SurgeTrader

What happened

SurgeTrader launched in 2021 and sold evaluation accounts to retail traders. FX News Group reported that it was operated by Valo Holdings Group, controlled by Naples, Florida entrepreneur Jana Seaman.

In early 2024 MetaQuotes began suspending MetaTrader licences used by prop firms that served US clients, and many firms moved to Match-Trader, a platform from Match-Trade Technologies. SurgeTrader was among them. In mid-May 2024 SurgeTrader said publicly that Match-Trade had terminated its licence. On Friday 24 May 2024 it posted on X, and in a notice on its website, that it had closed and ceased all operations. The firm said it had spent the week trying, without success, to get Match-Trade to discuss the termination. Finance Magnates reported that the firm said the licence had been cut without justification and suggested an unnamed third party may have influenced the decision.

Match-Trade gave a different account. It told Finance Magnates that it had sent SurgeTrader a termination notice on 5 April 2024, with the termination taking effect on 30 June to allow time for migration. It said the reason was SurgeTrader’s inability to meet the formal obligations in their contract, and it referred to compliance concerns. The sources listed here do not show that either account was tested by a regulator or court.

Timeline

• 2021: SurgeTrader launches.
• Early 2024: MetaQuotes suspends MetaTrader licences for a number of prop firms serving US clients, and many firms move to Match-Trader.
• 5 April 2024: Match-Trade says it sent SurgeTrader a termination notice, effective 30 June.
• Mid-May 2024: SurgeTrader announces that its Match-Trader licence has been terminated.
• 24 May 2024: SurgeTrader announces that it has closed and ceased all operations.

What it meant for traders

The closure ended all SurgeTrader accounts. Finance Magnates reported that users in the firm’s Discord said company staff had been largely unresponsive for some time before the closure. Neither the firm’s closure statement nor the press reports listed here described any arrangement for refunds of evaluation fees or for outstanding payouts.

Current status

SurgeTrader remains closed. None of the sources listed here report a relaunch, a successor programme or any regulatory proceeding against the firm.