FBS Review: Reliable forex trading? Too many red flags.
FBS provides no information as to who owns or runs the company on their website.
The company does disclose a series of linked shell companies;
- FBS Inc. in the Marshall Islands
- FBS Markets Inc. in Belize
- HDC Technologies Ltd in Cyprus
All three are scam-friendly jurisdictions with little to no regulation of MLM companies.
FBS appears to have strong ties to India, with Alexa attributing 59% of traffic to FBS’ website to the country. Egypt is the second largest source of traffic at 4%.
FBS’ website domain (“fbs.com”) was first registered back in 1995. The current registration details are set to private.
Oddly enough FBS have excluded their domain from the Wayback Machine, making it difficult to tell when the current owners took possession of it.
FBS’ domain registration was last updated in July 2018. On their Facebook account FBS claims to have launched in 2009. Video uploads to FBS’ official YouTube channel began in 2012.
As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money.
FBS’ Products
FBS offers multi-tier trading accounts;
- Cent – “perfectly suits those who are just starting on their way to success on Forex”, minimum $1 deposit
- Micro – “ideal for those who want to calculate their profit precisely”, minimum $5 deposit
- Standard – “for experienced market players making their way to Forex heights”, minimum $100 deposit
- Zero Spread – “designed for those who prefer trading at the fastest speed”, minimum $500 deposit
- ECN – for those who want to feel the full power of trading with ECN technologies, minimum $1000 deposit
FBS provides to its trader customers with access to the MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5 platforms.
MetaTrader is presumably used by FBS under license from MetaQuotes Software.
FBS’ Compensation Plan
FBS refers to its affiliates as “partners”. FBS partners earn commissions on trading activity by recruited affiliates.
Trading commissions are paid down three levels of recruitment (unilevel):
- level 1 (personally recruited affiliates and traders) – 100%
- level 2 – 15%
- level 3 – 5%
The above percentages are paid on traded lots, which is a unit used to measure what is being traded (one lot can be a set currency amount, number of shares etc.).
Joining FBS
FBS do differentiate affiliates from customers – both partner and trading signup options are offered.
Note that FBS do not disclose whether there are any affiliate membership costs.
Conclusion
As a purely “do-it-yourself” trading platform, I don’t have a problem with FBS. I didn’t see any mention of automation, which is typically the downfall of trading niche MLM companies.
The MLM side of the business is also solid being only paid on trading activity. Although I’m not exactly sure how 120% commissions in total can be paid on trading lots.
Even if you factor in broker fees, how is FBS covering 120% commission payouts on traded lots? Unless I’m missing something mathematically that makes no sense.
And that’s only the tip of the red flag iceberg. Dig deeper into FBS and the red flags really start to pile up.
For starters you have no idea who’s running the show or from where. Probably India (or Malaysia), but who knows?
Then there’s the shell companies registered in dodgy jurisdictions.
Cyprus, Belize and the Marshal Islands? Yeah, steer clear of any MLM company that incorporates in any of those three – let alone all three.
Finally, there’s this message on FBS’ website;
The service is not provided in the following countries: Japan, USA, Canada, UK, Myanmar, Brazil, Malaysia, Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Excluding those first four countries screams “we don’t want to be regulated!”. And why would a legitimate trading company intentionally exclude itself from the biggest trading markets on the planet?
Not withstanding the exclusions themselves appear to be nothing more than pseudo-compliance:
If you use a VPN service, please make sure you are connecting from the country that is authorized for FBS services.
And things certainly get complicated upon consideration that, despite the ban notice above, FBS do actually operate in Malaysia through a separate website:
No idea what the story is there but it’s just another dodgy aspect to the business. Oh and for those curious, Malaysia is omitted from the “banned countries” notice in the website footer of FBS’ Malaysian website.
All of this undermines the presented legitimacy of FBS. There’s too many red flags, such that even if everything was above-board on the trading side of things, it’s just too much to ignore.
Want to trade? Find a broker without the dodgy baggage.
FBS is not an MLM company. FBS is a brokerage company. It´s funny how you always seem to try to write reviews even when you don’t know what you’re talking about. To someone who knows the subject, you look quite ignorant.
Sure, the company has a referral program, so do most brokers; so does American Express, that doesn’t make it an MLM company.
FBS is a broker, not a good one at all, I´ll give you that, but this review does not belong here as far as MLM goes. On FBS paying 120%, they are a market maker (not a broker with straight through processing or with an electronic connection network to its liquidity provider) That’s probably how they pay that out.
MLM comp plan = MLM company.
American Express doesn’t run an MLM comp plan and so is irrelevant. To someone who knows the subject, you look quite ignorant.
Right, marketing speak aside though, that doesn’t explain how FBS pays out 120%.
