Finotec is an online foreign exchange broker that is based in the UK, it is fully licensed and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They have pointed some of their main advantages as boing:
- Fully FCA regulated and compliant broker
- MT4 – MT4 web – MT4 Mobile platform
- Lightning Fast Execution
- Tailored account solutions
- MAM Account Options
- IB Solutions
- Professional and Experienced Trading Brokers
- Advanced Trading Tools
As we go through this review, we will be looking into their services in a little bit more detail to find out exactly what is on offer and to see how they compare next to the competition.
Account Types
There are four different accounts available from Finotec, and they all seem to offer the exact same trading conditions. The main differences are in the extra services that are available to them, so in regards to trading conditions we will outline them as we go through each individual section of this review, we have outlined the key features of each account below.
Classic Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of at least $1,000, it comes with daily briefings & research, access to the desktop and mobile trading platform, and access to video tutorials.
Gold Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of at least $10,000, it comes with daily briefings & research, access to the desktop and mobile trading platform, access to video tutorials, competitive spreads, and access to webinars & seminars.
Platinum Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of at least $25,000, it comes with daily briefings & research, access to the desktop and mobile trading platform, access to video tutorials, competitive spreads, access to webinars & seminars, the account has a general account manager, and SMS news & signals.
VIP Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of at least $100,000, it comes with daily briefings & research, access to the desktop and mobile trading platform, access to video tutorials, competitive spreads, access to webinars & seminars, the account has a general account manager, SMS news & signals, access to premium daily analysis, and access to premium customer care.
Platforms
Finotec uses the powerful MetaTrader 4 trading system that allows you to implement strategies of any complexity. Market and pending orders, instant execution, and trading from charts, stop orders and trailing stops, a tick chart, and trading history, all these tools are at your disposal. Thousands of free and paid signals with various profitability and risk levels working on a demo and real accounts are at your fingertips. MetaTrader 4 provides the full-fledged environment for the development, testing, and optimizing of algorithmic/automated trading programs. The platform is also usable as a desktop download, mobile application, or from within your internet browser in the form of a web trader.
Leverage
The maximum leverage available is 1:1000 which is very high, normally we would not recommend trading over 1:500 as once you go any higher the risk to the account grows exponentially, but it is nice that leverages so high are offered. You are able to select the leverage when first opening up the account, should you wish to change it on an account you are already using, you should send the customer service team a request to change it for you.
Trade Sizes
Trade sizes start from 0.1 lots which are known as mini-lots, we do not know if the increments go up in 0.01 lot sizes or 0.1 lot sizes. We also do not know what the maximum trade size available is or how many open trades and orders you can have at any one time.
Trading Costs
There aren’t any commissions or fees stated on the site, however, within the terms of business, there is the following statement:
“You will pay our charges without set-off or deduction, details of which have been provided to you by your Relationship Manager (subject to any additional charges set out in this agreement).”
This indicates that there may be some trading fees, but we do not know what they are. There are however swap charges, these can be positive or negative charges for holding trades overnight, they can be viewed from within the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and from on the website directly.
Assets
The assets have been broken down into three different categories, we have outline those categories as well as the instruments and assets within them so you can get a better understanding of what is on offer from Finotec.
Forex: EURGBP, EURJPY, EURNZD, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDSGD, USDCHF, USDJPY, ERNOK, EURSEK, EURTRY, GBPSEK, GBPTRY, USDCNH, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDNOK, USDSEK, USDTRY, GBPZAR, USDCZK, USDHUF, USDMXN, USDZAR, ZARJPY.
Indices: UK 100, Aussie 200, Nikkei 225, German DAX, BEX 35, IBEX 50, CAC 40, Hang Seng, NASDAQ, S&P 500, Dow Jones.
Commodities: Gold, Silver, US Crude Oil, Brent Crude Oil, Natural Gas.
Spreads
Spreads seem to start from around 0.4 pips, we had to use the demo account to find this out as there wasn’t any information provided on the site, due to them being so low it makes us believe that there may well be a commission charged on the live account, either that or the spreads will be higher on the live accounts. The spreads are variable which means they will move with the markets, the more volatility, or less liquidity the higher the spreads will be, as usual, different instruments also had different starting spreads, so some did not go as low as 0.4 pips.
