According to the 2023 Global Foreign Exchange Fraud Research Report, of the brokers that exist in wikifx, some 78% are labeled by real-time-updated regulatory status (e.g., ASIC and FCA licenses), while uncertified platforms fraud probability is up to 34%. Of the 12 unlicensed brokers that were uncovered by CySEC within Cyprus in the year 2021, 9 were identified as “regulatory anomalies” by wikifx prior. The users can reduce the risk of accidentally inserting black platforms by 67% by checking through the platform. Additionally, the platform has gathered over 1.2 million user reviews, 89% of which have specific trading issues (e.g., withdrawals taking longer than 72 hours or slippage over 3 times the standard deviation), making it easy for traders to identify unusual trends.
wikifx’s regulatory database monitors 90% of the world’s largest jurisdictions with a median lag time of just 3.5 days, much lower than the industry standard of 11 days. Take the 2022 Australian ASIC revocation of five brokers’ licenses as an example. wikifx issued a risk alert within 48 hours of the regulatory notice going to press, while others trailed behind by an average of 14 days over the same period. This service enabled investors to withdraw money at a level of 41% during the first week after ASIC’s intervention, 29 percentage points higher than those who used no platform. The site also collects past data on regulatory fines. For instance, out of the 23 brokers sanctioned by the US CFTC from 2020 to 2023, wikifx tagged 87% with fine amount (e.g., the $6.5 million penalty to Luxshare Bank) and violation category (e.g., withholding commission rates).
In confirmation of technical indicators, wikifx keeps the level of significant parameters such as spreads and overnight interest rates to 5%, while black platforms tend to errantly identify figures by 20% to 50%. For instance, a non-regulated platform claiming it has an “ECN model” states that the spread of the US dollar against the euro is 0.1 point. Nevertheless, wikifx’s actual measurement data shows that the median spread in 90% of its trading sessions stands at 1.8 points with a peak of 4.5 points, which varies from the advertisement by more than 1800%. The website also analyzes the brokers’ liquidity through machine learning models and finds that 16% of institutions exhibit abnormal patterns where their quotes deviate from the market benchmark value by more than 15%. The risk of user capital loss on such platforms is 3.2 times higher than that of non-abnormal platforms.
wikifx’s on-site inspection team conducts more than 2,300 offline verifications annually, taking and uploading 360-degree photos of over 85% of the brokers’ office settings. In the “clone platform” scam case discovered in Malaysia in 2023, wikifx, comparing real pictures of registered addresses with 3D models of Google Maps, identified four “ghost companies” which exploited others’ office floors to help users avoid possible losses of about 120 million US dollars. Meanwhile, the platform’s risk scoring system (with a score of 10 points) gives the regulatory weightage at 45% and the frequency of complaints by users at 30%, resulting in the complaint rate of broker customers with a score of less than 6.5 points (e.g., inability to withdraw funds) at 38%, which is more than three times the industry benchmark of 12%.
Cross-validation of the data shows that the rate of fraud among the traders who implement wikifx as the prime risk control stands at 52% less compared to others without its implementation. For instance, a third-party analysis tracked 1,200 beginner traders in 2022. The average percentage of loss over the entire year for the group with controlled platform information at 15%-20% and the other relying solely on mere subjective opinion achieved 35%-50%. Despite an 8%-12% data update delay on the platform (e.g., short-term regulatory adjustments), its multi-dimensional verification mechanism still increased the accuracy rate of black platform identification to 82%, a significant improvement over traditional search engines (56%) and social media recommendations (39%). That is why 73% of the interviewed traders mention wikifx as a key compliance review tool.