SFX Markets was founded in 2011. Today the company offers 30 currency pairs and precious metals trading on the popular MT4 terminal.
SFX Markets clients can choose between STP and ECN execution, fixed and variable spreads, and multiple platforms.
About company
According to the information on the website, SFX Markets is built on the execution of client transactions in the market using Straight Through Processing (STP) technology.
The broker is owned by SFX Global Ltd., which is registered as an International Business Company (IBC) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Quite loyal conditions have been created for companies in this offshore zone: they are not obliged to keep clients' money in segregated bank accounts, or to participate in the investor compensation program. The broker registration procedure itself is fast and inexpensive, and the control is liberal. That is why we advise traders to invest money in companies that are under stricter supervision. You can familiarize yourself with other brokers in our rating.
Although the company claims to keep clients' money in segregated accounts, it obtains liquidity directly from major market maker banks such as Barclays and BNP Paribas, and all financial transactions are subject to strict internal controls.
Trading conditions
In addition, this broker has a dedicated Islamic account and a unique social trading investment service called SFX Trade Leaders. It is available on the Invest.TL account and allows you to duplicate transactions of successful traders. One of the main features of the product is the flexibility of fees. Traders can set conditions for certain groups of investors.
In fact, the fixed spreads offered by SFX Markets are above average by 2.5 pips, while most fixed spread brokers offer 2 pips. Trading costs on ECN accounts are at least 1.5 pips (with a difference of 1.0 pips and a commission of $ 5 per standard lot), which is also above the market average.
Traders have access to accounts: MICRO, ECN ISLAMIC, ECN-PRO, SFX Trade Leaders, INVEST.TL, FIX API.
Trading platforms
SFX Markets offers clients the industry's most popular trading software, MetaTrader 4 (MT4), with desktop and mobile versions available.
In addition, the SFX Web terminal is available for everyone. It is an innovative trading solution that provides enhanced access to reports and statistics of trading accounts through SFX Private Office. It offers account access through any web browser (including mobile), advanced reports and statistics, and more.
There are also two more platforms - SFX Trader Pro and SFX Prime Trader. They are based on the FIX protocol and are available only to FIX API account holders. To open this account, you need to invest at least $ 100,000.
The MT4 terminal allows you to trade in financial markets (Forex, CFD and Futures). It provides the necessary tools and resources for analyzing the dynamics of prices for financial instruments, performing trading operations, creating and using automated trading programs (advisors).
Support service
SFX Markets has a professional support team that answers traders' questions via live chat, email and phone.
Ways of payment
SFX Markets offers its clients the following payment methods: credit / debit card (Visa, MasterCard), bank transfer and Neteller e-wallets, and SFX debit card.
The SFX debit card connects directly to your ePayments account.
Pros:
STP / ECN; a large selection of trading platforms; FIX API and advanced social trading features.
Minuses:
not regulated; trading costs are above average.
SFXMARKETS is a brokerage company, meaning a professional participant in the Forex market. Such organizations have the right to conduct transactions on behalf of their clients, that is, to provide intermediary services between sellers and buyers.
What services brokerage companies provide
Most traders use the opportunities provided for trading currency pairs. The essence is roughly the same as when buying currency in a bank - buy cheaper, wait for the price to rise, and sell at a higher price. But trading through a broker has a number of undeniable advantages:
- the rates are much more favorable, and the costs are significantly lower;
- there is an opportunity to trade not only on the rise but also on the fall of currency rates;
- dozens, and in some companies up to a hundred currency pairs are available for selection;
- there are many auxiliary tools.
In addition, with the help of SFXMARKETS, a client can conduct transactions with precious metals, indices, bonds, company stocks, cryptocurrencies, raw materials, and other goods. Without resorting to the services of a broker, it would be quite problematic for an ordinary person to buy, for example, a barrel of oil. But on a special trading platform, an order is opened with one click.
Stocks can also be purchased without the services of intermediaries. But this will be a much more complex process. It will be necessary to visit the websites of a large number of companies, compare data from them, and make a purchase directly from one of the firms. Difficulties will also arise because companies from different countries of the world maintain pages on the internet in their own languages, requiring translation. A broker provides a ready list of stocks, usually of the most profitable global brands with an abundance of information about them. After making a choice, again, it only takes one click.
The client can also receive a kind of loan from the broker, which in professional trading language is called leverage. That is, a person has the opportunity to operate with amounts that are many times, tens, or hundreds of times greater than their own funds. The size of the leverage is determined in each individual case by agreement between the client and the organization.
In addition to all this, brokerage companies are ready to assist clients in making decisions at their request. There are several options for this:
- auxiliary tools, technical indicators that automatically provide the necessary data for analysis;
- trading signals that suggest whether to buy or sell an asset at the current moment based on data from special programs analyzing market processes;
- access to analytics, news, event calendars published on the official website and social media pages;
- individual consulting by company specialists, which is usually available to those with substantial deposits.
Thus, trading through a brokerage company allows anyone to make a profit, limited only by their own level of knowledge and preparation.
What benefit does the broker receive?
The brokerage company SFXMARKETS is interested in having more clients who conduct numerous transactions for significant amounts. The organization's profit directly depends on this. It is derived in the following main ways.
The broker SFXMARKETS may charge a fixed commission for each transaction made. For example, 1 dollar. This type of cooperation is suitable for clients who open a small number of orders, aiming to make significant profits from each of them.
