VirtuFinance review – 5 things you should know about virtufinancial.eu

Beware! VirtuFinance is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.

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Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.

The VirtuFinance website greets us with the claim that it represents a brand that has been a leader in the international forex industry for more than a quarter of a century.

Given that we had never heard of this supposed industry leader, we did some fact checking. This is how we found out that VirtuFinance is actually just another online scam targeting people without enough experience and knowledge about financial markets.

VirtuFinance Regulation and safety of funds

Legitimate forex brokers provide clear and detailed information about the legal entity that owns and operates them, where it is based, what licences it has and which regulators oversee its activities. Lack of such details or improper presentation of them are always a red flag that we are probably dealing with a scam.

The VirtuFinance does not provide an address for contact or information regarding a regulatory licence.

The home page of the website states that the company behind this brand is called Davy Ltd.

But the text of the Customer Agreement does not mention the name of this or any other legal entity. Therefore, we do not know exactly who we are dealing with.

According to the document, the applicable laws are those of England, but at the same time it states that the broker does not accept UK clients.

We do not find anything regarding Davy Ltd or VirtuFinance in the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) database. This means that VirtuFinance is not an authorised broker based in England.

Before investing your money in financial instruments, it is imperative to make sure you do so through a licensed intermediary and not one of the many scammers lurking online.

If you want to trade on financial markets without being scammed, you can turn to some of the legitimate brokers that actually operate from established financial hubs like the UK. These brokers have to meet stringent requirements for financial stability and transparency of operations imposed by the FCA.

They must provide clients with negative balance protection and to participate in a guarantee fund that covers up to GBP 85,000 of a client’s investment should the broker go into insolvency. These brokers are also required to keep their clients’ money segregated from their own operating funds in separate bank accounts.

VirtuFinance Trading software

After registering an account, we get access to a pretty basic web trading platform that doesn’t feature extensive customization options or advanced functionality. We’ve seen the exact same platform being used by multiple fake brokers we’ve encountered. Scammers are using rigged trading software to fool their victims into believing that their money is really being invested.

While the platform has the basic features for placing orders, customising charts and application of technical indicators, it lacks the more advanced functionality found in the most widely used trading platforms in the industry, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).

These platforms have established themselves as industry standard because they offer a wide range of features, including a variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.

VirtuFinance Trading instruments

VirtuFinance claims to offer trading in all major financial asset classes. But the website does not provide detailed information on trading conditions.

When you visit the website of a legitimate broker you will find proposals for different types of trading accounts suitable for investors with different preferences, as well as detailed descriptions of trading parameters – minimum deposit, order execution method, tradable financial instruments, leverage, spread, swap, commissions, etc.

VirtuFinance Spreads and cost of trading

The home page of the website promises very low spreads, but in the trading platform we see the opposite – a spread of 3 pips, which is twice as high as usual for the industry. Even if VirtuFinance were offering real trading, it would be very unprofitable.

VirtuFinance Maximum leverage

VirtuFinance claims to offer leverage of 1:500, which is contrary to claims that it is based in the UK.

The FCA, like EU regulators, limits leverage to 1:30 for trading in major currency pairs and even lower levels for more volatile assets.

High leverage creates the opportunity for more significant profit, but correspondingly increases the risk of sudden and excessive losses. All leading regulators therefore restrict leverage for retail traders.

Regulated brokers offer higher leverage only to professional clients who must meet very high standards for capital and experience and forgo the guarantees enjoyed by retail traders.

If you don’t qualify as a professional trader but are willing to take the risk of high-leverage trading, the most viable option is to use the services of an offshore affiliate of an established brand.

VirtuFinance Deposit and withdrawal methods

VirtuFinance claims to allow deposits and withdrawals with all major types of payment methods. But in the deposit menu, the only option is to provide your credit card details to an unknown payment processor.

Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer and established e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, Neteller or Sofort.

VirtuFinance doesn’t provide any information on transaction fees, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be unpleasantly surprised with huge hidden fees.

VirtuFinance Minimum deposit

VirtuFinance does not specify a minimum deposit amount. But there is no doubt that you would be better off trading through a licensed broker. Most established brands offer Micro accounts with a very low minimum deposit.

VirtuFinance Withdrawal requirements

The Terms and Conditions state that if the account has received a bonus, the withdrawal of funds requires meeting minimum traded volume requirements. But these requirements are not specified. Scammers usually set an impossibly high bar to block withdrawal requests. And regulated brokers are prohibited from offering bonuses and promotions.

VirtuFinance charges an inactive account fee of 25 USD after three months and 100 USD after 12 months.