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VIBHS is an online foreign exchange broker that was established in 2013 and is based out of London in the United Kingdom. VIBHS are fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and have over 50 years of combined experience on their senior management team. They offer a growing range of services that are provided through their global office network and regulated framework. VIBHS is proud to provide its clients with a range of user-friendly platforms, which cater to many languages and are extremely user-friendly. Through these platforms, customers have access to a variety of global markets.

So let’s jump into the review and see exactly what VIBHS is offering their clients.

Account Types

It seems that VIGHS is keeping things simple in the accounting department as there seems to just be a single account available. So as we go through this review, everything that we mention will be relevant to this single account type. We have outline da few of its major features below but will go into them in more detail as we go through the review.

Account Details:
The account requires a minimum deposit of $200 in order to open up, it comes with a maximum leverage up to 1:200 and has an average starting spread of 1 pip. The account can use the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and has multiple methods to deposit into it.

Platforms

There are three different platforms available when trading with VIBHS, you can have the more traditional style of trading through the use of MetaTrader 4, but then there are some less conventional ways of trading through two different platforms, let’s look at what is on offer.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4):
MetaTrader 4 was released by MetaQuotes back in 2005 and has become one of the world’s most renowned and most used trading platforms. It can be used as a desktop download, mobile application or as a web trader on your internet browser. It offers features like one-click trading, multiple charts, and timeframes and it is compatible with thousands of indicators and expert advisors which can be sued to help with your in-platform analysis and also allows for automated trading.

Dabbl:
Dabbl is an interesting platform, it allows you to search for a brand, theme or company in order to find investment ideas, it uses a technology that helps to translate complex data into insights which can help you decide how to trade. You can then follow and track the company, then choose how much in investment. Your investments are covered by the Government’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to a value of £85,000.

Torch:
Torch is an algorithmic auto trading software. Start off by defining your strategy basics. Simply choose your ‘instrument’, and then select the time frame over which you want your strategy to run. Set your parameters for trading – such as your stop loss and take profit – to stay in complete control of your investment. See how your newly-created strategy measures up in a safe setting. With Torch Markets you can back-test against historical price action, dating up to 10 years. Choose how far back to go; and get results in a matter of seconds. Adjust and refine the parameters until you are ready to test using current market data, with our paper testing feature. Deploy your newly created algorithm on the live markets.

Leverage

VIBHS is required to follow the recommendations from the ESAM, this means that the following limits are placed on the leverages available:

Leverage limits on the opening of a position by a retail client from 30:1 to 2:1, which vary according to the volatility of the underlying:

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices
• 5:1 for individual equities and other reference values
• 2:1 for cryptocurrencies

It is not clear if VIBHS will allow professional traders to have higher leverage if they do then the leverage for professional traders will be 1:200 as a new maximum level.

Trade Sizes

The smallest trade size starts from 0.01 lots which are equal to 1,000 base currency units as a full lot is equal to 100,00 base units. The trades then go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is but would recommend not trading over 50 lots in a single trade. We do not know how many open trades or orders you are able to have at any one time.

Trading Costs

While going through the site we did not come across any information that was talking about commissions, so we are not entirely sure if there are any, but by the looks of it, there are not and instead their accounts use a spread based system (we will look at that later in this review).

There will be swap charges involved, these are fees that are charged for holding trades overnight, they can be both positive or negative as they depend on the difference in interest rerates. These can be viewed within the trading platform that you are using.

Assets

VIBHS have broken down their assets into a number of different categories, we have outlined them below so you can get an idea of what sort of instruments are available to trade.

Forex:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDSGD, AUDUSD, CADJPY, CADSGD, CHFJPY, CHFSGD, CADCHF, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURDKK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPSGD, GBPUSD, NZDCHF, NXDJPY, NZDSGD, NZDUSD, SEKJPY, SGDJPY, USDCAD, USDSCHF, USDCNH, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDPLN.

Indices:
AUS200, HK50, US500, FR40, EU50, ES35, JP225, UK100, DE30, US30, UT100, CH20.

Commodities:
Gold, Silver, Natural Gas, US Oil, UK Oil, WTI Crude Oil, Brent Crude Oil.

Crypto:
BTCUSD, BTCAUD, BTCEUR, BTCGBP, BTCJPY, BTCPLN, ETHUSD, ETHAUD, ETUEUR, ETHGBP, ETHJPY, LTCUSD, XRPUSD.

Spreads

Spreads seem to start with an average spread around 1 pip, from our understanding the spreads are variable which means they will move with the markets, the more volatility that there is, or lack of liquidity will cause the spreads to grow larger. There are also different spreads for different pairs, so while some may average around 1 pip, other currencies or assets may average around 2 pips instead.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up a new account is $200, you can also deposit the same amount in GBP, USD, EUR, PLN or AUD. We are not sure if the minimum amount reduces once an account has already been opened but we suspect that it will, however, how low we do not know.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The website indicates that there are just two different methods available to deposit with, these are Bank Wire Transfers and Dinpay. Dinpay is a method for Chines clients to deposit using their bank or prepaid cards. Different sites over the internet also indicate further deposit methods but they are not mentioned on the site so we will not let them here.

In regards to any fees, there isn’t anything mentioned on the deposit page so we would expect that there aren’t any, your bank, however, may charge some transfer fees of their own so be sure to check with them prior to making a deposit.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods seem to be available to withdraw with, for clarification those are Bank Wire Transfer and Dinpay.

Once again there is no mention of any potential fees, this does not mean that there aren’t any, we just do not know what they are. You should always check with your own bank or payment provider to see if they add any incoming processing fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

The website states “VIBHS Financial process deposits within minutes to 24 hours (slower due to a large number of transactions) and process withdrawals within 24hours (typically) to 72 hours (slower due to a large number of requests).”

Withdrawals will be processed within 3 to 5 business days from the request of them being made. It will then take an additional 1 to 5 working days for your request to fully process, this time depends on the processing time of your own bank or payment processor.

Bonuses & Promotions

There don’t seem to be any active bonuses at the time of writing this review, there is a promotion on a VPS service though, you are able to get a discount on a VPS server when trading with VIBHS, the do not give a lot of information away about the discount or the promotion as a whole, but we know that it is there and available. That seems to be all there is in regards to promotions from VIBHS.

Educational & Trading Tools

The news and education side of the site is a little sparse, there is just the one page which is for news events, unfortunately, it does not look like the page has been updated since February 2019, so we do not a thin kit is still being actively used.

Hidden in the footer of the site there is another set of education and tools available, the first is some signals, they aren’t very detailed and simply stated to buy or sell, various currency pairs and commodities are included in the list, we do not know the accuracy or profitability of these signals. There is also an eBook available to read or download, it goes over the basics of trading. The video section also has a number of videos outlining various aspects of trading from the basics to analysis strategies. The final section is an Economic Calendar, this details different upcoming news events and also the potential impact that the news could have on the markets.

Customer Service

The customer service team can be contacted between 8 am to 5 pm from Monday to Friday, they are closed over the weekends and on bank holidays.

You re able to use the provided online submissions to send in your query, you are also able to use the available email address, phone number or postal address, giving you a choice of contact methods.

Address: 11/12 Tokenhouse Yard London EC2R 7AS UK
Phone: 020 7709 2038
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts re a great way to test out the markets, trading platforms or new strategies without having to risk any of your own capital, so it is good to see them available from VIBHS. You are able to open up a demo account to use on MetaTrader 4, while the actual conditions of the account are not made clear, we suspect that they will mimic the conditions that we have specified throughout this review, the only information we do not know if whether or not there is an expiration on the accounts.

Countries Accepted

This information is not stated on the website, so if you are thinking of signing up with VIBHS, we would recommend getting in contact with the customer support team just to make sure that you are in fact eligible for an account, we would do this prior to opening one up.

Conclusion

VINGS tries to keep things simple with just the one account type, in terms of the available platform they have given a bit of variety, however, if you are looking for just the traditional trading experience there is only MetaTrader 4 available to use. In terms of the trading conditions, they are relatively competitive, it does not look like there are any added commissions and the spreads start pretty low at around 1 pip, the main downside is the lack of leverage, as the recommendations from the ESMA are being followed, the majority of clients will be stuck with a maximum leverage of 1:30 which can reduce the profit potential of the account quite a lot. There is also a limited number of ways to deposit and withdraw which could limit some potential clients, however, there are no fees which is positive.

Ayondo is a UK-based company that offers both trading and social trading platforms. Ayondo is better known for its social platform as one of the bigger entrants in that market. Founded in 2008, Ayondo has won a number of awards and recognitions for its innovation and service. Ayondo is a social trading platform that allows traders to copy other traders and works slightly differently to the standard broker, so throughout this review, we will be looking into the services on offer to see how they live up to the competition.

