Since 2014, TradingSchools.Org has received dozens of requests to review TradeNet.com and ColmexPro.com. Actually, let me rephrase…TradingSchools.Org has received nearly 200 requests to review both of these companies.
So why have I waited so long? And why am I connecting the companies together?
The truth is that both TradeNet.com and ColmexPro.com are irrefutably and inexorably intertwined. And they are owned by the exact same person: Meir Barak.
Meir Barack: the owner of TradeNet and ColmexPro
Before I talk about TradeNet.com, it is important that we first talk about ColmexPro.com.
You will not understand the form and function of TradeNet.com without first understanding the motivations of ColmexPro.com.
This might be a long read. Grab a cup of coffee.
What is Colmex Pro?
Colmex Pro is primarily a CFD stockbroker.
CFD stands for Contracts For Difference. What exactly does that mean? For the vast majority of us, when we either buy or sell a stock, we are transacting with a counterparty on a Finra regulated stock exchange.
Example: Suppose that you purchase 100 shares of Apple stock. In order for you to purchase Apple stock, you would need to have a seller of Apple stock. This is part of the fundamental mechanism of regulated stock markets — to match buyers and sellers. This is how price and ‘value’ is determined.
The exchange accounts for every single share of Apple stock. The exchange maintains a clearing ledger which accounts for ‘ who owns what.’
The exchange also has rules in place, that does a pretty good job of making sure that you get the ‘best price’ whenever you buy or sell your Apple stock.
Whenever investors congregate and transact on a centralized location, this tends to promote a healthy auction — where the spread between buyers and sellers is razor thin.
Tight spreads, transparency, and a fair auction are the hallmarks of a modern, regulated stock exchange.
Colmex Pro CFD’s do not operate on a United States regulated stock market exchange. Colmex Pro is a Contracts for Difference stockbroker. In practical terms, if you have an account established with Colmex Pro, and you purchase Apple stock, then you are never really purchasing Apple stock. You are simply the owner of a ‘tiny contract’ where Colmex Pro gives you a ‘tiny promissory note’ that if Apple stock increases in value, then they promise to pay you the price difference.
Contracts For Difference brokers have been banned in the United States since 1934. Back in the 1920’s, these Contracts for Difference stockbrokers were called “Bucket Shops.”
Instead of a person traveling to Wall Street to buy or sell a stock, they could access what was essentially a local bookmaker that would take the opposite side of the stock wager. The stock wager would be written on a slip of paper, then the piece of paper would be placed in a bucket. Hence the name, “Bucket Shop.”
Today’s modern bucket shops no longer use pieces of paper to record stock wagers, they have since upgraded to a simple spreadsheet. This might sound overly simplistic, but its plainly true.
Can you trust a Contracts For Difference Broker, aka Bucket Shop?
No, you cannot. Eventually, ALL bucket shops will fail. There many reasons why.
The most obvious reason is that eventually, the bucket shop will take a series of wagers and then through random chance, a ‘black swan’ financial event will eventually emerge, which renders the bucket shop insolvent.
The crash of 1929 is a great example. The stock market crashed and the bucket shops were exposed as nothing more than paper depositories. The stock transactions were exposed as worthless wagers, the owners of the bucket shops simply refused to pay the ‘short side.’
In short, the bucket shop owners collected the losing wagers. And refused to pay the winning wagers.
In the United States, bucket shops were banned in 1934.
But bucket shops aka Contracts for Difference brokers have never really disappeared. They just move around a lot. Today’s modern bucket shops operate on the internet, with their base of operations usually located in third world countries.
In countries that are usually rife with fraud and don’t give a rats ass about anyone living outside its borders.
Colmex Pro is located in Cyprus. A country that is best known for unscrupulous binary options brokers, shady Forex brokers, Russian mobsters, and drug money seeking to be laundered.
I am not stating that Comex Pro is an outright scam. But I am clearly stating the obvious: Colmex Pro is a bucket shop, located on a remote island best known for hiding illegal money, and providing shelter for criminal activity.
Are the Colmex Pro CFD’s investment quality products?
Not a chance. In fact, they are not investments at all.
Recently, TradingSchools.Org was contacted by an investor in Israel that filed a lawsuit against Meir Barak for “investment fraud,” as she described it.
So what exactly happened? The lady opened a trading account with Colmex Pro and proceeded to purchase a large block of stock. Her intention was to ‘buy and hold’ and her primary motivation was to simply collect and reinvest the quarterly dividend.
Over the course of the year, the company announced the dividends that she desperately needed to supplement her retirement income. All the while, she thought her account was collecting the dividends and her account was growing.
Her assumption could not be further from the truth. In fact, she received no dividend income whatsoever.
A CFD, or Contract for Difference does not pay any dividend whatsoever. Quite a surprise. And so she sued Meir.
A CFD is only a piece of paper. A wager between two parties. There are no guarantees attached. No regulatory bodies to enforce payment, no Finra insurance, nothing. You are bound to the whims of the counterparty. Which is located on an island best known for pirates, criminals, Russian gangsters, and drug money.
Legitimate stock exchanges hate CFD brokers
Contracts for Difference brokers bypass legitimate, regulated stock exchanges. They will always, eventually undermine investor confidence in a legitimate financial system. They siphon away actual investment capital, which is used by actual companies selling stock — and deliver this money to the feet of the ‘bookmaker.’ Its crappy for companies trying to raise capital, and its crappy for regulated exchanges trying to provide a safe method for buying and selling securities.
Contracts for Difference are also a crappy way to day trade. Why? A Contracts for Difference broker will always have a wider spread than a real exchange. The Contracts for Difference broker builds his profits into wider spreads and higher transaction costs.
Colmex Pro is no exception. Transaction costs to ‘day trade’ with Colmex Pro are comparatively high: fees are high, and spreads are noticeably wider than public exchanges (according to actual users).
When you LOSE, Colmex Pro WINS
Let me repeat that. When you trade with Colmex Pro, and you have a losing trade, the winner is Colmex Pro. Meir Barack is literally betting against you. He is actively hoping that you are a shitty trader. He wants you to lose. His business model could not survive if you are a profitable trader.
Additionally, Colmex Pro builds into each transaction a healthy size commission to Buy or Sell ($1.50 – $9.95 per trade)
And, Colmex Pro adds an additional layer of profit by artificially widening the spread to either Buy or Sell.
Let this really sink in: The way that Colmex Pro makes money is when you lose.
Once again, lets hammer this home…Colmex Pro is a bucket shop. They take the opposite side of each of your trades. They have no incentive to see you succeed.
