Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has added 23 foreign forex and binary options to its RED list. The RED list, which was started in September last year and stands for “Registration Deficient”, now includes more than 40 foreign entities. It contains names of companies that are trading in forex or binary options and are believed to be soliciting and accepting funds from US citizens, without having the required US registration.
Here are the new additions to the RED list, in alphabetical order:
Banc de Options
Barclays Broker
BeeOptions
Binary Book
Binary Das
Binary Int’l
BTG Option
Diamond Managed Forex
Forex Broker Inc.
Forex CBR
Forex Investment Services
Golden Tangent Holdings
Ivory Options
Land FX
Lbinary
NRG Binary
Optionsxo
Paam-Maam Forex Fund Management
Profit Forex Corp
RealForex.com
Tallinex
Titan Trade
UK Options
The majority of entities on the list are binary options brokers with business addresses all over the world, including China, the UK and Ireland. The websites of some, like Binary Das, seem to be inactive, while others are still in business. Neither of the ones the SMN staff has checked, provides any regulatory information. Some of the binary options brokers on the list, like Titan Trade, have already been put on other regulators’ lists.
Some of the forex brokers on the RED list, however, do have registration with the corresponding financial watchdogs. One such example is Land Prime Ltd., which operates the Land FX forex broker. It has an address in New Zealand and an active registration in the country’s financial services providers registry.
Interestingly, the CFTC has got the name of Paam-Maam Forex Fund Management somewhat wrong. In reality, it is Pamm-Mam Forex Fund Management and has a business address in Singapore. Nevertheless, it is a rather strange website for a forex broker. It features a YouTube video with scantily dressed pretty girls, expensive cars and posh apartments, upbeat music and promises of huge profits. Besides the auto-playing video, the website contains extremely flattering comments from clients, praising the system and the weekly profits in the tens of thousands of USD.
Another interesting entry on the CFTC RED list is RealForex.com, which redirects the user to a secure corporate server of Forex Capital Markets (FXCM).
The CFTC notes that either way, registration is no guarantee against fraud, but does bring a higher level of security and accountability to the public.
Financial regulation in the US is very strict and is enforced by the CFTC, the National Futures Association (NFA) and several other watchdogs and self-regulation organizations. The CFTC is particularly hard on foreign binary options brokers and imposes massive penalties for soliciting US citizens. The US law permits only trading in exchange-traded binary options.
