Trader’s Way

A summary of what happened?

Trader’s Way, established in 2011, is an offshore brokerage firm based in the Commonwealth of Dominica. It offers trading services across various financial instruments, including forex, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies, utilizing platforms such as MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and cTrader. Despite its array of services, Trader’s Way has been the subject of several concerns and complaints, particularly regarding its regulatory status and operational practices.

Regulatory Status

• Lack of Regulation: Trader’s Way operates without oversight from any major financial regulatory authority. This absence of regulation means that the broker is not held to the stringent standards imposed by top-tier regulators, potentially leaving clients without essential protections.
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Client Complaints and Allegations

• Pricing and Execution Issues: Some traders have reported significant discrepancies in pricing and execution. Instances include being filled at prices substantially different from those displayed, leading to unexpected losses. For example, a trader noted being filled 38 pips and 75 pips away from the expected price during slow market conditions, which the broker attributed to liquidity problems.
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• Withdrawal Challenges: There have been reports of difficulties in withdrawing funds, with some clients experiencing delays or unresponsiveness from customer support when attempting to access their money.
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Operational Concerns

• Offshore Registration: Being registered in Dominica, a jurisdiction known for lenient financial regulations, raises concerns about the broker’s transparency and accountability. Offshore registration can sometimes be associated with challenges in dispute resolution and fund recovery for clients.
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• Customer Support Issues: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the responsiveness and effectiveness of Trader’s Way’s customer service, particularly when addressing issues related to account management and fund withdrawals.
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User Reviews and Feedback

• Mixed Reviews: On platforms like Myfxbook, Trader’s Way has received a mix of positive and negative reviews. While some traders appreciate the broker’s platform offerings and trading conditions, others have raised concerns about pricing anomalies and withdrawal issues.
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While Trader’s Way offers a variety of trading platforms and instruments, its lack of regulation, reports of pricing discrepancies, withdrawal challenges, and offshore registration present significant concerns. Potential clients are advised to exercise caution and consider brokers that are regulated by reputable financial authorities to ensure greater transparency and protection.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Trader’s Way trying to hide?

Trader’s Way‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Trader’s Way in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Trader’s Way may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: Trader’s Way – Examining Complaints and Concerns

Introduction

Trader’s Way, established in 2011 and headquartered in Dominica, operates as an online brokerage firm offering services in forex, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Despite its longevity in the market, the broker’s reputation has been clouded by controversies and client grievances, ranging from operational issues to alleged unethical practices. This report delves into the complaints, criticisms, and concerns surrounding Trader’s Way, providing an objective analysis for potential traders.

1. Regulatory Ambiguity

Trader’s Way operates from the Commonwealth of Dominica, a jurisdiction known for limited regulatory enforcement over financial entities. Unlike brokers registered with major financial watchdogs such as the FCA or ASIC, Trader’s Way does not adhere to international regulatory standards.

• Lack of Licensing:
  • The broker does not hold licenses from established financial authorities. This lack of oversight raises questions about the safety of client funds and the broker’s accountability.
• Implications for Clients:
  • Without a regulatory body to monitor its activities, Trader’s Way is free from the rigorous compliance measures required of regulated brokers. Clients face heightened risks, including fund mismanagement and limited legal recourse in disputes.

2. Common Complaints and Allegations

2.1. Execution and Pricing Irregularities

• Unexpected Price Spikes:
  • Traders have highlighted anomalies in price movements on Trader’s Way’s platform. These unusual fluctuations, reportedly absent on competing brokers’ platforms, have triggered stop-loss orders and caused unwarranted losses.
• Order Execution Delays:
  • Complaints also cite slow execution times, particularly during periods of high market activity. These delays often result in trades being executed at less favorable prices.

2.2. Withdrawal Problems

Withdrawal-related concerns are among the most significant issues raised by clients:

• Delayed Payments:
  • Numerous traders report waiting weeks or months for withdrawal requests to be processed.
• Account Freezes:
  • Some users allege that after submitting withdrawal requests, their accounts were abruptly frozen or disabled without explanation.

