Hugo's Way Review - Not Recommended Broker

The legal entity behind Hugo’s Way is called Hugo’s Way Limited, registered at Beachmont Business Centre in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a country widely considered as an offshore tax haven. The company doesn't hold a regulatory license, hence it is not regulated by any financial authority.

It’s important to note that not all unregulated brokers are scam. However, in our opinion, the lack of regulation is something of a red flag, therefore BrokerChooser does not recommend trading with unregulated providers.

In addition to the lack of regulation, there are other issues at Hugo’s Way that would make us advise against trading with them.

• Only limited data is available about the company, with lots of important information missing. For example, we couldn’t find a foundation date, any financial statements or a trustworthy auditor.
• Hugo's Way doesn’t offer investor protection and doesn’t take responsibility for financial losses as a result of system failure, execution problems or the lack of information.
• Probing their customer service, we found an email address and a live chat function, but our questions submitted via chat didn’t yield any relevant information or answers. Another warning sign is that there is no phone number to ring in case of emergency.
• There is also no information about key pricing details such as CFD trading commissions. You can check spreads, though, and the minimum deposit is low ($10), but we don’t think this is sufficient information for a safe account opening.

The Hugo's Way website has no information about the process of getting your money back in the case of broker insolvency or any other problems. In fact, Hugo's Way states in its Legal Risk Disclosure that it is not liable for any money lost.

As a general rule, we recommend that you thoroughly check your broker before you deposit any money. If in doubt, document everything, make screenshots, save emails and chats, so you have as much proof as possible in case you need to turn to the authorities.

If you do get scammed by a broker, here are a few options you can try to get your money back:

• You can turn to your bank and file a chargeback request; a mechanism whereby the banks involved in the transaction return the disputed funds from the account of the seller of the service if the service was not provided.
• You can take legal action and issue a so-called Mareva (or freezing) injunction against the company.

There is a higher likelihood that a broker might be a scam if:

• it is not regulated at all
• it is regulated under a jurisdiction widely seen as an offshore haven (e.g. Vanuatu or St. Lucia)
• it is featured on a warning list of a top-tier regulator (e.g. the UK’s FCA, or the SEC in the US)

If you would like to know more about scams, how to avoid them, and how to get your money back, read our Forex trading scams page.