Account Types

There are two different account types, the trading account or social trading account, there isn’t a lot of information given out about them, so as we go through this review we will be looking into the different features being offered and will outline them within each section. There is a social account and a trading account that is based on the platform that you are going to be using.

Platforms

There are also two different accounts available which are based on the account type that you use.

Social Platform:
This platform allows you to copy the trades of other traders on the site. You can search through using various filters, drag traders into your trading list and then copy their trades with just £2,000. There are plenty of features to help with risk management and profitability.

Trading Platform:

This platform comes with the following features:

• Input notional amounts for trades
• Trading for value allows you to quickly adjust positions
• Constant support
• 24-hour dealing desk
• Fast and accurate execution
• Free telephone trading
• Personal client service based in London, Frankfurt, and Singapore
• Trade on the go
• Access TradeHub® wherever you are, on your PC, tablet or mobile
• Download the TradeHub® app for iOS and Android

Leverage

The trading side of Ayondo, Bux Markets follows the recommendations of the ESMA which are as follows

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices
• 5:1 for individual equities and other reference values
• 2:1 for cryptocurrencies

If you are considered a professional trader then you are able to have leverage up to 1:200.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on both the social and trading side start at 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

We did not see any mention of any commissions as it seems that both sides of the broker use a spread based system that we will look at later in the review, there are two charges which will be charged when holding your trades overnight, you can vire these swaps within the trading platform that you are using.

Assets

The assets have been broken down into a number of different categories, we have outlined them below along with the instruments within each category.

Currencies:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURDKK, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPUSD, NOKSEK, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDJPY, USDNOK, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDZAR.

Crypto:
Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple.

Indices:
UK 100, Wall Street, US 500, US Tech 100, Germany 30, European Stocks 50, France 40, Spain 35 + more

Shares:
There are plenty available from all over the world including UK, US, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and more.

EFTs:
QQQ Nasdaq, SPDR DJIA, SPDR Gold, SPDR S&P 500, Vanguard, iShares.

Commodities:
Gold, Silver, Platinum, US Crude Oil, Brent Crude Oil, and Wheat

Spreads

The spreads seem to start from around 0.7 pips, however, there is a wide range of spreads as each instrument has a different starting spread, so while EURUSD may start at 0.7 pips, a different instrument such as AUDCAD has a starting spread of 5 pips. The spreads are also variable which means they will move with the markets and will grow larger and smaller depending on how much liquidity or volatility there is in the markets.

 

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is £2,000. We are not sure if this amount reduces once an account has been opened but we suspect that it will.

Deposit Methods & Costs

You are able to deposit into Ayondo using both Bank Wire and Credit/Debit Card. There may be other methods available however they are not mentioned on the site so we cannot say for sure. We also did not locate any information in regards to any potential fees or commissions, you should, however, check with your own bank or card issuer to see if there are any added transfer fees from them.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

We do not have much information on withdrawals either, you can certainly use Bank Wire Transfers as a withdrawal method, but we do not know about the Credit/Debit cards or any other available methods., Once again we also do not know if there are any added fees or commissions, but check with your own bank for any incoming transfer processing fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We do not have any concrete information on this, however, we would expect any withdrawal requests to be fully processed within 1 to 5 working days from the request being made, however, we cannot say this for sure.

Bonuses & Promotions

Looking through both sides of the site there does not appear to be any active promotions or bonuses, if you are thinking of joining and like bonuses, you could always contact the customer service team to see if there are any available, however, Ayondo is not known for their bonuses.

Educational & Trading Tools

The education side of the site isn’t really an education, it is more just a group of pages giving you an idea of what different things mean. There is a page explaining what CFDs are, what spread betting is and then a glossary of trading-related terms which you can refer back to just in case you come across something that you do not know the meaning of.

Customer Service

There are offices in both London and Frankfurt, the client services are open between 08:00 and 17:00 UK time, and the trading desk is available between 22:15 on Sunday and 22:15 on Friday UK time.

You are able to use the available postal addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses for both locations (London and Frankfurt).

London Details:
Address: BUX Financial Services Limited, 2nd Floor, Canvas, 35 Luke Street, London, EC2A 4LH, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 (0)20 3326 2131

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available from the Trading side (Bux Markets), the trading conditions on the account will mimic the trading conditions mentioned in this review and allow you to trade and test out new strategies without any real risk, we do not know if there is an expiration on the account though.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present at the bottom of the website: “The information on this site is not directed nor is intended for distribution to, or use by, any person in any country or jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to local laws or regulations. Such residents and countries include, but are not limited to, the United States.”

Conclusion

There are two very distinct services on offer and neither of them gives us all the information that we really need. There is a slightly higher than normal minimum deposit requirement of £2,000 which could price out relatively new traders. The leverage on offer is also relatively low, it is capped at 1:30 for most clients due to the ESMA recommendations which can greatly limit profit potentials. The lack of information on deposit and withdrawal methods is also disappointing and for the reasons mentioned above, we would currently not recommend Arondo as a trading service or a social trading platform, as there are better out there of both departments.

FXM Capital is a foreign exchange broker based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, their main values are respect, honesty, security, technology, and research, aiming to be the best and to provide the best. Throughout this review, we will be looking into the services being offered by FXM Capital to see if they manage to achieve this and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are three different accounts available from FXM Capital, each having its own features and requirements.

Basic Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of $250 to open, it has a standard market spread and leverages up to 1:100. There are no automatic trading or account managers with this account. The account can be in EUR or USD and has no limitations on the assets available to trade. It grants you access to the basic forex education and is available in an Islamic swap-free version. There is a maximum of 20 orders open at one time and there is no commission, hedging is also allowed.

Advanced Account:
This account increases the minimum deposit of up to $5,000. The account comes with balance spreads and maximum leverage of 1:200. The account has access to automatic trading as well as access to an account manager. It uses both USD or EUR as a base currency and there are no limitations on tradable assets. Access is granted to the advanced forex education and the account is also available as an Islamic account. A maximum number of 50 open orders at one time and there is now commission, hedging is also allowed on this account.

Premium Account:
This is the top tier account and so have a required deposit of $25,000 which will price out a lot of retail traders. The account comes with lower spreads and the leverage can be decided along with your account manager which this account grants you, it also gives you access to automatic trading as well as the advanced and professional side of the forex education. The account can be in EUR, USD or GBPO as a base currency and there are no limitations on the available assets to trade. Order execution is instant and there is also an Islamic version available. 100 open orders are allowed at the same time and there is no commission, once again hedging is allowed on this account.

Platforms

FXM Capital is offering MetaTrader 5 as their only trading platform, so lets briefly look at what this platform offers.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5):
Plenty of features from this platform created by MetaQuotes, some of these include customizable user-friendly interface; 4 execution methods: Request, Market, Instant, and Exchange, a great variety of analytical tools, advanced charting system and numerous analytical objects, technical indicators, time periods, and scaling models, built-in advanced reports for analysis of trading activity, support of automated trading software, one-click trading; optimized strategy tester. It also has a desktop version along with a WebTrader for use on internet browsers and mobile apps for both Android and iOS, offering the complete accessibility package a trader needs.

Leverage

The leverage that you get depends on the account you are using, if you have the Basic account then your maximum leverage will be 1:100, if you have the advanced account then it will be 1:200. It is unknown what the maximum for the Elite account is.

Leverage can be selected when opening up an account, if you want to change it once open, you can request this by contacting the customer service team.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots, they then go up in increments of 0.01 lots. There isn’t a mentioned maximum trade size, however on the Basic account you can have a maximum of 20 orders at one time, 50 on the Advanced account and 100 on the Premium account.

Trading Costs

There is no added commission on any of the accounts as they use a spread based system that we will look at later. The only other cost mentioned is swap charges, these are charged for holding trades overnight and can be both positive or negative. Swap charges can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

There isn’t a list of available assets or any sort of breakdown so we are unable to identify what sort of assets are available to trade, this will be a put off for a lot of potential clients who would be looking to see what assets are available for them to trade.

Spreads

Spreads are another aspect that is not available for us to view, the account page is a little confusing too, it currently states.

