The world of Forex trading is absolutely huge. People from all over the world trade on the global foreign exchange markets every single day, amounting to several trillion dollars’ worth of volume every day. Needless to say, with such huge numbers, the number of brokers out there is quite massive. There are now thousands of brokers all around the world operating internationally, and many more are joining as the years pass. For many people, this is great, because an abundance of options is almost always good, rather than having to rely on limited options which would give way to monopolistic practices.
On the other hand, with so many options available out there, it can be quite a daunting task to choose your Forex broker to trade with. This is especially the case for the beginners, many of whom don’t have the necessary kn0w-how to conduct their research and make the correct choice. This often results in the beginner traders putting themselves in a much more risky position. Why? Because unfortunately, for every great broker out there who is ethical and is following the laws and conducting their business in a fair manner, there are as many fraudsters and scammers, or at least the brokers who are grossly incompetent, and their mere operation puts many traders n harm’s way.
In this guide, we will be discussing what are the bad/worst Forex brokers like, what makes them bad, and how you can make a correct choice between good brokers and the bad ones. By the end of reading this, you will be much better-geared to make a more well-informed choice on which brokers to trade with safely, securely, and profitably.
Our list of brokers with worst reviews
Below is our list of brokers that we have found to be worse than any other ones that we have reviewed on this website. These brokers are on this list because they have failed to adequately meet the most important aspects of what makes a good Forex broker. We will discuss this at length below, and by the end, besides the bad ones, we will also show you who we believe to be the best brokers, which have managed to provide an excellent service and satisfy all the important criteria that these brokers have failed at. For now, here’s our list of worst Forex brokers.
What makes a bad Forex broker?
When choosing a Forex broker to trade with, and when deciding whether or not they are able to meet reasonable standards, there are many things to take into account. Simply looking out for a broker that seems to be providing the most benefits and has the best reviews online simply is not enough, especially in this day and age, with so much conflicting information online. Additionally, you also have to prioritize your safety, above anything else that you may use as a point of consideration. So, without further ado, let’s discuss the specific key points that would indicate whether or not your would-be broker is bad.
They don’t have a license
When choosing your broker, the first order of things should always be making sure that they are legally licensed by appropriate local authorities. Why? Because safety is the most important thing to consider for anyone who is looking to have great trading experience. You could have the broker with the fanciest website and some mouth-watering bonuses and other benefits that they may look like to have, but unless you are guaranteed full safety, then it all has no point. And the only way to be 100% sure that you are safe, is by going with a licensed broker.
Therefore, especially if you are a beginner, make sure to closely familiarize yourself with your country’s relevant Forex market legal specifics. As an example, if you are from the UK before you sign up with a broker, make sure to check their license number in the FCA database. The number should be available on the website of the broker, and if it’s not displayed, don’t hesitate to reach out to the broker, and ask for the number. If they are actually licensed, they will be more than glad to give the license number to you.
Now, obviously, there are many international brokers who operate all over the world, and many of them don’t have each and every license for each and every country. That is definitely understandable. However, what you need to make sure is that they are licensed by at least one regulatory body, to make sure that you are dealing with a legitimate broker. As an example, if you are from South Africa and your prospective broker is not licensed by South Africa’s FSCA but has a license from the UK’s FCA, then you can still be sure that you are in “good hands”, as FCA is one of the most highly-respected authorities in the world.
With that being said, we included this point for a reason – it is all too common for brokers to be obtaining their licenses from some offshore tax haven countries, in shady conditions by shady regulators. If this is the case, then this license is as good as useless. At the end of the day, only licenses from reputable regulators matter, such as the ones from FCA, CySec, FSCA, FMA, are the ones that you can really trust.
Their customer service is unreliable
Customer service is one of the most important things to take into account when you’re looking for your next Forex broker. At the same time, it also happens to be one of the things that many people neglect, which is rather unfortunate, as the importance of having access to a high-level customer service simply can not be understated.
Think about it – you are investing your hard-earned money for trading, not to mention your time and opportunity cost. Considering these, it’s in your own best interest to do business with a company that is willing to take your issues and needs to heart when you need assistance.
A good Forex broker will do everything in their power to make sure that they are as helpful with your problem as possible. In general, you can gouge how trustworthy your broker is by how reliable their customer service is. Additionally, good customer service is defined by how accessible it is. Your broker should ideally have customer service available not only through email, but their website’s online chat, and phone as well. Phones are one of the most effective and reliable ways to get thorough help form customer service, so it’s always nice to have access to that.
Their websites have bad usability
This one is not as significant as the previous points, but it still does matter. Let’s not pretend that the user experience has no real meaning, because it absolutely does – you are going to be spending a lot of time on your broker’s website, so making sure that doing so is enjoyable and accessible, should be something that you should at least consider.
A good broker website is the one that performs well, meaning it’s fast and can work well on all sorts of devices, not only computers. Many great brokers even have separate apps for mobile devices, so there is absolutely no excuse to not have a high-quality website. However, these “cosmetic” features aside, the most important thing for the website is the safety and security, which can be facilitated only by following the industry standards of security, such as encryption of sensitive information, regular checks for bugs, etc.
But who are the good brokers?
As you have seen, the requirements for being a good broker are quite reasonable. Any dedicated broker should have no problem fulfilling these requirements without issues, but yet we often see many brokers who are failing to do so. With that being said, there definitely are many great brokers out there who have been providing great service to their customers for a very long time now. We have reviewed tons of brokers throughout the years, and we can confidently say that we know what a good Forex broker is like. If you would like to take advantage of these hours upon hours of research that we have conducted for finding the very best Forex brokers in the world, check out our list below, and find your ideal Forex broker today!
LIST OF BROKERS HERE
