Hello, fellow investor! After analysing the key factors, we do not recommend opening an account with Quotex. There are several red flags you should not ignore, and we go through them in this review.
We have also reviewed Pocket Option, another binary options platform with a very similar profile.
Looking for supervised and regulated brokers to invest from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Venezuela or other countries? Keep on reading!
What is Quotex?
Quotex is an unregulated online platform that offers binary options, a product where the payoff is “all or nothing” within a time frame you choose, sometimes as short as a few seconds or minutes.
Use case
Let’s say Microsoft is trading at $100 and you believe it will be above that price in 2 minutes. If it is, you get your stake back plus a fixed payout ($87 on a $100 stake in the example below). If it finishes below $100, you lose your entire stake. That’s it.
The platform is user-friendly and well designed, which makes it appealing to beginners. That is part of the problem: it makes a very high-risk product feel like a game.
Payments
Quotex offers many ways to deposit money, including bank cards, e-wallets and cryptocurrencies. Easy deposits, however, say nothing about how easy it is to withdraw:
Is Quotex regulated?
The biggest red flag: Quotex is not authorised by any recognised financial regulator. Our first step in any broker review is to check whether the platform is supervised by reputable authorities, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or regulators in the European Union. Quotex does not pass that test.
For years, the company behind the Quotex website was Maxbit LLC, registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, an offshore jurisdiction whose Financial Services Authority does not license or supervise brokers. The operating entities have changed over time, and FinTelegram has reported that more recent service agreements name a company in Saint Lucia. None of these entities is supervised by a trustworthy regulator, and there is no investor compensation scheme if something goes wrong.
Several regulators have issued warnings against Quotex or Maxbit LLC:
- CONSOB (Italy): warned in December 2021 that Maxbit was offering financial services through quotex.com and quotex.io without authorisation;
- CNMV (Spain): issued an investor warning against Quotex;
- CMVM (Portugal): warned in January 2023 that Quotex, Maxbit LLC and Awesomo Ltd are not authorised to provide financial intermediation in Portugal;
- Reserve Bank of India: Quotex is on the RBI’s Alert List of unauthorised forex trading platforms.
Residents of the US, UK, Canada, Hong Kong, the European Economic Area and Russia cannot open an account:
However, residents of many other regions (such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia and Venezuela) are not blocked, which we believe is because of weaker regulatory oversight in those markets. A warning from India’s central bank has not stopped the platform from being heavily advertised there on social media.
When signing up as a Brazilian investor, the domain changes from quotex.com to qxbroker.com, and registration is very simple (only an email, password and currency are needed):
It is common for these kinds of firms to change company names and domains regularly. Previous companies behind the website include Quotex Ltd and Awesomo Ltd, and the platform has used several domains (quotex.io, quotex.com, qxbroker.com and others).
Social media and Trustpilot reviews: are they fake?
If you explore its Instagram, you quickly find spam-like comments, which makes us wonder whether they come from real users:
Trustpilot
If you search for “Quotex” on Trustpilot, you will notice that it has a good rating:
However, after carefully reading dozens of reviews, we believe most of them are untrustworthy. Many use broad statements, lack details and use language that is not typical of a genuine customer. Most of the positive reviews were also written by people with no other reviews on Trustpilot.
Moreover, Quotex has no verified 5-star reviews, which makes us question how satisfied its customers really are:
Finally, the negative reviews show a clear pattern of complaints: difficulties withdrawing money, price discrepancies and suspected chart manipulation.
So, is Quotex a scam?
We are as confident as we can be that investing your money on this platform carries a very high risk. Whether or not it meets the legal definition of a scam, its operations raise serious concerns we cannot overlook: no licence, regulator warnings in several countries, changing offshore entities and repeated complaints about withdrawals.
There is also a structural problem. On platforms like this, the broker is usually the counterparty to your trade, so it profits when you lose. Combined with very short expiries and fixed payouts below 100%, the odds are stacked against you over time.
We strongly recommend not depositing money with a company that has so many red flags, however appealing its offer looks (a low minimum deposit, a demo account or a Quotex promo code).
Quotex alternatives
If you want to invest or trade, there are regulated brokers where your money is held under proper supervision, with transparent fees, real customer support and easy-to-use platforms. Here are our top picks:
Disclaimer: eToro is a multi-asset investment platform. The value of your investments may go up or down. Your capital is at risk. In many countries outside Europe, the UK and Australia, eToro clients are served by eToro (Seychelles) Ltd, so check which entity will hold your account.
Bottom line
Before opening an account with any broker, check the following:
- Whether the platform is regulated in major jurisdictions (such as the US, UK or EU) or by your own country’s regulator;
- Whether it appears on a regulator’s warning list, by searching the websites of authorities such as the FCA, SEC, CONSOB or CMVM, or your central bank;
- How easy it is to withdraw money, not just to deposit it;
- If you feel a “salesy” approach or pressure from an influencer or account manager, dig deeper;
- Do not trust every review you read online (check several sources), especially if no negative points are mentioned.
FAQs
What are binary options?
Binary options are a financial product with only two outcomes: win or lose. You choose an expiry time, and the payoff is fixed in advance. For example, it is Monday morning and you believe stock X will be trading above $85 at 2:30 p.m. With a binary option, you bet that the stock will finish above $85. If it does, you win the fixed payout. If not, you lose the amount you bet. That is why binary options are also called “all-or-nothing options” or “fixed-return options”, and why they resemble gambling more than investing.
Binary options differ from conventional options, which you can trade or close before expiry and whose value moves with the underlying asset. A binary option simply pays out or expires worthless.
Are binary options legal?
It depends on where you live, but in the most strictly regulated markets they are banned for retail investors. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) prohibited the marketing, distribution and sale of binary options to retail clients in the EU in 2018, and the UK’s FCA made a permanent ban in 2019. In the US, binary options can only be offered legally on regulated exchanges.
In other countries, unregulated offshore platforms like Quotex often operate without any local authorisation, which leaves clients with no protection if something goes wrong.
How does Quotex make money?
Quotex makes money because its payouts are lower than 100% of your stake. For example, you bet $50 that stock Y will rise above $20 in the next minute. If you lose, you lose $50. If you win, Quotex might pay you only $40 on top of your stake instead of $50.
Over many trades, that difference works in the platform’s favour. And since the platform typically takes the other side of your trade, every loss you make is revenue for it.