• Basic Account: Standard Market Spreads
• Advanced Account: Balance Spreads
• Premium Account: Lower Spreads

We are not entirely sure what these mean, what we can assume is that the higher tier accounts have lower spreads, but again what they are we have no idea.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is currently $250 which will get you the Basic account, it seems that any future top-up deposits have the same minimum attached to them.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The only methods currently available to deposit with are Credit / Debit cards (Visa and MasterCard) and Bank Wire Transfer. There are no added fees, however, make sure to check with your bank or card issuer to see if they add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, however for credit/debit cards, you are only able to withdraw the same amount that you had deposited, after that, you will be required to use Bank Wire Transfers to withdraw your money. As with deposits, be sure to check with your card processor and bank to see if they add any of their own fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

You must verify your account before requesting a withdrawal, FXM Capital will aim to process requests within 48 hours, on average it will take between 1 to 5 business days for your withdrawal to processes and is dependant on your own bank’s processing times.

Bonuses & Promotions

It does not appear that there are any active promotions at this time, we could not locate any information regarding them on the site or the terms of service. If you are interested in bonuses, you could contact the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming promotions.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are some very basic educational tools, the main one being an introduction to the markets, this is very basic and won’t be making you into an expert. There is also an economic calculator which details upcoming news events along with the currencies that they may affect. There are video tutorials but these are based around how to use the MetaTrader 5 trading platform rather than how to trade. Finally, there are some articles and a glossary of terms should you come across something you do not understand the meaning of.

Customer Service

You can get in touch with the FXM Capital customer service team in a few different ways, there is a physical address, email address and two different phone numbers, one for the UK and one for Sweden.

Address: Suite, 305 Griffith corporate center, PO Box 1510, Beachmont Kingstown, St.Vincent and the Grenadines
Email: [email protected]
UK: +442036420535
Sweden: +46843737621

Demo Account

You can create a demo account however it will not be a demo account of one of the FXCM Capital accounts, instead, it will be a standard MetaQuotes demo account. This isn’t really helpful for potential or existing clients as you are not trading the same conditions as the main accounts, so some strategies may work on demo but not on real accounts.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present on the site: “If you are a citizen and/or resident of United Kingdom, Japan, USA, Russia, Ukraine or Canada, you are not allowed to use our services. Please leave this site immediately.” It seems a little extreme, but if you are not sure of your eligibility, be sure to contact the customer service team to find out.

Conclusion

The trading conditions offered by FXM Capital seem ok, apart from the confusion as to what the spreads are or what the statements about the spreads actually mean, so it is hard to really pinpoint the cost of trading without knowing them. There is also a lack of deposit and withdrawal methods which could limit potential clients who prefer to use methods that arent currently supported. The last point is regarding information about the tradable assets, or lack of information. It is important for people to be able to see what is available to trade, unfortunately, that is not available here so we do not know how many or which assets are available. For those reasons, it is quite hard for us to recommend FXM Capital as a broker to sue at this point in time.

GCC Brokers is a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines based foreign exchange broker who claimes to be of the leading brokerage firms. They aim to provide trading resources, competitive conditions such as tight spreads, low deposit sand high leverage. We will be using this reive to loo kat what is on offer and to see how they compare to the competition in this very competitive market.

Account Types

There are four different accounts to choose from when signing up with GCC Brokers, so let’s look at what they offer.

Micro Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $50 and a maximum deposit limit of $300. The account comes with fixed spreads starting from 3 pips with leverage up to 1:400. The account can have a maximum of 100 trades open at any one time and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. It uses market execution and there are no added commissions. Swap charges are present as is slippage.

Standard Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $300 and a maximum deposit limit of $50,000. The account comes with floating spreads starting from 1 pip with leverage up to 1:200. The account can have a maximum of 200 trades open at any one time and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. It uses market execution and there are no added commissions. Swap charges are present as is slippage.

Pro Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $50,000 with no maximum deposit limit. The account comes with raw spreads and leverages up to 1:100. The account can have an unlimited number of trades open at any one time and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. It uses market execution and there are no added commissions. Swap charges are present as is slippage.

Swap-Free Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $300 and a maximum deposit limit of $50,000. The account comes with floating spreads starting from 2 pips with leverage up to 1:200. The account can have a maximum of 200 trades open at any one time and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. It uses market execution and there is an added commission of $20 per lot traded, there are also no swap fees or slippage on the account.

Platforms

The only platform available is MetaTrader 5 which is the younger brother of MetaTrader 4 and uses many of the same features, some of them include the ability to trade stocks, futures, currencies, precious metals, CFDs and digital currencies, online news, and marketing reports. technical analysis keeps all transaction records, supports all order modes, offers multiple account management, real-time market, real-time quotation monitoring, charts, and sales reports, and it allows for automated trading systems.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available to you depends on the account you are using. The Micro account can be leveraged up to 1:400, the Standard and Swap-Free account can be leveraged up to 1:200 and the Pro account can be leveraged up to 1:100. Leverage can be selected when first opening up an account and can be changed on an active account by contacting the customer service team.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on all accounts start from 0.01 lots (known as a micro-lot) and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is. The maximum number of open trades depends on the account the Micro account can have 100 orders, Standard and Swap-Free account scan have 200 and the Pro account can have an unlimited number of open trades/orders.

Trading Costs

The only commission is on the Swap-Free account which has an added commission of $20 per lot traded. The other accounts all use a spread based system.

There are also swap charges for the Micro, Standard, and Pro accounts, these are fees charged for holding trades overnight and can be viewed within the trading platform you are using. The Swap-Free account does not have these fees included.

Assets

GCC Brokers have broken down their available assets into a number of categories, we have listed them below along with the included instruments.

Forex Majors:
EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, USDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD.

Forex Minors:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDSGD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCDHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURNZD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPSEK, GBPSGD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, SGDKPY, USDDJJ, USDHKD, USDHUF, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR.

Metals:
XAUUSD, XAUEUR, XAGUSD, XAGEUR. (Gold and Silver).

Indices:
AUS200, AUST20, CHINA50, US30, EU50, FRA40, GET30, MCAP50, HOL25, HIS 50, ITA40, JP225, US100, ES 50, SGXSING, SWE30, SWI20, SGXTAI, TECH30, UK100, USINDEX.

Energies:
UK Brent Oil, US Crude Oil, Gasoline, Heating Oil, Natural Gas.

Soft Commodities:
Sugar #1, Soybean. Coffee Arabica, Wheat, Corn, copper.

Spreads

The Micro account has fixed spreads starting from 3 pips, the Standard account has floating spreads starting from 1 pip, the Pro account has raw spreads and the Swap-Free account has floating spreads starting from 2 pips.

Fixed spreads mean they do not change with the markets and will always remain the same while floating (or variable) spreads will move with the market and at the time of higher volatility will often be seen higher than the stated amount.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $50, this will get you access to the Micro account, if you want a higher tier account then you will need to deposit at least $300 or $50,000 for the Pro account.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The page detailing the deposit methods is currently not available and simply states that it is coming soon. There are however a few images on the page which indicate that Skrill, Neteller, Wire Transfer, MasterCard, and Visa will all be available if they are or not we cannot say for sure. We also do not know if there are any added fees for deposits but would always advise you to check with your own bank or processor to see if they add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same page is available for withdrawals so the same coming soon message is displayed, we believe that Skrill, Neteller, Wire Transfer, MasterCard, and Visa will all be available for withdrawals. As usual check with your bank or processor for incoming transfer fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We, unfortunately, do not know this information either, we would expect any withdrawal requests to be fully processed within 1 to 5 working days fro the date of the request being made.

Bonuses & Promotions

The three promotions on offer are simply telling us to be ready, they are coming soon! So it looks like there aren’t any active promotions tr the moment. You coulda always check back to see if they have started or get in contact with the customer service team to see if they have any upcoming promotions you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

The only two tools available, the first being a news section which sadly is blank. The second is a glossary of trading-related terms, you can refer to it if you come across a term or phrase you do not understand. That is all there is, unfortunately, many brokers are looking to help their clients improve on their trading so it would be nice to see GCC Brokers add a little bit more in this department.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available 24 hours a day from Sunday 22:00 to Friday 22:00 GMT. You can use the online submission form to send in your query, you can also use the postal address provided or the customer support email, dealing desk email or sales email provided.

Address: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, Beachmont, P.O. Box 1510, Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo account sare available and they allow you to test out the markets and new strategies without any real risk. The account seems to last indefinitely and you can get a choice of leverage of 1:100, 1:200, 1:300, 1:400 or 1:500 and a balance between 1,000 and 1,000,000.

Countries Accepted

This information is not available on the site so if you are thinking of signing up, we would recommend getting in touch with the customer service team just to make sure that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

The three available accounts offer some small differences, mainly the spreads, we are a little confused over commissions simply because the Pro account has spread as low as 0 pips but no added commissions, which seems a little strange to us. The other trading conditions are competitive and there are plenty of instruments and assets available to trade. Our main concern comes to the deposit and withdrawal methods, there isn’t any concrete information available, this is not good for new clients as they need to know how they can get their money in and out and equally as important if it will cost them anything to do it. Without that information, it is hard to recommend them as a broker to sue at this point in time.

