Good question. Six months ago I would have said Interbank FX hands down. But ever since FXLQ walked away with over a third of their net capital my faith in them has tanked. What was FXLQ thinking allowing Robert Gray to rob them so?

Sadly, most MT4 brokers are either very small or unregulated (hello FXDD!). I have heard that Gain and FXCM are releasing MT4 platforms. I would recommend you wait until those guys launch.

Over the last few years an increasing number of forex firms have been popping up in Cyprus. It appears the Cypriotic authorities are taking notice and have begun to clamp down on rogue forex dealers. Recently The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission put out two separate warnings on forex dealers:

Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission

Note the second warning is in reference to Northfinance. This warning was put out last summer. Since then Northfinance has stopped accepting new customers as per this widely circulated chat in which they claim they are experiencing "server overload."
North Finance .... red light?

Who is FX Pro? They are the same company that West Cap FX is now referring customers to since the new banking regs got passed in Switzerland. So it appears FX Pro is cleaning up nicely as a result of the increased level of scrutiny for forex dealers.

FX Pro is regulated in Cyprus by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission. In fact, you can check the regulatory status of any Cyprus based broker by going to the Cyprus SEC's website here:
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission

You'll see FX Pro (under Euro Orient) and other firms such as Easy Forex and Windsor Brokers. This is verification that the firm is registered. I can't speak for the quality of regulation that Cyrpus provides but clearly any firm that is not registered here with their own license number should be avoided if they are claiming a residence in Cyprus. I see that Northfinance never had such a license number. Is it a coincidence then that they are no longer accepting new customers? I guess we'll never know for sure...

Sorry to ask...what i understand is that the existing account in Northfinance still can operate as normal right ? For those who want to open new account they should ( must ) register under FxPro.

My question is ....Does NF will be close ?

Dose NF gives us a time schedule to prepare?

It does not appear that Northfinance's future is all that bright. If I had my own money there I would withdraw it. But I have never trusted this firm to begin with. When your hometown regulator disowns you that should be a red flag to stay far away from them.

Regulation can’t come soon enough to Switzerland . Yet another Swiss Forex Broker is going through its death throes right now. After posting my Swiss Dealer Dead Pool a reader told me that one of the firms on my list, Aleccoh FX (naturally it was one of the firms that never responded to my email) was in dire straits and spitting up blood on a gurney over in Switzerland.

It took me a while but I eventually dug up a thread over at Forex TSD that details the whole sordid story. I will condense everything below but if you want the ugly blow by blow of how this firm has gone rigamortis click here:

first 200 pips on me , the rest , we will share

Aleccoh FX is one of the many unheard of firms that use Meta Trader. Sadly, the Meta Trader community has to play Russian roulette whenever a trader picks a forex broker since most Meta Trader Brokers are merely different sized turds in the MT4 toilet bowl. Sooner or later a stable and regulated firm will offer MT4 but until then MT4 traders will have to keep pulling that trigger hoping they don’t get their heads blown off. Sadly for the traders at Aleccoh FX the chamber was full when they pulled the trigger.

So who are these guys? Well it appears this firm got started back in the spring of 2007. Someone calling themselves “Aleccoh” appeared on the popular MT4 bulletin board Forex TSD claiming that if you sent him a couple hundred bucks he’d make you 200 pips free of charge. Things just took off from there as people poured on to the thread and starting sending him money left and right.

But then things came to a crash in January of this year. Mr. Aleccoh suddenly disappeared from the board. Nobody at Aleccoh answered customer calls anymore. Rumors abounded about another firm taking over Aleccoh that goes by the creepy name of “Spacevision.” Then Aleccoh appeared again in late Feb to state he had retained legal counsel to fight Spacevision (or the Swiss Gov’t? It’s hard to tell this Aleccoh is so shady) and that he was under some kind of gag order and couldn’t reveal anymore information. Then it became public that the Swiss Government had taken over Spacevision and that Monica Favre (no relation to Brett) of the SFBC was heading up the investigation of the whole sordid affair. In short, Aleccoh had become another Tradex Swiss AG.