Colmex Pro is owned by Meir Barack. When you lose, Meir Barack is making money.
Got it? Ok, now let’s move on to next part of this article. Lets now talk about TradeNet.com
TradeNet: We will give you money, and Teach You to Trade
What exactly is TradeNet? TradeNet is owned by Meir Barak. The form and function of TradeNet is to “teach traders to be successful” and to “make a lot of money day trading.”
TradeNet offers a live day trading room that is owned and moderated by Meir Barak. The live day trading room supposedly delivers winning day trades, where the audience is encouraged to ‘copy and paste’ the trades of Meir Barak.
Meir claims to typically earn $20,000 – $50,000 each month by day trading stocks:
In fact, during his promotional videos, Meir implicitly claims that ‘my students are also experiencing these same results by simply copying my trades.’
Of course, who doesn’t want to earn $20,000 – $50,000 each month? All you need to do is copy the trades of Meir! All of your money problems are a thing of the past!
All you need to do is subscribe to the TradeNet live trading room and pay the $399 monthly fee for Meir Barak’s winning day trades.
With most people, the alarm bells should start ringing. However, this is about to get even more outrageous!
Meir Barak wants to supposedly give you free money to trade! Yep, you are reading this correctly. He wants to give you all of the free money you will ever desire. And here is how it works…
Prop Trading with Meir Barack: the land of candy canes, unicorns, and leprechauns
Meir wants you to get rich. Just like him. All you need to do is buy one of his amazing educational packages, and in return, he will give you a fully funded account at Colmex Pro.
Yes, the Colmex Pro that Meir Barak owns. The same Colmex Pro that only makes money when you lose on your trades.
How exactly does this work?
The aspiring day trader has one of several different options:
Option 1) Give Meir $500 and he will ‘give you’ a $14,000 CFD magical paper trading account. You get to keep 70% of any magical profits earned on your CFD magical paper trading account. Max draw $700.
Option 2) Give Meir $3,000 and he will ‘give you’ an $80,000 CFD paper trading account. You get to keep 75% of any profits earned on your CFD paper trading account. Max draw $4000.
Option 3) Give Meir $6,000 and he will ‘give you’ a $160,000 CFD paper trading account. You get to keep 80% of any profits earned on your CFD paper trading account. Max draw $8000.
Option 4) Give Meir $9,000 and he will ‘give you’ a $240,000 CFD paper trading account. You get to keep 85% of any profits earned on your CFD paper trading account. Max draw $12000.
All of these accounts are with Colmex Pro. The very brokerage that is owned by Meir Barak. The same brokerage that only makes money when the investor loses money.
Think about this a moment…does any of this actually add up? The odor you are smelling is something fishy. Perhaps, rotten.
Colmex Pro wanted TradingSchools.Org to promote this ridiculousness
Recently, I had a really good conversation with Meir Barack via Skype. He is a true showman. A really good entertainer. He had me laughing and having a great time. He is a very seductive salesman/showman.
We both went over the details of TradeNet and Colmex Pro. The conflict of interest is truly stunning. And so I asked Meir — does anyone actually believe this stuff? You own TradeNet and you essentially promise to make everyone rich, but it simply cannot be true because you also own Colmex Pro. Meir just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. We both ‘got it.’
Next, our conversation turned to how TradingSchools.Org could promote both TradeNet and Colmex Pro. Meir was upfront and honest and stated that he would give TradingSchools.Org a 20% sales commission of any funds that investors deposited with TradeNet.com. Included below:
Affiliate Agreement - TradenetNow, I am going to be honest with the audience…a 20% commission for all trading accounts is extremely tempting for me. I know the size of my audience, and if I were to endorse this product, it would be a massive bonanza for me. I would be ordering the unlimited shrimp cocktail, dancing naked on my new yacht with a bunch of bikini babes, and driving a new Ferrari.
And for only a brief moment, the temptation of the whole swindle kept me in a momentary dream state. But then, I thought about my old life. Back when I was an investment ponzi scam artist that stole hundreds of millions of dollars from ‘suckers’ and investment newbies. How all of those shiny objects that I worshipped never brought me any happiness or fulfillment. How empty I was on the inside, yet beautiful on the outside.
In the end, the ether finally lifted and my senses came back to reality. There is no fucking way I would ever put a stamp of approval something this outrageously zany.
Wrapping things up
Wow, what a long blog post. And confusing as hell. We covered a lot of topics and attempted to fuse together several concepts.
So to consolidate this blog post:
1) TradeNet is owned by Meir Barack and supposedly wants to teach you how to day trade for massive profits.
2) A person purchases the TradeNet ‘education’ and is encouraged to ‘copy and paste’ the trades of Meir Barack.
3) The TradeNet educational package is converted into a CFD paper trading account at ColmexPro.
4) Students are supposedly paid real money from any profits generated from a paper trading account.
5) The ColmexPro CFD paper trading accounts are owned by Meir Barack. An outrageous conflict of interest.
6) This whole scheme is probably illegal under the Commodity Exchange Act.
7) The scheme progresses through a series of affiliate programs where promotors are paid a 20% sales commission for money deposited into these paper trading accounts.
8) The affiliate promotors are not disclosing these massive commissions and further construct the pyramid through scam web promotions.
Thanks for reading! Would love to know your opinion and read your comments.
Thanks for your great post! Tradenet accounts have one advantage: you cannot lose more than what you paid for it. I bought the cheapest one and I consider the money that I paid ($375) to be something to play with and to practice.
Better to open a real trading account at Robinhood or TradeZero and trade for free — as opposed to paying ridiculous commissions for nothing more than a simulator.
And, you can hold overnight at a real brokerage, and earn dividends, and the trades cannot be manipulated.
If you really want to be a trader, act as a professional and trade in actual markets.
Hi Emmett, thanks a lot for your response. To be honest, I regret a bit that I bought that account.
I have just seen a seminar on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7G0OfJUON8) that further convinced me that Tradenet is not playing a fair game.
You can hold overnight https://tradeforthemoney.com/overnight
He day trades live on youtube every single day. Any one can tune in for free and watch.
Tradenet is a scam. And obviously only interested in selling education. Why would you trust someone that is investing more time in education than trading…
Wow! Finally the big picture! I have been scammed, I thought the orders I was placing were going to the real market. The platform used was tefs, I made research on this company after, address doesnt exist in eden mall. G_d bless you for this great work!