FxNice is a foreign exchange broker located in Virginia, United States. FxNice claims that some of their best points include their customer support, offering 24/5 support to all clients, reports by their in-house research team, education of their clients through tutorials and more. Safety, keeping funds and data safe and being a trustworthy business, offering transparency to their clients and partners. Throughout this review we will be seeing they manage to live up to this or if they fall short.

Account Types

There are three different accounts available, each one having their own requirements and features, so lets briefly look at what each one offers.

Mini Account:
The mini account has a minimum deposit requirement of $100, it must be in a base currency of USD. It has spread starting from 3 pips and uses the ECN execution type. Due to being an ECN account, there is an added commission of $6 per lot traded, the leverage on the account can go up to 1:500 and the trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. There is no maximum number of open trades and the account is swap-free. Scalping and hedging are allowed and the margin call level is set between 30% and 40%.

Standard Account:
The Standard account increases the minimum deposit requirement up to $2,000, it must be in a base currency of USD. It has spread starting from 2 pips and uses the ECN execution type. While it does use ECN execution, there is no added commission on this account, the leverage on the account can go up to 1:500 and the trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. There is no maximum number of open trades and the account has swaps, however, a swap-free version is also available. Scalping and hedging are allowed and the margin call level is set between 30% and 40%.

Premium Account:
The Premium account increases the deposit requirements up to $5,000, it must be in a base currency of USD. It has spread starting from 1 pip and uses the ECN execution type. While it does use ECN execution, there is no added commission on this account, the leverage on the account can go up to 1:500 and the trade sizes start from 0.01 lots. There is no maximum number of open trades and the account has swaps, however, a swap-free version is also available. Scalping and hedging are allowed and the margin call level is set between 30% and 40%.

Platforms

Just the single trading platform on offer from FxNice, this is MetaTrader 5 (MT5), a trading platform by MetaQuotes. MT5 is a well known and widely used trading platform providing a whole host of features. It has the ability to show multiple charts at the same time, to trade micro-lots, offers one-click trading, hedging, and is compatible with hundreds and thousands of indicators and expert advisors. MT5 is also highly accessible as it can be used as a desktop download, a mobile application or as a web trader in your internet browser, ensuring you can access it and trade wherever you are.

Leverage

The leverage on all three accounts go up to a maximum of 1:500, the leverage can be selected when opening up a new account, should you wish to change it on an already open account then you will need to get in contact with the customer service team to request this.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots on all three accounts and they go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We are not sure what the maximum trade size is, but we would recommend not trading over 50 lots in a single trade due to execution times and slippage. There is no maximum to the number of trades you can have open at any one time.

Trading Costs

The only account with an added commission is the Mini account which has an added commission of $6 per lot traded which is in line with the average we see across the industry. It is strange that this account has the commission, as it is also the account with the highest starting spread. The other two accounts just use a spread based system.

There are also swap fees on the Standard and Premium accounts which are interest charges for holding trades overnight, swap-free versions of these accounts are also available.

Assets

The assets at FxNice have been broken down into four different categories, unfortunately, FxNice does not give us a breakdown of what they are, instead of each section simply gives an overview of what each category is, we have tried to find as much as we can and have outlined them below.,

Forex:
FxNice does not give exact examples of the currency pairs available, they simply state that currencies from the US, Japan, UK, Euro Zone, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, and New Zealand are tradable with them.

Metals:
From what we can see Aluminium, Iridium, Copper, Nickle, Palladium, Platinum, Gold and Silver are all the available metals for trading.

Energy:
FxNice gives some examples of energies that are traded, but they are just basic examples, it does not state if any of them are also tradable with them, the only ones mentioned that are tradable are Brent Crude Oil and WTI Crude Oil.

Crypto:
Unfortunately, there aren’t any specific examples given, but we can see that cryptocurrencies are available to trade at FxNice.

Spreads

The spreads depend on the account that you use, the Mini account has spread starting from 3 pips, the Standard account has spread starting from 2 pips and the Premium account has spreads starting from 1 pip.

The spreads are available which means they move with the markets when there is a lot of volatility they will be seen higher, the different instruments also have different starting spreads and the figures mentioned above ar ethe minimums.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit is $100 which will allow you to open up the Mini account, if you want a commission-free account you will need to deposit at least $2,000 for the Standard account. It is unknown if the minimum deposit reduces once an account is already open.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different ways to deposit, these are Bank Wire Transfer, Credit / Debit Card (Both Vias and MasterCard), Neteller, Bitcoin, and Skrill.

It is unknown if there are any added fees from FxNice as this information is not stated, however you should check with your own bank or processor to see if they will add any fees of their own. It is not uncommon for banks to assess their own fees on bank wire transfers.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

All accounts must be fully verified before being able to withdraw, it is not actually clear exactly which methods are available to withdraw but we would assume they are the same which are Bank Wire Transfer, Credit / Debit Card (Both Vias and MasterCard), Neteller, Bitcoin, and Skrill.

Just like with the deposits, there is no indication of any fees, so it is unknown if there are any, but check with your bank or card issuer to see if they will add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

The exact processing time from FxNice is not specified by them, however, the only figure they do state is that credit. debit card withdrawals will take up to 3 working days. We would expect al withdrawal requests to be fully processed between 1 to 5 business days from the request being made.

Bonuses & Promotions

It does not appear that there are any bonuses or promotions active at the time of writing this review, this does not mean that there won’t be any in the future, so if there aren’t any active when you are looking, be sure to contact the customer service team to see if there are any promotions coming up that you can take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are a few different aspects available when it comes to education and tools, the first being an economic calendar that details upcoming news events as well as any potential effects they may have in the markets. Next is a heat map that tells you where the majority of trading is happening and in which direction it is currently going. There is a currency converter, but when we looked it was not loading properly, there is also a pivot points table, but again this was not loading when we looked at it. Finally, there is a traders’ room, which just outlines how to perform certain things with FxNice, nothing that will make you an expert trader.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available from Monday to Friday between 07:30 am and 19:00 pm. There are a few different ways that you can get in contact with them, you can use the broker favorite online submission form, simply fill in your question or query and you should then get a reply via email. You are also able to contact three different locations which are Mumbai, London and, Honduras using email addresses, physical addresses or phone numbers.

Mumbai:
Address: 319, NCP, Mind Space, Malad West, Mumbai 400 064
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (+91) 90290 10161

London:
Address: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC 2H9 JQ
Phone: +44 702 401 0699

Honduras:
Address: La Estancia, Final Del, Torre Consortium 1, Boulevard Morazan, Tegucigalpa, Honduras CA

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available when creating a demo account you can select leverage of 1:100, 1:200, 1:300, 1:400 or 1:500, you can also select a balance of 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000. There doesn’t seem to be any other options and so we are not sure which account type the demo account will mimic, we are also not sure if there is an expiration time on the demo account.

Demo accounts are great because they allow potential clients to test out the markets and trading conditions while also allowing existing clients to test out new strategies without risking any of their capital.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present on the FxNice website: “It is the responsibility of the Client to ascertain whether he/she is permitted to use the services of the FXNICE brand based on the legal requirements in his/her country of residence”

That isn’t the most helpful statement, so if you are not sure of your eligibility, we would recommend contacting the customer service team to find out.

Conclusion

There was a little confusion when we looked at the three accounts on offer, the one account with the added commission was also the account with the highest spread, we are assuming this is due to it not having any swap charges. There isn’t a huge difference between the accounts apart from the spreads.

The overall trading conditions seem ok, but we do not know what assets are available, there are only a few examples instead of a full specification or breakdown, so it can be hard to judge if the assets you like to trade will be available. Information about deposits and withdrawals is there, but when it comes to withdrawals we are not fully aware of which methods are available or what the costs are. Should you like the look of FxNice, just be wary about any potential deposit and withdrawal fees.

We hope you like this review if you did be sure to check out some of the other reviews so you can find the broker that is right for you.

The Olympus Finance Group (or OlympusFX) is an international forex broker based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. They claim to be technology-driven, client-focused and offer core values of integrity, excellence and continual self-improvement. We will be using this review to delve deep into the services being offered by OlympusFX to see how they stack up against the competition and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

We are a little lost when it comes to what account types are available when signing up there is just the option of a live account, however, in parts of the FAQ it talks about there being multiple account types (without mentioning them explicitly) so we do not know what is actually available. In this review, we will be looking at different parts of the broker, so if we come across any differences then we will outline the differences in the potential accounts.

