FXCM Reviews

I'm gonna be straight to the point, DO NOT TRADE WITH THIS BROKER!!! On monday I closed my account, was told my funds request will be processed within two business days, they kept quiet until I sent an email on friday and it was only then they told me my request has been "finally approved"! I did not even receive my full amount! I emailed them asking them to explain and tell me about their hidden fees policy cause clearly there's one here, but of course, no response! I noticed they're very slow on withdrawals but very quick to act when one cancels a withdrawal request! STAY AWAY FROM THESE GUYS!

I have traded with a FXCM for a few weeks. I have several accounts with different brokers in order to spread my risk. People here need to understand that the cost of running a biz like FXCM is very expensive and they can not do it merely by charging a small commission. Its either market making, something the regulators of recent have began frowning upon or big commissions on trades and large volumes. FXCM is hard pressed to stop its market making activities hence this No Dealing Desk thing that they have now. The trouble with it is they cant make enough money and thats why they are forced to do what they can to compensate for it with large spreads and possibly some other activates for which they were recently fined. They are between the hammer and the anvil and its tough! Plus they are publicly traded and need to deliver ever rising returns to the shareholders and expected to increase evaluations and grow every quarter!

My advice is this: If you are serious about trading forex, you need to come up with the $20k-$30k needed to trade via a true ECN. If you cant afford that, then you should either stop trading altogether or understand that you will most likely end up losing your money!

I'm not customer of FXCM and I don't know much about them,
but I find this, not very good news about FXCM.

"Word just came down today (August 13, 2011) that FXCM is being fined $2 million by the NFA and they must also provide refunds for slippage orders going back to 2008. This is massive news. The refunds are going to hurt - that's a TON of orders to go back through.
Direct link to NFA case: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Case.aspx?entityid=0308179&case=11BCC00016&contrib=NFA ".

I hope this will help someone.

I took FXCM course some time ago, If you are a new to forex it is ok but don't think that after you taking FXCM course you are going to make money, they teaching by using forum very difficult to learn , i think they are very poor that can not afford to give video presentation. may be these people got ugly face that do not want to show their face, better go to Amazon.com and buy some Forex book better still

2008-05-23 We have removed the name from this post. We have received information that this post was placed under a fake name in order to discredit another person.

TRADE WITH FXCM AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!! I used to be a manager at FXCM and can provide you several inside gems that the trading public should know.

First, their customer service is good as it is 24/7 but all their people do not trade a single dime of their own money. Most of the people they hire have no trading experience but are trained fx lingo to entice newbies to sign up - my favorite was "leverage is a double edged sword" and "you lost money because you are overtrading your account."

Their operation is really a massive call center with main locations in Ny, San Fran and Dallas. What most people do not know is that FXCM and Refco FX, which went bankrupt were one and the same company. The call center reps sat on the same row of desks. When Refco's parent company went bankrupt bc of their CEO, FXCM's CEO Drew Niv first claimed that he would make all refco accounts good. I am not sure that he did as I left around that time. From what I gather he has not. To be clear, FXCM was Refco FX - they paid Refco a small royalty on profits for using the Refco brand.

FXCM is now doing the same thing with Deutsche Bank FX. Anyone who thinks they are dealing with DB is mistaken. FXCM pays DB a small royalty to use DB's name.

Now you are wondering why all these larger banks are lining up to partner with FXCM to get into retail FX? It is because of you - FXCM has perfected the art of scamming the small retail traders.

There are several disadvantages that you have trading with FXCM. First you do not have the time or money to pursue legal action against them when they scam you through paltforms freezing, slippage etc. FXCM puts all larger account holders on Currenex platform bc they then do not have any liability for trades going wrong as currenex platform is linked to interbank market and there are no guarantees of banks offering a quote both ways when markets are volatile - any trader knows that you do not want to be stuck in a trade when it goes against you but that can happen here and FXCM tells larger clients that they are just the middle guy providing the platform so client cannot go after them.

Many posters on this forum complain about freezing of platform - I can guarantee you that is NOT intentional on FXCM's part. The reason they freeze is because their servers cannot handle the volume come NFP, trade numbers, etc. I can guarantee you that FXCM does not care about making trades good with traders who lost money as a result. Believe me when I say that we used to give the newbie $300 mini account holder credits to make sure he keeps trading down the road so we could fleece him over and over.

Other posters have complained about stop hunting and dealing desks trading against them. Stop hunting does happen but only during those price spikes that other market makers do not show. For all those complaining about spikes - well your stop has just been hunted down.

FXCM's desk does trade against you - the trades you place are not offset with large banks on interbank market as I used to tell clients. Rather your trades is pooled with all other trades and FXCM knows that most traders are wrong and actively hold the position against you and wait for you to eventuallly be margin called. If you end up being right often enough then they will eventually put you on manual execution which means that a guy on dealing desk is making sure that your trading becomes so difficult that you lose money back to them. If you still make money at this point they close your account.

I could go on and on about this company - I actually have nothing against them as they paid me close to 6 figures a year to perpetuate their scam but the truth is that FXCM and most market makers are all the same - bucket shops. They are set up to make sure they get your money.

If you do not believe the above then ask if the following guys still work at FXCM and DBFX -

Brendan Callahan - GM of the call center
Drew Niv - CEO, email him at dniv@fxcm.com, not so honest when it comes to your money
Dan and Sameer Bhopale - shift managers
Sanjiv - not sure I got his name right, guy who manages San Fran office, guy drives a BMW 7 series but lives with parents
David - guy who manages their IB's and prop trading
Francoise - manages London office
Adam Toro - manages spanish desk

PS If you like Kathy and Boris you are an idiot. They are paid to sensationalize fx news and trading - they have no idea about real trading, in fact they do not have their own trading accounts which is true for most people who work there.

All you guys complaining are making Drew and the rest of the FXCM board very rich. I think Drew's net was approaching 30 mil when I was there and he is still getting richer no doubt.

Review moderation note: We had to edit this review to remove personal attacks and racist comments. rating was removed.