hi all
just wanted everyone to be carefull with aleccoh until u find out more. i've opened a live account with them and i've never had so much slippage like with aleccoh. i trade for a living and i manage over 1million in client funds and honestly i just dont feel safe with aleccoh. today for example (2/15/08) i had trades on eur/jpy with aleccoh(who claims to be ECN) and i also had same positions open with my broker that i use which i know is ECN and while closing the trades aleccoh gave me 16pip slippage (a requote) while with my broker i closed them no problem. (and yes i did close them at the same time)

you might be asking why am i looking for a broker like aleccoh when i have the one i use with no problems. well the answer to that is the broker that i'm using has a minimum of 150k to open an account and i had people approaching me wanting to open accounts for less so i went on a hunt for a good honest broker (which i didnt found so far)

i will not say anything bad about aleccoh... i'm just sharing my experience with them. i would suggest to u guys not to put big amounts of money in any broker but small amounts and see how they proove themself over time. then make a descision.

i know what its like to start out in this business guys its not easy and i know what it is like to be screwed. i just hope i can save some loss for some of you.

i've been following this thread from the beggining currently based on my experience and i wouldnt put any more money into them or refer any traders to them until they have their issues taken care of and show that they are who they say they are....

good luck to u all....

"invest your time before you invest your money"

Hi all.

I've tracked this whole thread through, and even if I was somewhat excited (and sceptical at the same time) in the beginning, AFX has turned out a big disappointment.

At this point my advice to all account holders is: close your accounts and get your money while you still (?) can.

From the very beginning I found a bit odd, that someone in a position like Mr. Aleccoh, can devote such an amount of his time for postings in this and other threads. Maybe you could also draw some conclusions from his style of expressing himself.

And if you wish to evalute AFX moving to US markets, what else can you say than: poor, poor, poor. Would this kind of procedure be possible anywhere else in business: a company simply denies basic services from all its existing customers for several weeks while doing something else? A perfect example of ad-hoc planning and management.

It is very probable that this 'episode' will not be the last one with AFX. Just wait for the next suprise!

Hi!

I have a live account at AleccohFX. It is a mini one with $500. I was told "not to trade till the 21st". I did and I do trade. My sell stops, buy stops, Buy Limit and Sell Limit with its stops and take profits have always been honored to the pip. I've seen some spikes that I didn't like sometimes though. I've talked with Aleccoh a lot of times. He wants what we always asked: a broker to let us make money. I don't know if he will succeed on that really.

Lets wait till the 21st. We'll see then if what he has promised to give us will be a reality or another nightmare.

__________________
Nina

We must fight on the winning side, not on the side we may believe to be correct.

Focus, Patience and Discipline

Omlette - just to avoid any misunderstanding, my opinion is not unqualified - my comments come from my own personal experience on my live AleccohFX account.

It had been running for several weeks with no problems other than the odd requote until this Thursday. Then I can pretty much say they tried every underhand tactic in the book to fry my account. I would never dare enter another trade with this outfit, ever.

Anyone who thinks of investing with someone who can behave in this manner, directly or indirectly, seriously needs their heads examining, that's all I can say.

And if you want to check my credentials, because I have no personal axe to grind here, PM me and I will give you another private FX forum where you can check me out.

Bugsley

Hello,

I have read most of this thread, and I don't like the recent attitude here. I am not offended about people being upset about slippage, poor customer service, etc. What offends me is no one is attempting to piece together the facts, and are simply screaming blame at Alecco.

You are simply missing several points.

AFX was taken out of Alecco's hands on Jan 1 this year by Swiss law. All you have to do is read his letter CAREFULLY, understand that he sent it to all his clients TWICE.

Alecco loves trading and traders and chose trading and traders over being a broker.

