RCG Markets is a South African brokerage brand, licensed in 2021. The company is headquartered in Johannesburg, SA and their FSCA license number is 49769. While the legal information is correct and nothing is wrong with the broker and their site in this sense, we still have some concerns.
Although RCG Markets is a regulated broker, their license isn’t as reliable as that issued by a strict regulatory body found in EEA, UK, US and other well-regulated areas. This RCG Markets review revises the spectrum of services this broker offers, as well as the risks laying in wait.
| Regulated by: | FSCA |
| Is This Company Safe? | The broker is regulated and therefore safe. |
| Known Websites: | https://www.rcgmarkets.com/ |
| Have Warnings from: | N/A |
| Registered in: | South Africa |
| Operating since: | 2021-03-24 |
| Trading Platforms: | MT4 |
| Maximum Leverage: | 1:2000 |
| Minimum Deposit: | ~$2.7 |
| Deposit Bonus: | Available but undisclosed |
| Trading Assets: | Forex, Indices, Commodities, Shares |
| Free Demo Account: | Not available |
| How to Withdraw from This Company? | Although this is a regulated broker, potential issues may arise. In that case, our legal experts team can help you. |
Is FSCA License Sufficient?
RCG Markets has been regulated in 2021 by FSCA – South African regulatory authority. Although this is a diligent regulator, their rules and regulatory standards do not match those imposed by Tier 1 institutions like FCA, BaFin, ASIC and others.
What does that mean for traders and investors? Firstly, FSCA doesn’t have a leverage cap like the other mentioned regulators that only accept the maximum ratio of 1:30. And while the authority helps out customers seeking compensation in case of broker’s bankruptcy, other lacking aspects still exist. That is still safer than offshore regulations like the one OInvest owns.
This makes trading at RCG Markets risky and not secure enough.That’s why we recommend either choosing a broker with additional licenses or managing your risks extremely carefully if you decide to invest here.
Countries Served
RCG Markets is, as previously noted, a South African broker. It is natural to see them mostly operating for the domestic markets and the other closest ones regionally. Here’s the list where this broker is active the most:
- South Africa
- Namibia
- Botswana
- Lesotho
- United States
As a licensed broker with developed marketing strategies, RCG Markets uses common advertising strategies to reach its potential customers. They’re active on social networks like Facebook and Instagram, and often post ads on other frequented apps. Other benefits are quick sign ups, cheap accounts, MT4 trading and more loose trading parameters.
However, there’s still risks, and we recommend choosing a better regulated broker instead. Especially if you’re a beginner. If you’ve invested here and are having troubles with retrieving your funds, please contact our legal experts.
Ratings Suggest User Discontempt
This young, although licensed, broker has still to make a name for itself. What we did was go to their Trustpilot page to examine how the broker is performing from their customers’ point of view. With surprisingly few reviews and an average rating of 2.5 out of 5, RCG Markets can’t be described as respected or preferred brokerage.
There aren’t many reviews posted yet, but this one certainly attracted our attention:
“Bad Broker. I’ve never seen a broker with the worst trading experience like RCG Markets. Execution is never accurate. which contributes to losses and there is a hidden commission when closing profitable trades you get less balance than you bargained for.”
The following report may suggest that RCG Markets misuses their position and if that is also the case with your experience, please contact us for help in dealing with this potentially dishonest broker.
Not So Affordable Services
Besides establishing that the highest leverage at RCG Markets is well over the limit imposed by Tier 1 regulators, other trading parameters aren’t so lucrative either. The highest leverage ratio you can unlock here is 1:2000, which is frighteningly risky.
On the other hand, spreads are quite higher than what is nowadays considered as an industry standard. Instead of averaging at 1 pips, spreads for the standard account start at 1.5 pips on EUR/USD. Other accounts offer lower spreads from 0.0 pips, but the commission is a high $7 per trade.
Non-Withdrawable Bonuses
As a way to spark a client’s interest, RCG Markets offers bonuses and promotions. The lack of the exact information pertaining to these is considered as a downside and insufficient transparency.
On top of that, the broker publishes that “Bonuses are not withdrawable under any circumstances and are credits on tradable margin only”. The other statement says that you need to earn at least $300 before requesting a withdrawal of trading profit made solely from the bonuses.
