Gerchikco (Gerchik and Co): Is this is a Reliable Broker? The Tryth Exposed (2024)
Gerchikco aka Gerchik and Co is a product of a famous man called Alexander Gerchik. He appeared in a documentary called the Wall Street Warriors. However, just because a forex broker has a celebrity’s backing, it doesn’t mean it’s reliable. There are a lot of factors to consider, the broker’s regulation, address, trading conditions, and a whole lot more before I can say it’s worth your time and money.
So, let’s start the Gerchikco review:
Gerchikco License and Regulation
Gerchik and Co is based in Vanuatu, an offshore region. However, even though Vanuatu is an offshore region, it has a financial regulator, the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission. When I checked the VFSC’s register for Gerchikco’s name, I found that they are really registered there and hold a license.
It’s a good sign.
In order to get a license from VFSC, a broker must deposit $50,000 as the security bond with the local Registrar of the Supreme Court. This measure ensures that the broker acts in the interests of its clients and not against them.
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I also found out that your funds will remain separate from the broker’s funds, ensuring that the broker can’t take them. In case a dispute occurs, you might get 20,000 compensation from the Financial Commission, which is another assurance of Gerchikco’s reliability.
However, VFSC is not among the most reputed regulatory authorities.
Stricter financial regulators exist in many regions such as the US and Europe. These regulators impose heavy restrictions and laws on forex brokers (and similar service providers) to ensure that the broker doesn’t act against the interests of its client.
How can you spot a broker who is trying to deceive you?
A broker’s credentials, registration, and job history can be reviewed using BrokerCheck, a free online tool provided by FINRA. Disputes with clients, disciplinary actions, and specific financial and criminal matters on the broker’s record are all covered in the disclosure portion of BrokerCheck.
On top of that, regulators like FCA offer insurance compensation in case the broker steals the funds of their clients. For example, FCA can give you up to £85,000 if an FCA-regulated broker steals your funds.
It would be best to go with brokers that have a license from CySEC or FCA depending on your region. They have stronger regulations and keep a closer watch on their licensed brokers.
Gerchikco Trading Conditions
You should always check the trading conditions of a forex broker before doing business with them. Let’s see what are trading conditions of this broker:
Trading Platform
To be honest, the best trading platforms available in the industry are Metatrader 4 and 5. Almost all reputed forex brokers use these platforms because they offer a ton of features.
And Gerchik and Co understands this fact very well. They provide you with both of the trading platforms, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. You get access to MetaTrader’s app market, trading tools, and automated trading, all of which simplify your trading experience and make it easier for you to trade.
The charting features of MetaTrader platforms are quite impressive and are certainly worth considering. They offer plenty of technical analysis indicators such as Bollinger Bands and Fibonacci retracement, simplifying your trading experience further and ensuring that you get the best chances of making profits.
It’s great that Gerchikco offers MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms to its clients.
Minimum Deposit
Gerchikco has kept its minimum deposit requirement quite accessible at $100. Although it’s a little higher than you would expect from a reliable broker, it’s not too high as shady brokers keep.
Many forex scams keep their initial deposit requirement high which allows them to grab a lot of funds immediately. Such brokers are aware of their pathetic services and so, they don’t give you a chance to test out their services beforehand. Instead, they force you to make a big financial commitment. In case you decide to discontinue availing their services, they will steal the huge deposit you had made.
It’s a common strategy among shady forex brokers and that’s why I don’t recommend trading with such brokers.
Leverage and Spreads
Everything was looking great until I checked the broker’s offered leverage. Gerchikco offers 1:100 leverage ratio, which is too high by industry standards.
High leverage is usually a sign of a scam. This is why financial regulators restrict their brokers on how much leverage they can offer to their clients. For example, the UK-based regulator FCA doesn’t allow its brokers to offer a leverage ratio higher than 1:30.
High leverage ratios can wipe out all of your earnings and even put you in debt quickly. They are very risky, especially if you’re a beginner.
