PFD NZ review: Regulations, Platforms, Trading Instruments and Broker Ratings.

3.24 • 17 REVIEWS
Pacific Financial Derivatives Limited
Updated: Feb 8, 2024
PFD-NZ.com

What is PFD NZ?

PFD NZ (namely Pacific Financial Derivatives New Zealand), is a  FMA (Financial Markets Authority) New Zealand regulated forex broker.

PFD-NZ.com offers over 45 forex currency pairs, indices, commodities, gold, silver and oil on MetaTrader 4 platform for your personal investment and trading options.

Please read PFD NZ Reviews below and share your live trading experiences with this broker.

Broker Details

Minimum Trade Size: 0.01
Maximum Leverage: 300:1
Minimum to Open Live: $1
Established: 1999
Address: Level 8, Swanson House,12- 26 Swanson St., Auckland Central 1010, New Zealand
Contact: info@pfd-nz.com, +64 9 6320129/100/121
Regional offices:
Regulators: FSPR #FSP28944, FMA #FSP28944
Prohibited countries:
Trading platforms: MT4
Mobile Trading: ✅ Yes

Trading Instruments

Currencies: (45+)
Cryptocurrencies: (2)
CFD: (4) Gold, Silver, Stock Indexes, Oil, Other Commodities

Trading Conditions

EAs/Robots: ✅ Yes
News Trading: ✅ Yes
Scalping: ✅ Yes

Managed Accounts & Social Trading

MAM: ✅ Yes
Deposit Methods: Bank Wire (BankTransfer/SWIFT), VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Poli
Withdrawal Methods: Bank Wire (BankTransfer/SWIFT), VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Poli
* Please check broker website for more information
3.24 • 17 REVIEWS

Recent User Reviews of PFD NZ

K
keithandco
Feilding, New Zealand,
Nov 14, 2023,
Registered user

Still there after 4 years

Service use: Live Length of use: over 1 Year
Well . . . Here I am after a loooong time away, I'm back and writing this up after getting a surprise with PFD. Here's my story, . In September of 2019 I went away, just before Covid 19 Delta variant hit. NZ was a month or 2 behind the rest of the world in getting it and the Govt. went into lockdown. it wasn't pretty for anyone but I was not in NZ society so I missed all the drama at home. My first thoughts, when Delta hit, seeing al the mass graves they were digging etc, was . . hell . . what happens if PFD close down and take my account with them. Businesses were falling over left right and center at the time.As it was I left things to the powers that be, thinking I'd attend to it all when I got back . . and . .. so . . here we are . . back in the world of Forex, safely home in good ol'e NZ

Here's the meat and potatoes . . Expecting PFD not to exist any more I got a lovely surprise when I contacted them. Within 24 hours I had a new password for the MT4 and ALL of my money is still there :-)) .The account hasn't been even looked at for over 4 years. So . . Can I trust PFD?. Yep. Not once did I or have I ever had any problems with them

You might ask why I chose them in the first place. Truth is I don't like dealing with off shore finance crowds. it's too hard to turn up on their doorstep and demand money when they rip you off. Aside from this, at my entry into the Forex markets, back in 2012, , I checked out every other broker in the land and PFD are the ONLY ones in NZ with the coveted Financial Markets Authority seal of approval (the same one the Banks have to have to do business here),. This is pretty much a guarantee of a resolution meeting happening if theres any trouble. Besides , . . I know where they live :-)). I'm sure, if things got rough I could make them an offer they could'nt refuse and fix it all up

So . . there you have it. I've had no problems using their platform or trading when I was and now am just about to relaunch my exchange activities with them. The only gripe I have with them is the 6% commission they charge on every trade. But everyone has to make money somehow huh

I hope this review has helped someone. i'm an honest little Kiwi and if this crowd has treated some people the way they shouldn't have I'd be genuinely surprised. And , no, I'm NOT an employee. I'm just another soul attempting to win at the game of life. I'm happy with these guys as my broker. What more can I say

