Land-FX is a foreign exchange broker situated in Cyprus and regulated bt he Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Their overall vision is to be the best FX company, they aim to do this by providing the highest standards of customer service, and ensuring that the clients are treated fairly. Throughout this review, we will be looking at different aspects of Land-FX to see if they achieve this and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.
Account Types
There are two different accounts available, including a Standard account and an ECN account. Below is a brief overview of each.
Standard Account: The standard account has a minimum deposit amount of $300, it can have a base currency of USD, EUR or JPY. The account can be used with both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 and has access to forex, CFDs, commodities, metals, oil, and futures. Leverage can be up to 1:500 and the lowest spreads start from 0.8 pips. There are no added commissions and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots with the maximum being 50 lots. A margin call is at 50% with stop out being at 30%. The account can also be used as an Islamic account.
ECN Account: The ECN account requires a minimum deposit of at least $2,000, it comes with leverage up to 1:200 and spreads starting as low as 0 pips, due to this low spread, there is a commission of 0.3 pips one way or 0.6 pips per round lot traded. The account can use only MetaTrader 4 and has access to forex and metals. The minimum trade size is 0.01 lots with the maximum being 30 lots. The account must be in USD or EUR and there is no Islamic version of the account. The margin call level is set at 50% with the stop out level being at 30%.
Platforms
There are two main trading platforms as well as a social trading platform available, lets briefly look at what they are.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4): Many years ago, MetaTrader 4 established itself as the standard within the Forex industry. Combining an intuitive user interface with a feature-filled environment, MT4 provides everything a trader could ever want or need in order to analyze charts, place orders and manage their current positions. Land-FX clients are provided with a combination of trading tools and Expert Advisors (EAs).
MetaTrader 5 (MT5): The MT5 platform is the latest forex trading platform to be released by MetaQuotes. MetaQuotes has included all of the features that made traders appreciate MT4, and then made them even better. This latest version of MT5 includes plenty of EAs and signals and also includes the capability to hedge positions. MT5 allows for charting assets for 21 different time frames and provides the ability to keep as many as 100 charts open at any given time.
Leverage
The standard account has a maximum leverage of 1:500, the ECN account has a maximum leverage of 1:200. The leverage can be selected when opening up an account, should you wish to change it on an already open account you will need to contact the customer support team with your request.
Trade Sizes
Trade sizes on both accounts start from 0.,01 lots (known as a micro lo) and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. The Standard account has a maximum trade size of 50 lots and the ECN has a maximum trade size requirement of 30 lots. These are both appropriate maximums.
Trading Costs
The ENC account has an added commission of 0.3 pips one way, so a total of 0.6 pips added commission. The Standard account does not have any added commission due to having a spread based payment structure. There are also swap charges which are an interest charged for holding trades overnight, this can be viewed from within the trading platform of choice or from on the Land-FX website.
Assets
The assets have been broken down into three visible categories, these are currencies, commodities, and indices. We will outline the instruments within each.
Forex: AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURCZK, EURDKK, EURGBP, EURHDK, EURHUF, EURJPY, EURMXN, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURRUB, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, EURZAR, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPCZK, GBPDKK, GBPHKD, GBPHUF, GBPJPY, GNPMXN, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPPLN, GBPSEK, GBPSGD, GBPTRY, GBPUSD, GBPZAR, NOKSEK, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDSGD, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDDKK, USDHDKD, USDHUF, USDILS, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY and, USDZAR
Commodities: Brent Crude, WTI Crude, Gold, Silver, Palladium and, Platinum
Indices: DE30, EU50, FR40, SP500, UK100 and, US30
Spreads
The spreads that you get depends on the account you are using along with a few other aspects. The standard account has spread starting from 0.8 pips but they are closer to 1.3 pips, the ECN account has spread starting from 0 pips but will often be at least 0.1 pips.
The spreads are variable which means they constantly change, and when the markets are being volatile they will often be seen higher. Different instruments will also have different spreads so on the ECN account, EURUSD may have a spread at 0.1 pips, EURCAD as an example as a spread at 1.9 pips.
Minimum Deposit
The minimum deposit required to open an account is $300 which gets you the Standard account, if you want the ECN account you will need to deposit at least $2,000. Once an account is open, the subsequent deposits have a minimum of $5.
Deposit Methods & Costs
There are a few different methods available, these are Visa / MasterCard Credit / Debit Card, Sticpay, Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller, Skrill, Fasapay, UnionPay, Perfect Money, WebMoney, and Bitcoin. Land-FX will cover all fees when you make a deposit that is more than the minimum (over $100). Be sure to also check with your own bank or processor to see if they add any fees of their own.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Visa/MasterCard Credit/Debit Card, Sticpay, Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller, and Bitcoin. Withdrawals must go back to the method used and once you have withdrawn the same amount as deposited by Visa or MasterCard you must use another method to withdraw.
The following fees are present for the methods:
- Bank Wire Transfer – Bank Fees
- Visa / MasterCard – No fee
- Sticpay – 0.3 USD + 2.5%
- Neteller – 2% (min 1 USD, max 30 USD)
- Skrill – 1%
- Fasapay – No fee
- UnionPay – No fee
- Perfect Money – 1.99%
- WebMoney – 0.8%
Bitcoin – No fee
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
There isn’t a specified withdrawal time, but it states that Credit / Debit card withdrawals will be processed within 4 to 7 business days and bank wire withdrawals will take 2 to 5 working days to reach your account.
Bonuses & Promotions
It does not look like there are any bonuses active at the time of writing this review. The brokerage does, however, offer promotions from time to time. For example, Land-FX is set to run a demo account trading contest soon. Everyone is invited to participate, even those who do not yet have a fully funded live trading account.
Educational & Trading Tools
There isn’t too much when it comes to educational tools, there is an economic calendar that details a number of different upcoming news events along with the markets and currencies they can potentially affect. The news and analysis section simply shows trading hours along with some basic analysis in the markets, giving you an idea of where the markets can go and for trade setups.
Customer Service
The customer service team is available 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday, there are a few different ways you can get in contact with them. You can use the online submission form to send your questions or query, you should then get a reply via email, there is also a phone number to call and three email addresses for different departments.
Phone:(+44)2071939990
Help: [email protected]
IB & Affiliate: [email protected]
Deposits and Withdrawals: [email protected]
Demo Account
A demo account is available, they can be used to test the accounts and servers and also used to test new strategies without risking any capital. When opening a demo account it is a little confusing as the account names are not related to those we have seen before, you can choose the leverage you want along with the deposit amount.
Countries Accepted
The following statement is present on the website: “Land-FX does not offer its services to residents of certain jurisdictions such as USA, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea and listed / relevant parties of Consolidated United Nations Security Council Sanctions Lists.” If you are unsure of your eligibility, then we would recommend getting in contact with the customer service team to find out.
Conclusion
Land-FX offers plenty in the way of choice, the account types are both very different and can be chosen to suit your trading needs, there are also lots of different assets to trade, however, more commodities would have been nice. When it comes to depositing and withdrawing, again plenty of options and no fees for deposits over $100 is nice, but it would be even nicer to not have the withdrawal fees present. The trading conditions seem competitive which is great and so Land-FX seems like they could be a good broker to trade with.
