FORTFS Review

fortfs.com in brief

The website fortfs.com is operated by Fort Financial Services LTD, which is incorporated and registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The company offers online trading of CFDs on currency pairs, commodities, indices, shares and cryptocurrencies via the several platforms such as MetaTrader 4 (MT4), CQG and NinjaTrader. The minimum initial deposit is just USD5.

Regulation

As we have always recommended, it is good to be aware of the regulations of the brokerage company you are interested in. Unfortunately, the company is not authorized by a regulatory body with strict requirements. Fort Financial Services LTD is registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines under registration number 25307 BC 2019. This registration allows the company to conduct financial services such as trading, brokerage and managed account services in currencies, indices, commodities, CFDs and leverages financial instruments. The company has entered into a partnership agreement with Era Today Ltd, a Cypriot company that serves as a payment provider. You need to be careful when working with offshore companies, as they do not have as strict regulatory requirements as companies regulated by EU bodies.

Account Types

There are four types of live accounts you can open with FORTFS, which differ in the required deposit amount, maximum leverage, spreads offered and commissions.

NEWBIE Account – The minimum deposit amount is USD5. Spreads are floating starting at 0.3 pips for the EUR/USD pair and from USD0.68 for the Gold. There is a commission starting at USD10 when trading CFDs on shares. The stop out level is 25%.

FORT Account – The minimum deposit amount is USD5. Spreads are fixed and the one for the EUR/USD pair is 2 pips. The spread for the Crude Oil is USD0.03. There is a commission starting at USD10 when trading CFDs on shares.

FLEX Account – The minimum deposit amount is USD5. Spreads are floating starting at 0.3 pips for the EUR/USD pair and from USD0.68 for the Gold. There is a commission starting at USD10 when trading CFDs on shares. You can trade with a maximum of 100 lots and the stop out level is 30%. There is a bonus of up to 50% on deposits.

PRO Account – You must invest at least USD500 to open this type of account. The spread for the EUR/USD currency pair will start at 0.1 pips and there is a commission of USD9 per lot traded. The stop out level is 40%.

What Type of Brokerage the Company is?

We could not find any notes about how the company executes customer orders. Nothing is mentioned in the Client Agreement file. Most probably Fort Financial Services LTD acts as a principal and is a counterparty to every client’s order. It is the sole execution venue and takes all the risk by itself, acting as a market maker. Being a market maker involves a conflict of interest because when the company executes orders, it keeps the risk to itself. Every loss for customers is a profit for the company.

Nothing is mentioned about the slippage, but the Risk Disclosure document warns that the client’s order can be filled at a price, which is considerably different from that specified in the order. Higher volatility and low liquidity may result that the client’s orders, either partially or fully will be executed at the prices different from the specified ones, or from the ones the client can see in the trading terminal while sending a request to open or to close an order. In other words, all types of orders (including stop loss orders) are subject to slippage and stop loss orders are not guaranteed.

The Risk Disclosure document does not specify anything about the negative balance protection policy. However, it is written that when using margin trading (trading with the use of leverage) a comparatively minor change in the current price of the trading instruments placed by the client may significantly affect the available funds on the trading account, and as a result, the client’s account balance. The client bears full financial responsibility for possible losses including the loss of initial deposit and any other funds that have been deposited to the client’s trading account, the probability of which arises when the instrument price shifts over the direction opposite to the open position. We can conclude that most probably you can lose only the funds that are in your account, so at the end you will not owe any additional money to this company.

Fees

There is no inactivity fee, so you can choose when and how often you want to trade. If you have not traded for 90 days, the company will archive the account. Of course, there are basic fees such as spread, swap, rollover, and commissions.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Many deposit methods are available, including bank transfer, credit or debit cards and e-wallets such as Neteller and Skrill. The minimum deposit amount and the accrued commission depend on the method used. The ways without commission are Skrill, Qiwi, Neteller, Visa and Mastercard.

Withdrawals must be made by the same payment method with which the customer’s trading account is credited. Withdrawal requests are processed within 5 working days. In case of the violation of any of the clauses of the client agreement or any clauses of AML policy, the company reserves the right to refund money deposited via any payment system including credit/debit cards. The refund requests are to be proceeded within 45 business days since the moment such request is created.

Trading Platforms

Customers can access global financial markets using most popular trading platforms provided by FORTFS: MetaTrader (4 and 5) – two of the most used trading platforms in the world; CQG – a professional trading terminal with access to all global online trading exchanges and NinjaTrader –  a platform dedicated for futures trading.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is known for its flexibility and convenience. The built-in indicators help customers perform real time market analysis. The ability to trade with the help of expert advisors (EAs) allows traders to open positions automatically at the right time.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is the newer version of the popular terminal. It is the right choice for advanced traders. MT5 offers all the advanced tools for comprehensive trading and analyses, as well as algorithmic trading with EAs. The platform shows the depth of the market (level 2 quotation) and supports two types of trade transactions – netting and hedging. MT5 also offers many analytical tools, over 80 technical indicators and the ability to open up to 100 charts simultaneously.

The CQG market terminals are professional high-technology trading terminals developed for online trading of derivatives, futures, options, indices as well as spreads and OTC products. Keep in mind that the terminal is not free of use and there are fees per month and per contract.

The NinjaTrader trading terminal is a professional platform offering market analysis, development and testing of trading systems. Clients can trade futures and currency pairs using algorithmic and automated systems, as well as high-frequency trading strategies. It is intended for professional traders and is not free of use.

Assets

Here we are going to present the instruments available in the MetaTrader platforms. Asset classes depend on the account type and only Flex and Fort accounts offer all available instruments. The Newbie account does not offer CFDs on shares and the Pro account only offers CFDs on forex and commodities.

Currency Pairs – 50 major, minor, and exotic currency pairs can be traded. The typical spread for the EUR/USD pair depends on the trading account and is within 0.1-2.0 pips.

Indices – Clients can trade CFDs on 11 indices, such as ASX, DAX and DJIA. The average value of the spread for the DAX index is about 4 points and for the DJIA index it is 8 points.

Commodities – CFDs on 30 commodities are available including Crude Oil and Palladium, as well as agricultural and grain foods. The typical spread for the Gold is USD0.60 and the one for the Crude Oil it is USD0.03.

Shares – You can trade CFDs on 50 US shares. The average spread for the Apple share is USD0.03 and for the Tesla share it is USD0.07.

Cryptocurrencies – 5 cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Ripple are available as CFDs for online trading. The average spread for the Bitcoin is USD175.

Partnership

There is an affiliate partner program, and you can receive up to 65% of the spread, up to USD25 per standard lot, and up to 10% of the financial turnover when you become a company’s partner. The affiliate program includes Broker, who gets percentage points acquiring new clients to FORTFS; Webmaster, who builds a multilevel network acquiring new clients; S.T.A.R, who benefits from every acquired investment and Copy Trader, who is rewarded for every CopyTrading subscription.

Summary

FORTFS is a company registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Most probably it acts as a market maker and the main conflict of interest exists. Customers can trade currency pairs, commodities, indices, shares and cryptocurrencies through MT4, MT5, CQG and NinjaTrader terminals. Clients can deposit by bank transfers, debit or credit cards, and e-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller. Live trading can be started with as low as USD5. Spreads are variable and the PRO account offers raw spreads at the expense of commissions. Be careful because the company is not authorized by a regulatory body with strict requirements.