Regards and don't be afraid to contact me if you've any queries

Cheers
Keith
J
Joe
Dublin, Ireland,
Dec 3, 2015,
Guest

I rarely take the time to write reviews but I'm seeing some negative ones here about PFD and felt I should speak up. I'm based in Ireland and have been with them nearly two years. I'm full-time at the screens and barring one 30s gap during a quiet period, have seen nothing untoward in that time. People complain of slippage, varying spreads and minor differences in spot price, but they're not being realistic. In a constantly flowing market nothing stays static. And any broker offering static pricing is trading against your position, fact. As for varying spot rates, there will always be minor differences between providers.
Many people complain too about spreads being high at 1.2 pips etc, and that's just ridiculous. Trading is a business, and the spread is a cost of doing business. If the cost cannot be afforded then the business should cease operating.
One final comment, If you are suspicious of your broker then you have failed to carry out sufficient due diligence.
Sufficient due diligence means knowing the minute in's and out's of your broker's' business and it's structure. Information that can be found but requires serious online digging.

Best of luck to all.
S
Samuel
, Spain,
Sep 13, 2015,
Guest

i have started with PFD an IB MAM account and i promised the company to bring over 2 millions dollars net worth of clients, but my condition was to test the water before i hail in ..

brought my first client and asked her to throw in a 1 thousand dollar

i came to PFD because of one thing and one thing only ! low spread and also to test it and compare with other brokers ...

after i start trading i noticed that the spread isn't actually low for the EUR/USD pair was about 2.3 . i messaged Compliance " Paul" and he claimed that because my account is MAM and they have to pay me rebate he spread is high . so i came to an agreement with him and i said okay well, i am not looking for a rebate but for a good execution rate and low spread,
now his best solution was that PFD Cancel my contract and not paying me any rebate and give me a lower spread . i said YES to the agreement .

i went back to trading again and i was not aware of the fact that this broker has a large slippage market gap and poor filling orders . that cost me almost the whole 1 thousand dollar . in that time another client was in the process of depositing and 4 others on the way . i stopped all transactions and i said i should test this broker further more on these issues ..

after a week from my agreement being cancelled i noticed that spread return to be very high " please see attachment " and Mr. Paul responds were nothing but normal and regular excuses for a market maker dealing desk broker .. for instance this is the best rate we have from our liquidity provider, the spread is higher at night time, slippage cause higher spread due to recap and the list goes on and on ....all EXCUSES !! if that the case Mr. Paul why did you offer me low spread ??
no it goes beyond that where he actually so low ethic and rude as he acknowledge the problem yet did not offer me any rebate !

after countless of emails and chatting with their online support telling him dude i am still suffering with high spread without this issue being resolved .

i was fed up with this and i wanted to post a review on FPA against this fraudulent activity on the account because i am being robbed basically clean and clear and lied to, i see this posted by another person from Canada :

I actually now have a volume agreement with them as I moved some large systems over. I am allowed to introduce others at these conditions if anyone is interested. You get the base spread minus 0.3 pips, this will give you spread on USD/JPY and EUR/USD around 0.2 pips with no commission whatsoever. It drops sometimes to negative 0.1 pips on occasion! I have spent years hunting and these are the best real conditions I negotiated anywhere. Note this is a true (no mark up discount) so take 0.3 pips off the demo spread to assess what you will get live. You get an instant credit into your account after each trade. This is a win-win situation you the absolute best conditions, and it helps me continue a good relationship with the broker to maintain these conditions when my systems have a quiet month.

i did not believe my eyes ! this trash been lying to me and charging me with high spread just because he decided so .

In that time and unfortunately my second client deposit came through and note the amount he transferred is not the same amount came through to his account . Now the murderer habit is to always point finger after he commit a crime, They claim its my client's bank .
After digging into why the amount shown in my client PFD trading account was less than the amount he transferred is because of the third party they use . They charge unbelievable commissions . So for those who wants to transfer money be aware .

Nonetheless after the money came through we tried to trade a little so we can balance it back up a bit with HIGH SPREAD note and i wasn't paid rebate .

Now we are trading with 2 accounts one has higher equity than the other, but we are trading with volume of 0.01 . After taking few trades another SCAM activity i noticed " well i guess its in their blood " . The trades are only executed on one account, not on both, even though its a MAM account and trades should be executed on all accounts linked . When confronted that was their pathetic respond :

We observe that though ac 65***- ***** ****** is one of the accounts linked to MAM, it has an exceptionally disproportionate lower equity/free funds compared to one of the other ac 65*** – ****** ******* linked to MAM.

