All You Need to Know about Blueberry Markets

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#393: All You Need to Know about Blueberry Markets

In this video:
00:00 – I’m joined by Ben Clay at Blueberry Markets
00:45 – Who are the people behind Blueberry Markets?
02:23 – Where are your servers located?
04:45 – Building their online reputation
06:54 – What type of accounts can someone open at Blueberry Markets?
09:18 – Can you have an unlimited demo account?
10:29 – How do I withdraw funds?
12:09 – Safety of my funds?

I’m joined by Ben Clay at Blueberry Markets

Andrew M.:
Hi, everybody. It’s Andrew Mitchem here at The Forex Trading Coach, and I’m pleased to be joined today by Ben Clay from Blueberry Markets. Hello, Ben.

Ben Clay:
G’day, mate.

Andrew M.:
Nice to see you here. Ben, got some questions to run through from you. Asked a number of traders right round the world to ask questions to me that I can pass them on to you, basically to find out more about Blueberry Markets, what it is you do, why you’re a good broker, and why you’re my preferred broker. So if you’re all good, I’ll fire away with some questions, Ben.

Ben Clay:
Absolutely.

Who are the people behind Blueberry Markets?

Andrew M.:
The first question is, who are the people behind Blueberry?

Ben Clay:
Good question, one I get asked relatively often. Dean Hyde is actually basically the owner of Blueberry Markets, who I’ve known for about 11 years. We worked together at AxiTrader, who you obviously know, for some time. He just basically wanted to set up a broker where he thought there was a gap in the market, which was offering just really good, hands-on customer service and transparency to all of their clients. So he sort of separated from Axi a few years back and set out really on his own to come and set this up.

Ben Clay:
We’re, of course, licenced through Eightcap, down in Melbourne, which is another firm who holds the FSL. Obviously, ASIC, it’s very difficult to get your own licence when you’re first starting out. So we’re still under their licence, but they’re a very strong financially-backed firm as well and they’ve been amazing to us. So technically it’s Dean who’s behind it, and then Eightcap who runs the licence is basically it.

Andrew M.:
Perfect. I think that’s one of the nice things that I like about what you guys are. You’re very personal group. It’s real people. It’s not a call centre. It’s nice that you’re dealing with real people all the time. And that’s the feedback that I get from clients as well. It’s always someone, like that.

Ben Clay:
Well, I’m really glad to hear that. That’s what we set out to do, is have the real hands-on approach and be extremely accessible and transparent. So that’s what we set out to do, and I think we’ve done pretty good at achieving that.

Where are your servers located?

Andrew M.:
I think you’ve done very well. Absolutely. So another question, Ben. Your servers, where are they located?

Ben Clay:
Our main servers are based in Hong Kong, so that’s where the main server centre is. And while that might sound a bit strange, it’s a pretty central location to a lot of our key demographics. Having said that, though, we do have data centres all around the world, so in the main DCs like London, New York, Tokyo, Sydney, as well. The reason for that is when you’re connected to the platform on MT4, anyone who’s ever used it, down the bottom right-hand corner, there’s the little connection status.

Ben Clay:
You can actually click there and select the best data centre that’s giving you the best latency. Most of the time for me, even on Hong Kong here in Sydney, I’m still getting great latency. We do put a lot into our servers to make sure that they’re as fast as possible, but if ever anyone is ever having issues with latency, just come to us and we can sort out a VPS, and all those type of things that will bring that latency down.

Andrew M.:
Perfect. That’s good. One thing I’ve always noticed on a personal point of view is that when the market opens at the beginning of the week, you’re always there, all the pairs are open. Whereas some other brokers, that doesn’t happen for several minutes. I notice your spreads are consistent in those changeover times of the week as well, from one day to next. All that helps.

Ben Clay:
Yeah. That’s a good point you raise. Obviously when our markets open, it’s 5:00 PM in New York. That’s when the daily candle will start, at 5:00 PM in New York. That way it gives you the five daily candles through the week, as opposed to having any additional weekend candles. Through Tuesday to Friday, we’ll actually typically stop pricing for about two minutes during that time. Some brokers are a lot longer than that, but we think two minutes is pretty optimal, because spreads get so wide during that time, people can be unfairly stopped out, just due to those wide spreads.

Ben Clay:
So we really do try and do everything we can to alleviate that. Unfortunately, it is part and parcel of Forex trading. Obviously, the banks are rolling over prices. There’s less buyers and sellers at those times, so the prices do widen out, but we try to mitigate that as much as possible. It’s better to have people not be able to trade during those times on such wide prices than have them be able to enter and exit during really wide spreads.

Andrew M.:
Unnecessarily. Yeah.

Ben Clay:
Exactly right. Spot on.

Building their online reputation

Andrew M.:
Absolutely. Perfect. Question number three. How do Blueberry work towards building their online reputation?

