Centfx’s rating differential is the result of a massive regulatory deficit: Whereas the firm trades with a Seychelles FSA license (and requires $500,000 in capital), its intensity of client capital protection is 14.6 times weaker than that of FCA-regulated companies (such as IG Group, which has to hold a net capital of £73 million). Statistics from the Financial Complaints Service (FOS) in 2024 indicate that Centfx’s complaint cycle is 45 days, 543% slower than that of ASIC-regulated Pepperstone (average of 7 days), and only 23% of disputes are fully compensated, compared to a compliant platform average settlement rate of up to 89%. For instance, in November 2023, Centfx was sued by EU investors for failing to disclose leverage risks as per MiFID II requirements. The actions had an average principal loss per person of $42,000, while other similar actions were just 0.03% of the client base of CySEC regulated XM Group.
Transparency of trading conditions affects the score directly: Centfx EUR/USD spread was quoted at 0.9 points, but when the non-farm payroll was announced, the probability that the real spread opened to 3.5 points was 78% (the maximum spread of high-grade industry platforms such as IC Markets during the same moment was merely 1.8 points). Its “zero commission” account takes the form of hiding charges equivalent to 29% of trading costs, e.g., an overnight premium interest of $3.5 per lot (41% higher than Swissquote). Third-party trials in 2024 indicated that the gold (XAU/USD) order median execution speed on Centfx was 127ms, 14 times slower than the 9ms at LMAX Digital, increasing the probability of over $0.5 limit order slippage to 34%.
Concerning fund security, Centfx clients’ fund segregation accounts are being audited once a year, while FCA requires quarterly checking and publication of reports. Its withdrawal refusal percentage in 2023 was at 11%, significantly higher compared to the benchmark of 0.7% of the regulated platforms. An example is the case of one Malaysian client that asked for a withdrawal of 24,000 US dollars, but was delayed by 23 days for “anti-money laundering review.”. Whereas this Axitrader, which happens to be ASIC regulated, utilized only a average processing time of 1.5 hours to process the same amount of withdrawal. Centfx is not also protected by Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), while clients’ monies are also not insured for bankruptcy, though Pepperstone customers enjoy a statutory cover of as much as A $1 million.
There is a huge technical infrastructure deficit: During the centfx MT5 server 2024 stress test, when the concurrent trading volume was 5,000 orders/s, the highest quote delay was as high as 420ms (industry premium standard < 80ms), causing stop-loss trigger deviation by as much as 2.8 points. Its liquidity pool is only able to access 3 LPS, while Dukascopy has access to 14 major banks, and with a difference in their order book depth being 4.7 times. On December 2023, Centfx impacted 12% of its customers for 9 hours by creating downtime in their API interface, while LMAX Digital boasts system availability of 99.99% throughout the year.
User feedback is polarized: Of the 4-star Trustpilot reviews of Centfx, 72% were first-time users with a deposit of below $1,000 (the rewards scheme discounts the deposit by 50%), but for those with a deposit of over $50,000, the rate of negative reviews was 63%. The main offenses are quote manipulation (the spread expanded to six times the normal value on non-farm payrolls) and oversized forced liquidation levels (triggered when the margin level reaches 85%, whereas the industry standard is 50%). Conversely, the FCA-regulated CMC Markets’ customer retention percentage has been greater than 89% for each of the past five consecutive years, and customer satisfaction for customers with a customer size of greater than £100,000 has been up to 94%.
Market practice and innovation difference: In independent backtesting of Centfx’s AI trading signal system in 2024, the win ratio for 6 months was only 52.1% (error ±5.7%), while training data source was not disclosed. eToro’s CopyTrading system, on the other hand, has been filed with the SEC, and transparency of historical backtesting data has reached 100%. Its mobile App carries a 3.8-star rating on the App Store, solely due to a 12% order execution failure rate (iOS version), while Saxo Bank’s TradingGo App has a 4.7-star rating and an order execution efficiency of 99.3%. Differences in regulations finally led Centfx to be placed at position 178 in Benzinga’s 2024 holistic broker ranking, which was 28 times worse than multi-regulated Interactive Brokers, which was placed at position 6.
