SM-Invest

SM-Invest is an offshore broker, that is registered in Belize. Read the review to find out all there is to know about this one.

SM-INVEST is a trading name of Scope Markets Ltd, which is licensed and registered with the International Financial Services Commission of Belize (IFSC). The IFSC aims to rise up to the standards of other international financial service regulators, while also making a name out of Belize to attract other offshore brokers. However it does lack the severity and confidence of other regulatory bodies such as the FCA or CySEC, as well as a compensation fund that guarantees a portion of traders’ funds if the company goes bankrupt. The firm is not bound by the ESMA imposed maximum leverage of 1:30 in the EU and UK. The commission has upped its regulatory game recently, but that has not stopped some suspicious brokers from registering and offering their questionable trading conditions.

SM-INVEST has an extensive list of countries to which its services are unavailable. All EU countries are on it, including the UK. So is the United States.
However, we were able to register, no problem. After that, we were redirected to the client area, where we were not able to access the primary trading platform (MT4), yet we were given access to a secondary trading platform. We will give more details in the following section.

Nevertheless, the dashboard revealed that the leverage is capped at 1:500 which is the most common offshore leverage. The primary platform (MT4) did not give us a proper spread. The website claims that users can trade with Forex Pairs, Commodities, Indices, Shares, and Cryptocurrencies.

The broker offers its services to English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Russian, and Chinese speakers.

SM-INVEST LOGIN

After entering the dashboard, we were presented with an MT4 platform that was not accessible to us without a verification of documents. However, we were able to access a different web-terminal, seemingly proprietary, without the need to verify our identity. This second trading platform is not once mentioned on the website.

Anyway, on it we got a EUR/USD spread of 1.7 pips on average, which is not that good of a spread. This second platform offers Forex Pairs, Commodities, Crypto, Indices, and Shares, same as the MT4.

The alternative platform is actually quite decent, and can be quite helpful for more novice traders. There are options to customize the charts, an economic calendar, and several other vice touches. Yet it does not at all compere to the MT4.

Even though throughout the website there were claims that there are no commission on tradings, the Terms and Conditions claim the exact opposite. There is even a 5% charge for payments that arrive late.

This type of clause is found among illicit brokers, which begs the question what it it doing with SM-Invest, a fully licensed brokerage firm?

SM-INVEST MINIMUM DEPOSIT

The only base currency is the US dollar, which can be deposited via Visa, Neteller, Skrill, and RegularPay. This info is taken from the client area, so you know it's accurate.

The minimum deposit is $100.

There seem to be no depositing fees.

Seeing the payment methods used, we assume that all deposit take no more that a couple of seconds.

SM-INVEST WITHDRAWAL TIME AND FEES

Withdrawals are processed within 7 days of the submitted request.

The minimum withdrawal amount is $50.

Users who withdraw more than once per day, or five times a week, will be charged with $35 per request.

Withdrawal methods are the same as the depositing ones.

BOTTOM LINE

At its current state how can we recommend SM-Invest? At times it borders with fraudulent brokers. There is a generalized confusion around the whole broker… For now, it is best to stay away from SM-Invest, even though it is licensed.