Swiss Markets is this a scam? Review and Customers Reviews

Swiss Markets – is a relatively young Forex broker (launched in 2016) under the management of BDS Limited. However, the company has a serious legal basis: it is licensed in Mauritius, a jurisdiction considered one of the strictest and most reliable.

But is the service provider itself reliable? Is Swiss Markets a scam or a profitable investment proposition? Let’s find out.

 

Terms of trading with Swiss Markets

Swiss Markets is a forex (currency pairs) and CFD broker (precious metals, energy and indices). A total of about 100 assets are offered for forex trading. Trading accounts are opened in American dollars, euros, British pounds sterling, Polish zloty and Swiss francs. The execution model is STP. You trade currency pairs on 4 types of accounts:

• Classic STP with a minimum deposit of 200 USD, floating spreads from 0.9 pips (the value of 0.5 is specified for the currency pair EUR/USD) and leverage up to 1:500.
• Raw STP Swiss11 with a minimum deposit of 200 c.u., spread from 0 pips, leverage up to 1:200 and a commission of 11 pips (swaps can be changed if there is a suspicion of a trade violation).
• Raw STP Swiss8 with the minimum deposit of 2000 USD, spread from 0 pips, leverage up to 1:200 and commission of 8 pips.
• Raw STP Swiss with a minimum deposit of 10,000 USD, spreads from 0 pips, leverage up to 1:200 and a commission of 5 pips.

In all cases there are restrictions on the maximum number of pending orders (200) and lots per order (50), the minimum trading volume is 0.01 lots, and the contract size is set: 1 lot = 100,000 c.u.

It is also available to open a demo account and a terminal in guest mode (a third-party observer without the possibility of settings), so that the user can assess the capabilities of the platform or hone skills if he does not feel confident in his abilities. But there are no training materials in the open access, only individual consultations with introducing brokers (Forex Trading Training). There is not much analytics: the usual economic calendar and a couple of tools (calculators, converters, currency rates). Support is provided by phone, e-mail (each department has its own e-mail address), via the feedback form on the website swissmarkets.comor in an online chat or messenger.

 

Platform swissmarkets.com

Swiss Markets works with one terminal model – MetaTrader 4 (MT4). It is presented in formats for installation on PC (offline), web version (online) and applications for mobile devices on iOS, Android. MT4 is popular among traders due to its very high functionality (several dozens of technical analysis tools, all major types of charts, timeframes, orders, notifications, settings, chat, support, etc.), and ease of use: even a newbie begins to navigate MetaTrader after a couple of hours, although he does not become a professional. The terminals are free, you will not be charged for their use.

Security is ensured through firewalls and data transmission over secure SSL protocols. Each user is verified (verifies his identity by documents: passport scan, credit card photo with visible name of the holder and the last 4 digits of the number, payment receipts, etc.) during registration and each withdrawal to minimize the risk of third parties receiving client funds.

Broker quotes

Swiss Markets offers a set of currency pairs: from standard EUR/USD to exotic NOK/JPY (about 50 in total). Comparison of broker’s quotations with indices, provided by other providers, shows that figures are approximately the same and rarely differ from the market average by more than 2 ticks. So it is hardly possible to suspect the company in “faking”. At least, in the courses broadcast in the public domain.

 

Swiss Markets Demo Account

To create a free training (demo) account, the user must register on the site swissmarkets.comBDS Ltd. is a company with a full name, country of registration, phone number and e-mail, choose a password and accept BDS Ltd.’s terms of cooperation.

Then the system will ask you to upload supporting documents, but you can skip this step for now if you are not sure whether you will open a trading account later. After that the account will open, where by clicking “Add new account” (right top corner), we will proceed to the selection of the account type. Specifying STP Demo, then selecting c.u. (Euro, $, Pound Sterling, Polish Zloty, Swiss Franc) and confirming the password that you entered at the beginning, we create a demo account with a limit of 10,000 units of money ($10,000 in our case). It will appear in the general list of the section “All accounts”.

To start testing, just click on the “Start Trading” button, and the program interface will open in front of us. When the limit is used up, you will be able to create on a similar principle already a trading account or another training account (free).

 

Mobile application

The Swiss Markets mobile application is also presented by MetaTrader. As already mentioned, it is available for smartphones and tablets on iOS (at least 9.0), Android (version requirements depend on the model). Basic options:

• Quotes for various assets – currencies, contracts, raw materials, indices, etc.
• Audible and PUSH notifications of changes in the market.
• All types of orders, charts, 9 timeframes, 30 indicators and 24 analytical objects.
• Interactive features – scrolling, zooming, color scheme adjustment.
• Free news, analysis, online chat.

The software is rated 4.6-4.7 out of 5 among owners of various devices. In order to trade on accounts opened with the broker, it is necessary to enter the login and password of the account and to select the server – Swiss Markets/BDS.