This website is a true gem. I’m looking to make a career out of trading and was so glad I stumbled across your site. There are so many ‘I’ll make you rich with my system’ gurus that it becomes so confusing on what education is legit and what isn’t. This site is the resource I turn to to check whether the stuff they are selling is legit or not. Thank you for being real.
Hi Emmet,
Thanks for your work, it has to be so boring finding always such scammers everywhere… btw it keeps you confident for your own (better) business !
I joined Tradenet in November, 2018. I think for a new trader the video tutorials are full of useful information. I think that it is true that a lot of this information is on the internet for free, however with Tradenet’s course the information is all streamlined for you. I’ve heard a lot of the terms used in the class prior to Tradenet, however I had no idea what they meant or the significance of it. The chat room is full of good information, and the hosts seem to be sincere. I am glad for the opportunity to get to learn live trading. As everyone knows, in the USA if you aren’t fortunate to have 25K sitting around, you are pretty much excluded from having your own day trading account. Although the people at Tradenet seem helpful and sincere, they explained nothing about the fees associated with trading. I started off with an intro account ($500) and figured that I could make some money out of this to “level up”. Tradenet does not do a good job explaining to newbies the broker fees. I’ve had days trading where I thought I made a modest profit of about $120 which was completely neutralized by the almost $100 of commissions and fees that I had to pay out on that day of trading. I had a few bad trades…(-$68.00) which cost me an additional -$25 in fees! (Ouch!). The most discouraging thing is that you don’t see any fees until after the trading day is over. Some of the commissions are $3, $6, $19, or $27 win or lose with no explanation at all before you get into the trade how much commissions/fees you will be paying. This is all before Tradenet takes their 20-30% for every withdrawal. I haven’t withdrawn anything yet so I can’t comment upon that process.
Thanks for sharing.
When I initially looked at this, I thought to myself “hey for $500, where else can I get this sort of leverage!” And, “it is really not such a bad deal.”
But then I thought, “oh shit, every scammer on the internet is going to copy this model.” And the natural repercussion will be that ‘bucket shops’ will be the new normal. Which would be a terrible regression.
Truth be told, there are a few other companies that are attempting to copy Meir’s model of Educator/Brokerage Provider, which is a huge potential shit storm. And these characters came out of the binary options industry.
I joined Tradenet on a free trial, the second day I got a call from a sales guy asking me to join colmex, I told him I was happy with my broker and had no interest in trading CFD’s and that I just wanted to try the trading room, the next day I was locked out of my free trial…nice bunch of people.
Lol. So much for *free* money. Or $200 “benefit” whatever that means.
I am still reading this article and interested to know about Meir but please rewrite CFD part. I see americans really do not understand CFDs at all. Your writing is very unreaserached and it is awful to read. Please rewrite CFD part because you wrote straight out nonsense… Anyways enjoy your work very much but for this part you get F.
Emmett, I think you need to separate your criticism of Colmex/ CFDs in general from Tradenet.
I have no experience of the Tradenet funded account program so can’t comment on it and, absolutely, the potential conflict of interest for Meir Barak is outrageous.
However Colmex is a legitimate regulated broker, operating in the highly regulated environment of the EU, with all the consumer protections that come with that. CFDs fall under those regulations and protections.
Your criticism of Cyprus is simply wrong, I believe you are confusing the main Cyprus state which is a member of the EU with the rogue northern Turkish Cypriot state.
For clients who come direct to them as I did ie not through Tradenet and with no connection to Tradenet, they offer both an equity account or a CFD account. The client can choose which is more appropriate. I am a profitable trader on their CFD account, payouts are made within 2-3 days and I have never been asked to move to the equity account.
Your claim regarding the spreads is simply not correct. I know many CFD providers will have larger spreads, however this is Colmex’s USP in the CFD market, the fact that their spreads are identical. I also have a Schwab retail account and I can confirm absolutely that the spreads are always identical.
Most regulated CFD providers, of which Colmex is one, nowadays do not simply take the other side of the trade but are hedging.
CFDs are not for everyone and have some downsides, like not being able to sell on the ask or buy on the bid, and I would not use them for swing or long term holdings, but they absolutely can have a place in day trading. Indeed in the UK and Europe I would suspect that most day traders are using CFDs or spread betting (which is similar to CFDs), and are doing so in a highly regulated environment. Just because something is banned in the USA does not make it a scam or somehow “bad”.
There may well be a potential story and something to investigate with Tradenet and how it operates and a potential conflict of interest with Meir.
I was in the Tradenet chat room a while back for a 2 week free trial and I have to confess to being unimpressed with how it operates, but issues with the chat room or Tradenet’s funded account program or indeed Meir’s potential conflict of intetest are separate from CFDs in general or Colmex, your criticisms of which are both incorrect in parts and unfair.
You need to see this tweet: https://twitter.com/PatWielandLIVE/status/1061297874003247105
There’s a guy who got charged $50k+ in routing fees (way beyond the agreed upon .0015/share routing fee) as soon as he started making a lot of money
In a sense you are bundling in way many things to make it look like the perfect scam, so I will try to separate it out and see each one on it’s own.
1) Colmex Pro: it is a CFD broker, and no matter what their business model is, whether they bet against you, or they hedge it in the market instead, that’s totally irrelevant as they are just like any other broker, and as long as they pay you the money that you earn and they are regulated then they are no different than anyone else.
If you feel that CFD brokers are a scam then your review should include all CFD brokers.
2) Tradenet Chatroom and trade announcements: They are streamed live everyday on YouTube as well as posting their Trade Announcements on Twitter, if you think they are not good trade recommendations, you can just backtest it and provide solid proof.
3) Tradenet Teaching Course: I am personally on tradenet star trader course and he teaches very well how to trade, he is also doing YouTube videos, if you think that he gives misleading information you can just come in with a few examples.
4) Tradenet Funded Account: If Colmex Pro is a broker like all other brokers why does it matter if he owns Colmex or not, as long as he gives you a funded account and allows you to withdraw the money when you made it why does it matter?
What did you really wanted, you really wanted him to give you an account with a broker that he is not affiliated?
All in all, when we breakdown everything separately I don’t see any problem.
Yet if you can prove any of the components to have an issue then you are right, but just claiming Conflict of interest doesn’t appear to be a problem.
Just as easily…we all could agree that the $500 “prop trading” opportunity is a great deal for newbies. I mean, really, where can a complete newbie obtain a trading account and actually have the opportunity? Nowhere. This is true.
However, I really wanted to propose a contrary argument. Currently, it’s all rainbows and unicorns. And a whole bunch of whacky affiliate marketers wasting 10% of the internet on stupid YouTube “reviews” not based on reality.