Another option is a bit more complicated but more popular. The broker receives a spread, which is the difference between the best buying and selling prices at the current moment. This form of payment for the company's services is suitable for traders who open many orders. The spread can be either fixed in size or variable depending on the situation.
The same broker can offer traders different payment options for their work on several types of trading accounts.
Brokers - Scammers
The Forex market is extremely attractive to people from all over the world who want to earn money. Unfortunately, where there is money, there are always deceivers and scammers. Among the organizations calling themselves brokerage companies, there are many firms operating illegally or officially registered but still using schemes to deceive clients.
In many ways, this is possible due to the vast size of the global financial markets. Regulation of activities in different countries varies, in some matters there are no unified standards, and the internet space, meanwhile, is unified. Finding various loopholes, scammers often evade responsibility.
There are countless fraudulent websites. They easily close after money is collected from deceived clients and refund demands start coming in. And immediately their organizers create new pages offering even more favorable conditions.
Such firms are called kitchens in trader slang. What do you think, is SFXMARKETS a kitchen or not? Share your experience in the reviews.
How Dishonest Brokers Deceive
Primitive scammers simply collect money and then block the user's personal page. And the user can no longer even contact the company by any means. Before that, the scammers are in constant contact with the client. Their task is to convince the person to top up the trading account with as much money as possible, for this they sometimes urge selling property, taking loans from banks. The blocking occurs at the moment when it becomes clear that there is nothing more to take from the victim. As a rule, such sites close quickly after managing to deceive several wealthy clients.
But there are also such schemes that work much more subtly and manage to exist for years with a huge queue of people wanting to get their money back. Often they manage to officially cover up their actual scams. The user agreement includes clauses whose meanings a novice in trading simply does not understand or does not notice at all due to inattention and low level of financial literacy. Later, when claims arise, the company refers to the document, and there is nothing to counter this.
Another way of withdrawing money from clients' deposits is called quote manipulation. On its website, the scheme shows the user quotes that differ from the real ones. And the client does not actually trade on the market, but only within the same scheme. The charts and images are drawn in such a way that the trader ends up at a loss. One by one, the trades gradually zero out the deposit.
Even the generosity of a company, which is of course illusory, can pose a danger. For example, a client may be given bonuses expressed in real money for registering on the site, for replenishing an account, and others. Bonus currency units are mixed in the deposit with the client's personal funds, and the income received from them can no longer be separated. And when a trader tries to request a withdrawal, they learn about additional bonus usage conditions that will be impossible for them to fulfill. And all this was stated in the bonus program, written in small print in the farthest corner of the site. The fact that the client did not read the terms in advance is only their problem.
Places of registration of brokerage companies
Deceiving people from one country, fraudsters often hide in the territory of another, skillfully using discrepancies in the laws of states.
For these purposes, companies are often registered in offshore zones. These are either separate countries or parts of their territories with a registration regime loyal to any business and a low level of control. Simply put, to attract foreign capital to their territory, some small island in the ocean is ready to register a company with just an application and a minimal set of documents and does not interfere with an audit in its internal affairs.
The most popular offshore zones among brokerage companies are Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Cyprus, Mauritius, Belize, the Marshall Islands, and the British Virgin Islands.
Official proceedings, for example with the broker SFXMARKETS, will have to be conducted by traders in accordance with the laws of the specified states. And it is practically impossible to do this independently. It is also extremely difficult to find lawyers who know foreign laws. In some cases, presence at court hearings at the place of company registration may be required. All this makes the proceedings not only complicated but also expensive.
However, the mere fact of the broker SFXMARKETS being registered in an offshore zone does not necessarily indicate dishonest intentions. Many reputable companies that have proven their high level over decades also have offshore registrations. The goal is to reduce tax expenses. In the 21st century, many strive for this. Therefore, the largest global banks and manufacturers, whose reputations are unquestionable, conduct business through offshore zones.
Moreover, not all countries attracting foreign capital can be called exotic. Cyprus is part of the European Union and adheres to its rules. The Virgin Islands belong to the United Kingdom.
How to Choose an Honest Broker
When choosing a brokerage company, many parameters need to be considered. The place of registration is one of them. But it is more important to assess who regulates the organization's activities and how. Local government regulatory bodies do this based on the location. You need to find their websites online and check the information about the issued permits. There are also supranational structures, membership in which obliges brokers worldwide to adhere to established internal norms and rules. Major Forex market participants often represent financial groups whose subsidiaries are regulated in multiple jurisdictions. In any case, brokers' official websites should provide information about the issued licenses. It is better for the client to verify its authenticity in the manner described above.
It is important to study what is written about the company on external resources. If there are no mentions of it at all, that's a negative. If its experts appear on leading thematic platforms, that's a positive.
Don't forget to read customer reviews on as many sites as possible. But approach them critically. Especially if one place writes exclusively good things and another exclusively bad. Look for reviews with specific examples, facts, and mentions of pros and cons, rather than unfounded praise or criticism.
The company's website should be detailed, and the information on trading conditions should be thorough, specific, and clear. It's not enough to say 'We have low spreads!'; exact sizes in points are needed.
By following all these rules, you will be able to choose a solid brokerage company, cooperation with which will help you enter the intriguing world of Forex, which has made many people on the planet millionaires.
