BlackStone500 – Can You Trust Them?

Website URL: www.blackstone500.com

Founded: N/A

Regulations: Unregulated

Languages: English

Deposit Methods: XchangePro

Minimum Deposit: $250

Free Demo Account: Yes

Number of Assets: N/A

Types of Assets: Forex, Indices, Cryptocurrencies, Commodities, Gold, Crude Oil

Trading Accounts and Conditions

BlackStone500 offers you the following trading accounts:

• Standard Account: The minimum deposit requirement for this account is $250. The spreads start from 1.3 pips and the maximum leverage offered is 1:30.
• Bold Account: To use this account type, you need to make an initial deposit of $3,000. The spreads start from 1.5 pips, while the maximum leverage is 1:30.
• VIP Account: This account requires you to make a minimum deposit of $12,000. The spreads start from 0.1 pips, and the maximum leverage is 1:30.

BlackStone500 – Advantages

Here are the advantages that we found about BlackStone500:

• Seemingly Low Spreads

The spreads offered by BlackStone500 are quite favorable for traders, so this is a definite positive. Just for your information, the market standard offering of spreads ranges from 0.5 pips to 1.5 pips. So, the 1.3 pips offered by this broker is quite good.

• Activ8 Trading Platform Offered

BlackStone500 offers its clients the use of the Activ8 trading platform. While it cannot compare to the MetaTrader 4 platform, it is still a very good trading software.

With the Activ8 platform, each of the assets is segregated into separate boxes, and if you click on any one, it expands into a new window where you can see the buy/sell chart with current prices can be seen. Besides this feature, you can also copy selling strategies from other pro traders, and see pending orders.

BlackStone500 – Disadvantages

Here are the disadvantages we found that outweighed the few advantages in BlackStone500:

• Unregulated Broker

BlackStone500 states that its holding company is Smart Trade and Investments Ltd and its registration number is N12019474F. Then, it provides the location of two countries – the UK and Canada – without any corporate addresses.

Then in the Contact Us page, the broker provides a UK address. But in the Terms and Conditions page, the broker states that it abides by Estonian laws.

This lack of clarity itself is a worrisome sign. However, to give them the benefit of doubt, we decided to check the online registers of all the countries that BlackStone500 mentions on its website.

First – Canada. The main financial authority in Canada (though each province also has independent regulators) is the IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada). This regulator has one of the most stringent conditions for forex brokers, which is why not many of them opt for Canadian licenses. Neither BlackStone500 nor its parent company are listed on the Canadian online register.

Next – the UK. We checked the online register of the financial authority of the land – the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). Once again, we found that this broker was not listed as a regulated broker with this agency either.

Finally – Estonia. We checked the register of the Estonian Financial Supervision Authority, and once again, came up empty.

Our investigation into this broker’s regulatory status has shown us that this broker is not actually regulated by any financial authority, and all the confusing information on its website is just a smokescreen to trick traders into believing they are legitimate.

Plus500

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AvaTrade

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• No Support for MetaTrader 4

As we mentioned in the advantages section, this broker offers you the use of the Activ8 trading platform. While it is a solid trading software, it doesn’t compare to the MetaTrader 4 platform, which is what 80% of traders use today.

The MT4 platform is the preferred platform because it has an easy to use interface, and offers a range of features to help with advanced trading. You get to access charting and market analysis tools as well as automatic trading robots. None of these features are available with the Activ8 platform.

• Confusing Information about Trading Conditions

On its Account Types page, the broker states that its spreads start from 1.3 pips, and it offers a maximum leverage of 1:30. However, when we logged into their Activ8 platform, we found that the spreads for the EURUSD currency pair were at just 0.6 pips. Furthermore, we found that the leverage levels were fixed at 1:200.

• Confusion About Languages Offered

While this may seem like a minor issue, the lack of consistency that this broker displays on its website adds up to some serious contradictions. On their website, you can only choose English as your language. However, when you enter the client portal, the language options suddenly expand to include Italian, German, Russian and Spanish.

You would think that this broker would prefer to show its language options on its website to attract more customers.

• Single Payment Option

Here is one of the most suspicious points about BlackStone500. The only way you can deposit money in your account is via XchangePro, which is a gateway for buying Bitcoins. Why would a broker offer a purchasing platform as a deposit method? It seems that customers would end up buying Bitcoin rather than depositing money in their BlackStone500 accounts.

We also need to warn all traders that all Bitcoin transactions are untraceable as well as irreversible. This means that if you use this portal to make your deposits and then realize that you spent money buying Bitcoin, there is no way you can reverse the transaction or ever get your money back.

• Strange Non-Deposited Funds Clause

According to this clause in the broker’s Terms and Conditions, all profits are considered Non-Deposited Funds and therefore cannot be withdrawn. So, even if you are able to trade on their platform (which we cannot figure how you will since the only payment option is actually a Bitcoin buying portal), then whatever money you make will remain with BlackStone500.

Conclusion 

BlackStone500 is not a broker to be trusted. While the website may look good, there is very little substance in it. And there are too many anomalies for our comfort. We would recommend you look for a more reliable broker to deal with.

BlackStone500

2.4

User Experience

3.2/10

Payment Options

2.1/10

Security

2.3/10

Support

2.2/10

Reputation

2.4/10

Pros

• Seemingly Low Spreads
• Activ8 Trading Platform Offered

Cons

• Unregulated Broker
• No Support for MetaTrader4
• Confusing Information about Trading Conditions
• Confusion About Languages Offered
• Single Payment Option