We must call this out, for what it is…a bucket shop casino offering free drinks, an entertaining show (Meir), and lots of flashing lights and dancing girls. Maybe not any dancing girls. But you get the point.
How could TradeNet/ColmexPro become a fair and much better deal for newbies? Simple. Offer overnight leverage comparable to the day leverage. But we both know this will never happen. It will completely destabilize the casino model and turn traders into actual investors. And believe me, ColmexPro/TradeNet does not want anyone investing in anything. They want button pushers. Wild and crazy button pushers that buy and sell anything and everything, as fast as they can press the mouse button.
If you seek a casino, or 3-card Meir, oops I mean 3-card Monty…you can do this for $5 in Central Park. But to even remotely contemplate that TradeNet/ColmexPro is somehow ‘teaching’ the next generation of super traders is pure whack-a-doodle.
I have made my point, and I have no clue how your reply is answering any of my points, these are just hate comments, did Tradenet do you any harm in any way that you hate them so much?
Yoel, I truly do not hate anyone. Especially not ColmexPro or TradeNet. On the contrary, I feel we are having a fair and lively debate.
My comments are rooted in humor. If I offended, then I apologize.
It’s not about being humorous or not, it’s about the fact that you are replying to my comment, but your reply has nothing to do with what I wrote.
You have an issue with overnight leverage or investing, while as far as I know they do allow you to hold it overnight and also Tradenet is never advertising to teach Investing only Day Trading and made that clear many times.
Regardless I have no idea why this was a reply to my comment as I haven’t said anything about that, and if you want to discuss that you can do your own comment not reply to mine.
If you want to reply to my comment, please make sure that you answer my points and prove me that Tradenet or Colmex fails on any of the points mentioned.
It’s unfair to paint Cyprus in those terms.. Yes; a lot of brokers are there, but ..
(Ironically, seen >p my handle it was also a Crusader state) ..
Well, yeah they are higher.. because you’re not a specialist/ or on the floor yourself ..in the United States open outcry has gone the way of the dodo in stocks, what you see always on CNBC (ie. Rick Santelli) that’s actually the NYSE ..
I have noticed smth uncanny w/ cfds when it comes to commodities.. take Oanda; corn, mkt was closed..get this; but it was still XD flashing. lol .. well, it so happens to be that Oanda is legit; they were mentioned by France24 on Election Night, appear in the CBOT’s manual ..and not all cfd trading is bogus; if you take (Alex) Elder who’s a quack he says they were originally invented by index traders who could circumvent paying tax on them (I love that) and i’m in fact involved w/ AI on the FX side, where .. prop firms use them.
Brokers are one thing..professional firms, now..and didn’t you mention Tradenet was a prop firm on trader.help? What happened there, btw ..site’s down 🙁 was good ..
Yeah, banks do the same .. This is where you have to be careful in fx trading. And only do so institutionally, btw; in futures you can go solo in fx, interbank: it is the exclusive domain of banks .. what the broker is quoting the banker is quoting to the broker, and both add their butter, slice to the sandwich, and you will never be able to get to the banker..actually, add to this; there could be billions of dollars worth of transactions taking place that you wouldn’t even know abt, but this is different, a separate story ..
Now it is true if you look at Meir on his book cover he may seem.. slightly ..but take a look again; closer look .. in live, he comes across as fun, is a funny guy ..no bad vibe
..and yes, the alarm bells should start ringing w/ what Emmett wrote
in fact am pulling a blank face ..
This is not confusing at all, you wrote it excellent ..
Commodity Exchange Act wouldn’t apply to stocks? ..
https://www.cftc.gov/sites/default/files/idc/groups/public/@newsroom/documents/file/pd_qa.pdf
Paragraph two. CFD’s are considered to be ‘swaps’ under the Commodity Exchange Act.
But one might also argue, Comex Pro is offering an offshore or foreign ‘swap’…right? Wrong. It is a derivative of either a stock or a commodity as defined by the Commodity Exchange Act, under the auspices of Dodd-Frank, regardless of the location of the issuer.
Well, yeah, this is why either a) don’t (can’t) trade them if US-based (you) or b) trade w/ a foreign firm.
I’m not an expert / stocks aren’t my foray (oh yeah; also ..).
This is why i came back; (Emmett) ask center yourself..through question, intuition of what to do, and answer; staying in this magic flow truly is the key to happiness.
And Dodd-Frank no comment i mean in the RE biz no offense; it appeals to those not in the know but it does absolutely nothing to stabilize the system ..
Im glad b/c I was getting hammered with ads from this clown .
Nice piece …
Emmett This a 100% factual article that I agree with, which is amazingly thorough and complete! I tried to tell everyone and explain it to them before but they were so naive and wanted to stay in the dream they all brushed me off, thank you so much for posting this. You might save some people’s lives literally. You definitely have my respect and admiration for refusing that tempting offer from Meir (looks like he’s doing stage magic in that pic btw). and the following is my experience with them:
I’ve done so much research and actually joined TradeNet for 3 years, and this is how Tradenet and Colmex work together:
Meir Barak owns Tradenet (trading education, chat room), Meir Barak also owns 51% of the brokerage Colmex (ask him!), Colmex bets against it’s traders positions (CFDs), meaning they ONLY make money when you lose! Therefore Meir (your mentor and educator that gives you trades) is betting against you! he’s betting against his own trades!
Can you now see the conflict of interest? Guys, Tradenet is nothing but a marketing scheme to get people to join Colmex, that’s how Meir makes money. I know how most of you must feel after reading this, you’ll be in denial as I was. I really wanted this to work out for me, I ignored all the contradictions that arose in my mind. But this is the truth proved by facts and logic.
If Meir made most of his traders successful, then his company colmex would go bankrupt, guys don’t be gullible. By the way if you make ‘too much’ money on the CFD program they’ll switch you to the equity’s (non-CFDs). Good luck and trust NO one in this industry, please go and verify everything I have said.
Do you know people that were actually switched to an equities account? This is very important as I do know successful people on Tradenet and never heard about this.
Just because they are doing CFDs doesn’t mean that they are betting against you, many reputable companies do it and hedge it instead in the market.
If they would bet against the trader, then why are they having the 5 day challenge on which a successful trader can get a funded account for free?
Hi.
You say that you joined Tradenet for 3 years, can you provide some details on your experience? Did they pay you the money that you made etc.?
I really don’t care who is owning what, the only thing that I care is ‘If I am profitable will I get the earned money?’ That’s my only concern, can you come in with details on this as well?