Platforms

OlympusFX offer MetaTrader 5 (MT5) as the sole trading platform on offer, Metatrader 5 is highly customizable and convenient. It includes charting tools, market indicators, scripts, and EAs, advanced risk management, real-time market execution and more. Hugely accessible, MT5 is available as a web trader in your browser, a mobile application for your mobile devices and as a desktop download. Whatever you need from a trading platform, MT5 will be able to provide it.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available from OlympusFX is 1:500 which can be selected when opening up an account, should you need to change it on an account that is already open then you will need to contact the customer service team with your change request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from as low as 0.01 lots (known as a micro lot) and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. It is not known what the maximum trade size is or what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time. Whatever the maximum trade size is we would recommend not trading over 50 lots due to slippage and execution speed with larger trades.

Trading Costs

Unfortunately, we do not have any information surrounding the trading costs such as commissions, spreads or swap fees, so we can’t comment much on this site, except to express our disappointment as this information is vital and should be present.

Assets

It seems that there are three different types of assets available, we will outline what can of them below.

Forex:
There isn’t any information given on the forex side of things, no breakdown or specification of the available products.

Metals:
When it comes to metals it seems that Gold and Silver ar ethe only two available to trade.

Cryptocurrencies:
There are a few different crypto coins available to trade, these include Bitcoin Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, Litecoin, and SataCoin.

Spreads

We do not know what the spreads start at or what they average, the only information that we do know is that they are ECN spreads and that they are variable spreads. Variable spreads mean that they constantly move, when there is added volatility in the markets they will be seen higher and when the markets are calm they will be lower and more stable.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amounts are broken down by currency type, as shown below.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The deposit page gives ASEAN Bank Transfer and RMB Bank Transfer as the only two options, so bank wire transfers are the only method available. There also does not appear to be any fees added for deposits however OlympusFX states that the client will be responsible to pay their own banks transfer fees and any fees created by the client due to errors or processing or details given.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The only way to withdraw from OlympusFX is via bank wire transfer, the withdrawal form needs to be filled in and then it will be pending waiting for processing.

There is no mention of any fees for withdrawing however it also does state anything to do with no fees for withdrawing, be sure to check with your own bank to see if they add any transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

A little statement on the site states: “If a deposit or withdrawal is not carried out instantly, it will be completed within 24 hours.” so this indicated that withdrawal requests will be processed within 24 hours. After this, the time it takes will depend on your own bank’s processing time but is normally completed between 1 to 5 working days after being processed by OlympusFX.

Bonuses & Promotions

You can receive an up to 100% bonus on your deposits, the following table outlines the deposit, bonus, and requirements to turn it into real funds.

You have 30 days to complete the turnover requirement or the bonus will be removed from your account.

Educational & Trading Tools

Apart from a couple of pages explaining what forex is, there isn’t anything related to education, this is a shame as a lot of modern brokers are now looking to help their clients become better traders by giving them education or tools, it would be nice to see OlympusFX do something similar for their clients.

Customer Service

If you need to contact OlympusFX there is just one way to do it, that is through an online submission form, fill in your name, email, and message and you should get a reply via email. It is a little concerning when there is no contact information provided on the site, not even an email is present, it does not build up a lot of confidence in us as it makes it look like they do not want to be contacted or known.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available, demo account sallow potential new clients to test out the servers and trading conditions, it also allows existing clients to test out new strategies without risking any of their own capital. There isn’t any information about the terms of the demo accounts like the trading conditions or any sort of expiration time, so it would be good to have some of this information added to the site.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site, so if you are thinking of signing up with OlympusFX, we would recommend getting in contact with the customer service team prior to doing so.

Conclusion

There isn’t much for us to say about OlympusFX, there is so much information missing from the site that whatever the positives are, they are massively outweighed by the negatives, we will say it is up to you if you join them, but we would strongly suggest looking elsewhere.

We hope you enjoyed this Olympus FX review. If you did, please be sure to check out some of the other reviews to find the broker that is right for you.

Amenda Markets is an independent forex broker and wealth management firm offering broker and asset management services as well as solutions for issues related to investments of private and corporate clients. Amenda Markets is licensed and regulated by the Financial and Capital Market Commission of Latvia. We will be using this review to look into the service on offer and so see how they compare to the competition, it will also give you the chance to see if they are the right broker for your trading needs.

Account Types

It seems that there are just two accounts available, one catered towards retail clients and the other towards professional clients, elts have a look at what they offer.

Retail Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of 200 EUR in order to open. The spreads on the account can apparently go as low as -1.5 pips, there is a trading fee of 0.0037% per side so 0.0074% per lot traded. There are swap fees on the account and the maximum leverage is 1:30. The account can be in USD, EUR, GPB or JPY and there is a minimum trade size of 0.01 lots, they go up in steps of 0.01 lots and there is no maximum trade size or a number of allowed open traded. The margin call level is set at 80% with the stop out level at 50%. It uses market execution and both hedging and scalping are allowed. The account has access to MetaTrader 4 as a trading platform, no restrictions on expert advisors and has negative balance protection.

Professional Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of $10,000 in order to open. The spreads on the account can apparently go as low as -1.5 pips, there is a trading fee of 0.0037% per side so 0.0074% per lot traded. There are swap fees on the account and the maximum leverage is 1:125. The account can be in USD, EUR, GPB or JPY and there is a minimum trade size of 0.1 lots, they go up in steps of 0.01 lots and there is no maximum trade size or a number of allowed open traded. The margin call level is set at 120% with the stop out level at 80%. It uses market execution and both hedging and scalping are allowed. The account has access to MetaTrader 4 as a trading platform, no restrictions on expert advisors and does not have negative balance protection.

Platforms

Just the one platform is available and that is MetaTrader 4 from MetaQuotes. MT4 combines advanced features with an intuitive interface that allows you to set up your personal computer as a personalized trading station. MetaTrader 4 (MT4), developed by MetaQuotes, is one of the most popular and awarded trading platforms worldwide, utilized by over 300 brokerage companies and banks worldwide for their core trading services and operations, serving millions of traders and investors globally. It can be used as a desktop download, mobile application or used directly within your internet browser.

Leverage

Amenda FX follows the guidelines from the ESMA which are as follows:

Leverage limits on the opening of a position by a retail client from 30:1 to 2:1, which vary according to the volatility of the underlying:

30:1 for major currency pairs;
20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices;
10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices;
5:1 for individual equities and other reference values;
2:1 for cryptocurrencies

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on the Retail account start at 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots, there does not seem to be a limit on the size of a trade or how many you can have open at any one time.

The Professional account has trade sizes starting from 0.1 lots and goes up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.11 lots and the 0.12 lots. There also does not appear to be a limit or a maximum number of trades you can have open at any one time.

We would suggest not trading over 50 lots in a single trade on either account due to execution and slippage issues.

Trading Costs

Both account types have the same commission which is 0.0037% per side, this means it is charged when opening an account and also when closing, so the overall commission is 0.0074% per lot traded.

There are also swap fees, these are charges for holding trades overnight and they change based on the interest rated between currency pairs and can be either positive or negative. They can be viewed within the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

Assets

There isn’t a huge selection of available assets, we have outlined them for you below.

Forex:
EUR/USD, EUR/CAD, EUR/CHF, USD/JPY, USD/CAD, USD/CHF, EUR/JPY, CAD/JPY, CHF/JPY, CAD/CHF, EUR/AUD, EUR/NZD, EUR/SGD, EUR/NOK, EUR/SEK, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, AUD/JPY, NZD/JPY, GBP/AUD, GBP/NZD, AUD/CAD, AUD/CHF, AUD/NZD, GBP/PLN, EUR/PLN, EUR/HUF, AUD/SGD, NZD/SGD, NZD/CAD, NZD/CHF, EUR/GBP, GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, GBP/CAD, GBP/CHF, EUR/CZK, EUR/MXN

Metals:
XAU/USD, XAU/EUR, XAG/USD, XAG/EUR, XPT/USD

It is a shame that there are no other commodities or indices available as a lot of traders are now expanding to include them in their trading portfolios.

Spreads

The account page claims that the spreads can be as low as 1.5 pips, this would mean that you are in fact paid the spread by the broker, we have not seen this before and looking a the live spreads, it also doesn’t look like it happens here (at least not when we looked).

The spreads are starting as low as 0.1 pips, they are variable which means that are influenced by the markets, when there is added volatility they are seen to be higher different instruments also have different spreads so while EURUSD may be at 0.1 pips, NZDUSD is currently at 0.3 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The different account has different deposit requirements.

Retail Account:
If you are part of the EU then the minimum deposit is EUR 200, if you are not from the EU then the minimum deposit requirement is 2,000 EUR, USD, GBP or 200,000 JPY.

