Blackstone Futures broker detailed reviews and user feedback
In the piles and piles of Forex brokers that don’t seem trustworthy at all, it is exciting to find a South African company that we can actually say is not horrible! The Blackstone futures review is, so far, one of the better Forex brokers that originated in South Africa we have found. Their background, presentation and the details of their operation, while not the most efficient, inspire a level of trust in us that the rest of the South African Forex brokers we have reviewed up to this point failed to. Though this does not mean you should be rushing to set up an account with them – there are still issues with their operation and lots of improvement they could be going through. Some of the things they could improve upon is updating their page and the speed of their communication, as well as a number of other details that might cause their rating to go up in future reviews. Anyway, without any further ado, let’s pick them apart and see what makes them tick.
The page
It seems like the Blackstone futures FX brokerage has decided to take their cues from some of the most famous global traders in terms of design. Which is why the page might look familiar and for some, even like a clone of a page they may have seen before. The large title banner for promoting their own content and the power point presentation like scrolling experience of the front page all seem like they have been accepted as the industry standard and taken directly from other websites. Not necessarily the worst thing, though it is not pretty. While pretty is not a defining characteristic for a Forex brokerage by any means, it is for sure one that is important when looking for a legit one. This Blackstonefutures.co.za review concludes that the design leaves space for improvement, especially on top of the website, where some of the navigation buttons look simply out of place.
Navigation
The navigation tab of the website seems to be a little underthought. There are certain menu options that could have been placed into a different menu’s dropdown, such as the market sentiment. This segment aims to help the client help understand how the FX market is feeling about a specific currency pair. While the goal is achieved, the result would have been better if this menu option was placed into the drop-down menu of the market info. This would allow the menu to be a little less cluttered. The navigation buttons for the registration and demo account opening seem to be a little underdeveloped and a bit ugly, but they work and are always visible, so that is nice.
Communication
The company offers several ways of communicating with them. There is the live chat, which you have to register to use. While it might seem like a bit of an annoying detail, the registration requirement is there to protect the company from spammers and overloading the chat server. Not a bad thing, though we like to see the live chat support to be available to any client with questions. The response rate is a bit slow, being at 15 minutes last time we checked. The company also provides a phone number which you can call and get a response from in a very short amount of time. There is of course email, and then they also have their address listed just in case you want to send them a kindly worded letter (or a strictly worded one). Whatever way you choose to communicate with the company, they will respond to you, even if it takes them a bit more time. There is also the option of submitting your information to get a call back from them, but that is our least favorite way of communicating with Forex brokers and we also recommend against it.
Education and News
The Blackstone futures rating is also boosted a little by the fact that they have an almost daily update on the subject of the state of the market. While not always the most insightful, the information provided is definitely going to be useful to some of the more involved traders on the market. The website also provides some interesting articles and guides regarding the basic concepts of Forex trading and the platform use, reading charts and so on. While the information provided is that which is already known to most traders, beginners might find this feature useful to them. Still, we would prefer to see the company be more interested in educating their clients further in the more advanced concepts of Forex trade, as well as talk about the strategies and concepts involved with the industry. Which is why the educational website does not get the highest ratings.
Social media
The Blackstone futures Forex broker has a facebook page, which has a rather large following. If the live chat with the company website does not work out, the Facebook chat can get you a response within minutes of being texted. This is a very nice little detail about their existence that the team was surprised to see – you don’t often get such social media presence with brokers.
Can Blackstone futures be trusted for a good experience?
The short answer to this question is maybe. It depends entirely on what you would call a good experience in terms of Forex. We do have a problem with these guys though – they make it rather hard to get information about their trading standards other than the platforms. They do not have information regarding their spreads or the methods for withdrawing funds with them. Thankfully one of our own members was able to register and get some information about the company. Still, this kind of practice makes Blackstone futures scam like in its behavior and this makes us very uncomfortable.
The platform
The broker offers two platforms to their traders. The world-renowned MT4 is present within their system. This a good thing as it allows traditional trading to most people who would be willing to trade with these guys. The second platform is the CloudTrade app, which as you would expect, is a cloud-based trading platform. While not inherently a bad application, it is slightly inferior to the Blackstone futures MT4. It is missing a number of automated trading systems and is relatively basic. We would recommend you stick with the MT4 if you decide to trade with these guys. It is still nice to have two options when dealing with a broker, so definitely helps the company.
Spread
As mentioned before it is pretty hard to find information regarding the spreads that the Blackstone futures FX brokerage offers to their potential clients. As one of our teammates found out though, their spreads are fixed and pretty low, lingering between 1 and 2 pips for the most popular pairs. This allows for low funds trading to be easy for those who would be interesting in trading this way. Still, it is strange that this information is not readily available for the interested parties on the company website.
Blackstone Futures Withdrawal
One of the scariest things we saw and made us at first think that Blackstone futures fraud was a possibility was the fact that they never mention withdrawing funds. The problem is real – if there is no way for withdrawing funds, it is annoying as hell. Thankfully, once we had an account and got in touch with their representatives we were told that it would take two days to transfer funds once an official request was sent it (which needed to be done through a request form that only appeared after you logged in on their website). The fact that we had to go through so much worry before we were able to figure this out was a bit scary. This is very much a problem in the operations of this company and we would like to see this change in the future. For now, the fact that they keep these details behind the registration page will keep us asking: is Blackstone futures legit?.
About the company
The history of the company is not too long, but it is long enough. They have operated as a Forex broker for several years now and have proven themselves with many in the South-African region. We are happy to say that we too appreciate how they have been operating in the past few years. Unfortunately, they are unable to get global yet and are only licensed by the FSCA, also known the FSB. The license is registered in 2009. The licensing is relatively trustworthy. The company has not received any awards, but with its current track record, if the work is kept up in the future, they will have become one of the more respectable firms in the region.
Local thinking
The company has decided to keep itself branded and grounded within the region, which is a highly respectable decision. Over the past few years, their user base has grown and so has their reputation. While there are not that many reviews on the forums, their follower base on Facebook provides some very positive and respectable reviews, which grants the company a higher rating of approval as compared if there had been no reviews even on social media.
Final Blackstone futures opinion
The company has a lot to show for the years it has been working as a Forex broker. It has shown itself to be responsible and loved by their users, even if they are terrible at providing information to new potential clients. We would love to give the company a higher rating, but the fact that they do not provide detailed information regarding their spreads, withdrawals, account types and so on their public page makes us hesitant to do so. This information is vital to incoming clients and helps them make a decision regarding the company. In our honest Blackstone opinions, it is recommended that you try other companies before you go for this one.
Comments (0 comment(s))