He is officially a partner with Colmex but I never heard him to be the owner to it might be.
I am not here to support Colmex or Tradenet, however this article is nonsense as far as my info goes.
Colmex is regulated not just by Cyprus but as far as my info goes also by UK (maybe someone here will take the time and actually do the research).
While CFD is illegal in the US (together with a host of other things, such as PDT rules etc. all in place to protect the market not the trader so much..), it is totally legal and regulated in EU and UK.
The story of someone that sues Colmex about dividends is nonsense, since everyone knows that CFDs are not shares in the company and are normally geared towards day trading etc.
While some CFD brokers take the other side of the trade, there are others that don’t and instead hedge it in the market, and it looks like Colmex is in the later category as they have tight spreads and they have on Tradenet too many winner traders so it doesn’t make sense that they take the other side (and actually I think it is no longer common to do this anyway..).
How do they make the money to cover the slippage and how do they executethe shares without showing up in the level 2? I guess that for market orders they use dark pools and buy in between the ask and bid, and for limit orders they take rebates, (in fact TradeZero broker doesn’t charge for limit orders at all for that reason).
The post also claims that the spreads are wider, which as far as what I checked with other brokers is not true, you can check it for yourselves.
Also they recently changed that they widen their spreads for extreme low liquidity stocks when using Limit orders, this proves again 1) that they are open with how they widen their spreads, 2) the fact that they only do it in that particular instance proves that they hedge it in the market, since if they take the other side of the trade then what is it different?
Similarly extreme low liquidity stocks, can sometimes be halted for a few minutes on occasions when there is almost no liquidity, while this is a problem for someone in the trade it reinforces that they hedge it in the market.
Similarly he claims that everyone is encouraged to copy Meir’s trades, which as anyone that is on the trading room knows they don’t encourage anyone, and BTW we do see in public that they actually make money… (you can see it in their PNL and you can also check the trades that they announce how profitable they are, note that in fact their chatroom is streamed live on YouTube and some of their staff like AmirBarak also anounce their trades on Twitter).
In regards to the whole funded account thing, I hope everyone has already realized that it is just simply 20:1 leverage and many brokers give high leverage outside the US, and this especially makes sense for CFD brokers since you don’t actually own the underlying asset only the difference and most of the money is just the actual asset value not the difference, so there is no point in actually having the money for the underlying asset.
It might indeed be that for beginner traders as long as one is not profitable they do take the other side of the trade (or even more, possibly the trader is still on a demo account until he is profitable although he is supposed to be on a live account, I actually don’t see a reason why they should hedge for beginners), but it is definitely clear a large number of people profitable and it doesn’t make sense that they don’t hedge it.
About their affiliate program, I don’t think that they do anything wrong, and usually the affiliates disclose it.
Personally I am little angry and in some dispute with them, since I have blown up my student account and I would like to downgrade to an Intro account (since another student account is too expensive for me) and they won’t allow me, still while tempting to claim that the reason is because they have an interest that I should lose money, to be honest I don’t think so.
(In fact it might be that as long as I am not profitable they don’t hedge it so they do make money on looses of beginners, but at least I don’t think that are doing it with profitable traders.)
I have/had been with tradenet for 3 years and Meir owns 51% of Colmex, he is a definitely a fraudster! try making money on their CFD account for a bit, they’ll switch you to an equity account or kick you out lol. You’re just angry that this article has shocked you back to reality (I felt the same when I figured it out myself) Meir bets against all the trades (since he owns Colmex remember) that he takes and asks you to ‘mirror’ (watch countless videos where he says this EXACTLY)
Jason so how do you know he owns 51% of Colmex? Can we all see that data?
thanks in advance
btw this whole Colmex/tradenet feels a lot like the Nonko debacle.
absolutely! it is very similar to Nonko,
https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/brokers/breaking-colmex-israel-acquires-protrade-market-consolidation-continues/
Did they switch you to an equity account? Or they kicked you out? Can you please come in with more details? So far I haven’t seen anyone complaining this online, and they are a public broker and regulated, people would complain, but I haven’t seen any complaints so far, and I do see in their chatroom and on facebook many people that are successful (they post their trades beforehand and then show their P&L), can you also provide more proof? Thanks.
If that would be true, then why do they have a 5 day challenge in which a successful trader can get a free funded account?
What you say about him asking everyone to mirror him, I am sorry to say that I watched all his videos and I haven’t seen anything like that, and he is actually focused on training you how to trade on your own, of course he says that you can also mirror him, but he does recommend not to mirror all his trades, and only focus on one trade.
Besides Meir is not the only one in the Trading Room, and as a matter of fact he is alomst not in the Trading Room, only some days and in the first hour of trading only, most of the time other people are leading the Trading Room, including Amir Barak that also posts his trade announcements beforehand on Twitter for free for everyone, and you can backtest and see for your own that he is successful.
What I do find cumbersome, is the fact that by default they only give a demo for 2 weeks, and although if you actually request it they can give you for more (I actually got one), but they are highly discouraging it, and instead encourage you to trade on the live account.
While this might seem like they have a conflict of interest, I personally believe that the rationale that they provide on it is right, in that people mostly don’t learn from demo account just as you don’t learn driving from a simulator…
Still I would appreciate more a model like Apiary Fund in which you first practice in a demo account and only then one gets a small live account, and if he blows it up he goes back to the demo etc.
Can you please provide any proof to your claim that successful traders are being thrown out of the program?
1- Yoel I left, I have 2 friends who were experienced traders and have left as well before me because they asked them to switch to an equity account (they warned me but I ignored them). I will ask them to write their own experiences.
2- Colmex Pro/tradenet 100% do not hedge (Meir told me himself!), they are betting that you lose! You know what Yoel go and call them and ask them and please record it for me, because if they state otherwise they will have a fantastic legal law suit against them. That is how confident I am.
3- You said “I really don’t care who is owning what” This is why you can’t grasp the fallacy of your logic! good god my friend think about it, the guy that is teaching you how to trade is betting against you! You will never become a successful trader with that guy, he wont let it happen, because his company colmex will bankrupt! If by some miracle you break through the norms and become profitable you wont stay there for long!
4- Amir Barak is an analyst that trades on an equity account, did you know that? he makes too much money to be on the non-hedging CFD account.
5- Scott actually trades demo for many of his trades, ask him and if he refutes he will also have a legal case against him (if not all!) how could we possibly verify, he’s VP of Tradenet for gods sake! he’s like a baseball game announcer/radio host in the room.