Risk of the broker abusing these always exists. It is, after all, the major reason why Tier 1 brokers have banned bonuses.
Quality of RCG Markets Offer
The most encouraging element that could make you appreciate RCG Markets is the trading platform provided – MT4. Otherwise, the offer of assets is quite lacking, with only the most popular instruments included. There’s also just three types of trading accounts and they do not reveal any particular features except for the trading costs. RCG Markets offer definitely lacks diversity and transparency. Another South African broker with similar offer is Provident Trade.
Trading Platforms – Only MT4
As a regulated broker you’d expect RCG Markets to show their dedication by enabling several trading software for users with different preferences. However, there’s only MT4 available to trade on. Although this prestigious software has ruled the markets for over 15 years, it’s slowly becoming outdated.
Not only that, but the web trader is not functional – the webpage leading to it doesn’t exist. You can download it to your desktop machine or use it on iPhone and Android.
MT4 Mobile Trading
It is quite considerate from a broker to provide busier traders the possibility to trade while not glued to their desktop machine. The availability of MT4 for Android and iPhone users makes sure of that. Thanks to the mobile version of the RCG Markets platform, you can trade anywhere and anytime.
Poor Choice of Assets
Another element of the RCG Markets offer we were quite dissatisfied by is the limited number of tradable assets. There’s but a several basic groups of instruments offered and this is how they go:
- Forex (EUR/USD, EUR/GBP, USD/CHF, USD/JPY)
- Indices (Nasdaq 100, DAX, AU 200, HK 50, Nikkei)
- Shares (Apple, Amazon, Nvidia, BMW, Tesla, Boeing)
- Commodities (Oil, Natural Gas, Cotton, Sugar, Coffee)
Affordable Account Types
If there’s one thing we appreciate at RCG Markets, that is how affordable all of their packages are. The RCG Markets account is opened fairly quick and easy as well. However, a Demo account isn’t available. There’s three types of live trading accounts and the basic stats and prices are the following:
- RCG Classic Account – ZAR 50 (~2.7USD) – 1.5 pips, $0 commission, MT4, leverage 1:2000,
- RCG RAW – ZAR 50 – 0.0 pips, $0 commission, MT4, leverage 1:500
- RCG ECN Account – ZAR 50 – 0.0 pips, $7 commission, MT4, leverage 1:100
Deposits and Withdrawals
All account funding as well as payouts are processed via several channels:
- Credit Cards
- Bank Wire
- E-Wallets (Skrill, Neteller)
- Crypto
For your own safety, we recommend you to always choose safe and transparent methods when available. Credit Cards always allow chargeback to be performed, as long as it’s been less than 540 days since the deposit was made. This is especially important when your funds are in the hands of less regulated and not enough regulated brokers.
If you find yourself struggling to make withdrawals with RCG Markets, please inform us of the problem and we’ll immediately see to it that your funds are safely returned to you.
Customer Support
Although the broker doesn’t make clear the support working hours, there’s several ways to contact the staff:
- Physical office
- Phone
- Online form
The broker doesn’t have an online chat feature which would be the quickest way to submit your ticket and get help in solving your issue of any kind. Otherwise, the customer service can be contacted in other ways, so it all depends which way of communicating you find the most appropriate and comfortable.
Our Advice
Based on all the intel our investigation has produced, we can conclude that RCG Markets is a properly regulated brokerage. However, since they do not own a Tier 1 license like T1Markets, we do not exactly recommend risking loss on this platform. There’s plenty of other more reliable and more strictly regulated broker powerhouses out there.
We can advise you on what would be a more safe alternative. Our legal experts team can also help you in case of not being able to recover your funds previously invested with this or any other brokerage site.
FAQ Section
What is RCG Markets?
This is a South African regulated brokerage brand existing since 2021.
Is RCG Markets Regulated?
Yes, the firm is regulated by the jurisdictional regulatory body - FSCA. However, they have no Tier 1 license, which could be risky. For help in recovering lost funds, please contact our legal service.
Does RCG Markets Have Micro Accounts?
No, the broker doesn’t offer micro accounts and there’s no demo accounts either.
How old is RCG Markets?
This brokerage is a bit over two years old.