2.3. Poor Customer Support

• Lack of Responsiveness:
  • Clients frequently complain about unresponsive support teams, with queries either ignored or addressed inadequately.
• Failure to Resolve Disputes:
  • Even when support responses are provided, they are often vague and fail to address specific complaints effectively.

3. Trading Conditions and Features

High Leverage Risks

Trader’s Way offers leverage up to 1000:1, appealing to traders seeking high-risk, high-reward opportunities. However:

• Risk Amplification:
  • Such leverage can magnify both profits and losses, leading to rapid account depletion, particularly for inexperienced traders.
• Attraction for Novices:
  • High-leverage offerings often lure inexperienced traders who may not fully understand the associated risks, increasing their vulnerability to significant losses.

Platform Versatility

The broker supports multiple platforms, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and cTrader. While this versatility is a positive aspect, it is overshadowed by operational complaints and regulatory concerns.

4. Community Feedback and Public Reviews

Trader’s Way’s reputation is mixed across trading communities:

• Positive Feedback:
  • Some users commend the broker for its low spreads and access to advanced trading platforms.
• Negative Experiences:
  • The majority of reviews focus on unresolved withdrawal issues, poor customer service, and suspicious trading conditions.

Industry Warnings

Though Trader’s Way has not been flagged directly by major regulatory bodies, independent review platforms and watchdogs consistently warn about the risks of trading with unregulated brokers.

5. Patterns of Operational Concerns

Opaque Business Practices

Trader’s Way’s lack of transparency about its corporate structure and ownership creates an additional layer of uncertainty. Clients have limited information about who manages their funds, raising doubts about the broker’s legitimacy.

High-Pressure Marketing

Some users report receiving unsolicited calls and emails urging them to deposit funds, with promises of high returns. Such practices are often associated with brokers that prioritize profits over client welfare.

6. Broader Implications for Traders

Financial Vulnerabilities

The lack of regulation and recurring operational issues place Trader’s Way clients at significant financial risk, particularly regarding fund withdrawals and trade execution integrity.

Trust Erosion in Offshore Brokers

Trader’s Way exemplifies the challenges of dealing with offshore brokers operating in loosely regulated environments. The broker’s practices highlight the importance of choosing regulated financial institutions to ensure fund safety and trading fairness.

7. Advice for Potential Clients

1. Seek Regulated Brokers:
   • Prioritize brokers licensed by established financial authorities for better fund security and dispute resolution options.
2. Research Thoroughly:
   • Consult independent reviews and forums to gauge a broker’s reputation.
3. Test with Small Deposits:
   • If engaging with Trader’s Way, begin with minimal deposits to evaluate its withdrawal process and trading platform.
4. Understand Leverage Risks:
   • Avoid trading with high leverage unless you have a clear understanding of its impact on your trading strategy.

Conclusion

While Trader’s Way offers a variety of trading instruments and platforms, its lack of regulatory oversight, recurring client complaints, and operational irregularities present substantial risks. Potential clients are advised to exercise caution and consider alternatives regulated by reputable authorities to ensure a safer and more transparent trading experience. Trader’s Way’s challenges underscore the importance of thorough due diligence when selecting a broker in the increasingly complex world of online trading.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Trader’s Way (or actors working on behalf of Trader’s Way), we will inform Trader’s Way of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Trader’s Way may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Trader’s Way, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Trader’s Way to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Trader’s Way made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Trader’s Way is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Trader’s Way

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Trader’s Way Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Trader’s Way used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Trader’s Way could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Trader’s Way have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Trader’s Way is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Trader’s Way creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Trader’s Way either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Trader’s Way, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Trader’s Way is in great company ….

What else is Trader’s Way hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Trader’s Way] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Trader’s Way that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.