6- You know why they don’t allow you to use the demo for more than 2 weeks? because it’s exactly the same as their CFD account, there’s absolutely no difference. They dont want you to gain experience and have sound strategies before going live! They explain that it’s for your own good (psychologically get you strong for trading lol) that they keep it to two weeks so you get a taste of real trading (and real losses looool). I even told them I will pay the $15 a month for the real time data just keep me on the demo for a couple months, they refused! these guys want your money!
7- you say you watched all his videos? Thats not the truth then my friend, be honest please! I saw every video, and in many of those videos he said “join me, come mirror my trades” that’s what got me into his tradenet scam. I bought and read his book 2 times wrote notes on every chapter, studied it like my bible. I drank that cool-aid like holy water lol and was a staunch defender of him, until I started noticing contradictions and I did my own research and was shocked and really disappointed. This was my #1 plan to become rich and have a better life, and it went up in smoke.
Listen if after this you’re not at least doubtful of Meir, then good luck to you and check in after 6 months lets see if he makes you a better trader or if you’re profitable and he keeps you on the CFD account. I’m sorry if I sound passionate or overly excited I wish you nothing but good luck, im just trying to save you some agony, I have nothing to gain or lose.
Thanks for your very open response.
Now here is my experience so far.
I have also been on the demo account for the first two weeks, and then they shut down the demo, I then requested another demo and they gave it to me, and also lasted another two weeks, so I asked them again, and this time it remained open, however my account manager warned me that it is not good on the long run, as it is not real and it can give a false sense of security.
Although this sounds suspicious I do agree with the comcept, and for the most part I would say that it’s almost worthless, unless you traded first in live for a while and maybe even blow up an account, and then come back trade in demo, it is then totally different, and even Meir said in the last Star Trader course rhat if someone can trade in demo as if it was a live account then a demo would also be fine.
In my opinion training in a demo account based on the model used by Apiary Fund would work indeed, however I don’t blame him for not having this model… it’s very complicated to set it up.
To be honest I blew up my student account as of now, and I want to downgrade to intro and they just don’t to allow it, however I still have my demo open.
In regards to this last fact that they don’t allow me to downgrade, although this might sound suspicious, there is a twist in it, that as long as I didn’t blow up my account even if I were almost at the max if I would then add money it would be counted towards an upgrade (and I used that already), however as soon as I blew up my account this no longer applies, and the question that bothered me was ‘Why Is That?’
After thinking for a while I realized the following:
1) It doesn’t make sense for them to hedge any trades as long as the trader haven’t proved himself as profitable, because by default the trader is going to loose so why hedge?
This last point is even stronger, considering that they allow for max loss higher than the initial deposit, and considering that they have an entire operation with staff, websites, and money given out to you, they would definitely loose on it, especially given that 90% traders fail.
So what Meir told you is of course true.
2) On the other hand it doesn’t make sense for them to bet against profitable traders, because this is not just a waist of money, but also since profitable traders make so much more money than the loosers loose, that it follows that it is impossible for them to cover even the payout itself.
Consider that an average successful trader makes in average 1k a day, which for a full year of trading is around 300k, which is equivalent to 100 people buying the student package or 700 people buying the intro package.
So obviously they need hundreds of thousands of loosers just to cover the payout of the traders, and we haven’t spoken yet about the entire operation of Tradenet and Colmex, including Staff Payroll, Sales People, Technical Support, Programming Teams, Servers, Websites, Network, Market Data, Offices and Supplies.
So it’s almost impossible for them to even cover themselves, who speaks about making profit.
Unlike all shady courses and chatrooms online which doesn’t have to payout, they actually have serious expenses which is impossible to be covered by relying on loosers.
Obviously they do hedge all profitable traders, or possibly as you claim that they move them to equity accounts.
(Although I wouldn’t lean towards the later, as they lookout for successful traders via the 5 day trading challenge, and also the recent change in the spreads for low float stocks suggests this, and meir actually wrote that on Facebook when he explained the new rule.
In regards to your experience with switching you over to equity, were you by chance trading a lot of low float stocks? because this is something that they can’t easily hedge, and therefore they just changed the rules.
Regardless, Tradenet never advertises that they give you a CFD account, only that they give a funded account, and as long as they do it they are doing their promise.)
3) Given that they don’t lose anything when a trader is successful, and given that they actually take profit from a successful trader, and given that a successful trader makes much more than many losers combined, it follows that they are interested that a fair share of the traders should be successful.
However for losing traders, they don’t hedge in the market, essentially getting their money when they blow up their account, this is to cover their expenses, and otherwise I guess they would charge much more initially, so who cares about that.
Bottom Line: The real reason that I am using Tradenet is to get funding especially with the PDT rule, and as long as they are good for that purpose I don’t see any problem at all, still as explained I don’t think that there is any problem with Colmex or Tradenet funded account, and no one has yet came out that they didn’t pay him, and about equity vs CFD I don’t see them doing anything wrong, and I believe it’s anyway for low float stocks only.
The Course: While I haven’t joined them for their course and for 3k there are many more courses out there.. I would still say it is a good course overall (possibly besides his claim about the demo trading, I don’t want to go into that).
Chatroom: Again I haven’t joined them for their chatroom, plus their trade announcements are also available free on Twitter, but you will agree that at least Amir’s trades are profitable.
(In regards to Meir saying that you should mirror him, he doesn’t say that although he says something similar to that.
He encourages you to think on your own, however he says that as long as you’re not experienced enough you can take his trade announcements, but not all, only one trade at a time or even per day for beginners, he stresses it many times.
I will try to qoute him “I want you to trade after 3 months with 400 shares per trade so you will be focused on that as if your life is dependent on it, not that in the middle of the trade you will go trade another announcement and you will not focus on this one”, and while he admits that for proper risk management trading 400 shares requires the expert funded account, still obviously he does not ask you to mirror his trades, instead he says that you can follow him if you know what you are doing.)
Regardless, lots of luck in whatever you do, I don’t know if I will be able to trade further with Tradenet after blowing up the account, still I believe that what the post here claims, and what people here so is wrong, and is bashing a really good opportunity for nothing.
I used to trust the reviews of TradingSchools.org, I no longer do.
Yoel, if you look it up, Colmex Pro and Tradenet used to list the SAME office in Cyprus as their official address. It was on their websites at least up until 2015. You really don’t think Meir is the main guy behind Colmex ? I’d be curious to know who owns the other 49% …
Here is the snapshot of Tradenet website in 2014. Scroll down to the right and check the address (before it was moved to UK). Then look up the website for Colmex Pro and check their address.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140409213536/http://tradenet.com/
How is this any difference from Nonko Trading. This guy will be shut down. My friends at the FBI will be knocking on there door very soon!