When trading comparably small trade sizes and when linked accounts have a comparatively higher and disproportionately free funds, it is possible, due to rounding off, the entire small size trades could flow to the ac with higher disproportionately free fund.

E.g., ac1 has 100$ ac2 has 10000$, then proportion of trades from a small size trade for ac1 could be either negligible or zero.

Paul do you hear your self how pathetic and stupid you sound ?

Lets move on ... Besides all that they are doing I open my MT4 and i see the market is merging towards my pending orders got all excited all profitable trades and all of a sudden trades are cancelled !?!?!?!?!?! What the hell happened ?

Of Coarse a broker who is less interest that you make money for obvious reasons mot being STP but market maker and his intention that you loose money so they profit . Logic ? I believe so ..

I went online started to chat with their online support and after he checked he said that these order have been expired ! I said well the pending orders are placed without any expiry . When you place a pending order at the bottom you have a box that you can check if you want your orders to be expired at a certain date . All my pending orders were placed without any expiry .

So i emailed their support and they claimed that these trades were cancelled by myself . I said that is not true i have no interest of intervening with my own orders because it was me who set the robots there for that purpose in the first place .

The respond and quick action was to block me from logging in to my MAM account . Their condition to unblock the account was : here i will post it for you

Please give us your assurance that in case orders are cancelled from IP 85.61.140.60 in future also, you would own responsibility so as to consider unblocking the IP.

Thats right they want me to to take responsibility over something i did not commit .
he wanted me to give him the green light for continuing cancelling trades by acknowledging that it is me who cancelling pending orders .