I have been a professional trader and know more than most how really bad it can get with a broker if you are even a mediocre trader. The first day I was working for my new company, I made 5% profit on the total company capital. The second day the broker started messing with me. Slippage as high as -62P and saying that was their best price, etc, when even with spread, their own charts showed they had not even come close to the price within either the bid or the ask of what they put me in at. My boss did not believe me and screamed at me for hours. I started taking screenshots and movies. I still got blamed. In spite of all that, I kept the losses down to what I could payback, did, and left.

The point of this is that Alecco has been a pro trader for many years has a lot of compassion for traders. That is probably at least partially why he spends so much time on these forums, why he entered a contest to give away so many pips. He still had to pay his traders for the time they were trading for people taking freebies regardless if he ever got a customer or not.

It is also the reason I understood from what I read that he started his own brokerage- he wanted for his trading team to have good trading conditions unlike the ones I had and the ones many of you have experienced. He wanted other traders to have a fair shake too. Well, the Swiss government took that away. Alecco's traders probably immediately started experiencing the same slippages, etc. that you did. From the letter I read very simply that Alecco no longer has ANY control over the Swiss brokerage.

"I am not in charge anymore of aleccohfx.SA because of the fact that the Swiss new regulations forbid me to be in charge or any of my team since we are traders and that it is forbidden to be traders and brokers.
Please send all notarized papers as asked in order to resolve all your problems (funding, withdrawals, Errors in trades etc...), your funds are held in aleccohfx.SA and the administrator is Mr. Roger Ghossoun as he stated in the mail he sent all of our customers."

My solid guess is that is the very reason WHY Alecco decided to move his brokerage to the US. I could not be certain that Alecco was given any choice in the Administrator, Mr. Roger Ghossoun.

Think and reason about the time and money Alecco put into creating Aleccohfx. Alecco had passed all the regulatory goobldegook. It isn't cheap to start a brokerage is Switzerland. Why would he cut his own throat????

I would bet there are legal constraints that at this point that Alecco is dealing with. The bottom of that letter was clear warning, and had I been a client, all my interior alarms would have gone off at that point and I would have STOPPED TRADING until CLEAR answers were available. Alecco has been extremely consistent in stating his goals on this forum.

The Swiss government controls the money NOT ALECCO. That was made plain in that letter too. How could he rip you off?

Now, some of you are going to say, well why didn't you have an account with AFX?

The reason why is that my and a friends account was at FXLQ which the NFA (in my book No Funds Available.) Those of you who know about these things may logically discern that I no longer have any trading money. This has happened to me twice- I don't frankly don't expect to see money from either place again.

So, to summarize- use logic before you start throwing mud.

So why wasn't I told that material fact BEFORE I opened my real account?

Why are you offended if you are not on the receiving end? Is anything that has been posted incorrect? Are you challenging what has happened to these live accounts and suggesting that someone else is accountable for it?

Why should I try and piece together facts that make excuses for what has happened ? Why would that be in my interests?

To me the facts are fairly straightforward. I sent my funds and trusted Aleccoh and his broker business with them on the basis of what he posted and how he appeared to be the "honest" traders broker working to help me trade. You are suggesting he knew two months ago that the Swiss law had changed yet still encouraged new monies into his business. I'll comment no further on that but do not assume it had escaped my notice.

Clear warning ? What clear warning? The ONLY piece of direct correspondence received said simply that additional documentation was needed to be put into place to meet Swiss Regulations. There was no statement regarding him not being at the helm of the brokerage and it having beeen transfered to someone else. I reproduce what the personal email sent to me stated :

"We are pleased to let you know that a new Swiss Regulation has come into force as from the 1st January 2008 characterized by transparency and flexibility, as well as full support to our Customers, in depositing and withdrawing funds

We need to adjust to the requirements of this law, as our company is regulated and supervised by OAR-G, fully compliant with the Swiss Anti Money Laundering Control Authority and other Swiss Laws. Therefore, we kindly ask you to approve by signing and to return to our Compliance Department, by mail or courier, the attachment hereto enclosed, along with the following documents:

1. original notary public certified copy of your passport or national ID, showing its validity,
2. copy of a recent bill, if possible.

