Beware! Aurea Capital Markets 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.
Don’t you find it attractive that Aurea Capital Markets is a brokerage made by traders for traders as they claim? Would that lure you into trading with them? Not so fast, please. First, read the facts!
Aurea Capital Markets Regulation and safety of funds
From the information available on this broker website, we find out that Aurea Capital Markets LLC which owns and operates the website is with an address in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and also an address in Mexico City.
First of all, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is an offshore zone for forex trade and there is no official regulator for forex brokers which means that Aurea Capital Markets is non-registered and non-regulated and as such should be considered a scammer. However, to be thorough in our research, we checked the information regarding regulations for forex trade in Mexico. It appears that in this jurisdiction operate brokers that are properly regulated by the FCA, ASIC and CySec along with offshore brokers and the security of clients’ funds depends solely on the integrity of the broker which in this case should be treated with suspicion. Our advice is not to entrust your precious money to this broker of dubious intents.
If you are searching for a licensed and reliable broker, we advise you to turn your attention to the well-established jurisdictions of the US, the EU and the UK where forex brokers are heavily regulated and every precaution is taken to guarantee the safety of your funds. First of all, these brokers must be well-capitalised and regarding the US we are talking big money. US brokers must have a minimum of $20 million in capital to be able to operate. Such a huge amount is required because in the US there are no compensation funds or schemes to help clients in case the broker goes bankrupt but being well-capitalised means the US brokers will be able to protect their clients’ funds in case of unfavourable events.
The trading conditions in the EU and the UK are different. The brokers must have an initial capital of not so impressive 730,000 EUR. However, in both jurisdictions, there are operating compensation funds or scheme toward which licensed brokers are obliged to deduct funds. UK brokers regulated by FCA participate in the local Financial Services Compensation Scheme which can provide a compensation of up to 85,000 GBP to each client if the broker becomes insolvent. EU brokers also participate in a local investor compensation fund from which every client will get up to 20,000 EUR in case of bankruptcy.
In all the above-mentioned jurisdictions brokers must keep their clients’ funds segregated from their own in tier-1 bank establishments, provide negative balance protection, keep low leverage, report transactions on a regular basis, etc. As you can see, choosing a licensed broker from those jurisdictions will provide you with peace of mind for your precious money.
Aurea Capital Markets Trading software
To its clients, Aurea Capital Markets offers the MetaTrader 5 trading platform which is one of the best platforms for forex traders along with the MetaTrader 4. Both platforms offer an excellent package of trading tools and instruments that include an auto trading option, VPS, trading signals, a code base with customs scripts, an app market, a financial calendar, etc. The variety of charting options and technical analysis indicators also help traders to predict the future direction of exchange rates and make a profit.
However, a platform is as good as its broker is reliable. So, let’s take a look at how the parameters of Aurea Capital Markets MT5 are set. Below is an image of what the platform looks like and on the left-hand side are given the trading products with their bid/ask price and beneath is the navigator for the accounts, indicators, expert advisors, scripts and services. The middle of the screen shows a display of 4 charts for 4 currency pairs with the fluctuation in price in a given time frame. However, the number of charts can vary depending on the trader’s needs.
If we take a closer look at the EUR/USD currency pair displayed in the top-left corner, we can find out that the spread is 0.8 pips. This spread is tight and below the industry average which means that the cost of transactions won’t be high and traders will be able to achieve a sustainable profit. On the other hand, in a typical fashion for dodgy brokers, the leverage is too high – 1:400 as we can see in the last image containing the trading accounts information. The implications for using such high leverage are that traders’ funds will be exposed to risk because 70% of traders lose in transactions and the scope of financial loss that they may suffer will be amplified by the high leverage. It is not by chance that licensed brokers from the well-established jurisdictions that we mentioned in the previous section are required to comply with regulations regarding the leverage and they cannot exceed leverage of 1:30 for forex currencies in the EU and the UK and in the US, the maximum leverage for forex currencies is 1:50. These are measures to protect clients’ money by preventing traders from entering risky and reckless transactions with high leverage.
Aurea Capital Markets Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees
In the image below, you can see that Aurea Capital Markets offers 3 trading accounts – Zero Spread, Standard and Pro. The minimum initial deposit for the Zero Spread and Standard accounts is $200 whereas for the Pro account, it is $500.
From the information on the company’s interface, we find out that the deposit and withdrawal methods consist of payments made via Bitcoin, Skrill, Neteller, bank wire and credit card.
There is no available information regarding what the minimum withdrawal amount is or if there are any deposit/withdrawal fees.
How does scam work?
A lot of people get scammed in different scammers’ schemes not because they are naive but because scammers are masters of persuasion and manipulation. It all starts with unsolicited telephone calls or a flashy ad on the Internet or social media. Sometimes people give up to temptation and invest money in shady schemes made to look legit and attractive and always promising quick and easy money fall. Once you deposit money into any of these schemes, you reach a point of no return! Your money is gone down the scammers’ food chain and you’ll have a lot of trouble recovering it. Scammers will do anything in their power to delay you, so you miss the opportunity to file for a chargeback. They will ask you for this and that document and will find hundreds of reasons not to let you retrieve your money. The trick with offering bonuses in forex trading is one of those as your funds are mixed with the bonus money and it takes a lot of hassle to fulfil the broker’s requirements before you are able to withdraw any funds.
What to do if scammed?
Speed does it! You need to act very quickly if you want to recover your money. Immediately apply for a chargeback if you have made your deposit via credit card. Fortunately, VISA and MasterCard give you 540 days within which to apply for a chargeback.
If you have paid via wire transfer or Bitcoin, the chances of retrieving your fund are grim. Anyway, we want to warn you that some of the so-called recovery agents may approach you and offer to retrieve your funds. For a fee, of course! Be cautious when dealing with them as it may be another form of scam! Always check if the recovery agency is legitimate and visible to the public!
Another thing we advise you to do is to immediately cancel any credit cards if the scammers have your CVV code. Also, make sure to erase any programs on your computer that give scammers access to your personal data on your PC.
