The Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), the financial regulatory body of Spain, today published a statement stating that it has added to its warning list two unregistered companies that are illegally conducting financial services targeting the country’s residents.

The financial watchdog today blacklisted Binary Options Robots, which is currently operating through the website www.binaryoptionrobot.com. This website is a service for binary options traders that places trades into their accounts automatically, similar but not quite the same as copy trading in forex. In copy trading, you choose a person to follow and copy his trades, but binary options robot is a program that literally takes over your account.

Join the iFX EXPO Asia and discover your gateway to the Asian Markets

The FX and CFDs broker Alpha Group, operating as http://www.ialphagroup.com, was also added to the Spanish regulator’s caution list. The CNMV recommended in a statement that investors should avoid trading with both brands as they are not authorised to provide the investment services detailed in Article 140 of the Securities Markets Law, nor the auxiliary services.

Although the financial watchdog didn’t provide specific details, the inclusion of both entities means that they are not officially registered in Spain and are thus not authorized to offer trading services to local traders.

This is why the CNMV advises Spanish investors to check its registers before they deposit any fund with a broker, especially if the related broker used aggressive marketing techniques.

Earlier in March, the CNMV issued a circular setting a host of new rules regarding trading costs and risks disclosure, leverage and advertising requirements. In essence the new guidance concerns companies that offer forex, contracts for difference (CFDs) and other speculative products such as binary options among retail investors in Spain.

More specially, the CNMV notes that any broker offering ‘excessive leverage’ greater than 10:1 needs to explicitly warn investors that it believes that such products are not appropriate for retail investors due to their complexity and the risks involved.