We present to you a Forex/CFD broker that promises clients numerous advantages of trading “With a True ECN Broker.” However, all of its claims are completely untrustworthy. To top it off, the company doesn’t even provide information about its registration and licenses. To help traders see the main issues with this company, we suggest they read our Hankotrade review. Learn more about this project to avoid losing money to yet another scammer.
Key Features
- Company Name: Hankotrade Global Markets Limited
- Website: https://hankotrade.com/
- Available Contacts: [email protected]
- Foundation: 2019
- Services: Forex/CFD trading
- License: No
- Initial Deposit: $10
From Sign-Up to Payout
On the surface, the official website of Hankotrade looks quite attractive. This is not surprising, as the designers could have perfected the design after six years of operation. Unfortunately, the content on the pages does not reflect the same level of care.
- As usual, we tried to find the contract specifications, and, like most unlicensed brokers, we couldn’t find any. This information is one of the most important for traders to assess the prospects of working on a particular platform in general. However, this company decided otherwise and replaced the specifications with tables showing current asset prices, which are not updated in real-time. In our opinion, not the best choice.
- Training, news, analytics, and additional trader tools are always in demand. However, it seems the project team did not want to spend time and effort on selecting relevant and useful materials. As a result, the website only has a few online calculators. But there is no news feed, economic calendar, trading books, or articles, etc. Of course, publishing these materials is not mandatory, but it would have helped the broker improve its reputation.
- Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, account funding, and withdrawal policies: It seems the project believes that these documents are sufficient for potential clients. If the company were under the control of a regulator, it would be in for a surprise. It turns out that several documents are missing from the list, the posting of which has become the actual standard: Risk Disclosure, KYC, and AML Policies.
- The company’s representatives are also not eager to share important information about the company itself. They didn’t even provide details about registration and licenses, let alone financial reports.
In short, the Hankotrade website is nothing like the web resource of a regulated broker. It’s not exactly a red flag, but the first warning bell has already rung for us.
Next, we looked at the process of registering a new client and the features of the personal account. To create an account, the user needs to fill out a simple form with personal (first and last name) and contact details. After submitting it, the trader is immediately taken to their personal account. It seems like nothing unusual. However, there are still issues:
- Contact details are not verified during registration.
- Collecting other personal information is voluntary, at least not having it does not prevent account funding or trading.
- There is no mention of retail or professional trader status, and no questionnaire is conducted.
- No requirements for verification (at this stage).
The last point seems unusual but honest. Indeed, what kind of documentary verification of identity, address, or payment details can be required when KYC and AML are absent, and non-trading operations are conducted only in cryptocurrency?
However, users can see the payment conditions:
- The minimum amount (corresponding to the minimum deposit for the selected account type).
- The deposit time (30 minutes; if the transaction is not completed, they should contact customer support).
- Fees (the company does not charge a deposit fee, but after blockchain fees, the remaining amount should not be less than the minimum).
In reality, we observed the typical operation of a trivial scam. We had no reason to doubt this before, but now we have the first confirmations of it.
Our Trading Experience With Hankotrade
The broker offers traders its own trading platform, HankoX. It should be noted that when creating this platform, many of the shortcomings and advantages of existing terminals were taken into account. As a result, a very decent piece of software was produced.
The developer managed to implement:
- One-click trading and the ability to execute trades directly on price charts.
- 48 indicators and 18 graphical objects for technical analysis in the standard set.
- Support for 8 decimal places for cryptocurrency quotes, etc.
In addition, the terminal supports APIs, allowing for automated trading and even the ability to develop trading systems interactively. Unfortunately, the latter feature is only available in the desktop version, while the mobile and web versions do not offer it. Nevertheless, users received a very decent tool, with only a few real drawbacks.
The main drawbacks include:
- Issues with the first loading of the chart when changing symbols in the workspace. To properly display the chart, it’s easier to refresh the page than to wait for the process to finish.
- The workspace of the web platform does not support multi-chart mode. Considering that most of the broker’s clients use this version, the software creators could have thought more about the trader’s comfort.
- The main list of instruments in the market overview cannot be modified, but the user is given the option to create their own watch list.
When it comes to trading conditions, Hankotrade falls significantly short. As we mentioned earlier, the company does not publish contract specifications. The only place where information about trade parameters can be found is in the list of account types.
The broker offers three account types:
- STP: Minimum deposit of $10, maximum leverage of 1:500, spreads from 0.7 pips with zero commissions, minimum trade size of 0.01 standard lot.
- ECN: Minimum deposit of $100, maximum leverage of 1:500, spreads from 0.0 pips, commission of $2 per standard lot one-way (total $4), minimum trade size of 0.01 standard lot.
- ECN Plus: Minimum deposit of $1,000, maximum leverage of 1:500, spreads from 0.0 pips, commission of $1 per standard lot one-way (total $2), minimum trade size of 0.01 standard lot.
All accounts can be opened as swap-free (Islamic), with a commission table replacing swaps provided on the website. However, the broker does not publish swap rates and suggests checking this information in the trading terminal.