American Express (Ozedit: derail attempts removed, see below)
American Express is not an MLM company with an MLM compensation plan.
It has nothing to do with FBS, nor is any single-level referral scheme it might use comparable.
Haiyaa, you not know what market maker is ah, you think market maker, marketing ah, so stupid lorh.
in broker terms, market maker makes money off of losing traders, they separate pro traders into A books (straight to Liquidity) and noob always lose money to B Book (lose money go into FBS Pockets).
120% comm payout since losing traders gives that lost money to said people in affiliates, why send mony to LP when you can just pocket those losing traders money.
I don’t care what market maker is, it has nothing to do with FBS’s MLM opportunity.
Spam somewhere else please, kthx.
An MLM company built on “losing traders” isn’t sustainable. Nor does it make any sense.
If FBS is already making money on losing traders, such that they can pay 120% commissions, what do they need your money for?
Sorry if i sounded angy, FBS have multiple income streams, they really are smart, they profit from lot payments from LP from the Pro A book traders, and pockets money from newbie/non-consistent B Book Traders.
All they want is money lol, as long as people trades forex (7.2? Trillion $ daily).
Its not unsustainable, as long as forex is in demand, money is in demand, thats how long it will sustain, especially as a broker thats so notorious and long lived
Yeah, like I said. An MLM company built on “newbie/non-consistent B Book Traders” isn’t sustainable.
And again, why doesn’t FBS just keep this money for themselves? The MLM side of the business makes no financial sense.
Ok, here it is, would you want a huge sum of cash(one off) or a steady source of cash until you die,FBS literally uses this concept, people are born, money circulates from top to bottom, new people will want to try out FOREX.
this FBS literally pops out everywhere on ADS (money from these peoples) like seriously theres even an ad of FBS on this very page its annoying.
successful traders wont share their techniques, newnoob traders will likely spend hundred thousands and a few years to be successful and full of trading knowledge, they wouldnt fucking share to others fking shits(not you Oz) it keeps going in a circle….
TQ
Yes but why? If FBS is already making tons of money why the MLM opportunity?
Also forex isn’t illegal in the US, so why isn’t FBS operating in the US and other heavily regulated markets?
US have so much restriction on forex trading, like for a broker to operate in US markets they need to follow certain rules which conflicts with other nations out there.
Like how US uses Fahrenheit and rest of the world uses Celcius, its so bad that theres only like 3 Brokers operating in US.
List of US forex Restrictions: google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN1692BC
I don’t see consumer protection as a negative. MLM is after all supposed to be about serving retail customers, not screwing them over and then using that money to pay commissions.
Sounds to me like FBS is a great service to sign up and lose money to. If you’re happy paying for someone else’s 120% commissions on your losses go for it.
As an MLM business this is terrible.
MLM (multilevel-marketing) is not actually a bad word, what we should be wary of is pyramid schemes, where the top most eats all while bottom feeders keep pumping money out, like LulaRoe, ItWorks, Younique.
FBS is a MLM yes, since you as a client of said affiliate can become an affiliate with a simple click and youll be a client+affiliate to the person who registers under you (but its not a pyramid scheme) even as a normal client (bottom most technically) trading yourself generates you profit or loss depends on knowledge.
Opening a new Broker requires a lot of capital you know, every single new brokers will surely go to cyprus, vanuatu dince capital need is low, to operate in US needs to startup win a Minimum of 20Mil capita and more than 10Mil client capita, how crazy is that just to start a new business..
No it isn’t. But FBS is a terrible MLM opportunity.
Your commissions literally depend on your retail customers signing up and losing money.
Right, and what are you going to do when your dodgy exchange that’s shell incorporated in an equally dodgy jurisdiction goes bust?
This is wrong tho, your commissions come the same, as its not by amount lost or profited, its the entry that counts, either loss or win you still get the same amount from the entry lots said retail customers opened (EX:10 trades opened by customer in 1 week-6 win 4 loss all at opened 0.77 size(each entry gives you amt$/1.00size).
Once you open a Broker outside US, to instate yourself into the US market have to pay a few mills, waiting a few years for verification and have to stop using B book practices, all pro and noobs stuffed into A Book, thats almost 70% revenue lost just by instating into a very heavily regulated body.
FBS obviously doesnt want that, why iran and others not allowed? Reasons, war, crimerate, Heavy FCA regulatory territory which they need to apply to operate in said countries.
You said it yourself, FBS’ commissions are funded by “newbie/non-consistent B Book Traders” (read: retail customers losing money).
This is a terrible model for an MLM company.
My bad, its the 20% additional ontop of the 100% that is funded by losing traders.
so losing traders keep trading too, since said commission is also self commission, altho smaller in amount.