Ben Clay:
That’s a great question. I think that, again, goes back to number one, is it was Dean’s vision, I guess, in terms of he worked at a broker for so long and constantly saw clients complaining about customer service and just not being treated fairly. So we wanted to set out and set up a broker that we would really want to trade with ourselves.

Ben Clay:
All being traders, what would we want in a broker? And that came down to personal account managers. Every single client has their own account manager. You might speak to someone else in service every now and then, but at the end of the day, that person is your account manager and will always be that account manager. We got our online reputation just by really trying to do the right thing by all of our clients.

Ben Clay:
We’re not perfect. Sometimes things do go wrong with our system servers. Obviously, this can happen. What we really saw a big difference was how clients were treated when things do go wrong. As an example, what we were talking about before, widened spreads. Sometimes a client might come to me and say, “Hey, Ben, I got stopped out. This spread got to 70 Pips over market rollover.”

Ben Clay:
And I’ll say, “Look, mate, while that is a valid price and that’s a legitimate, that’s the price of getting from our liquidity providers, I don’t think that’s fair. I’m going to refund that trade.” It’s just all about putting ourselves in the client’s shoes and really saying, “If I was the client, how would I want to be treated in that circumstance?”

Andrew M.:
Nice.

Ben Clay:
We just really fought for that to build our online reputation.

Andrew M.:
Perfect. I think that’s why we work well together, because that’s my philosophy as well. It’s a smaller, personalised business, but striving to be the absolute best and to realise what people want and to deliver that.

Ben Clay:
Yep, absolutely. And it’s really important for us that as we grow, we don’t lose that as well, because I have seen brokers definitely lose that as they get bigger and bigger. We’re really focusing on scalability and making sure that the bigger we get, we’re still giving that hand-holding experience and one-on-one customer service.

What type of accounts can someone open at Blueberry Markets?

Andrew M.:
Perfect. Ben, leading onto, someone says, “I want to come and trade with Blueberry,” what type of accounts can someone open in terms of MetaTrader or where you get accounts where you have very tight spreads, but commission, or that type of system? What offers have you got there? What choices do people have?

Ben Clay:
Sure. In the simplest of terms, we have the Standard and Pro accounts. Standard accounts are just our regular spread. They have a mark-up imposed from us on top of what our liquidity providers put in. That’s how most brokers make their money, from that mark-up. On the Euro, you’re looking at starting off at about 1.1, 1.2 of a Pip and the majors will be similar to that. That’s just spread, no commission. That’s what it’ll always be. The minimum deposit size for that account is just $100. That’s a bare minimum.

Ben Clay:
Then we have the Pro account, which is a $2,000 minimum. That has spreads that are reduced by one whole Pip. So it’s basically a raw spread, what we’re getting from our liquidity providers with no mark-up whatsoever, and then there’s a commission charge on top per lot. For example, in Australian dollars, if you were to have a Pro account, one lot would cost you seven Aussie dollars, and then you would have the raw spread on top of that.

Ben Clay:
So it works out to be a bit cheaper across the board, and then it all comes down to preference as well, whether people prefer spread versus commission. With us, you’re not limited to one account. You can have a Pro account, a Standard account, to test them out and see what works best for you. There could also be the potential for, if someone is trading higher volume, we do have sort of VIP accounts where you can have a reduced spread on top of that as well, and some little extra added benefits. But that’s more so for larger deposit size and whatnot, which we’ll get into at a later date.

Andrew M.:
Yeah, [crosstalk 00:08:26]. Cool. And MT4 and MT5, the choice of both?

Ben Clay:
Yep, absolutely. MT4 and MT5. It all comes down to preference again. I personally still prefer MT4.

Andrew M.:
Same here.

Ben Clay:
It’s just what I learned on, and I know you too, as well.

Andrew M.:
I remember MT3.

Ben Clay:
Exactly. MT5 does actually offer a lot more products. We do have some cryptos, platinum on there as well, as well as the US dollar index. So if you are after a little bit of a wider product range, MT5 is definitely the way to go. But if it comes down to preference and you just want to be trading currencies and metals and indices, MT4 is the way to go.

Can you have an unlimited demo account?

Andrew M.:
Nice. No, it’s good you’ve still got the choice as well. What about a demo? Can someone get a 30-day demo? And also, if they become a client and open a live account, could they go to unlimited? Is that possible, unlimited demo?

Ben Clay:
Definitely, yeah. The demo does typically last 30 days, will usually automatically expire after those 30 days, but if you have a live funded account, even if you’re not placing trades on it yet, if you have a live funded account set up, just come to us and ask for a permanent demo. We’ll get you one that never expires, so you can use that. Even still, I’ve been trading for 11 years, every now and then I’ll still go back to a demo account and have a look at a strategy. So it’s handy to have that there.