Nonko…what a disaster that was. I actually thought I was the one that cracked that case. It wasn’t me…it was actually YOU! I remember when I read that you were the one that actually busted Nonko…my jaw hit the floor. The whole time, it was you. Just wow.
The least I could have done is give Sure Trader some positive sizzle.
but GUY its says it on their site ….
https://www.colmexpro.com/
Colmex Pro offers a variety of tutorials on this site, in addition to the demo accounts, to help newbies learn how to make the most of their investment opportunities.
No conflict of interest between the broker and trader
Did Meir lied?
Meir really close to Mierda which means Shit in Spanish
not sure if its a freudian translation slip
Meir is an actual common name in Hebrew/Isreal which is where Meir is from.
I think this article is a little one-sided when it comes CFDs.
Here in the UK, financial spread-betting firms (basically the same as contracts for difference), such as IG, are regulated and authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority, which guarantees investors’ deposits up to the sum of £85K (USD 110k) in the event that the firm goes bust.
IG has been around in the UK since 1974, and it hasn’t gone bust in any of the ‘black swan’ events we’ve had since then. Neither have the other big players in the UK market. IG is listed on the FTSE250.
CFDs and spread betting are not ‘a crappy way to day trade’ if you tight liquid instruments such as index futures. I day trade using spread betting. The spread on the DAX, for example, is 1 point (2 ticks). There are no commissions and no fees other than the spread.
In addition, the leverage on the DAX, is 20:1. This means that you can trade in sizes that would be impossible by buying DAX futures contracts unless you have very deep pockets.
It’s not true to say CFD/spreadbetting companies necessarily make money when you lose. It depends on their business model. Just ahead of Brexit, for example, if IG had a large net short or long exposure on the FTSE or GBP , it would likely hedge that exposure in the underlying. It doesn’t need to hold risky exposed net positions itself because it makes huge guaranteed profits on the spreads.
In my view, it is much better to regulate an activity and give individuals the personal freedom to choose whether they want to use it, rather than ‘banning’ something. It’s not the job of governments to tell people how they can or can’t speculate on markets. In my view, it wasn’t banned in the US to protect individuals from manipulation, it was banned to attempt to centralize and control all market speculation. It was probably done as a result of lobbying by exchanges and brokers.
You are absolutely correct in all that you said.
I think the level of protection from the Cypriot regulator is 20,000 Euros, so you simply keep your account balance below that.
I also believe Emmett has got the two Cyprus states mixed up. The northern Cyprus would absolutely be a dodgy place for a company to be based, however southern Cyprus where Colmex is registered is part of the EU and just as safe a place as any other EU country
You still don’t see the conflict of interest?! he’s betting against the same trades he takes and asks members to ‘mirror’. jesus this guy teaches you how to lose so he can make money!
My post was about spread-betting and CFDs in general, since a large part of Emmett’s post was about that. I make no comment about this particular provider.
I agree that the connection between Tradenet and Colmex is an outrageous conflict of interest, however a lot of the general points Emmett was making regarding CFDs and Cyprus are simply not correct
I have a CFD account with Colmex Pro directly but have never been part of Tradenet or the chat room (other than a 2 week free trial), and I agree completely that the conflict of interest is absolutley outrageous.
However you are not correct in the spreads being larger. I also have a retail account with Schwab and so am able to compare the spreads in real time and they are always identical. Yes, the commissions are a bit on the expensive side, but there is no platform fee, and only a $15 p.m data fee ( that gets you the identical spreads), so that helps to mitigate the commissions.
You are also being unfair to Cyprus. Remember this is south Cyprus, not the northern state which would be very dodgy. Cyprus is a member of the EU and account holders have financial protection from the Cypriot regulator, just like all other EU states.
CFD’s are not for everyone, and shouldn’t be used for swing trading, but for day trading, where the spreads are identical, and you are based in an environment that offers protection in the event of the provider going bust, they are fine and have a place.
However, I would reiterate again that the connection between Tradenet and Colmex is an outrageous conflict of interests
try to be highly profitable for a while with their CFD account, they’ll ask you to switch to an equity account or kick you out lol… I know these guys very well.. they would bankrupt if they kept you on it! No professional trader trades CFDs, because the professional traders would bankrupt them 🙂
do they give you the same leverage when you switch to equity account? is it the same platform? do you actually get the same level 2 and spread?
Yes, I believe that the same leverage applies, in fact you might now get slightly higher leverage on the equity account after a recent change the EU introduced to the maximum leverage allowed on CFD accounts. The platform is the same and I can confirm absolutely that the level 2 and spreads are identical. Emmett is simply mistaken when he claims that the CFD spreads are larger with Colmex, although I know that this can be the case with other providers
Absolutely not! their CFD non-funded account (not through tradenet) leverage was 1:20 and they dropped it down to 1:5 for CFDs late summer because of new laws passed in Europe. For their equity it’s around 1:4 and you might get a little more that depending on how much you have. If you’re going through their Tradenet funded account then you will get the 1:20 leverage. The platform is the same, the level 2 is the same its all real time market data (you pay $15 a month for that). But their fees are horrendous not to mention the platform bugs that always stall my level 2’s when im in a trade. I am currently not with them and left them to a better and cheaper brokerage! Go and make $20k a month in profits on their CFD account, let’s see how long they’ll keep you around, you think they will subsidize your profits lol?? They will go bankrupt if they keep successful traders, why is this so hard to understand/accept?
If you are right that if you become too profitable they will move you onto the equity account, well so what? You move onto the equity account and continue trading, I don’t see a big deal in moving onto the equity account
Jack how long have you been trading? I traded 5 years 3 of them with that sham of a company Tradenet/Colmex CFDs and 2 years normal equity account at an american brokerage. So the question is why even trade CFDs?
1- High leverage! you get 1:20, 20 times your capital to trade with. (but now Colmex reduced it to 1:5 after the new euro laws, unless you’re on the tradenet funded prop program) Normal equity accounts usually get 1:4. So you have a HUGE advantage with the CFD leverage, assuming you’re successful you can make more profit.
2- You dont have to abide by the PDT rule, (unless you have over $25k, which would render this meaningless)
3- Since it’s all contractual the brokerage doesn’t have to borrow shares for clients to short, clients can short theoretically any stock.
If they switch you to an equity account then why stay with Colmex? there are many brokerage that offer better commission and lower fees! not to mention you wouldn’t be afraid that they’ll go bankrupt with your money in it! I have no reason to stay with Colmex if I’m not gaining any advantage over other brokerages, do you understand what I mean?
