CF Merchants – Is It a Waste of Time and Money?

Website URL: https://cfmerchants.com

Founded: 2011

Regulations: Unregulated

Languages: Available in more than 50 languages

Deposit Methods: Bank Transfer, Skrill, Neteller, Perfect Money, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple

Minimum Deposit: $10

Free Demo Account: Yes

Number of Assets: N/A

Types of Assets: Forex, Indices, Crypto, Commodities, CFDs

Trading Accounts and Conditions

CF Merchants offers a total of 3 account types which are elaborated on in the website. ECN is CF Merchants’ starting account, and you can open one for as low as $10. Its spread type is variable, and its starting spread is 0. This account type, however, has a commission fee of 6$. The second account type is called Prime, which has a minimum deposit amount of $100. Its spread type is also variable, and it has a starting spread of 1 pip. The last account type is called Pro, and it also has a $100 minimum deposit. Its spread type is also variable and account. Prime account holders are given 1.5 pip stating spread.

CF Merchants also has Islamic accounts for their clients that want swap-free accounts. The rules of the Islamic religion are heavily considered on these accounts. Normal trading is considered Haram in Islam, so swap-free accounts are made so that traders can trade without getting any interest from the other party. CF Merchants considers their demographic very well, and they have recognized that they have many clients that are Islam. It has become common nowadays, especially brokers who are eyeing to expand on Islamic territories.

To upgrade for an Islamic account, CF Merchants have set up a way to do this by simply contacting them and telling them for an upgrade.

CF Merchants – Advantages

• MetaTrader4 Platform Implementation

Many traders know both MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5 are the most common software to use when trading, especially those that are doing it full-time. Even MetaTrader4 is still considered a good platform because of its features and advantages over web-based trading platforms and websites. Aside from that, MetaTrader4 is also considered a user-friendly platform mainly because of how simple it looks, allowing newcomers to become familiar with it as fast as possible.

Although it’s disappointing for them not to use MetaTrader5, this choice is still a good one as it does the job anyway.

CF Merchants – Disadvantages

• Uncertain Regulations and Licenses

CF Merchants is a bit mysterious in this part as they aren’t very open to disclosing what financial authority truly regulates their business. However, according to them, they are under the license number of 1092420 issued by Companies House, Cardiff, United Kingdom, way back in 2017. However, by doing just quick research, it turns out that Companies House isn’t a license issuer, but rather just a registrant that doesn’t have that much power for regulating these types of business. That said, trusting them fully with your money isn’t that much recommended because they’re not regulated in any way, and not only that, they have lied about this to try and lure more people into their website. The problem with unregulated offshore brokers is that they won’t be responsible for any refunds or even money loss because the clients aren’t under protection in any way. Think about depositing as giving some stranger your money, and it is all up to them how they will react or do with it.

Plus500

$100

Minimum Deposit

Start Trading

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82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money

Plus500 is a FTSE 250 listed brokerage providing online trading services in CFDs, across 2,000+ securities and multiple asset classes.

 

AvaTrade

$100

Minimum Deposit

Start Trading

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The company was created as a combined effort of financial professionals and experts in web-commerce with the goal of perfecting the online experience for retail traders.

• Limited Service Area

It turns out that CF Merchants can’t be used in many countries, even in the United States. Having a limited-service area also means that they won’t be capable of getting licenses that will allow them to expand their territories because they will continue to operate on the parts that they are allowed. In most cases, local offshore brokers become scams, mainly because of the lack of regulation and poor withdrawal policies.

• Blurry Trading Conditions

CF Merchants is quite inconsistent when it comes to offering information about their trading conditions. As a broker, you must stick with your words and only those that you have already said at the beginning to avoid confusion on the part of the client.

• Predatory Terms and Conditions

A broker’s clause is very serious and should always be read by clients willing to spend money on the website. According to CF Merchants, they may make changes on fees they run on the website, and clients will know this later than five days. Having this form of power is very dangerous, and those clients who have already sunk a lot of funds in this broker will have no choice but to suffer and go along with the fees they have imposed. They also have the power of adding fees, not just modifying present ones, which is very upsetting to know.

We consider this predatory at some point, and although some people might catch this clause, there’s still a majority of people that will proceed without even reading the terms and conditions.

• High Leverage

CF Merchants’ leverage is 1:1000 and is quite high for an offshore broker. Legitimate websites that offer to trade, especially those catering to international clients, don’t have that much leverage since a very high one holds a very high risk, something that you shouldn’t be doing when trading. One good side about higher leverage, however, is that the chances for making high profits. However, we don’t recommend going for this type of strategy as losses are also more likely to happen with brokers with high leverage.

Conclusion

Despite having a good trading software platform, we still don’t recommend using CFMerchant as your main broker since their system, especially their implementation of high leverages, is very shady and will only put your funds at risk. Besides that, trading conditions are also a bit blurry, and as a client,it is your right to have everything presented on the terms and conditions.

The only good thing that we can see from CF Merchants is their very low minimum deposit, which will easily give clients the ability to try out their service without spending too much money. CF Merchants may not be a total scam, but there are a lot of red flags that are too hard to ignore.

CF Merchants

2.5

User Experience

3.3/10

Payment Options

2.4/10

Security

2.3/10

Support

2.5/10

Reputation

2.2/10

Pros

• MetaTrader4 Platform Implementation

Cons

• Uncertain Regulations and Licenses
• Limited Service Area
• Blurry Trading Conditions
• Predatory Terms and Conditions
• High Leverage