How reliable are Forex broker reviews?

As everyone knows now, there are tons of Forex brokers choose from. There are still occasions where new traders sign up with the first one they see but in general, majority of traders take their time and evaluate benefits from a range of different Forex brokers before they make a decision to sign-up. It is this ‘decision making process’ that we are going to focus on in this article because more than often, a review website will be used that describes Forex brokers.

Historically, review websites have been a great help. The reason for using them is to short-cut the elimination process by discovering good and bad points about Forex brokers from people alike. As they are the customer, it is very unlikely that their opinions are biased in any shape or form. Unfortunately, today that is not the case.

Self-broker reviews

With such a large influx of brokers in today’s environment, competition is very much alive. To steer people towards their platforms some brokers have created their own review websites. The design is very nice and the website looks professional but the whole idea of some review sites is simply a scam. Whilst credible review sites will place a broker in the bottom of the table, the scam review site will place it at the top or second in the list. This creates the illusion that the platform has been used by ‘normal’ people and reviewed appropriately. The truth is that the site has been designed by the broker’s marketing department to eliminate as much heavy competition as possible.

Affiliate broker reviews

For those who do not know, an affiliate is simply a company that lists brokers in their review table and receives a commission for passing on customers from their website. That is fair. However, there are brokers that pay a premium to be at the top of the list. If they are a sound company with no ‘bad play’ in their history then this also seems fair. However, if they are a bad company looking to simply change their bad reputation by financially awarding the affiliate then this is bad practice and most importantly, not fair to the customer. Unfortunately, the affiliate has fallen into the trap here whilst they deceive their own, trusted customer base.

Of course, there are some great brokers around that provide a fantastic service. There are also some fantastic review sites around that can be trusted. However, it does pay to be extra careful when you see a glowing, five star review for a broker that nobody has heard of. At the same time, if a renowned ‘bad’ companies are receiving great customer reviews all of a sudden; and no changes in the company have been promoted at all; chances are that you are reading a fake review. Be careful, take your time and ask around before any signing-up takes place.