Dow500 – Can You Trust This Broker?
Stop! It’s a Scam! Your money is not safe if you are trading with this unregulated, off-shore broker.
Dow500 - DO NOT TRADE WITH THIS PROVIDER
2.6/10
$100
Minimum Depositupdated 2020
Dow500 offers you the following types of trading accounts: Basic, Advanced, Professional and Premium.
Information about the trading conditions are rather sparse. We know that the leverage offered is 1:200 and the spreads start at 3 pips. However, there is no other trading related information. We do not know what the minimum deposit requirement is, nor do we know the rollovers or commissions and fees applied by this broker.
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.
Website URL: https://dow500.com/
Founded: 2018
Regulations: Unregulated
Languages: English, All Languages on Google Translate
Deposit Methods: Visa, MasterCard, Bank Wire, Yandex, WebMoney, QIWI
Minimum Deposit: Unknown
Free Demo Account: Yes
Number of Assets: 200+
Types of Assets: Forex pairs, CFDs on Agricultural and Energy Commodities, Stocks, Precious Metals, International Indices, Cryptocurrencies
Trading Accounts and Conditions
Dow500 offers you the following types of trading accounts: Basic, Advanced, Professional and Premium.
Information about the trading conditions are rather sparse. We know that the leverage offered is 1:200 and the spreads start at 3 pips. However, there is no other trading related information. We do not know what the minimum deposit requirement is, nor do we know the rollovers or commissions and fees applied by this broker.
Dow500 – Advantages
Here are the advantages that you may have if you decide to trade with Dow500:
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Range of Trading Instruments
Dow500 claims that it offers you more than 200 different trading assets, including 55 foreign currency pairs as well as CFDs on a variety of asset classes such as commodities (agriculture and energy), international indices, stocks, precious metals, and even major cryptocurrencies.
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MetaTrader 4 Offered
We were able to download the MT4 platform offered by Dow500, which could be considered a plus. The MT4 trading platform is by far the most popular trading software in the world today. It offers users a variety of features that help make trading easier. You get over 50 market indicators, customizable trading bots, as well as charting tools.
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Generous Leverage
Dow500 offers you a leverage ratio of 1:200, which is quite generous by market standards. This gives traders the allowance to adopt a wider range of trading strategies. However, we also need to warn our readers that a higher leverage also comes with a higher risk factor.
Dow500 – Disadvantages
Here are the disadvantages of trading with Dow500:
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Unregulated, Offshore Broker
Dow500 claims to be owned by a company called Clarion Enterprises SA, which is based in the Marshal Islands. The Marshal Islands are considered an offshore location and is a popular hub for the more unsavory brokers.
While being registered with an offshore jurisdiction in itself is not a big issue, we found out that Dow500 is actually not regulated in any way. This is because the Marshal Islands financial regulator has clearly stated that it does not have any regulatory oversight for forex and CFD brokers.
Trading with an unregulated broker is a sure way to lose money. This is because you lose any chance of protection from broker bankruptcy or being scammed. A regulated broker is by law required to protect their customers by ensuing account segregation and also compensation if they go bankrupt or are found to be defrauding their customers.
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.
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.
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Chaotic Corporate Information
The broker’s lack of regulation is not the only worrisome sign. The corporate information given on Dow500’s website is chaotic to say the least. While their parent company is supposedly registered in the Marshall Islands, Dow500’s payments processor – called Credos d.o.o – is based out of Croatia.
Furthermore, the trading platform offered by this broker is not licensed to them. The MT4 trading platform that Dow500 offers its customers is actually provided by a third-party company called TechInvest Solutions Ltd. What raises an even bigger concern is that there is no information available anywhere about third-party provider.
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Very High Spreads
As we mentioned earlier, this broker offers spreads that start at 3 pips. This is an extremely high spread, since the market average ranges between 1 pip to 1.5 pips. We would like to remind our readers that the higher the pip the most expensive the cost of trading will be.
So, for this broker to offer such a high spread means that it will be very disadvantageous for a trader to execute trades with them.
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Bonuses Offered
Dow500 also offers its customers bonus promotions. This is another bad sign since they come with some really unfair withdrawal conditions. You are required to meet certain trading turnover targets, and if you fail to do so, the broker denies your request your funds. And these targets are so ridiculously high that it is all but impossible to meet them, which means that you never get to see your money again.
This is a tactic typically used by scammers.
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No Information on Minimum Deposit Requirement
We do not know what the minimum deposit requirement is, and since there is no demo account offered by this broker, we could not check this for ourselves.
It is to be noted that the industry average for minimum deposits ranges between $100 and $250, and there are some top-notch brokers that require you to make a deposit of only $5 to start trading.
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Trading Platform Offered by Third Party
As we mentioned earlier, Dow500 does not offer the MT4 trading platform in its own name. It is run by a third-party company, which is another practice that is not followed by legitimate brokers.
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Skrill Payment Option Not Offered
While Dow500 has multiple payment options, they do not offer their clients the use of Skrill or Neteller. The omission of Skrill as a payment option is notable because this money remittance provider only partners with regulated brokers.
Conclusion
Dow500 is an offshore broker that is completely unregulated. Furthermore, the corporate information that has been presented on their website is confusing and chaotic. There is also a lack of clarity on the trading conditions, and the information that is available points to very unfavorable terms for traders.
Considering the many red flags that we have raised, we would advise all traders to avoid this broker completely.
Do not trade with unregulated brokers that will steal your funds - try these regulated brokers:
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.
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.
eToro is a multi-asset platform which offers CFD and non CFD products. 74% 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.