Beware! XeroMarkets 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.
XeroMarkets is one of the few offshore brokers we review that might actually not be a scam. The broker does not seem to try to hide the fact that it is unlicensed, offers good conditions and a great trading platform, and does not seem to charge weird, devious fees. This broker might acquire a license at some point and at that point, we would definitely recommend that you start trading with them. However, at the moment, there are no guarantees that this is not just a very good scam scheme. Proceed with extra caution.
XeroMarkets REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
Our biggest problem with XeroMarkets is the fact that they are an unregulated offshore company. The broker made no effort to conceal that stating that it is registered in the St. Vincent and the Grenadines – on an address used by hundreds, if not thousands of scam brokers.
The reason why St. Vincent and the Grenadines are so popular among scammers is simple – the local financial authority does not regulate forex brokers, does not monitor their activities, and does not impose any laws in the sphere. This also means that there are no safely requirements such brokers have to face. Offshore brokers are not obligated to report transactions either – this facilitates all sorts of illegal activities such as money laundering, tax evasion, and fraud. That is why we generally advise traders to stay away from such companies – unless the broker in question is the offshore branch of a reputable international brokerage which XeroMarkets is definitely not.
If a broker wants to hold a license in the UK, the EU, or Australia on the other hand, they would have to answer to strict regulators and meet many requirements before they are able to call themselves a broker. Such brokers should follow certain documentation procedures and report transactions to authorities – this makes matters much more transparent and ensures that you would be treated fairly. Brokers everywhere must maintain some sort of minimum capital – at least €730 000 in the EU and the UK and A$1 million in Australia. That amount could be bigger for brokers with more clients. All European brokers are obligated to provide funds for compensation funds. If a regulated broker goes bankrupt, their clients could receive compensation of up to £85 000 in the UK and €20 000 in the EU. All client deposits must be kept separate from the broker’s funds. This makes withdrawals faster and means your broker could not use your money for their own investments and activities.
XeroMarkets TRADING SOFTWARE
XeroMarkets provides access to the leading trading platform MetaTrader 4. The desktop, web, and mobile versions of the platform were all available.
We definitely would recommend that you give MT4 a try sooner or later. This platform is legendary for a reason – it was introduced as far back as 2005 and remains widely popular to this day. This software is fairly accessible for beginners since it is easy to navigate and intuitive. It is, however, packed with useful functions – you will not only be getting access to countless indicators, graphical objects, and chart types but also employ additional features such as Expert Advisors, trading signals, and VPSs. You can also always create custom scripts (from scratch with the help of building blocks) or purchase add-ons on the MT market to customize your experience even more.
Check out some regulated brokers who offer the platform.
XeroMarkets TRADING CONDITIONS
XeroMarkets offers three different trading account types – XERO ECN, XERO XL, and XERO Regular.
The minimum deposit for the XERO XL and the XERO Regular is just $10 while a XERO ECN account costs $100. This means that the broker is quite affordable and in line with the tendency of brokers to offer cheap trading solutions. In fact, some of the best brokers in the industry offer trading accounts for $10 or less.
The maximum leverage you could get access to depends on the total amount of money in your account. The maximum is 1:500 on the XERO Regular and XERO ECN and as much as 1:3000 on the XERO XL. The rules on the first two types of accounts are as follows – up to 1:300 if you have under $25 000 in your account, up to 1:200 if you have less than $100 000, and up to 1:100 in any other case. On the XERO XL, you could trade with leverage of 1:3000 if you have less than $300, 1:2000 for less than $1000, 1:1000 for less than $3000 – when you exceed that amount of money, the same rules as on the other accounts apply.
Keep in mind that while offshore brokers can offer any leverage they see fit, you should still be careful with your leverage settings – choosing such extremely high rates could lead to much bigger losses and not just to bigger profits.
When it comes to spreads, we were pleasantly surprised. The spread on the ECN account starts from 0 pips but you will be charged a commission of $5 per lot – which is still quite little. There are no additional commissions on the other account types – but spreads are much wider, starting from 2 pips on the Regular account and 1 pip on the XL account. This means that opening an ECN account would be the best decision since you will be paying just around $5 as opposed to at least $20 or $10 respectively.
One thing that we noticed was that the spreads on the demo account and those on the website did not seem to match – which might imply that the broker does have some dirty tricks up its sleeve.
XeroMarkets DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL METHODS AND FEES
XeroMarkets accepts a wide variety of payment methods and does not seem to charge fees on deposits. Keep in mind that some fees might still be charged by the payment method provider.
Clients could deposit with a Visa or MasterCard card, via bank transfer, with PayPal, FasaPay, Help2Pay, in Bitcoin or Tether, or via some local banking solutions (in Malaysia). Keep in mind that depositing with some of these solutions might require an initial deposit larger than $10 ($15 for Help2Pay).
XeroMarkets does not charge an inactivity fee.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK?
This type of scam is really not that complicated – but it has proven to be quite effective and has managed to trick quite a few people. Given such schemes’ growing popularity, it is important to know how to avoid them – so reading the following paragraphs carefully is vital.
The scam starts with you seeing an ad on the Internet for a certain broker’s website. Such websites usually promise amazing conditions and extremely fast profits – but offer very little in terms of license and company information. However, sometimes scammers can be very elaborate in their promise – so you fall for it and provide them with a phone number or an email. There is another option – they might have stumbled upon your contact details somewhere and are the first to make contact. After that, a game of cat and mouse begins – you will be asked to open an account and make a deposit. Keep in mind that these are professional scammers who convince people to transfer money for a living – they will sweet-talk you into depositing by talking about profits and opportunities.
After that, you might indeed see profits and deposit even more money – but all of this is smoke and mirrors, scammers often manipulate results to make you transfer bigger amounts.
At some point, of course, you would want to withdraw your money – and the problems will start. Additional fees or unfulfilled clauses in the Terms and Conditions will appear, and you will be denied access to your money. At this point, you will probably discover something is wrong – and this is when the scammers will drop out of sight.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED?
There are a few things you could do if you discover you have been scammed. Chargebacks are possible in some cases depending on the payment method you have used to deposit. Both Visa and MasterCard allow such chargebacks within 540 days while bank transfers and cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible.
Make sure to change all banking passwords. If you have installed any remote access software, remove it immediately – scammers ask their victims to install such software under different pretexts but their endgame is to just get access to your banking accounts and steal even more money.
Notify authorities and share your story with as many people as possible – the more people know about such scams, the less they will fall victim to fraudulent schemes.
Last but not least – don’t trust any so-called “recovery agents” that offer to retrieve your money for a fee – this is just another type of scam, sometimes even conducted by the same people that stole your money in the first place.
