Stratton Markets Review
Why Stratton Markets Sucks In 50 Words?
Account structure! Or rather the lack of it. Let me explain: although they show 5 types of accounts, the minimum deposit requirements are not specified for either of them. On their FAQ and Deposit pages, it’s clearly shown that you need to deposit a minimum of $250, so I assume that’s for the Basic account, but what about the other four? Also, “assume” is not a word that I should be using but they make me do it by not providing proper, clear information and ThatSucks!
Why Stratton Markets Doesn’t Suck In 50 Words
The owning company is CYSEC regulated, they have a good web-based platform and even better desktop platform (Meta Trader 4). On top of all that, add hundreds of trading assets and there you have it – all of them, solid reasons why this broker doesn’t suck.
Is Stratton Markets A Scam?
As mentioned in the opening section, the owning company is regulated by CYSEC but the worrying thing is that since 02/06/2020, the British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) cancelled their EEA authorisation. The reason is unclear but it’s never a good thing to see a major financial watchdog cancel an active authorisation. And while we cannot call them a scam, they could improve in some areas, so let’s just say that at the moment this is not a broker ThatSucks! but not a top tier player either. As always, pay extra attention whenever your money is involved.
Should I Open An Account With Stratton Markets?
Stratton Markets is a CYSEC licensed broker that offers Forex, Crypto and CFDs on a wide range of assets. The owning company F1Markets Limited is regulated by the Cyprus Securities And Exchange Commission under licence number 267/15. F1Markets LTD was EEA Authorised by the British FCA, with Reference Number 744255. However, at the time of writing the firm is no longer authorised by the FCA and Stratton cannot offer services to UK clients.
Although this is a regulated broker, with Meta Trader 4 as a downloadable platform, I feel there are better options out there. There are brokers with similar trading conditions that offer a bit more professionalism. Speaking of professional, they say they’ve built their “very own trading platform” when in fact their webtrader is built by a third party.
We’ve already talked about the accounts but let me give you a little more details. The 5 types are Basic, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond (minimum deposits are not specified) but there’s something else: I don’t see much difference between the extra features offered by a higher-tier account and the lower ones. Leverage is 1:30 across the board, maximum volume per trade is the same, you get a Demo no matter what account you have, etc. Here’s what you don’t get for Basic and Silver: account overview. Why? A full account overview should be basic for any account. Oh wait: the Diamond account (the most expensive one) doesn’t get an account overview either. I don’t get it.
The education section consists of webinars and podcasts (available only for higher tier accounts) and some ebooks which are available for everyone. Seems like ebooks are making a comeback because I see more and more brokers offering them for free. However, don’t expect to become an expert in the field of Forex, CFD or Crypto after reading them and please take what you read there with a pinch of salt. Obviously, I didn’t read all of them but skimming through, I found out that according to Stratton Markets, “Immunity” is one of the advantages of Ethereum. Umm, no – that’s Immutability. Immunity is something totally different and I think they should know that.
Overall Stratton Markets is not bad but has a few tiny things that bother me. Just when I think “Hey, this is a good broker”, they slap me with the “immunity” of Ethereum or with misspelt words. Maybe you think that’s not a big deal, but attention to detail is important when dealing with money and if you open an account, they will be dealing with your money. Also, let’s not forget about the elephant in the room: FCA decided to cancel their authorisation. That can’t be good, can it?
The company’s listed address is Kolonakiou Avenue 43, 4103 Ay. Athanasios, Limassol, Cyprus. The broker can be contacted at phone number +351 304500236 and email [email protected].
Stratton Markets Complaints
Unfortunately things don’t look too good for Stratton when it comes to complaints. For example, on ForexPeaceArmy they have a 1 star rating (out of 5) and people are screaming Scam all over. However, the number of complaints is not huge, so take everything with a pinch of salt.
Regulatory Warnings And Announcements
02/06/2020: The British FCA has cancelled F1Market’s EEA Authorisation. As a result, the company and implicitly Stratton Markets as a broker cannot offer their services to UK clients. See the restrictions here.
Stratton Markets Withdrawal
The withdrawal methods are the “classic” ones: credit cards (Visa, Mastercard), wire transfers and e-wallets (Neteller and Skrill). The processing time is 3 – 5 business days for bank transfers and 5 – 7 business days for cards. The minimums are $10 for credit cards and $100 for wire transfers. If you use e-wallets, there are no minimums as long as the amount covers the transfer fee.
Stratton Markets Extras
This broker doesn’t provide any extra features and everything is rather bland. Higher tier accounts will get better educational resources and VIP podcasts. I am not sure that qualifies as “extra” but it’s all I could find.
Stratton Markets Ratings
User Friendliness 14/20
The website is available in 6 languages and it is relatively well structured, with easy to access information. The web trading platform is simplistic, thus user-friendly, demo accounts are available, as well as mobile trading platforms. US traders are not accepted.
Range Of Markets, Spreads And Leverage 15/20
There are literally hundreds of tradable assets to choose from, ranging from currencies to commodities, indices, stocks and cryptocurrencies. However, the crypto offering is pretty limited (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Dash, Litecoin, Stellar, Ripple, etc). The leverage goes up to 1:30 for retail clients and up to 1:400 for professional clients (these limitations are due to ESMA rules). Crypto leverage is a max of 1:5. Spreads are floating: about 40 USD for Bitcoin and 2 pips for EUR/USD. These are medium spreads (a bit on the high side) and can change according to market conditions.
Deposits And Withdrawals 12/20
The methods are credit cards (Visa and Mastercard), wire transfers, Skrill and Neteller but the minimum deposit is too high in our opinion: $250. The minimum withdrawal is $10, which is alright but the processing times are too long: up to 7 business days.
Fees And Support 9/20
The withdrawal fees are 3.5% for cards, 20 USD/CHF/GBP/EUR for wire transfers, 3.5% for Neteller and 2% for Skrill. This is not so bad but Stratton Markets also applies a monthly inactivity fee which starts after 2 months (pretty fast) and it’s huge: 80 EUR for 2 to 3 months of inactivity, 120 EUR for 3 to 6 months and 200 EUR for over 6 months. If the client’s account is denominated in other currency than EUR, the fee will be paid in that currency.
They also charge a monthly maintenance fee, whether you trade or not. This fee will be determined based on the client’s account type, trading volume and client categorization. Support consists of a very limited FAQ, email and a live chat that we couldn’t get to work (i.e. nobody answered although we tried several times to get in touch).
Stratton Markets Extras 12/20
There is nothing that stands out at Stratton Markets, apart from some VIP education, which is only available to clients with top tier accounts (for which the deposit requirements are not known).