Beware! Prime Tradez 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.
Prime Tradez wants you to believe that trading with this broker will be a successful and positive experience and claims on its interface that the number of traders that trade daily with this broker is 1,250 and that the number of successful trades is 250,000. However, based on the statistics that 70% of traders lose in transactions, we believe that the number of successful trades is not true and is aiming at enticing potential traders to join this broker. Needless to say, should you choose to trade with this broker your trading experience may not be a happy one. Here are the facts.
Prime Tradez Regulation and safety of funds
Prime Tradez claims to have an address in the UK and according to that, the company should be registered and licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the official regulator of forex brokers in the UK. Our search of the register, however, shows that this broker is not licensed by FCA and therefore is non-legit. Trading with this broker will put your hard-earned money at risk as non-licensed brokers cannot provide a guarantee for the safety of their clients’ funds and don’t forget that we are most probably dealing with a scammer whose aim is to fleece its clients.
UK brokers are strictly regulated by FCA and they must meet many conditions in order to get their license. First of all, they must have an initial capital of no less than 730,000 EUR which among other things helps to keep scammers out as they will never invest so much money just for the benefit of looking legit. In addition to that, brokers are required to keep their clients’ funds segregated from their own with tier-1 bank establishments, report regularly on their transactions for the sake of transparency, provide protection against negative balance and have regular external audits. Also, brokers must keep leverage which does not exceed 1:30 and are banned from offering bonuses and other incentives to their clients.
One of the upsides in trading with UK brokers is that they must participate and deduct funds towards the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme from which their clients can be reimbursed up to 85,000 GBP per client if the broker goes bankrupt.
If you want to widen the scope of your search for a licensed and reliable forex broker to trade with, we can also recommend the EU brokers which must meet the same requirements as their UK counterparts. The difference is that to provide compensation for their clients in case of bankruptcy, EU brokers must participate in a local investor compensation fund which can reimburse the clients with up to 20,000 EUR per client.
Prime Tradez Trading software
Prime Tradez trades in forex, commodities, stocks and cryptocurrencies. The trading software consists of the MetaTrader 4 trading platform which is very popular among forex brokers despite being already 15 years old. This is easily explainable as MT4 offers an excellent package of trading tools and instruments so far matched only by the MetaTrader 5. This package provides a lot of advantages to the traders as it contains an auto trading option, trading signals which the traders can get for a subscription fee, code base with customs scripts, an app market, VPS, etc. The charting options are one of the key features for MT4 and they offer many charts, time frames and colours to choose from, including the option to create customised templates. Combined with the array of technical analysis indicators, they provide enormous help to the trader in predicting the future direction of exchange rates and thus make a profit.
Not wanting to further fatten the pockets of this scammer, we decided not to open a live account which prerequisite was depositing money. We opened a demo account instead which also give an idea about what the platform looks like (image below). The menu on the left-hand side shows the trading products with their bid/ask price. Beneath is the navigator for accounts, indicators and expert advisors plus the scripts. In the middle are displayed 4 charts of 4 currency pairs showing the fluctuation in price in a given time frame. In the top horizontal bar are the charting options and the auto trading option which we mentioned above together with the buttons for placing orders. At the bottom of the screen are visible the buttons for the trading signals, the app market and the code base with customs scripts.
As the demo account does not provide the real parameters for the spread and the leverage, we look at the trading account information which is in the image below. We notice that the Standard ECN account the spread starts from 4.5 pips. Such spread is too wide and way higher than the industry average of 1.5 pips. The implications are that the cost of transactions will be too high and traders won’t be able to achieve sustainable profit. Also, as the broker derives revenue from the spread, you can see where the money will be going to.
Another worrisome sign is that the leverage is very high – 1:400. This is another proof that this broker is a scammer because, as we mentioned already, licensed brokers in the UK have capped leverage which cannot exceed 1:30 as per ESMA regulations. Furthermore, high leverage increases the scope of financial loss in unsuccessful transactions and traders may suffer a substantial financial loss if they choose to trade with Prime Tradez.
Prime Tradez Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
From the image below, we see that Prime Tradez offers 5 trading accounts – Standard ECN, Classic ECN, Expert, Master and Pro. The minimum initial deposit for the Standard ECN account is $100.
We noticed some discrepancies regarding the payment methods offered by this broker. On the interface of the company, you can see as payment methods listed PerfectMoney, credit card, Neteller and Skrill. In fact, if you open a trading account and click on the deposit button, you will find out that only Skrill and Neteller are available as payment methods.
For making withdrawals, the only option is via wire transfer.
We did not find information about the minimum withdrawal amount and any related fees. The Terms and Conditions document which normally will provide all the legal information regarding trading with this broker does exist. However, there is nor relevant information whatsoever.
How does scam work?
Actually, it’s quite simple and people often fall into the trap of experienced scammers. We bet you have seen those attractive ads on the Internet promising big and quick profits over a short period of time. Just provide your personal information, and voila! The scam brokers are waiting for you and you will be inundated with phone calls promising easy profit. Tempting, right? You think ‘ok, I can spend $200-300 and see what profit it brings me’. Congratulations, you just provided a fat commission for your scammers that will be distributed down the food chain. Now you have ‘graduated’ to be handed over to a senior ‘broker’, a smooth talker who will try to convince you that there is no more perfect time like now to invest more money. After all, you want to make more profit, right? However, something starts to feel off and now you start asking yourself questions and all you want is to withdraw your money and get out fast.
Unfortunately, it is too late! Someone has pulled the cheese and you are trapped because scammers don’t give up easily. Scammers will do anything in order to delay you so that you miss the deadline for a chargeback.
What to do if scammed?
Our advice is to immediately file for a chargeback if you have been lucky enough to make your deposit via credit card. VISA and MasterCard allow for 540 days chargeback period, so you still have a chance to get your money back.
Things don’t look so good if your currency of choice has been Bitcoin or bank wire. In that case, you may have to wave your money goodbye.
There are some other things that you can do in case of being scammed – cancel your credit card if you have given your CVV code to the scammers. Also, erase any software from your computer that gives scammers access to your private data.
Be warned, as well, that some so-called ‘recovery agents’ may approach you promising to recover your funds for a fee. It could be another form of scam where scammers prey on your misfortune. Should you choose to use one, you must make sure that you are dealing with a genuine and legitimate agency by checking their credential and company’s information and transparency.
Sanjay saini
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