Professional Account:
This account requires 10,000 USD, EUR, GBP or 1,000,000 JPY in order to open.

Deposit Methods & Costs

At the moment it seems that only Bank Wire Transfer is available to deposit with, the deposit page states that the client will be responsible for any transaction fees or bank fees that are charged, they do not state how high they are as they will depend on each individual transfer and bank.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

At the time of writing this review, only Bank Wire Transfer is available to withdraw with, Credit/Debit Card sand China UnionPay is listed but both state that they are coming soon.

There is an added fee of 15 EUR added by Amenda for all bank withdrawals, this is on top of any additional transfer or processing fees charged by both their bank and your own bank.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal requests via Bank Wire Transfer will take between 2 to 5 business days to fully process and clear into your account for use.

Bonuses & Promotions

There doesn’t appear to be any active promotions or bonuses on the site, this does not mean there won’t be any so if you are thinking about joining and would like a bonus you should contact the customer service team to see if there are any coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There doesn’t seem to be any educational material on the site which his a shame a lot of brokers are now trying to help their clients improve on their trading, so it would be nice to see Amenda Markets do something similar for their client base.

Customer Service

There isn’t a dedicated contact up page which is a little strange instead you have to hover over the logo in the top right to get any information. You can contact Amenda Market using the provided postal address, email address or phone number, they also have contact through various social media such as twitter.

Address: Amenda Markets AS IBS, Elizabetes iela 63-24, Riga, LV-1050
Phone: +371 6677 7830
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

A demo account allows you to test out the markets and new strategies without any real risk, there are a few key differences between a demo account and a live account, the demo account has 00% executability which there is a small change of rejection on a live account, there is instant execution on a demo account while a live account depends on the markets, no slippage on the demo while there is on live accounts and the spreads will not be able to be 100% accurate. The demo account with Amenda lasts for just 14 days before they expire.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present on the site: “Amenda Markets AS IBS is registered for the provision of investment services and ancillary (non-core) investment services in the following member states of European Union and European Economic Area: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.”

If you are still not sure of your eligibility or your country is not listed then you should get in touch with the support team to find out if you are able to trade with Amenda FX.

Conclusion

Amenda Markets offers just the two accounts, one for retail and one for professional clients. One of the stand out conditions mentioned is the negative spreads, we have not seen this before and when looking at the live spreads they were not present for us. The trading conditions are ok, the spreads are low and the commission is not excessively high. There is a small lack of options when it comes to what is available to trade, however, there are enough currency pairs to keep you occupied, it would be nice for there to be more commodities or indices though. Deposit and withdrawal methods are also very limited, there are also fees for withdrawing which is a shame.

You now have the information needed to decide if Amenda Market is the right broker for you. If not then check out some of the other levies to help find the one that works for you.

BluFX is a foreign exchange broker that works in a slightly different way to traditional brokers by introducing a subscription-based model. In doing this, BluFX aims to make trading more accessible and flexible, to offer fairer barriers to entry, provide easier processes, more freedom, better risk management, and transparency. We will be going through the services they offer to see what they really do offer and to see if this new style of broker could be the way forward.

Account Types

There are two different accounts available, and we have outlined them below along with their main features.

Lite Account:
This account has a subscription of $99 per month, it gets you a funded account with a balance of $25,000, it uses MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform and has a buying power of $75,000. There is no personal liability and profits are split 50/50. Trading hours are between 6 am and 9 pm and you are able to have a drawdown of 10% before BluFX will consider your account no longer viable. You are not able to hold trades overnight and there is no account growth. You get trading support and access to 29 different trading products.

Pro Account:
This account has a subscription of $249 per month, it gets you a funded account with a balance of $50,000, it uses MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform and has a buying power of $150,000. There is no personal liability and profits are split 50/50. Trading hours are between 6 am and 9 pm and you are able to have a drawdown of 10% before BluFX will consider your account no longer viable. You are able to hold trades overnight and there is account growth up to a balance of $1,000,000. You get trading support and access to 29 different trading products.

Platforms

BlueFX clients can enjoy the use of MetaTrader 4, one os the most used trading platforms around the world. MT4 does everything you could ask to make your trading life easier and is accessible from anywhere as a desktop download, mobile application or as a web trader. Some of its other features include a convenient and tunable interface, quotes in real-time mode, account control, and transaction management, printable charts of different time periods, a wide range of technical indicators and tools and, the ability to install your own indicators and trading robots.

Leverage

The accounts are leveraged at 1:3. All accounts have the same leverage and this cannot be changed.

Trade Sizes

BluFX is giving examples of the $25,000 account and the $50,000 account. The maximum trade size on a $25,000 account is 1 lot, while on the $50,000 account it is 2 lots. Each currency pair has its own individual maximum trade size based on the margin required when trading it. Be sure to check the available product page to see what the maximum trade size is for the instrument you wish to trade.

Trading Costs

Commissions and swap charges are not known to us so we cannot state what they are or if there are any included in the accounts.

Assets

There are only 28 currency pairs as well as Gold available, the currency pairs are EURUSD, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURCAD, EURCHF, USDJPY, USDCAD, USDSCHF, CHFJPY, CADCHF, CADJPY, GBPUSD, GBPJPY, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, EURAUD, EURNZD, GBPAUD, GBPNZD, AUDUSD, AUDNZD, AUDCAD, UADCHF, AUDJPY, NZDUSD, NZDJPY, NZDCHF.

Spreads

Unfortunately, we do not know what the spreads are when trading with BLU FX. This combined with not knowing the commissions means that we do not have a good understanding of what the overall trading costs are on either of the accounts.

Minimum Deposit

The accounts use a monthly subscription. In order to use the Lite account, you will need to pay $99 each month. To use the Pro account you will need to pay $249 per month.

Deposit Methods & Costs

BlueFX currently only accepts Credit/Debit cards for their payments. If you wish to use a different method you could always get in contact with them to see if they can accept it. There are no fees charged for paying the subscription.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

You can withdraw your funds using either PayPal, Skrill or Bank Wire Transfer. You can request to withdraw 5% of the profits made at any time, the profit is split 50/50 (so a 50% fee) and it is then sent for processing.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawals occur once every month, they are processed on the 20th and sent to the trader on the 25th.

Bonuses & Promotions

There are no bonuses and promotions and unfortunately, it appears that there won’t be any in the future.

Educational & Trading Tools

BluFX does not provide any educational materials. Apparently, they take the approach that it is the trader’s responsibility to learn and develop their own trading skills. A large part of their general offering though is social trading, and that alone could provide some advantages.

Customer Service

The support team is available between 9:00 and 17:30 London time Monday to Friday. You are able to sue the provided phone number or email address. There is also a Facebook page where you can talk to other members.

Phone: +44(0)207 0580060
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

There are no demo accounts available from BluFX due to their funding methods.

Countries Accepted

This information does not appear to be available on the site so we would recommend contacting the customer service team to check your eligibility prior to signing up.

Conclusion

BluFX offers a very different service than most traditional brokers. They are looking for more risk-averse traders who manage their money and account growth rather than people looking for quick profits. You can trade for just $99 a month. However, the leverage on the accounts is set at 1:3 which means your open position is limited despite having the larger account balances. We do not know the spreads or overall trading costs. As the accounts use a subscription model there are no fees for depositing and you can receive 50% of the 5% account profits as withdrawals. It is an interesting concept, but if you are looking for a more traditional trading experience you will need to look elsewhere.

BrightWin is an online foreign exchange broker that is keeping a lot of information about itself secret. The broker is based in New Zealand, but that is about all we know as there isn’t even the standard ‘About Us’ page on their website. We will do our best to look deeper into the services that BrightWin provides to see exactly what they offer and to see how they compare to the competition in the Forex market.

Account Types

There are a number of different accounts, Biz Plan, Biz-Plus, Premium, ECN Pro, and DIY account. Having said that, the actual conditions of these accounts are not stated on their pages, there is just a way to sign up to them. So as we go through this review, we will look at each section and outline any potential differenced between the accounts in each section.

Platforms

There are two main platforms available to trade with, we have outlined some of their key features below so you can get an understanding of what they offer.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4):
MT4 hosts the trades of over one million trading accounts, offering customization, multiple chart windows, and multiple timeframes. It is also accessible as a desktop download, mobile application, and web trader.