Minimum Deposit
The minimum amount required to open up an account is $1,000 which will allow you to open and use the Classic account, we do not know if these amounts are reduced for further top-up deposits into an already open account, but based on the higher opening deposit, it is most likely that there will be a reduced limit.
Deposit Methods & Costs
The only methods that seem to be available to use are Bank Wire Transfer, SafeCharge, and UnionPay. We say only, SafeCharge allows you to use up to 250 different methods including Credit/Debit Card, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, and more, so your preferred method of deposit should be available to use. There are some additional fees when depositing which we have outlined below.
Bank Wire: Unknown
SafeCharge:
- $0 – $500,000 – 2.95% fee
- Over $500,000 – 2.8% fee
UnionPay: 3.95% plus $0.35 per transaction.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Bank Wire Transfer, SafeCharge (which included hundreds of methods such as Credit/Debit Card, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal), and UnionPay. Just like with the deposits, there are some additional fees when withdrawing your funds.
Bank Wire: Unknown
SafeCharge:
- $0 – $500,000 – 2.95% fee
- Over $500,000 – 2.8% fee
UnionPay: 3.95% plus $0.35 per transaction, plus a 2% credit fee plus 20 EUR.
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
Finotec will aim to process your withdrawal request within 24 hours of it being made, however, you should allow up to 3 days for verification. Once the request has been processed by Finotec it could take an additional 1 to 5 working days for the transfer to fully process depending on the method used.
Bonuses & Promotions
We did not notice any information pertaining to bonuses or promotions so it does not look like there are any active at the time of writing this review. If you are interested in them, you should get in touch with the customer service team, they will be able to let you know if there are any coming up that you may be able to take part in.
Educational & Trading Tools
There are a few sections relating to education and tools. For education there is a page simply explaining what Forex is and another letting you know what CFDs are, they are rather basic and won’t necessarily make you a better trader. There is a video tutorial page, but it currently appears to be empty, so not the most useful, there is also an eBook available, this is going over the basics of trading, which could be useful if you are just starting out. The final educational thing is a glossary, this details different trading-related terms that you can refer back to in case you come across something you do not know the meaning of.
There are also a few tools available, the first being an economic calendar, it details upcoming news events and also lets you know what potential impact they could have on the markets, there is also a profit calculator available along with some real-time charts, the final tools is a traders chat, this has a blog, forum and chat where you can communicate with other traders for ideas and help.
Customer Service
The customer service team can be contacted from the bottom of the site, their opening times are not stated but we suspect that they will be closed over the weekends and on bank holidays.
You can use the online submission form, simply fill in your query and you should then get a reply via email. There is also a phone number, email address, and postal address available should you wish to use any of those methods of contact.
Address: Finotrade UK, 1-4 Bury Street, Holland House, London EC3A 5AW, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 2033 187 716
Demo Account
Demo accounts are available for the MetaTrader 4platform and will allow you to test out the trading platform as well as the possible trading conditions and new strategies without any real risk. We suspect that the demo conditions mimic those of a live account, we do not know if there is an expiration time on the demo account though.
Countries Accepted
This information is not stated on the site, so if you are interested in an account, we would highly recommend contacting the customer service team just to make sure you are eligible for an account before you open one up.
Conclusion
Finotec offers a wide range of accounts that offer different features, they all seem to have the same trading conditions though. You are able to sue a massive 1:1000 leverage which is nice to have but better to stick to a slightly lower number, trade sizes start at 0.2 lots which is fine for deposit over 1,000, however, we do not really know the true trading costs, we do not know if there are any commissions but we suspect that there are based in the terms of business and low spreads in the demo account.
Thanks to SafeCharge, there are plenty of ways to deposit your funds, however, there are fees for both depositing and withdrawing which is a bit of a shame. MetaTrader 4 is available and there are enough ways to contact the customer service team, as well as plenty of assets to trade. Now that you have the information, the decision to use them is all yours.