Gerchikco offers tight spreads of 0.4 pips. The spreads determine the cost of each trade for a trader and that’s why the tighter they are, the better is the broker.
Trading Accounts
Gerchikco offers multiple trading accounts to its clients:
Easy Start for Investors
This account requires a minimum investment of $100 and offers you 1:100 leverage and statistics. You’d have to pay $10 commission per lot.
Mini
This account requires a minimum deposit of $500 and offers all the benefits of the previous account along with the feature of Algo Trading. You’d have to pay $10 commission per lot with this account.
Simple
This account requires a minimum investment of $1000. You get all the benefits of the previous accounts and have to pay $10 per lot.
Silver
This account requires a minimum deposit of $10,000. You’d have to pay $9 fee per lot and get all the benefits of the previous accounts.
Gold
The Gold account requires a minimum investment of $25,000. You’d have to pay $8 commission per lot and get all the benefits of the previous accounts.
Platinum
The minimum deposit for this account is $100,000 and offers all the benefits of the previous accounts. In addition to those benefits you’d only have to pay $7 commission per lot and get 0 spread. Gerchik and Co offers you dedicated custom bots with this account as well.
Gerchikco Payment Methods and Charges
Transaction Methods
Gerchikco provides you with several payment options. You can fund your trading account with WebMoney, Bitcoin, ADVCash, Neteller, credit card, Payeer, Skrill, PerfectMoney, and bank transfer. However, I recommend funding your trading account only with bank cards as they let you file a chargeback 540 days since the date of making the deposit. This way, if something goes wrong, you can still get your money back. Bank transfer and Bitcoin payments are non-refundable so it’s best to avoid using them.
Fees
The broker doesn’t charge anything for making deposit and withdrawals. Gerchikco charges you commission per lot depending on your trading account. They claim to process withdrawal requests within a business day which is quicker than the industry average of 48 average.
Offered Bonuses
Things looked quite good until I read their terms and conditions. Gerchik and Co offers bonuses to its clients however, it doesn’t mention them on its website.
Reputed financial regulators such as FCA don’t let their brokers offer bonuses to their clients because they make withdrawals trickier and complicate the situation.
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Moreover, a common strategy among shady forex brokers is they would offer you a ton of bonuses. Bonuses in the forex industry are notorious as they allow the broker to complicate the withdrawal process for the user. The funds you receive in a bonus always belong to the broker, not you.
Should You Trade with Gerchikco? No
The forex industry attracts a lot of scams and they are of various sorts. Some scammers tend to give an unsolicited call and claim that you’re eligible for a random bonus. Others would run ads on the internet claiming to offer attractive deposit bonuses or easy profits.
Creating a website and filling it with lies is very easy. And these scammers target inexperienced traders too. Usually, these brokers operate from offshore areas such as St. Vincent or the Commonwealth of Dominica. They operate from such areas because these places don’t have financial regulators like the US or the UK. So they don’t have to follow any strict laws and can easily steal the funds of their users without facing any legal repercussions.
You should always check a broker’s regulation and T&C’s before trading with them.
The regulator of Gerchikco is not a reputed one. Even though they follow a lot of procedures that ensure that the broker won’t act against your interests, the terms and conditions of the broker weren’t good.
First, there’s the issue of high minimum deposit requirements. There are plenty of reputed brokers that have minimum deposit requirements as low as $5. So it doesn’t make sense to choose this option when you have better options available.
Second, the broker claims to offer bonuses in its terms and conditions. Bonuses can make it very difficult for you to get withdrawals.
Gerchikco Review: Conclusion
Gerchikco doesn’t seem like a scam but it’s not a good option. You can find much better options in the market and you don’t have to trade with this broker. I don’t recommend trading with them.
There are many scams in the forex industry. And they keep growing. The best way to combat these scams is to spread the truth about them so their schemes would fail before they even start.
If you know someone who’s interested in forex trading, share this article with them. They should know the truth about such scammers.