80k buying power for 3k. Its such a good deal!
Its just play money. No better or worse than a simple video game.
Heck, buy a few boxes of the Monopoly board game and you also get $80k buying power.
Regardless, I understand why folks buy into it. But its pretty hokey.
Hi Emmett,
Great article. I agree with everything you say although you approached this one very safely. Can meir verify his trading results? If so, that is a good sign that he is at least offering real education, no matter how shitty the trading vehicle. For small traders who cant afford the $25K this is still an opportunity to dip toes for less than $500! and no addl time,investment. Does the co. Promptly pay withdrawals?
Its too bad this is illegal or it could,actually be a legit opp for daytrading (minus the crappy spreads).
Anyway, uhderstand why you cant support it.
Meir is an awesome entertainer. He is funny, totally charming, a total huckster, absolutely clever, sort of a carnival barker, completely disarming, and a great businessman.
But Meir’s trading results? Uhm, well that’s just fictional, a silky pure mythology, the stuff of leprechauns and rainbows. For God’s sake…he owns the casino. He literally owns the slot machines, the craps tables, the roulette table, the cards used for blackjack and baccarat. And as he struts about with his unique flamboyance, through his own casino…and he always wins! And he wants you to play in his casino, and if do exactly as he does, so that you will also win big in his casino?
How many casinos stay in business where all the patrons are making money? Sadly, none. And when you play with Meir, you are playing in his world, with his rules. By his unique rules. And he can wiggle, finagle, jigger, shimmy, or do whatever he wants to ensure that your trades don’t win. He can order his tech team to widen the spreads of Player A and tighten the spreads of Player B. He can add volatility to run your stops,or can tighten volatility so that none of your limit order can be filled.
There are so many ways that he can rig his casino that to ignore is more than casual ignorance. It is outright lunacy, and an outrageous suspension of rational thought to think otherwise.
At the end of the day…the guy that owns the casino always wins. Free drinks anyone?
I’m not going to out right disagree with you, nor will I defend TradeNet/Meir in any way. It is most probably scummy in a lot of ways and I bet colmex is profiting from everyone losing. However, of the 30+ traders I personally know using them and profiting from Tradenet accounts none of us have had an issue with withdrawals yet.
The terms are straight forward and shitty in many ways, but it serves 1 purpose. If you want to practice trading stocks with minimal investment + high leverage. I do not doubt a bit that if something happens then your account will be black balled. You go in knowing it’s sketch. Take your money out each month and don’t buy into higher account sizes that you do not actually need to trade your setups with..
When I first looked TradeNet and ColmexPro, I thought…hey this is a pretty good deal! It was extremely tempting to promote.
But at the end of the day…a bucket shop is still a bucket shop. They all fail eventually. Either the regulators nail them, or a black swan financial event sinks them, or they get greedy and widen the spreads.
Have to stick with regulated markets. Its the safest bet.
be highly profitable and consistent! watch them ask you to switch to the equity account or kick you out (they can it’s their brokerage lol). I’ve been with these pathological liars for 3 years until I finally woke up, no professional trader trades CFDs, because they would bankrupt the CFD brokerage if they kept them on! come on fella put 2 n 2 together, save yourself some gloomy days!
They throwed you out? Please come in with details.
In regards to what you claim about CFD brokers, most CFD brokers do NOT bet against their clients, I have done the research, I don’t know in particular about Colmex Pro.
amm… wrong! You cannoy say they do not bey against clients, most small medium underdeveloped CFD brokers do this, they have’t developed big enough pools or networks to offset risk to other participants. It is ignorant to say “they do NOT bet against their clients”…
Why can I not say that they not bet against their clients? Why am I ignorant? Do you have any proof to backup your claim?
As of today most CFD providers don’t bet against their clients, and the fact that Colmex Pro is a established broker with many clients including lots of successful ones, and similarly the fact that Tradenet is on the lookout for good traders (as can be seen with the ‘5 days challenge offer’ look it up) shows that not only bet against their clients.
However I do agree that since beginners are almost exclusively losing money, they probably don’t do any hedges unless they see that you are profitable, keeping you in the meantime on a demo account (although you are officially on a live account) until you are either profitable (in which case they start to hedge the trades) or blow up the account (in which case they keep the initial deposit).
Well, I guess this is the case, as I don’t even see a reason for them not to this, and even if you call this ‘betting against the client’ this is not truly the case as long as they provide you all the training needed to be successful, and they support you once you are.
Think about it, maybe they gain 3k money when you blow up your account initially, if however you make 200k when you are successful they get 60k as par the agreement with TEFS, so why shouldn’t they want your success?
(Unless you claim they don’t hedge in the market in which case they only lose money when you are successful, however they would have been already bankrupt for a long time, given that a successful trader makes so much more than any beginner can even lose…)
Now about the suggestion that they don’t hedge for beginners, I wouldn’t consider that a conflict of interest at all, instead I would say it is your payment fee for their course and setup and teams etc.
Think about it, they charge you 3k for a student account, but they allow you for a loss of 4k, plus they give you a course and a chatroom, a broker account and 80k, and support staff, so in essence if you are not profitable they lose a lot on you.
Now since 90% beginners fail they have a lot to lose, you might want their business model should be based only on the successful traders, but it doesn’t make sense that they should lose so much on all others, thus if they would hedge everything in the market then I would assume that they would charge you at least 6k for a 4k max lose account, but since they are not hedging and if you blow it up they just get your initial deposit they can keep the prices that low.
Is that bad for the consumer? Definitely not.
Yes I have proof, they 100% bet against their traders. I asked Meir myself in the room (go ask him!!). I called the company itself and they verified this. I dare you to prove otherwise! Because if they tell you they don’t, they will have a giant lawsuit to deal with lol. Make my day and show me please!
It seems you wrote this long answer just because… You generalized that most brokers do not bet against their clients and this is where I called you out. LOL. So do not use a stupid long answer to butt lick Meir and his business while with this you just show that you have interest in defending Colmex and not actually sticking to the argument:D
So stick to the premises. Most CFD brokers DO bet against their clients. Colmex is just a small player (sorry but it is true). Ok medium sized, not big, large or well developed. And most brokers or business, in general, in any market are underdeveloped because they are small and medium size. And most small/medium underdeveloped brokers use house money to take another side of the bet. This is it.
I just pointed out to your generalization which is wrong.
I worked for FX and CFD broker, so I know industry a bit for sure:)