermore, our readers should know that licensed brokers do not offer such high leverage. In fact, there is a cap on leverage in EU and it cannot exceed 1:30 an in the US it cannot exceed 1:50. Australia will soon follow in these steps and will introduce a cap on leverage in March next year.
GT.IO Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
GT.IO offers either a live account or a demo. The minimum initial deposit is 10 USD. From the screenshot below you can see that there are different payment methods, such as credit card, JCB, Sticpay, wire transfer and cryptocurrencies. However, when you open an account and click on the deposit button, the only payment options available are in cryptocurrencies. Processing time for deposits and withdrawals are instant, except for the bank wire that can take 2-5 business days. There are no deposit/withdrawal fees.
As per the company’s policy, an account that stays inactive for a period of 90 days is considered dormant and will be charged a $10 monthly fee which is perfectly in line with what well-established brokers offer.
While perusing the company’s policies, we noticed that this broker offers different bonuses in the form of promotions. There is a trading bonus in the form of a one-time added value to the trader’s deposit by a certain percentage depending on the amount of the deposit. It is not clear, however, what that percentage is and what the conditions are in such case.
Then, there is the no deposit bonus/registration bonus. Traders can withdraw the profits from such bonus only when they reach a value of $300 or more.
There is also the first time deposit bonus, the second time deposit bonus which the broker may offer at its discretion from time to time after a first or a second deposit are made by the client. There is also the any time deposit bonus when the client makes a subsequent deposit.
These bonuses are considered to be available for trading purposes only and if they are not utilised for 30 consecutive days, they will be nullified.
In addition to that, the company, as per its own discretion, may offer cash back rebate. Again, there is no specific information under what conditions these offers will be made.
It looks like this broker is trying to entice its clients to deposit more and more money by offering different bonuses. What we want to advise our reader is to be wary of such bonuses and promotions especially when the terms and conditions do not specify under what conditions they can be withdrawn. Remember, there is no such thing as ‘free gift’ especially in forex trade and licensed brokers will never offer bonuses or free gifts.
The company warns its potential clients that in the case where the trader files for a chargeback, the company reserves the right to block the trader’s account until it investigates the legitimacy of the chargeback. The company will release the account only if the chargeback is found to be valid. In the event where the company finds that the client’s argument for a chargeback is not valid, then the broker will block $150 as research and administrative processing fee. This definitely is not to the client’s advantage and when dealing with scammers and trying to get out of their clutches, this may be just another way to get scammed.
How does scam work?
If scammers make a movie, it will probably be called “Dream on”. They make everything sound credible and build their scam on your dreams of getting an easy and quick profit. People get duped if they decide to deposit money into one of the scammer’s schemes. What you probably do not know is that your hard-earned money goes as commission to the scammers. Next, you get inundated by daily calls. First, the scammers congratulate you for joining their business, next they try to persuade you to invest even more money. After all, the more money you send, the bigger money fall you can expect. This of course is not how things work. By the time you realise that no money is coming your way, it might be too late. All you want now is to get your money back and get out of there but the scammers have other plans for you and they won’t late get away so easily. Now they try to delay you so that you miss the deadline for a chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
If you get scammed, our advice is to act immediately and if you have paid your deposit via credit/debit card you may still have a chance. Visa and MasterCard allow 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.
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.
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.