Paul " from compliance " is trying to manipulate me on taking responsibility on actions was done by his firm .also to cover his ass from Forex pace army in case there is a post so he can say hey look he admitted that it was him !
i mean ? what kind of low ethic broker are you ? you re blocking my IP and using that against me because i claimed that you cancelled trades for me ? and you want me to say yes i did your crime and under that condition only you will unblock my IP and let me trade so you can have the green light to continue with your dirty work ? no and you are even rude and shameless that you have the gut to confront me ?
S
Reply by Paul F Louis submitted Sep 16, 2015:
As per PFD?s records, this review has been placed by Samuel REMOVED BY FPA and his location is REMOVED BY FPA and not Spain. On 12/3/2015, Samuel approached PFD to assist him to open a trading ac. PFD has a user friendly online signup which is in use since 2010 which 99% of our individual clients use. Samuel had trouble, however with the online signup and therefore submitted a paper mode application. Since REMOVED BY FPA residents could not be electronically verified, PFD requested to comply with our standards requirements to provide notarised copies of his ID + address proof. Samuel resisted and was unhappy but finally cooperated. After providing him continuous support for 41 days, he could be verified and an ac opened on 22/4/2015. Then Samuel was educated how an IB relationship works and was thereafter approved as an IB. Samuel thereafter learned from PFD how a Multi Account Manager works and its features. On 20-05-2015 PFD wrote to him ?You gave us an impression that you had monitored our spreads and perhaps also demo traded on our platform before becoming an IB. You started trading and we were rebating you with base rebate. However, you offered to forgo the rebate and required us to move your account to PFDTrader (direct) account which has a comparatively narrower spread which we did. If you are looking again for rebate, once there is no open position, please advise us so that we can move your account to PFDTrader (Indirect ac) group which naturally will be wider in spreads when compared to PFDTrader (Direct ac). We are more than happy to go by what you opt for in this regard which kindly advise us accordingly. PFD is a licensed broker in business since 1999 and we have a very transparent process and system unlike what you try to allege. PFD has no control over the market movements but we are sure we offer competitive spreads for major symbols. My simple advice to you since you do not have any other client, please allow us to close down your MAM Master ac 40035 and instead you may kindly consider trading using ac 65683 and you may experience better execution results?. PFD?s spreads in PFDTrader and PFDPro are real time available on PFD?s website > https://www.pfd-nz.com/spread. Prospective PFDTrader clients see same spreads in PFDTrader demo account, test trade and satisfy execution quality which is identical in demo and live accounts. Samuel opened a PFDTrader account. PFD allows base rebate of 0.50 RT pips to IBs on PFDTrader and for that reason mark ups about 0.20 RT pips on spreads on IB sourced clients. Samuel compared PFDTrader direct spreads with PFDTrader indirect client spreads and requested that he and his future clients be allowed PFDTrader direct clients spreads and for that reason he did not want IB rebate. PFD agreed and his ac was moved to PFDTrader direct clients? spreads. Spreads comparison widget demonstrates that PFD?s spreads are one of the tightest in the industry. PFD is a NDD broker since 2010 and PFD does not resort to anything unethical in its practices. PFD is an STP broker connected with about a dozen liquidity providers offering market execution, variable spreads, allowing all kinds of strategy trading, system trading and high frequency trading etc. PFD? servers are in NY and PFD makes all it can to keep latency issues to the bare minimum to avoid slippage but PFD as it offers original spreads in PFDPro, it is possible in a fast moving market, and slippage could also be wider. PFD wrote to him on 15-05-2015 ?PFD did review your trades. PFD continues to offer one of the tightest spreads and for that reason when the market moves, the possibility of slippage is not ruled out. If we widen the spreads, perhaps we could contain the slippage even in a fast moving market. Our clients are happy with the tightest spreads. Broker to broker transfer form link is sent as required > https://www.pfd-nz.com/downloads/External_Transfer_Form.pdf which please complete and send to us early in case an account to account transfer is required?. PFD offers base rebate to IBs and PFD does not restrict an IB sharing his base rebate with his clients who generate trade volumes which is good for an STP broker like PFD. PFD has multi-currency direct bank accounts with Bank of New Zealand and ANZ National Bank Ltd. PFD? does not levy any charge/commission either for funding or withdrawal by clients and offers net of bank charges. For a client maintaining GBP base currency ac, the client? bank remitted funds in NZ$ which had to be converted back to GBP and thereby client incurred exchange losses which was avoidable by the client? bank and not by PFD or its bank. On 19-05-2015 PFD wrote to the client ? We had same difficulty with some other payments from Santander UK PLC in the past, your bank. We investigated and understood that Santander UK PLC do not have direct GBP wire transfer arrangement and what they do is they route wires through third party providers?. On 25-05-2015 PFD wrote to the client ?Funds received in NZ$ and converted to GBP and credited to your account. You may take up with your bank why funds were remitted in NZ$ and the difference is as a result of the exchange losses i.e., converting first GBP to NZ$ by your bank/its payment provider and secondly from NZ$ to GBP by PFD to credit to your GBP base currency?. Money Manager Account (MAM) supports trade distribution based on balance, equity or free margin but if the balance/equity/free margin is a negligibly low value which is lower than the minimum margin required for a 0.01 lot, trade distribution by MAM is impossible which is a fact and is a basic. The MAM was trading 0.01 lots which is the lowest trade lot which did not split but flew to one of the slave accounts which had sufficient margin and not to the other slave ac which did not have sufficient margin. That is how MAM is designed to work. On 27-5-2015, Samuel alleged that all pending orders in his account were cancelled from PFD? side. We investigated his allegation and found that orders were cancelled from IP 85.61.140.60, some host in Spain. Since PFD had no reason to cancel its clients orders, for security reasons we reset Samuel?s password and also blocked the IP 85.61.140.60 which cancelled the orders. We have on record his admission In response that ?now i can?t log into my MAM account. Unblock all IP's and let me on my own. Do not intervene or cancel any trades the robots set. i have multi places to log in to the account because it?s not just me?. PFD does not agree to any of Samuel' comments who has been abusive from day one. Review Moderation Note: We do not know where this client signed up with PFD-NZ from, but the review was submitted from a major ISP in Spain.
C
can
, Turkey,
Apr 25, 2015,
Guest

Very good broker. lowest trading costs. (spread) . enough execution speed. Good customer service.
H
highwic
, New Zealand,
Nov 6, 2014,
Guest

