Investous Review – Jumping From One Suspension to Another

Investous Review: this firm is one of the many trademarks used by the leading company – F1Markets Ltd. They propose investments in CFDs and forex. Although their selection is impressive, Investous keeps causing troubles to CySEC (the regulatory body that oversees their activity). Furthermore, CySEC is continually placing the broker on a temporary suspension. However, Investous doesn’t meet the conditions to remove their suspension, and that’s a warning fact to consider before using their services.

Suspended by CySEC and FCA (Investous Review)

Recently, CySEC partially suspended several forex and CFD brokers. That list includes F1 Markets Ltd, the company operating Investous. CySEC suspended it due to the use of falsified celebrity endorsements in the UK. The accusation is that the company has been using these tactics to expand its UK investor base illegitimately. CySEC has set the suspension in place until investors takes corrective measures to prevent this conduct from happening again. During the suspension, Investous is only allowed to do business with current clients and cannot seek out or advertise to new clients. However, It seems as if Investous keeps targeting new clients despite the constant suspension state.

The regulatory body of the UK, the FCA, has also cracked down on Investous and other firms. They have removed the passporting rights of those firms. Passporting rights are what allow firms under CySEC to trade within the jurisdiction of the FCA. Investous is no longer able to take on new clients within the UK. They also have to end their relationships with their current UK clients, after the clients have withdrawn any funds they have with the broker. If those clients had gone with an unregulated broker they wouldn’t have these FCA and CySEC protections.

Dealing with Investous

From this Investous review, we can establish the company has a decent selection of options when dealing forex, 46 pairs overall. This is considered quite a lot. Plus, Investous provides a wide variety of CFDs on various types of assets. CFDs are available on commodities, stocks from various markets, indices, and cryptocurrencies. They offer leverage of up to 1:30, consistent with leverage regulations. CFDs are not something to play with when you start investing. Only seasoned traders can handle them efficiently. Investous constantly targeting novice traders with fake celebrity endorsement promotions. That must be one of the reasons they got suspended in the first place.

Investous lets clients use the popular MetaTrader4 platform. They purpose a demo account available for potential clients to try before investing. They have many payment options, including more obscure payment processors like Skrill.

Trade99 Review – Avoid This Unregulated Broker

Trade99 Review: this firm is a well-known online forex and CFD broker. Trade99 is considered as an unregulated broker that makes many baseless claims about their services. They engage in recruitment tactics that most reputable brokers wouldn’t, such as offering trading bonuses. We would recommend that investors steer clear of Trade99.

Trade99 Provides Unregulated Services

Part of their unregulated services, the given contact information that Trade99 provides an address in Hong Kong. However, a company known as Nohelious International Marketing Operations operates Trade99. NIMO is incorporated in the Dominican Republic, a country widely used as a haven for offshore operations and scammers. None of the official regulatory agencies confirmed Trade99 to be registered with them. A broker that operates in Hong Kong would have to register with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, which would hold the broker to high standards.

Trade99 claims to be under the jurisdiction of “The Financial Commission.” This commission is not a financial regulator like the FCA or CySEC. It appears to be nothing more than a small website that gives its approval to offshore brokers, with no apparent review or regulation policies. The Financial Commission has placed Trade99 in its A-Category; it is not clear what this designation implies. Even if the Financial Commission does have the full intent of regulating Trade99, they don’t have the authority of a national regulatory body. Without the legal inspection, whenever this company runs into a scandal they could simply vanish overnight.

Trading Bonuses – Trade99 Is Seducing Novice Traders

One of the ways that Trade99 is seducing novice investors is by suggesting trading bonuses. These trading bonuses draw in inexperienced traders. Both the FCA and CySEC have banned this practice among the brokers that they regulate. Users who receive a trading bonus are likely to run into issues when they try to withdraw any profits. The reward must go through a certain amount of trades before being withdrawn, and most traders are likely to have nothing left by that time.

Ambiguous and Unreliable Communication(Trade99 Review)

Trade99 says they have several fees that apply to their users, withdrawal fees, service fees, etc. However, our Trade99 review establishes that the company is ambiguous and unreliable. Furthermore, the problem is that the broker doesn’t clearly state the amounts or terms for any of these fees. Most reputable brokers give their users clear and accessible fee schedules. Another discrepancy, Trade99 tells their potential clients that they will have access to MetaTrader5. Users only get access to a web-based platform that doesn’t have the standard features of MetaTrader5. It’s not clear if this is an intentional bait and switch or a technical error, but neither of those options bodes well.