The overall volume of published trading conditions is somewhat larger than what scam brokers typically show, but it is still insufficient. For example, we don’t see the distance for setting pending orders or stop-loss levels. Without these, it is impossible to get a clear understanding of trade profitability and risks.
Although traders might not need to worry too much about risk levels, with the leverage of 1:500 offered by the broker, the risks go beyond what is acceptable even for professionals.
Note! When opening a trading account in the personal cabinet, the user has the option to choose leverage from 1:100 to 1:500. This is somewhat better than the fixed maximum of 1:500, but it is unlikely to save retail traders, especially those just starting to get acquainted with the market.
There is one more thing that potential Hankotrade clients should know. The website states that the company offers a 100% bonus. However, the link in the main menu to the bonus page does not work, so the conditions for obtaining and using it remain unknown. Just in case, we remind you that most reputable regulators prohibit attracting and encouraging clients through bonus schemes. This means the platform definitely does not work with such organizations.
The Reality Check
The broker seems to have forgotten to publish registration information and details about licenses. Another possibility is that they intentionally left it out. Either way, we were unable to find the registration address. However, the contact page lists an office location in Belize. We checked the information about the company in the business registry of that country.
The attempt failed. In the Belize Companies and Corporate Affairs Registry, there is no company named Hankotrade Global Markets Limited. Moreover, there are not even any companies whose names start with Hankotrade in this registry.
We checked the company’s registration not only in one registry but also in the Open Corporates database. The aggregator has collected information on over 223 million legal entities worldwide. However, even here, no information about the broker was found.
We can state the undeniable fact: the platform operates without registration. Of course, it has no license from Belize or any other regulator. This means the company is virtual, and providing brokerage services by it is illegal.
In fact, we have questions about the organization of trading itself. The firm cannot sign contracts with liquidity providers or quote providers. One might argue that the broker uses ECN technology, so it connects to the network without individual agreements. However, for those who claim this, we must disappoint you: such a connection also requires official registration.
In fact, we can assume that the trading process in the company is only simulated, and in the terminal, the trader sees, in addition to virtual prices of virtual assets, virtual account balance numbers. Is there anything real in this virtual world? Yes, the clients’ money that they sent to scammer accounts.
How Long Has Hankotrade Been in the Game?
The project owners keep all information about the broker, including its creation date, secret. We don’t fully understand why they do this. However, we still tried to determine how long the platform has existed online. The result was somewhat unexpected.
As shown by the whois service information, the domain hankotrade.com, where the broker’s website is hosted, was registered on April 2, 2019. Snapshots from the web archive service show that the broker’s website has practically not changed since then. This means it has been around for almost 6 years. Quite a solid track record, especially for a broker operating without registration and licensing.
It’s interesting to think about what allowed the scammers to last this long. We find it difficult to answer this question; perhaps user comments will provide some insight.
Extra Fraud Indicators
Over the 6 years of operation online, Hankotrade has accumulated an impressive number of reviews. There are 1,820 on Trustpilot alone. The overwhelming majority of authors speak positively about the company’s activities, praising the responsiveness and professionalism of the support team and expressing gratitude to their personal managers. In fact, this is not so important; we just note the artificial inflation of the company’s reputation.
However, among this flow of comments, there is also a certain number (around 6%) of sharply negative ones. Users have various complaints against the broker, such as:
- Withdrawal of funds not at the exchange rate at the time of the request, but at the rate at the time of the payout.
- Sudden spread widening, which causes StopLoss orders to trigger. This spread widening has been noticed to increase by dozens of pips, even on ECN accounts.
- Refusal to pay out funds and account blocking for made-up reasons, etc.
By the way, experts from specialized portals also have a very low opinion of the broker. For example, on WikiFX, it was rated 1.53 out of 10. The reasons seem obvious, as the platform’s activities show many red flags, the main ones being the lack of registration and licensing. Naturally, they do not recommend sending money to accounts opened here.
Is Hankotrade the Right Fit?
In general, based on the materials from our Hankotrade review, one can draw a clear conclusion — stay away from this scam broker. Illegal operation without a license and without official registration, accepting payments exclusively in cryptocurrencies, and hiding important information from clients — all these are arguments pointing to the dishonesty of the company. We wouldn’t trust these scammers with a single cent of our funds. We hope you make the same decision.
I want to warn everyone that the trading terminal works very unstably, constantly gives errors, and quotes are updated with significant delays. Moreover, the choice of financial instruments here is not as extensive as one would expect. The most unpleasant thing is the hidden charges and constant delays in withdrawals. I tried to withdraw my money, but the managers kept saying that I needed to wait. In the end, I had only 150 dollars left in my account, and I didn’t get it. Over a week passed, and the support team just kept feeding me promises. I decided to stop wasting time on it and simply forgot about the money and the scam broker Hankotrade. I do not recommend it!
Don’t believe everything that is written on the Hankotrade website! It’s just a scam disguised as a legitimate business. The claimed liquidity is a myth, as no serious investor would risk working with this company. The trading terminal turns out to be completely unreliable. I tried several times to withdraw my funds, but the money just got stuck in processing. Meanwhile, the support team responded reluctantly and with delays, creating the illusion of work