Sirix Mobile:
The Sirix mobile app has a few different features including instant account access anywhere with a single login good for mobile, web, and desktop platforms, you can track P/L, margin, and both open and closed positions, you can stay up to date with real-time market data, and it offers advanced charting tools simplify analysis and order creation.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available is 1:100, we do not know if this is relevant for all accounts as it is not specifically stated. You can select your leverage when opening up an account and should you wish to change it you should contact the customer service team with your change request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots, so the next rade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. A lot size is equal to 100,000 units so 0.01 lots are equal to 1,000 base units. We do not know what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

There is no mention of any commissions so it does not look like there are any added commissions when trading. There are spread fees, which are charges for holding trades overnight. Spreads can be both positive or negative and can be viewed within the trading platform that you are using.

Assets

There are only three categories of assets available. The first is Forex, and there isn’t a full breakdown of these instruments or even a statement to say how many there may be, we just know that there are some major pairs and crosses available to trade. Next up are commodities, some of these have been outlined and they include Gold, Silver, Crude Oil, and Natural Gas, there may be more but they aren’t states. The final category is indices and equities, in terms of indices there are the likes of DJ 30, Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, FTSE 100, CAC 40, DAX 30 and more. Equities include popular ones from the US such as Apple, Coca-Cola and more.

Spreads

When we look at some of the spreads we see that the EUR/USD seems to be starting from around 1 pip which is reasonable when there are no added commissions. Different instruments have different starting spreads and some will naturally be higher. The spreads are also variable which means they will be influenced by the markets and will move about along with the volatility of the markets.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account os $200. We do not actually know what the different requirements for each account are, just that $200 is the minimum needed to open up an account.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The only methods mentioned on the site are Credit/Debit Card, Bank Wire Transfer, and WebMoney, there may be more as the site does state that e-wallets are available and there are images of Skrill, Neteller, and FastPay displayed at the bottom of the site. There is no mention of any fees, but you should always check with your own bank or payment processor to see if they will add any transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods can be used when withdrawing. For clarification, they are Credit/Debit Card, Bank Wire Transfer, and WebMoney, again there may be more due to it stating e-wallets as there are images of Skrill, Neteller, and FastPay displayed at the bottom of the site. Once again there are no mentioned fees but always check with your own bank or payment processor for any added transfer or processing fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We do not have any information on withdrawal times but we would hope that any withdrawal request would be fully processed within 7 working days of the request being made, but we do not know this for sure.

Bonuses & Promotions

There doesn’t seem to be any active promotions or bonuses at the time of writing this review, this does not mean that there won’t be any in the future. If you are interested in bonuses you could either regularly check back or get in touch with the customer service team to see if any are coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There doesn’t seem to be any educational material on the site, and the only tool that seems to be available is a trade copying service here you are able to copy the trades of other traders. We, unfortunately, do not see much information about it as you are required to sign up to view the platform fully. It is a shame that there is no educational material as many brokers are aiming to help their traders improve on their trading, so it would be nice to see BrightWin do something along those lines.

Customer Service

You are able to get in contact with BrightWin in a number of ways. You can use the online submission form, fill it in and you should then get a reply via email. You can also use the provided postal address, email address or phone numbers. We don’t know what the opening times of the customer service are but we would assume that they would close over the weekends at the same time as the markets.

Address: 2 Matakana Valley Road Office B Matakana, 0985, New Zealand.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +649 945 0599

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available, but they don’t give any information about them. We know that you get a balance of $10,000 when using the account but nothing else. We would expect them to mimic the trading conditions of the available accounts but we are not sure exactly which one. We also do not know if there is an expiration on the accounts. The demo account will allow you to test out the trading conditions and also new strategies without having to risk any of your own capital.

Countries Accepted

There isn’t any specific information regarding this apart from the following statement: “Anyone opening a live trading account needs to adhere to the laws of their local country as such laws may differ from country to country. Check with local authorities to determine your country’s regulations.” This isn’t very clear so we would recommend contacting the customer service team to see if you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

It was quite a lot of work to find out much of the information that we have posted in this review which is a shame, as most potential clients don’t have a lot of time to look around, having all the information clearly shown can make the user experience a lot better. In terms of trading costs, they seem quite competitive, with spreads starting around 1 pip with no additional spreads, there isn’t a full breakdown of tradable assets which is another negative. There seem to be plenty of ways to deposit and withdraw with no apparent added fees and there are a number of ways to get in contact with the customer service team. The lack of information should serve as a warning sign to proceed with caution if you are considering BrightWin as one of your chosen Forex brokers.

FXCL is a forex broker that opened its doors in 2006 and is located and registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Some of the reasons they suggest for you to trade with them include cashback when you trade, leverage up to 1:1000, swap-free accounts, copy trading, bonuses and, fixed or variable spreads. They also claim to have 13 years in the markets, lots of happy and loyal clients and exclusive introducing broker programs. We will be diving deep into what is on offer to see if they really do offer these and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you to use.

Account Types

If you decide to sign up with FXCL you will be presented with 6 different accounts to choose from, we will briefly outline them below so they are easier to choose from.

Cent Account:
The Cent account can have a base currency of USD, EUR, MYR or THB. It comes with leverage up to 1:1000 and has a fixed spread starting from 1 pip. The margin call level is at 30% with the stop out level set at 10%. It uses instant execution and has a trade size starting from 0.01 lots going up to 200 lots, the account can have a maximum 150 trades open at any one time. There is no added commission and swap-free accounts are available. Hedging is allowed as are other strategies such as scalping.

Standard Account:
The Standard account can have a base currency of USD, EUR, MYR, THB or NGN. It comes with leverage up to 1:500 and has a fixed spread starting from 1 pip. The margin call level is at 30% with the stop out level set at 10%. It uses instant or market execution and has a trade size starting from 0.01 lots going up to 2 lots, the account can have a maximum of 100 trades open at any one time. There is no added commission and swap-free accounts are available. Hedging is okay to use as are other strategies such as scalping.

ECN Cent Account:
The ECN Cent account can have a base currency of USD, MYR or THB. It comes with leverage up to 1:500 and has a floating spread starting from 1 pip. The margin call level is at 60% with the stop out level set at 40%. It uses market execution and has a trade size starting from 0.01 lots going up to 500 lots, the account can have a maximum 150 trades open at any one time. There is no added commission and swap-free accounts are available. Hedging is allowed as are other strategies such as scalping.

ECN Interbank Account:
This account can have a base currency of USD, MYR, NGN or THB, it can be leveraged up to 1:500 and comes with a floating spread. The margin call level is set at 40% with the stop out is set at 20%. It uses market execution and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and goes up to 5 lots, the account can have a maximum of 150 trades open at any one time. There is no commission on a swap account but a commission of 0.4 pips per lot on a swap-free account, hedging is allowed and all strategies including scalping are okay to use.

ECN Plus Account:
The ECN Plus account can have a base currency of USD, MYR, NGN or THB, it can be leveraged up to 1:500 and comes with a floating spread. The margin call level is set at 100% with the stop out is set at 70%. It uses market execution and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and goes up to 500 lots, the account can have a maximum of 150 trades open at any one time. There is a commission of 0.6 pips per lot on a swap account and a commission of 1.6 pips per lot on a swap-free account, hedging is allowed and all strategies including scalping are okay to use.

ECN Copytrade Account:
This account has a base currency of just USD, it can be leveraged up to 1:200 and comes with a floating spread. The margin call level is set at 80% with the stop out is set at 60%. It uses market execution and trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and goes up to 50 lots, the account can have a maximum of 200 trades open at any one time. There is a commission of $0.1 per micro lot which equated to $10 per lot traded. There are swap-free accounts but there is an added commission on these accounts, hedging is allowed and all strategies including scalping are fine to use.

Platforms

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is the only platform on offer from FXCL. This is one of the most popular trading platforms in the world due to its reliability, adaptability, and it is easy to use. It is also highly accessible as you can use it as a desktop download, a web trader or as an application for your mobile devices. MetaTrader 4 is compatible with thousands of expert advisors and indicators to make your trading and analysis as easy as possible. Normally being stuck with a single platform is a negative, but there could be far worse platforms to be stuck with.

Leverage

The leverage that you get depends on the account you are using, we have outlined the maximum leverage for each account below.

• Cent: 1:1000
• Standard: 1:500
• ECN Cent: 1:500
• ECN Interbank: 1:500
• ECN Plus: 1:500
• ECN Copytrade: 1:200

The leverage can be selected when opening up an account and should you wish to change it you will need to contact the customer service team with your request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes all start at 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots,. However, each account has a different maximum trade size and a maximum number of open trades, we have listed both below.

• Cent: 200 lots maximum / 150 open trades
• Standard: 2 lots maximum / 100 open trades
• ECN Cent: 500 lots maximum / 150 open trades
• ECN Interbank: 5 lots maximum / 150 open trades
• ECN Plus: 5 lots maximum / 150 open trades
• ECN Copytrade: 50 lots maximum / 200 open trades

Trading Costs

A few of the account shave some added commissions, we have detailed them below as it can be a little confusing.

