AZ Trades is a foreign exchange broker registered and located in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Founded by a team of professionals, they aim to provide the best pricing, liquidity and, execution, to offer innovative technology, a variety of trading instruments, to provide all-year-round customer support, to guarantee deposit protection and more. Throughout this review, we will see what services are being offered and how they are living up to their goals.
Account Types
Should you decide to sign up, there are 7 different accounts to choose from, that is a lot of options so lets briefly look at what each one offers.
Classic Account: The Classic account has a minimum deposit of $200, it has minimum trades starting at 0.05 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:400. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a fixed spread with an added commission. Expert advisors are not allowed.
Islamic Account: The Islamic account has a minimum deposit of $200, it has minimum trades starting at 0.05 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:200. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a fixed spread with no added commission. Expert advisors are not allowed.
Variable Account: The Variable account has a minimum deposit of $2,500, it has minimum trades starting at 0.05 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:400. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a floating spread with an added commission. Expert advisors are allowed on this account.
Silver Account: The Silver account has a minimum deposit of $10,000, it has minimum trades starting at 0.1 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:400. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a fixed spread with an added commission. Expert advisors are allowed on this account and it also has access to daily insights and a prepaid card.
Gold Account: The Gold account has a minimum deposit of $25,000, it has minimum trades starting at 0.2 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:400. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a fixed spread with no added commission. Expert advisors are allowed on this account and it also has access to daily insights and a prepaid card as well as free SMS notifications.
VIP Account: The VIP account has a minimum deposit of $50,000, it has minimum trades starting at 0.5 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:200. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a fixed or variable spread with no added commission. Expert advisors are allowed on this account and it also has access to daily insights and a prepaid card as well as free SMS notifications. The account also has 24/7 trading available.
Crypto Account: The Crypto account has a minimum deposit of $5,000, it has minimum trades starting at 0.05 lots and can be leveraged up to 1:100. It uses MetaTrader 4 and has access to 24/7 customer support along with an account manager. Its currency can be in EUR, USD, or GBP and hedging is allowed. It has a variable spread with an added commission. Expert advisors are allowed on this account and it also has access to daily insights and a prepaid card as well as free SMS notifications. The account also has 24/7 trading available.
Platforms
AZ Trade uses MetaTrader 4 as its only trading platform. MT4 has become the most popular system for trading FX across the globe. Enjoy full charting capabilities, use custom indicators and explore the world of automated trading using Expert Advisors. It is available as a desktop download, a mobile application for your mobile devices and as a web trader to use in your browser. Being stuck with just one platform is normally negative, but when it is MetaTrader 4 you cannot go wrong.
Leverage
The leverage that is available depends on the account in use, we have outlined them below.
- Classic: 1:400
- Islamic: 1:200
- Variable: 1:400
- Silver: 1:400
- Gold: 1:400
- VIP: 1:200
- Crypto: 1:100
Leverage can be selected when opening up the account. Once leverage has been chosen it cannot be changed.
Trade Sizes
The minimum trade sizes are also dependant on the account you are using, we have detailed them for you below.
- Classic: 0.05 lots
- Islamic: 0.05 lots
- Variable: 0.05 lots
- Silver: 0.1 lots
- Gold: 0.2 lots
- VIP: 0.5 lots
- Crypto: 0.05 lots
It is unknown what the maximum trade size is or what the maximum number of open trades you can have at one time.
Trading Costs
The accounts page indicates that there is some commission on the Classic, Variable and Silver accounts, however, we could not work out what it was, the FAQ mentions other fees and commissions but not the commission on trading which is a little strange. There are also swap charges for holding trades overnight and these can be both positive or negative, they can be viewed within the trading platform of choice.
Assets
Unfortunately, there is not a full breakdown of available assets or even an overview of them available, we would expect there to be some sort of contract specification available, but there is not. Potential clients will have no idea what is available to trade.
Spreads
As there is no product specification there is also no detailed list of spreads so we do not know what they are starting at. What we do know if that the Classic, Islamic, Silver, Gold and VIP account shave fixed spreads, this means that they do not change. The Variable, VIP and Crypto account shave variable spreads which means they move with the markets and when there is a lot of volatility they will often be seen higher.
Minimum Deposit
The minimum deposit is $200, we are not sure for which account that is for but that is what the FAQ says.
Deposit Methods & Costs
There are just two main ways to deposit into AZ Trade, these are using Visa / MasterCard Credit and Debit cards or by Bank Wire Transfer. There are no added fees from AZ trades, but be sure to check with your own bank to see if they add any transfer fees of their own.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
When withdrawing you can only withdraw to your Credit / Debit card until the value of withdrawals matches the deposits, then you must use Bank Wire Transfer to withdraw. There are no added fees when withdrawing to your Credit / Debit card, it is not clear if there are any added fees for Bank Wire Transfers.
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
Withdrawal requests should be fully processed from between 1 to 5 business days depending on your own bank or card issuers processing times.
Bonuses & Promotions
There is a bonus section on the site however it does not appear that there are any promotions or bonuses running when we are writing this review. If you are looking for bonuses, we would suggest contacting the customer service team to see if there are any new ones coming up that you can take part in.
Educational & Trading Tools
There are a few pages of education and tools however they are pretty basic. There is a page on both Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis, both pages are just single pages outlining different aspects of the different types of analysis. There is a live charts section that shows you up to date charts from various currency pairs and stocks. Finally, there is an economic calendar that tells us about upcoming news events and the market that the news may affect.
Customer Service
Should you have any questions or queries the customer support team is available to help from 08:00 to 18:00 on days when the markets are open. You can contact them a number of ways, firstly, is the send message box, simply fill it in and you should get a reply via email. There is then a physical address as well as a number of emails and a phone number.
Address: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, Beachmont, P.O Box 1510, Kingstown St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Support Eamil: [email protected]
Compliance Email: [email protected]
Finance Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 20 3807 7302
Demo Account
Demo accounts are available and allow potential clients to test out the markets and for existing clients to test new strategies without any risk. Unfortunately, the link to sign up was not working and there is very little information about the trading conditions or any potential expiration.
Countries Accepted
The following was found in the FAQ: “As per CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) in the USA; OSC (Ontario Securities Commission) and BCSC (British Columbia Securities Commission) in Canada regulations, we are not allowing those countries’ residents to open trading accounts with us.” If you are unsure of your eligibility, we would recommend contacting the customer service team to check prior to signing up.
Conclusion
There are a lot of accounts to choose from, possibly too many and it overcomplicates things, each having different features means you can find the one that best suits you. Certain information surrounding them is missing such as spreads and minimum deposit requirements. Talking of spreads, it is unknown what they start at, as is the entire list of assets which is a shame. In terms of deposits and withdrawals, there is every limited method, luckily there are no added fees. AZ Trades can be quite daunting to new clients, so if you are a first time trader we would recommend looking elsewhere.