 

Bonuses at Swiss Markets

There is no cashback, loyalty program or contests at Swiss Markets. This is compensated for by a pretty good loyalty program, which includes 3 areas:

• The following is an example of how you can get the remuneration for the referrals that came using a unique affiliate link;
• the function of the introducing broker (you act as a manager and trade other clients’ investments);
• White Label (offer for companies: the same representation, but the products are already served under your brand).

There are no other stocks at the broker.

 

Deposit and withdrawal

Depositing a Swiss Markets account can be done in a variety of ways:

• Online banking (not only international, but also local financial organizations – Dutch DNB, Austrian EPS, Polish Przelewy24, Italian Postepay);
• translations and bank cards (VISA, MasterCard, Maestro);
• Payment Systems and wallets (Giropay, Neteller, SkrillSOFORT).

Each has its own restrictions on the type of ua. Crediting, as the broker promises, is instant (only in the case of bank transfer from 1 to 7 working days). When withdrawing you can only use VISA, MasterCard (Maestro is no longer supported), Neteller, Skrill or bank transfer. Processing of the transaction itself takes up to 24 hours, but you will first need to verify your identity, and that will take a few days.

The plus side is that the company pays deposit and withdrawal fees for traders. Exception: payments less than 100 EUR are subject to a fixed fee of 10 EUR (it is mentioned in clause 16.2.4 of the user agreement).Methods of deposit and payment, as well as sender (in the first case) and recipient (in the second case) must coincide, otherwise you will not be approved.

 

Complaints about Swiss Markets

There are very few reviews about Swiss Markets. It is difficult to assess the reputation of the broker because the content does not look plausible: these are general phrases about fraud and “draining” money without any supporting facts or details.

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Broker regulator

BDS Markets, the owner of the Swiss Markets brand, is registered in the Seychelles (company registration number – 143350). However, the license to conduct brokerage activities was obtained from a serious and trustworthy regulator – Mauritius FSC. The registry of the jurisdiction has a confirmation of that.

• Check your Swiss Markets license on the Mauritius FSC website

Swissmarkets.com User Agreement

The Swiss Markets User Agreement is written in English, so not every site visitor will be able to understand it swissmarkets.com. However, it is important to get acquainted with the terms, so we tried to break down for you the most important, as it seemed to us, provisions of the document. The broker reserves the right to cancel any transaction that he deems to be in violation of the rules of the agreement. In this case, he is not responsible for losses (clause 8.4), unless his actions are a deliberate failure to fulfill his obligations to the client, which is very difficult to prove.

Swiss Markets is not obliged to monitor the transaction and inform you about it, unless otherwise agreed in the contract (clause 8.16). Everything is done voluntarily.

If there are reasonable suspicions about the bona fides of your trade, the operator may:

• Without prior notice, terminate the agreement.
• Cancel any open positions.
• Temporarily or permanently block access to the platform and its functionality.
• Refuse to execute orders for transactions, withdrawal of currency, etc.
• Limit your trading activity (for example, change the limits).
• Return the funds to the rightful owner (when fraud is involved).
• Take any other legal action for losses incurred.

All these regulatory measures are listed in paragraph 8.18 of the document.

You authorize Swiss Markets to dispose of any of your assets to fulfill its contractual obligations to it, you and other users (clause 13.2).

That is, your funds can go to secure someone else’s transactions, for example. Accuracy and expediency of your orders the company does not check – it is entirely your responsibility (clause 14.6).

The deposit refund fee (when you have sent a payment and then canceled it) is 60 euros and is intended to compensate you for the cost of investigating possible fraud (clause 21.1).

The company was licensed in Mauritius, but its agreement with users is governed by the jurisdiction of the operator itself – the Seychelles (paragraph 27). And this, in our opinion, is not too good, because the latter does not provide consumer protection, unlike the FSC.

 

Is Swiss Markets a scam?

At first glance, the broker Swiss Markets It looks very impressive: relatively small deposits, a Mauritius license, clearly outlined trading conditions with spreads, contract sizes, commissions, etc. But after a closer look, you begin to notice details that spoil the impression:

• All issues related to legal relations between the broker and the trader are resolved not by the issuing jurisdiction, but by the Seychelles, where the operator is registered.
• There are high charges for refunds (60 euros) and withdrawals of less than 100 euros (10 euros).
• The documentation is in English only, with complicated wording. So it is not easy to understand the nuances of the rules. But knowing the terms is an opportunity to avoid unnecessary mistakes and fines.
• There are almost no reviews about the broker, although he has been working since 2016.

In general, you can’t say for sure that Swiss Markets is a scam, but questions to the provider do arise.

 

Conclusion

Offer Swiss Markets is not as profitable as the broker is trying to present it: the lack of deposit and withdrawal fees is compensated by all sorts of penalties for violations, narrow spreads – by the percentages specified in the tariff schedule. And the available license, as it turns out, does not indicate the protection of users by a reliable regulator – it is just a passing test for the sake of reputation. And the lack of training materials, scarce analytics and trading only on MT4, even if indirectly, but still signals about the lack of service. In our opinion, this is an average broker with its own pluses and minuses, which should be treated with caution.