Another a**hole forex compnay, they start 8 minutes late on a Monday morning with huge spreads , freeze the platform , so you cant stop trade , like the person said below , no ECN here absolute scumbags
H
Reply by Paul F Louis submitted Sep 15, 2015:
PFD is an STP/ECN broker connected with about a dozen counter-parties for liquidity. PFD is in business since 1999 and is a licenced broker since 2005. PFD's experience is that a time gap of 3 to 4 minutes is required for the liquidity to stablise when market opens on a Monday morning. The time gap we refer is the time required for all our liquidity connections becoming activated and the pricing becoming stable enough to be offered for trading. If clients are allowed to trade before the pricing stabilizes clients are exposed to position stop outs in an unstable pricing. PFD's policy therefore is allow trading 5 minutes after market opening on a Monday by which time the liquidity providers connections are stable and prices are authentic. PFD-NZ
V
VO HOANG PHI PHUNG
HO CHI MINH CITY, Viet Nam,
Sep 10, 2014,
Guest

My account: 64768
Prices do not properly matched with the market price.
At 23 hours 59 minutes 56 seconds. I made a Buy Stop order at price 0.82348
(Transaction ID: 2630238)
At this time the actual market price without this price. So I asked why my order matched the price when I was put in the market price does not exist?
A scam company! Stay away from it.
V
Reply by Paul F Louis submitted Sep 14, 2015:
From: Paul F Louis (Compliance & AML/CFT Manager) [mailto:paulfrancis@pfd-nz.com] Sent: Thursday, 11 September 2014 3:06 p.m. To: REMOVED BY FPA Cc: '[email protected]' ; '[email protected]' Subject: Complaints - Account:64768 Hi Vo Hoang Phi Phung We checked your account. Please find enclosed market watch at least extracted from two other brokers to evidence the market movement which occurred at the time when your order 2630238 was transacted. However, our executing broker having agreed to reverse the trade that had flown from PFD to the executing broker taking into the consideration the fact that thee market movement was exactly at the close of the trading day. We have therefore cancelled the trade as a special case. Please do bear in mind such requests are never entertained by our executing brokers easily. This should not be therefore taken as a precedence in any future instances. We request your cooperation in future in following industry rules. Thanks Paul F Louis
S
sim_trader
Canada, Canada,
May 14, 2014,
Guest

Here are my experiences with this broker.

I have been trading ~13 years. I have tried at least 70 live accounts. Most broker are just awful, others honest but their trading cost are simply too high.

PFD are fair, transparent and honest with some of the lowest spreads with no commission. Slippage does occur around news, but in general it is way less than all the other retail and many prime brokers. Spread also comes back down extremely quickly after a news release, normally within a few seconds where as many brokers hold it for a few mins.

I actually now have a volume agreement with them as I moved some large systems over. I am allowed to introduce others at these conditions if anyone is interested. You get the base spread minus 0.3 pips, this will give you spread on USD/JPY and EUR/USD around 0.2 pips with no commission whatsoever. It drops sometimes to negative 0.1 pips on occasion! I have spent years hunting and these are the best real conditions I negotiated anywhere. Note this is a true (no mark up discount) so take 0.3 pips off the demo spread to assess what you will get live. You get an instant credit into your account after each trade. This is a win-win situation you the absolute best conditions, and it helps me continue a good relationship with the broker to maintain these conditions when my systems have a quiet month.

Use this link to open a live account to get these conditions.
https://kiwi.pfd-nz.com/signup/logon?ID=64857

You should know all trading styles are allowed but they reserve the right to not discount scalping trades under these conditions. It is my understanding that as long as you permit them to offset their risk they are happy. In reality 80% of my trades close within a min and at ~2 pips as I have a “break even” stop in my system. However, they are happy with this and don’t count this as scalping.

If you have a solid system that needs the lowest trading conditions then they could be ideal for you.

Cheers,
Sim
1 trader has found this review helpful
S
Steve Duckworth
Wellington, New Zealand,
Dec 14, 2013,
Guest

I have been with PFD for about 6 months. I decided to withdraw the balance of my account (under $1000) as I am giving up forex trading as to be honest I suck at it. I submitted my application over the weekend and the money was credited in full to my NZ bank account on Monday. If you are a NZ based trader this is the ONLY NZ based forex company. I know I visited their building in Auckland. They also do not charge a wire fee to NZ banks.
M
Miloslav
Levice, Slovakia,
Jul 16, 2013,
Guest

I have live account, good execution, zero spread for lose trade, no problem.
H
Hector Man
Hong Kong, Hong Kong,
Jun 6, 2013,
Guest

Never heard of this broker before but my friend told me to try. Their spreads are very tight and constant, do not suddenly widen. And the support is good.