Ashford Investments
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  • Ashford Investments

  • Regulated:  No
Broker Name: Ashford Investments
Platform(s): CFD
Founded: 2017
Bonus: 50%
Spreads: N/A
Leverage: 200:1
Regulated: No
Demo Account: No
Minimum Deposit: 250
US Traders: Not Accepted
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Ashford Investments Review

by Martin Kay

Why Does Ashford Investments Suck In 50 Words

These guys don’t know the difference between Contracts For Difference (CFD) and Binary Options. When explaining how to trade CFDs, they say that you will select Call if you think the price will rise and Put if you believe that price will fall. Once that’s done, you “approve the trade and wait for your option to expire”. Umm, come on get it together. Oh, and one more thing: their trading platform only shows CFD but they talk about binary options all over the website (even their Accounts are showing the potential payouts in percentages, which is characteristic of BO).

 

Why Ashford Investments Doesn’t Suck In 50 Words

This is a tough one. Their website looks half-finished, their “real-time” graph shows EUR/USD at 1.16xx when actually it’s at 1.19xx (that’s 300 pips indifference!!!) and they don’t even have an FAQ section, or at least I couldn’t find it. That being said, the only thing of some value I could find was a brief explanation of what cryptocurrencies are. Well, it’s better than nothing.

 

Is Ashford Investments A Scam?

This is an unregulated brokerage that severely lacks transparency and offers little to no information about their company. All I can hear are buzzwords like the best, easy and fast profits, everybody can trade, yadda, yadda. After spending quite a long time on their website and reading what their clients are saying on other websites and forums, I incline to think that Ashford Investments is indeed a scam. Of course, I cannot be 100% sure… maybe they are the best broker ever and I am making a huge mistake by calling them a scam…

Notice!: Trading Binary Options with a non-regulated broker carries risk. It is highly recommended to Start trading a regulated broker.

 

Should I Open An Account With Ashford Investments?

Ashford Investments is an unlicensed brokerage, launched apparently in 2017 (they do not provide the launch date on their website, so we had to turn to other online sources). The website is owned and operated by Teres Media BG Limited, located at Bulv. Gen. Totleben 53-55, Sofia 1606, Bulgaria. However, some online sources have them located at Business Park Varna, Building 8, 4th floor, Varna, Vladislav Varnencheck, 9009, Bulgaria. We cannot confirm any of the addresses.

The trading platform is provided by SpotOption and it’s web-based, meaning that you won’t need to download and install any software. This platform is one of the most popular among Binary Options and CFD brokers, so at least we know it works as it should but that’s where the good news stops. The brokerage is not regulated and has a very bad online reputation, with people complaining all over the internet about failed withdrawals and lost money.

The lowest deposit requirement is $250 – they call this account “Bronze” but they probably meant Bronze. Ah, spelling mistakes… why should they care, right? Anyway, they recommend starting with the Silver account, which has a minimum of $2,000 and according to them “is perfect for beginner traders”. No! What’s perfect for beginner traders is a Demo account or an account that allows them to trade very low amounts. Depositing 2K with an unregulated and mostly unknown broker with a bad reputation is NOT perfect!

The education section is the same you can find on all other SpotOption brokers but with an added part about cryptocurrencies, which is good but don’t expect to become a Bitcoin expert after reading it.

Generally, I don’t recommend opening accounts with unregulated brokers and Ashford Investments falls in the same category. They don’t have any feature that you can’t find on other brokers, so if you are looking to open a binary options account, you surely have better choices than Ashford.

 

Ashford Investments Complaints

The Internet is full of people screaming Scam! and complaining that they cannot get any money out from Ashford Investments. The account managers are using high-pressure tactics to make clients deposit more and basically every trick in the Scam Book is used on their users. If you don’t want to be one of the people complaining on forums about your lost money, you know what to do: stay away!

 

Ashford Investments Regulatory Announcements And Warnings

No financial watchdog has warned against Teres Media or Ashford Investments but this is probably due to the young age of the brokerage. The lack of warnings does not mean the brokerage is good. Just keep that in mind.

 

Ashford Investments Bonus

Starting with the Silver account ($2,000), clients can receive a 50% bonus, which goes up to 100% for the Platinum and Diamond accounts. The required turnover is (deposit + bonus)*20 and if the client wishes to withdraw before that, the bonus and profits will be canceled.

 

Ashford Investments Withdrawal

The withdrawal methods are credit cards and wire transfers, with a minimum of 50 account units for the former and 100 account units for the latter. According to their website, it takes 24 hours to process the request and 5 to 7 business days to receive the money. According to the internet masses, it takes forever.

 

Ashford Investments Extras

Cryptocurrency trading can be considered the only extra but there are a lot of brokers with a better reputation that offers Bitcoin and altcoins. Also, the trading conditions are not clearly explained so I don’t even know if they’re good or not.

 

Ashford Investments Ratings

User Friendliness 12/20

The website looks half-finished and is not accessible from all countries (I had to use a VPN for this review). Then there’s the whole BO/CFD conundrum, which is really confusing because on the website they advertise BO, and on the platform, you can only find CFD. Even worse, they sometimes use the term CFD but the explanation is for Binary Options. The website is translated into only 3 languages.

Number Of Assets And Expiry Times 12/20
The asset basket is composed of 9 stocks, 4 indices, 2 commodities, 24 currency pairs, and more than 30 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Litecoin, Ethereum and other altcoins. The cryptocurrency offering is very wide and it’s probably the best thing in their Asset Index. They don’t offer any information about expiry times because they only have CFD on the platform.

Commissions, Support, And Effective Return 11/20
On the website, they say they don’t charge any fees but in the Legal documentation, I could find a $25 fee for withdrawals. Live Chat couldn’t be reached on two separate occasions. According to their Accounts page the effective return goes up to 82% for Bronze, Silver, and Gold accounts and up to 87% for Platinum and Diamond (min deposit $25K and $50K respectively). But like I said, they don’t have BO on the platform, so make that what you wish.

Deposit, Payment, And Bonus 12/20
The minimum deposit is $250, the minimum withdrawal is $50 for credit cards, and $100 for wire transfers. These are the only methods to deposit/withdraw (no e-wallets). Starting with the Silver account (min deposit $2,000), clients will receive a 50% Bonus, which goes up to 100% for the Platinum and Diamond accounts. The required turnover is (deposit + bonus)*20.

Website Extras 10/20
The cryptocurrency offering is pretty wide and that’s the only notable extra on the site.

 

Ashford Investments Ratings 57/100

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