Please make sure to send us these original documents at your earliest convenience, otherwise we will be sorry to close your account in the 14 coming days and to return your funds.

We thank you for your co-operation and are looking forward to receiving your documents.

For further information, please contact our Geneva Office, Mr. Roger Ghousson, Tel Nr +41 22 908 54 54 or email : roger@aleccohfx.com

Kind regards,

Gabi
Customer Care Department


How could any reasonable person interpret that as a warning?

Well, I also have money tied up in FXLQ. I had the debacle with Neuimex also last year and this escapade with Aleccoh is the final straw. I see no reasoned argument as to why I should not be VERY upset by what has happened and post my views.

You know, a few weeks ago I would also have jumped to Aleccoh's defense based on what I had read and perceived from his postings. He managed to persuade me to be a client after all. But when you are directly on the receiving end of such activities, you tend to change your mind rather quickly and think differently. Why should I give benefit of doubt? It's my money that's been robbed. Would you post in defence of FXLQ? I wouldn't. In these obviously shark infested waters, if another different coloured shark bites, whatever the nature of that bite, do you not think it warrants warning others about?

I'm not having a go at you because you have not caused any of this. If you find my posts personally offensive in any way I apologise. They are not intended to be. I'm just thoroughly p****d off at being raped by brokers.

Let Aleccoh come on here and defend himself.

Bugsley

I think the misunderstanding is yours - I am an Aleccohfx customer, I have had a Managed account with them, I have witenessed firsthand really terrible execution, and though their customer support was always prompt and courtieous, getting simple but important information was always a chore, often involving multiple emails, each having to be more and more specific - absolutely no information was volunteered. And recent events have done nothing to allay any of my misgivings...

PS - Just realised how the offending post could have been taken out of context - sorry, that was not the intention...

In this point I think the better thing I can make is wait... not until feb 21st, at least a couple of weeks while aleccoh USA is getting stable. I don't think it would be great for the first day. Meanwhile, I´m gonna test some demo in MIG, crown, ikon royal (Still hunting for the ideal scalping broker) for a second chance ...if someone knows about REAL ACCOUNT behavior about anyone of them (specially MIG), please just tell me.

Hi Bugsley,
I've answered your post in blue interspersed among the original quote.

Who?

What previous one? Nothing was sent to me? This is what I have a BIG problem with. It's no good disseminating this stuff via forums. What's wrong with direct to a clients email account. That's one of my big gripes. Why should I have to even subscribe to any forum to be given this information?

No. FXLQ broke the rules and marketed themselves as having security they did not have. That is not defendable, it's outright fraudulent. But I do agree with your statement regarding NFA. Frankly, their behaviour was disgraceful too. I would strongly suggest that their competence should be questioned because surely they have a responsibility to check that the documents that are lodged with them are genuine? So they are equally responsible for the fact clients are exposed in the FXLQ scenario.

And as an aside, when things went wrong at FXLQ, their communications was impeccable, direct, timely emails, they answered the phone and they answered every question I asked.

I would agree with you that Mr Aleccoh presents himself as a gentleman and someone who pupports to care for the small trader. His people I spoke to before this went sour were polite, courteous and helpful. That's why I am more upset by this whole escapade than I was the other two, because I was drawn in by the rhetoric. I expect to be told the truth in a timely manner and I wasn't; instead I was robbed.

Those who know me, know I am usually a very calm and reasonable individual who will see the best side of most situations. I like to think the best of people but when I get burned like this it hurts far more when its done by a "nice" person.

It'll be interesting to see if or when he speaks, what he has to say. I'll offer a challenge to Mr Aleccoh now - make an effort to keep me as a client and address my concerns. If you succeed, I'll become your best reference for future business.

Bugsley