GT365 claims to have won a ton of awards on its website. In my GT365 review, we’ll discover whether those claims hold true or are they mere lies for deceiving traders.
GT365 License and Regulation
The first thing I check for every forex broker is its license and address. On GT365’s website, I noticed that their address is in the UK. The financial regulator in the UK is FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and as a forex broker, GT365 must hold a license from FCA to offer its services there.
Did You Know?
FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) was founded on 1st April 2013. It is a regulatory body of UK, which functions independently. (Its current Chief Executive is Nikhil Rathi.)
However, when I searched for their name in the FCA’s register, I didn’t find any results. I even tried their alternate names (such as Global Trading 365 as mentioned on their website), but it didn’t show any results.
It’s proof that GT365 is an unlicensed and unregulated broker. They are offering their services illegally and are most definitely a scam!
You should only trade with regulated brokers. Regulated and licensed brokers have to follow the strict rules and regulations of their license provider which ensures that they won’t act against your interests. Reputed regulators such as CySEC and FCA even have insurance provisions in case the broker turns out to be a fraudster. For example, a CySEC-regulated broker’s client can get up to 20,000 EUR as insurance compensation if the broker runs away with their funds.
You won’t get such benefits with an unregulated broker. That’s why I don’t recommend doing business with GT365.
No Office
The regulator of a forex broker depends on its address. GT365 has a UK-based address which they mention in the footer of their website:
However, when I googled their address, I found that it’s a virtual office address:
Hoxtonmix is the provider of this virtual office address and GT365 isn’t the only firm based in that address.
This means GT365 doesn’t even have a real office. You shouldn’t trade with a broker that doesn’t have an office. Such brokers are usually scammers.
GT365 Trading Conditions
The trading conditions of a broker can tell you a lot of things about its trustworthiness. Let’s see if the trading conditions of this broker are good for you or not:
Trading Platform
Creating an account on GT365’s site was quite easy. It took me only a little effort to set up my account and start trading. GT365 uses a custom trading platform that you can download or use online through the web-based version.
When I downloaded the platform file and selected it, I got a prompt that it was unsafe to open so I didn’t.
The web-based platform was quite simple and lacked many features. There isn’t much to say about this broker’s platform although that ‘unsafe alert’ seemed scary.
In my opinion, it’s best to trade with a broker that uses Metatrader 4 or 5. Metatrader has a very positive reputation in the industry because of its numerous features and benefits. This is the main reason why Metatrader is the most popular trading platform among forex brokers. With Metatrader, you wouldn’t need to worry about such stuff.
Minimum Deposit
GT365 offers multiple trading accounts. The smallest account they offer is called Bronze and demands a minimum deposit of $2,500. This is substantially high!
Suspicious brokers tend to keep their minimum deposit requirements high so they can get a hold of as many funds as possible. Regulated brokers keep their minimum deposit requirements very low to let you test out their service quality. On the other hand, shady brokers keep high deposit requirements so you are forced to make a big monetary commitment.
You should avoid trading with brokers that have high minimum deposit requirements. The industry standard in minimum deposits is around $50 and some even go as low as $10!
Leverage and Spreads
GT365 offers a high leverage ratio of 1:100. It shows that GT365 is an unlicensed broker and is running an illegal operation because UK-based brokers can’t offer leverage ratios higher than 1:30.
If you’re a beginner in forex trading then you should stay away from high leverage ratios. Canadian and US financial regulators don’t allow their brokers to offer more than 1:50 leverage ratios to their clients. That’s because a high leverage ratio can wipe out all your deposited funds in an instant and put you in a lot of debt.
In terms of spreads, GT365’s offered spread was 0.8 pips for the EUR/USD currency pair. This is lower than the industry standards and is probably the only good thing I found in this broker.
Trading Accounts
As I mentioned earlier, GT365 offers multiple trading accounts. This is a common strategy among shady brokers to get the most funds out of their victims’ pockets. Here are the different accounts you get with GT365:
Bronze Account
The Bronze account is the smallest one and requires a minimum deposit of $2,500. You get dedicated account management, and access to the education center along with multiple explanations of the platform.
Silver Account
The Silver account requires a minimum deposit of $5000. You get all the benefits of the Bronze account along with trading alerts here.
Gold Account
The Gold account demands a minimum deposit of $10,000. This account offers all the benefits of the Silver account along with advanced training sessions.
Premium Account
You’ll need to deposit $25,000 to access this account. Along with the benefits of the Gold account, you get risk-free trades, higher leverage, free and rushed withdrawal, and a financial plan.
Platinum Account
This account requires a minimum deposit of $50,000. You get access to their “Premium Platform”, and VIP events, and get an independent contract along with the benefits of the Premium account.
VIP Section
They don’t give much information about this account except that it’s accessible only through Group Invitations and that you’ll need to deposit a minimum amount of $100,001.
This account requires a minimum deposit of $500,001 and a group invitation like the VIP Section.
GT365 Payment Methods and Charges
Transaction Methods
GT365 lies to you about the payment methods it accepts. On the homepage of their website, gt-365.com, you’ll see various payment methods such as Skrill, credit card, American Express, and QIWI. However, when you’d create an account and try to deposit funds, you’ll see there are only two methods available: bank wire and credit card.
This is another indication that GT365 is a scam and shouldn’t be trusted.
For withdrawal, you get to use eWallet, Bitcoin, credit card, Skrill, and bank wire.
Fees
I couldn’t find any information on the fees they charge. However, the website mentions that they charge withdrawal fees but don’t specify how much.
In my opinion, it’s quite shady that they don’t tell you about the fees they charge. In such cases, the broker can charge you random fees and drain your account of its funds. You should avoid such brokers at all times.
Bonuses
Shady brokers tend to offer a lot of bonuses and GT365 isn’t an exception.
I don’t recommend joining a forex broker because of their offered bonuses. These bonuses don’t provide you with any monetary rewards. Instead, they impose additional restrictions on your withdrawal conditions so you can’t get your funds easily. This is why the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) doesn’t allow its licensed brokers to offer bonuses to their clients.
GT365 uses a similar tactic. For example, after you accept any of their bonuses, you must trade 10 mini lots for every $10 of the bonus you get. This is quite a herculean task and makes withdrawal nearly impossible.
Is GT365 a Scam? Yes!
There are many kinds of scammers operating in the forex industry. Shady forex brokers tend to attract new users to their websites through promotional offers and ads. They focus on attracting inexperienced traders so they can deceive them easily.
Such brokers have unfair terms and conditions so when the person signs up on their site, they accept those conditions. These brokers then steal the funds their users deposit in their accounts through hidden fees and charges.
This is a big reason why I don’t recommend trading with brokers based in offshore areas. These areas don’t have proper financial regulators such as CySEC or FCA. Without proper regulation, the clients of such brokers face numerous financial and privacy risks. You should always do thorough research before signing up with a forex broker.
GT365 Review: Conclusion
GT365 has no real offices and no license. It is an illegal broker and you should stay away from such scams. They don’t have a good trading platform and their minimum deposit requirement is too high by industry standards.
I hope you found my GT365 review useful. If you’ve had a bad experience with any forex broker, you can share your experience below.