Andrew M.:
I think that’s a great bonus that you offer, really, because it’s very nice for people. That’s why I like what you offer with the coaching side of things. Even if someone’s been trading for years, I say, “Look, get on a demo, if you’re new to the way that I’m trading, and practise on a demo. Make sure you’re consistently profitable on that and trade it properly. Don’t treat it like Monopoly money. Do that well, and then move on to real money.”

Ben Clay:
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Treating the demo like it’s a real account is very, very important.

How do I withdraw funds?

Andrew M.:
That’s right. No, perfect. Nice. So how do I withdraw funds? It’s a question that you see around the internet. People go, “I’ve made some money. I’m struggling to withdraw funds, or it’s taking too long.” What’s your take on it?

Ben Clay:
That’s a question that I probably get asked every day, and it’s a question that you should be asking your broker, no matter where you are.

Andrew M.:
That’s right. Yes.

Ben Clay:
One of the most bizarre questions I ever get asked is, “Can I withdraw my funds or is there a maximum amount I can withdraw?” Which I’m always perplexed at that, because for one, it scares me to know there’s brokers out there that don’t send funds back and that people actually have to ask those questions. But those funds are the client’s funds, at the end of the day, and can be withdrawn any time they wish, with any amounts.

Ben Clay:
We have no need to hold onto client’s funds. With us, you simply just go into the client portal and request the withdrawal from there. That typically is done back to the same method you funded with. So in the simplest of terms, if you funded $1,000 via a credit card, we would first refund that $1,000 back to the credit card, and then any profits are sent to your bank account directly.

Ben Clay:
We don’t charge anything for any withdrawals, bank deposits, credit cards, whatever. There’s no fees. Sometimes the receiving bank will charge for a bank wire withdrawal, but if their doing it’s an issue, just come to us and we’ll refund it.

Andrew M.:
Yeah. Awesome. That’s really good. And from a personal point of view, I find the same thing. Click on the button, it’s there within a day. And that’s overseas as well, so it’s even better.

Ben Clay:
Yeah. It’s a little bit faster just across the pond to you guys in New Zealand, I think, but it’s usually two to three days.

Andrew M.:
The wind’s blowing the right way.

Ben Clay:
Exactly.

Safety of my funds?

Andrew M.:
Last question, Ben, regarding ASIC, and this kind of related to the last question, I suppose. Everybody’s always, and rightly so, concerned about safety of funds, segregated accounts, those type of things. How are things set up with Blueberry so that we know, as traders, our funds are safe?

Ben Clay:
Absolutely. Again, another question that you should always be asking your broker. We’re regulated by ASIC, of course, which follows AML, which is anti money laundering laws, and then follows Australian client money laws, which have become a lot more strict in the light of some unfortunate Forex brokers in the past that have given the industry a bad name.

Ben Clay:
Basically what that means is that funds have to be held in segregated accounts that are kept separate from the company funds. So in other words, operating day-to-day client funds are separate from our operating business day-to-day funds. So, can’t be used to cover staff wages, client losses, any of those things. It’s there to cover margin for the clients in a segregated fund. So if anything is to happen to Blueberry, so to speak, then the client funds are kept separate from our company funds and can’t be touched.

Andrew M.:
Awesome. That’s good to know. And so lastly, Ben, if someone says, “I like what I hear, I’m recommending Blueberry as well,” how does someone get in touch with you? What’s the next step so they can trade through Blueberry?

Ben Clay:
Absolutely. In all honesty, the easiest way is just to jump on our website at blueberrymarkets.com. Simple links there, open live accounts. My email address is just [email protected]. If you ever need to reach out to me, I’m always on my email. I work 18 hours a day, most of the time. [crosstalk 00:13:41]-

Andrew M.:
You do, because whenever [inaudible 00:13:39], you’re always there.

Ben Clay:
I try to. I try to. But jump onto the website. We’ve got live chat there. There’s Contact Us buttons, or you can simply apply for a demo or a live account directly from the website.

Andrew M.:
Awesome. So people know what to do, make it very easy. And from my point of view, I know we joke about it, but look, honestly, whenever I ask questions to you or to Dean or anybody else, it’s always an instant reply and it’s always from the person I’m writing to. So it works, we appreciate it, and you’re doing a great job.

Ben Clay:
Thank you very much, Matt. I think you are doing a phenomenal job over there. I get so much positive feedback from your clients-

Andrew M.:
Good.

Ben Clay:
… so keep up the good work as well.

Andrew M.:
Awesome. Thanks, Ben. Catch up next time.

Ben Clay:
Thank you, Andrew. Take care, mate.

Andrew M.:
Bye.

Ben Clay:
Bye-bye.

Episode Title: #393: All You Need to Know about Blueberry Markets

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