A few months ago I received an advertising email in which the trading robot Autobinary SEA was advertised with flowery words (“Fully automatic trading … earn up to 2638 Euro per month …”). At first I was skeptical because I don’t think much of these How-to-Become-a-Millionaire-in-5-Weeks schemes. But according to the email as a reward for testing the beta version you should get 200 Euro real money if you then continue trading with the robot and real money via the trading platform Cedar Finance (located in Cyprus). To get the money, you should simply send a screenshot with your grounded account balance to the email sender. Later, only about 300 Euro per month in usage fees would be due for the software – a trifle compared to the income one would have with it. This seemed only fair to me.

Since I have a penchant for high-tech computers that make it easier to earn money, I finally got involved. The trial version was also advertised as the latest (optimized) version. In order to be best equipped for trading with Autobinary SEA, I now researched the internet about the binary options broker and the robot. What I read there caused me mixed feelings: there was talk of losses, of dubious machinations, but also of good business and a solid additional income of about 30 euros per day on average. These ratings came from users who were not stock exchange professionals, but merely experienced hobby traders. All I found out about the broker was that he has a good reputation in the industry. The good trading platform and the very service-minded customer service were expressly praised. So I put aside my initial doubts and loaded the software onto my hard drive. Then I signed up with the binary options broker Cedar Finance. I set the maximum stake for the trades at 7 USD according to the loss minimization strategy. My skepticism disappeared completely after I had made my first successful trades. I was fascinated: The software even confirmed the trades for me (the previous version couldn’t!). I stared hypnotized at my account, which miraculously grew without my help. As announced in the promotional email, 4 out of 5 trades were successful! The first two days with the software were more than successful: At the end of the first day I had earned more than 100 USD in about 5 hours, even though I wasn’t even at home in between. Also on the second day everything went well. I was totally thrilled and planned to continue with the robot. On the third day, however, he started to execute faulty trades. In the beginning there were only a few. But then it became more and more. I couldn’t explain it at all and thought of a technical error. Until I suddenly got the message that the demo version was finished and that I should load my Cedar Finance account with real money (200 Euro or USD). I took a screenshot of my account balance (486 USD) and sent it to the software operator with the request to transfer the promised 200 Euro. No answer from the Robot Wonderland. Even an email sent several days later was not answered. Then the other email contact came to my mind and I contacted him. The email came back as undeliverable! My frustration grew. Further emails from me also landed in the vastness of the high-tech universe. But I decided not to be beaten yet and recharged my broker account with 200 Euro real money. After all, the legendary robot had served me well in the beginning. I continued to trade with small stakes of 7.50 € and 10 € in order to keep possible losses as low as possible and as the manuals had taught me. However, the binary options robot did not work as it did before. In my frustration I wrote to the broker. The much praised live chat from Cedar Finance also proved to be an absolute flop. The robot was working worse and worse. After less than two weeks I had almost used up my credit and gave up. Until today I don’t know why the robot confirmed wrong signals. Frustrated, I deleted the software from my laptop and wrote an email to Cedar Finance asking them to delete my account immediately – which they haven’t done yet.
I racked my head and searched for the causes. My research on the Internet revealed nothing: No unusual occurrences at the broker’s, as far as technical faults are concerned. I observed the functioning of the platform over several weeks at different times of the day – no technical breakdowns were noticeable. It couldn’t have been my laptop, because it usually works absolutely flawlessly. My mobile internet stream is also quite acceptable in most cases, apart from some minor dropouts (which, by the way, couldn’t explain all loss trades). That Autobinary SEA had a “web error” can’t be true, because it worked well in the beginning. After a long period of unsuccessful research, I finally came to the conclusion that the robot obviously does not process real-time signals from Cedar Finance’s trading platform. It is probably programmed to work well in the trial version, so that the enthusiastic customers will be able to log on to Cedar Finance in droves. And the software inventors get their commission from the broker. I learned later that this is actually the case.

My verdict: Never again! No more cedar finance, no more robots. Even though I was aware that trading with Forex is a risky business, which is expressly pointed out on every trading platform. Next time I want to throw money away, I just open the window and let the notes fly. At least that’s not so nerve-wracking.

Experience report written by Mandy, 53 years, Berlin