What this case shows is that the Swiss retail forex market is in complete chaos right now. All my warnings about doing business with Swiss brokers are coming true. The Government is rumored to be conducting over a dozen investigations of forex dealers in Switzerland . In short, sending money to Switzerland has never been so dangerous. More to come tomorrow…

What really burns me up about this Aleccoh guy at the Forex TSD thread is his out and out lies about how his firm was supposedly regulated. A customer asked him specifically in December of 2007 if his company was regulated and asked him if he had a registration number. Mr. Aleccoh stated, “Aleccohfx SA is regulated and run according to the Swiss law under OAR-G Swiss Regulation Official Body Funded by GSCGI.” As I have demonstrated on this thread numerous times OAR-G, ARIF, etc does not mean jack squat in terms of forex regulation. Those are mere certifications stating the firm will abide by Swiss money laundering laws. That’s it! It is not legit “regulation” and traditionally there has been no regulatory agency checking in on these brokers (hence the reason these brokers all now have to get a bank license or close.) These Swiss brokers know that but they continue to lie to the public and claim they are regulated WHEN THEY CLEARLY ARE NOT.

When another trader calls him out on this “Aleccoh” claims, no OAR-G is just like the NFA. He also went on to say that Aleccoh FX would be applying for a banking license. Then shortly after that claimed he didn’t need to get a banking license since the new law in Switzerland only applied to “liquidity providers” and not retail brokers.

Then it all hits the fan and he states, “I am not in charge anymore of aleccohfx because of the fact that the new Swiss 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.” He then claimed to be applying for registration with the NFA in the United States …

Reading through this thread is maddening. You simply can’t trust a single word that comes out of the mouths of these Swiss Forex Dealers. And don’t think this is an aberration. Every Swiss broker has been lying to the public about their regulatory status. DukasCopy, MIG, ACM have all been bamboozling traders about their regulatory status claiming their membership in limp wristed organizations like “ARIF” were somehow the equivalent of being regulated by regulatory agencies like the FSA and NFA.

But the fact is as it stands today none of these firms have real registrations with a real regulatory body. Not ACM. Not DukasCopy. Not MIG. Until they actually GET a banking license don’t put money on deposit with them. They have not been straight with the public and as the Aleccoh FX scam proves a broker’s words don’t mean squat unless they are backed up by the rule of law.

Just one slight correction, Aleccoh was trading peoples own accounts for the '200 Pips Challenge', not sending him money so he could trade it for them - at least not untill he opened Aleccohfx, his seemingly non-company (at least on a legal basis). Then, his so-called 'Trading Team' consisted of crummy martingaling and scalping EA's...

Let me add, that despite being a customer, Aleccoh has yet to send me (and at least several others...) ANY information whatever about what supposedly caused this debacle - despite continuing to 'address' his customers periodically with more lip-service in the thread you cited.

I applaud your efforts and enjoy reading the informative posts on this thread, and I think I speak for many others when I say this. However your latest post which attacks all Swiss based Forex dealers because of the actions of one is illogical. By this rationale because the NFA allows one of the many bucket shops in the US to operate it means all the other brokers in the U.S. are bad. Obviously this is a case of stereotyping. As you have stated on a previous post only three firms have said they intend to become a bank. I can confirm that both Crown and Dukascopy will be becoming banks in time to meet the new regulations. I wholeheartedly agree that there are many bucket shop operations in Switzerland and a house cleaning is certainly in order and I am happy to see it. Good riddance to bad rubbish in the form of Alceeho and North Finance and soon many others like them.

I think when you hear that these Swiss firms are regulated you get the wrong impression, taking it to mean that they regulated the same way the NFA regulates firms. What Dukascopy means is that they are regulated against money laundering, I am quite positive they never told you they were regulated to the same degree the NFA does, or the way Alchecco claimed they were being regulated. To lump a pure ECN like DukasCopy who does much more volume than FXCM or Alcheeo, who has NEVER traded against a client in with trash like Alchecco is madness. You make the claim that no broker will tell the truth unless they are regulated, however I have and still do work with firms who are honest which are not regulated beyond some arbitrary money laundering laws. Meanwhile companies who are registered lie regularly and get away with it . When a company like Interbank FX for example claims that all customer orders are going straight through to the bank when they in reality were being routed to the dealing desk at FXLQ. The bottom line is, I would open an account with Dukascopy long before I would open one with Interbank FX, NFA regulated or not.

Personally I think the reason people want to see a firm is regulated before they invest with them is because they are to lazy to look into a firm themselves and see if they are solid. It's just another example of people relying on the government (or in the case of the NFA a private organization) to do their thinking and decision making for them. So in the end in this case as is often the case in similar circumstances the government and/or self serving regulatory body lets the people it is supposed to protect down and lets the crooks continue to operate, as long as they pay their dues and fines from time to time.

...........

What broker did you used bro? if you are not using NF as your broker why u want to give a statement against them?Does NF and other broker that you didn't used bother you.

Sorry to ask.


Thanks.