Finopex Review
| Broker | Finopex |
|---|---|
| US Traders Accepted | |
| Company Name | T.B.S.F. Best Strategy Finance Ltd. |
| Headquarters | Nicosia, Cyprus |
| Regulation | No |
| Bonus Type | Match bonus |
| Bonus Size | 75% |
| Max Payout | 91% |
| Out-of-Money Reward | 15% |
| Trading Platform | TechFinancials |
| Early Closure | |
| Deposit Options | Credit/debit cards, wire transfer, Ukash |
| Deposit Currencies | Euro, US Dollar, British Pound |
| Minimum Deposit | $200 |
| Minimum Trade | $25 |
| Maximum Trade | $1,000 |
| Online Since | 2012 |
| Trading Instruments | Stocks, currencies, indices, commodities |
| Number of Trading Instruments | 39 |
| Binary Option Types | High/Low, One Touch, Boundary, 60 Seconds |
| Customer Support Types | Live chat, email, phone, mail |
| Education Offered | FAQ, glossary, how-to pages |
| Tools Offered | Daily market analysis, personal account management, early closure |
| Languages | English |
| Demo Account | Some risk free trades are allowed. |
Finopex is a binary options website which is owned by T.B.S.F Best Strategy Finance Limited, the same Cyprus-based company which owns Cedar Finance. Cedar Finance is a pretty well-known binary options broker, but mostly thanks to an aggressive marketing campaign. In terms of their reputability, there isn’t much positive to say. Cedar Finance was arguably the worst website we have reviewed, and Finopex was in some ways even more disastrous. It is very hard to find information on the site, which is missing a lot of features. Much of the missing information cannot be found anywhere else online, either. And when we talked to customer service, they actually flat out refused to answer our questions.
Opening an Account
If you’re not an English speaker, the adventure starts right from the onset. There is no language dropdown. You can trade using Euros, US Dollars, or British Pounds, and get started with a minimum deposit of $200 or equivalent. Deposit options include credit card, wire transfer, and Ukash. No account tiers are mentioned on the site, and you aren’t presented with bonus options until you actually submit your payment. Apparently you can get a match bonus of up to 75%.
No fees are mentioned, but the withdrawal terms are confusing—to say the least. Here is the exact text, word for word: “The amount can be withdrawn anytime of his deposited amount but not earnings. Traders who wishes to withdraw from the earnings must complete the 20x trade volume of bonus amount.”
This probably refers to bonus money, since the turnover volume makes sense for that, but it does say “earnings.” Does that mean that you can withdraw the amount of your initial deposit at any time, but not any money above that amount? Doesn’t that imply you can’t withdraw your winnings at all, ever? That seems scarcely believable, but if they denied you your winnings, they wouldn’t be violating their own terms. That should worry anyone, even if it is just poor phrasing. Their terms and conditions protect them, not you.
Trading Features
TechFinancials powers the platform. You may not be as familiar with this platform as with SpotOption, but several other brokers use it as well. You’ll see that you can trade High/Low, One Touch, Boundary, and 60 Seconds options. There are 39 different trading instruments including currencies, stocks, indices, and commodities. The minimum and maximum trade sizes are listed nowhere on the website or anywhere else online, but are $25 and $1,000 respectively.
There are only a few educational resources on the site, and they are extremely basic: how-to pages, a glossary, and a FAQ section. There are no trading tools listed on the bottom of the site in the menu, but if you scan the FAQ, you will see they offer daily market analysis, early closure, and personal account management.
Mobile trading is mentioned in the FAQ, but nothing about the platform; according to the customer service team, there is no mobile trading. There is also a section which mentions that you may place some risk free trades before you invest real money, but customer service says that there are no risk free trades, so there are a number of inconsistencies on the site.
Customer Service: Use Email, Not Live Chat
Naturally we had a number of questions since there are so many gaps in the information available on this binary options broker, both on and off the site. So we got on the live chat line and waited for a couple minutes. An agent named Ralph appeared. The agent who appeared on the Cedar Finance line was also named Ralph. If you check out that review, you can find out what a terrible experience we had trying to get information out of him that had any consistency or made the slightest bit of sense.
In this case, we didn’t have to bother, because Ralph wouldn’t let us try. Perhaps he recognized our information and didn’t want to deal with us again. Or perhaps he was a different agent even less interested in doing his job. Regardless, he refused to talk to us. He simply told us to send an email with our questions. There was no reason he could not have answered four simple, brief queries. That is not the kind of service you want from a company where you are investing your money.
Surprisingly, Finopex did not fail completely. They actually did respond to our email and provide answers to all of our questions, and they did it within 24 hours. So if you do want to get a hold of them, this is a much more efficient channel.
Reputation and Regulation
T.B.S.F Best Strategy Finance Limited claims to be a regulated company, and they do have a license number with the Cyprus government, HE 279560. That is just a general business license, however, not a CySEC number. This is because CySEC still has not finished laying the groundwork for binary options regulation. The company also says they are working with the CFTC to become regulated in the US, and until then are not accepting US customers (the site will let you register a US account, but will presumably stop you from depositing.
If you try to look up information on Finopex in a search engine, you’ll find only a limited number of reviews, and none of them very well researched. The website has been online since 2012, but this is no excuse for the lack of information out there. There are many sites that have been online no longer, but which are much better and also have received more coverage from third party websites. It is troubling not to be able to find a lot of objective information or opinions from real users who have tried out the website for themselves.
Do your research before you decide to trade with any binary options company. At this point we strongly suggest that you avoid both Finopex and Cedar Finance and try your luck elsewhere. There are way too many red flags, especially concerning withdrawal policies, bad customer service, and lack of transparency. They have a few good features, but those same features are available elsewhere. Binary options trading is risky enough; don’t add to your risk by dealing with a company you can’t trust.