Cent: No commissions

Standard: No commissions

ECN Cent: No commissions

ECN Interbank:
Swap accounts = No commission
Swap-free accounts = 0.4 pips per lot traded

ECN Plus:
Swap accounts = 0.6 pips per lot traded
Swap-free accounts = 1.6 pips per lot traded

ECN Copytrade:
Swap accounts = $10 per round lot traded
Swap-free accounts = $20 per round lot traded

Swap charges are fees for holding trades overnight and they can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

The product specification list is just one long list, we have broken them down into different categories to make it easier to understand what is on offer.

Forex:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURPLN, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN and, USDSEK.

Metals:
Gold (EUR and USD) and, Silver.

Crypto:
BTCUSD (Bitcoin), ETHUSD (Ethereum), LTCUSD (Litecoin) and, XRPUSD (Ripple).

Spreads

The spreads differ from account to account and are as follows.

• Cent: Fixed spreads starting from 1 pip
• Standard: Fixed spreads starting from 1 pip
• ECN Cent: Floating spreads starting from 1.1 pips
• ECN Interbank: Floating spreads starting from 1.1 pips
• ECN Plus: Floating spreads starting from 1.1 pips
• ECN Copytrade: Variable spreads

Fixed spreads mean thewy do not move or change, no matter what happens in the markets. Floating and Variable spreads mean they change depending on the market when there is added volatility they are often seen higher.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount for FXCL is currently $1. We are not sure what the minimum requirements are for the individual accounts though.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different ways you can deposit, and these are Online Bank, Instant Deposits from the bank, Perfect Money, Bank Wire Transfer, Local Deposit and Fasapay. There are no additional fees from FXCL for deposit with them.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Online Bank, Instant Deposits from the bank, Perfect Money, Bank Wire Transfer, Local Deposit and Fasapay Just like with deposits, FXCL does not add any fees to their withdrawals.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal requests will be processed within 1 to 2 business days of the request being made. How long the total process takes depends on the processing time of the method or bank used.

Bonuses & Promotions

There are plenty of offers available at the time of writing this review, we will outline them so you can see the sorts of bonuses that are available.

200% New Year Bonus:
Simply fund your account before the end of January and receive a 200% bonus of up to $2,000. Bonus can be withdrawn after 10% of the bonus has been traded in lots.

50% Tradable Bonus:
Deposit and receive up to $500 as a 50% bonus, you will then get a 35% bonus for any further deposits. This bonus cannot be withdrawn and is removed after 30 days.

100% Smart Bonus:
Get a 100% bonus when you deposit and turn it into real funds by trading half of it. We are not entirely sure that means.

Automatic Cashback:
Receive up to 4 pips cashback per trade. Only available on Standard, ECN Cent, and ECN Interbank accounts.

Birthday Present:
You can get a bonus of 100% + your age as a bonus between 10 days before and after your birthday. It is trading only bonus and cannot be withdrawn, it is removed after 90 days.

Educational & Trading Tools

In terms of education, there are few small things on offer. The first being a financial glossary, simply listing what different terms mean, there is also some analysis theory, but this is very basic information on what analysis is. There is a calculator that can be used to work out pip value and profits and finally, there is an economic calendar detailing upcoming news and which markets they may affect.

Customer Service

Should you wish to get in contact you can do so via email. There is an online form to fill out which you will then get a reply via email, there are then a number of different email addresses to use depending on the department you want, there is also a postal address available.

Address: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Center, P.O. Box 1510, Beachmont, Kingstown, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines
Support: [email protected]
Bonuses: [email protected]
Introducing Brokers: [email protected]
Partners / Marketing: [email protected]

You can also use Skype to contact the FXCL customer service team.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available at FXCL, but they do not offer much information about them such as which accounts they mimic, what the trading conditions are or if there is an expiration time on the accounts. It is good that they are offered because demo accounts allow clients to test out the trading conditions and also to test new strategies without risking any capital.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present on the site: “FXCL Markets Ltd. does not solicit residents of Japan, USA and Canada to open trading accounts. Citizens of mentioned countries (regardless of residence) are not accepted. Residents and citizens of the UN-sanctioned countries are also not accepted.” If you are still not sure of your eligibility, we would recommend getting in contact with the customer service team to check.

Conclusion

There is a lot to choose from when it comes to FXCL and they are offering a lot to their clients. The accounts are all varied and it is nice to have a choice between STP and ECN and then also floating or fixed spreads. The spreads can be a little high on the accounts that also have a commission. When it comes to asserts there is a fair selection of currency pairs but not a lot else. The deposits and withdrawals are suitable, not as many options as much of the competition but it is nice to have no fees. Overall, FXClearing does not seem like a bad broker, but whether they are worth using is up to you.

Gainsy is a foreign exchange broker that was founded in 1998 and is located in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Gainsy incorporates their own beliefs into the forex industry from honestly to innovation.

“GAINSY Company provides on-line trading on the Forex market on the basis of NDD (Non-Dealing Desk). All trading positions are hedged on the interbank market at the largest institutional liquidity providers. Hence, GAINSY Company is interested in clients’ profit directly, as the more profit you take – the larger your deposit becomes, and with a larger deposit, the more company is able to earn on commissions while hedging your positions. We give you the opportunity to lead a profitable, high-quality, fast and efficient trading on the Forex market using STP and ECN accounts.”

That’s the statement taken directly from the broker’s website. We will be using this review to see if they really are trying to help their clients grow and also how they stack up against the competition in regards to trading conditions.

Account Types

There are multiple different account types however we will only be looking at the ones directed towards retail traders, so we won’t look at the PAMM accounts or other investment style accounts. So let’s see what is available.

Classic STP Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $10 and comes with access to the Gainsy trading platforms, its base currency must be in USD. It has access to 53 currency pairs as well as Gold and Silver, it has an added commission of $20 per million traded and variable spreads starting as low as 0.1 pips. The minimum trade size starts at 0.01 lots and the account can be leveraged up to 1:500. The margin call level is set at 70% with the stop out being set between 10% and 50%. Bonuses, scalping, hedging, news trading, and telephone trading are all available with this account.

Premium ECN Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $10,000 and comes with access to the Gainsy trading platforms, its base currency must be in USD. It has access to 55 currency pairs as well as Gold and Silver, it has an added commission of $2 per lot traded and variable spreads starting as low as 0 pips. The minimum trade size starts at 0.01 lots and the account can be leveraged up to 1:100. The margin call level is set at 120% with the stop out being set at 100%. Scalping, hedging, news trading, and telephone trading are all available with this account while bonuses are not available.

Exclusive VIP Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $100,000 and comes with access to the Gainsy trading platforms, its base currency must be in USD. It has access to 53 currency pairs as well as Gold and Silver, it has an added commission of $20 per million traded and variable spreads starting as low as 0 pips. The minimum trade size can be set by the client, as can the leverage. The margin calls and stop out levels can also be set by the client. Bonuses, scalping, hedging, news trading, and telephone trading are all available with this account.

Swap-Free (Islamic) Account:
All of the above accounts can also be used as a swap-free Islamic account for those that cannot accept or pay interest charges. The trading conditions are the same just without any swap fees.

Platforms

We won’t be looking at the PAMM platform, but there are a couple of other platforms available to trade with.

Gainsy Desktop, Web and Mobile Platform:
The desktop version states that it is coming soon, however, the mobile and web versions are fully available to use. They use their own platform with some of its features including in being compatible with ECN trading accounts, high speed of application performance and orders execution, displaying of quotes in real-time data with a fully customized list of trading tools, the ability of monitoring price history with the help of graphical charts, the ability to use such order types such as Markets, Stop, Limit, OCO, Parent & Contingent for secure and professional trading, monitoring the history of trade orders for analyzing results of your trading, full access to information about the client’s trading account, direct access through the platform to the most recent and current economic news and more.

ZuluTrade:
ZuluTrade is one of the worlds most used and popular social trading platforms, using it with Gainsy offers many features including an automated service requiring almost no actions on the part of the Investor, the possibility to familiarize with the system of automatic trades copying by opening free Demo Account, utilization of NDD technology, that allows conducting Forex trading with no re-quotes having the fastest order execution, the opportunity to copy signals of several traders at the same time, as well as open multiple accounts with the same purposes, complete set of parameters that allows to select professional traders sorting them by total drawdown, Stop Loss level, level of interest risks, the period of trader’s activity, number of subscribers, profitability, invested amount, round-the-clock Forex trading even without the access to the computer, total compatibility of GTP and ZuluTrade platforms, an opportunity to copy signals of successful traders as well as conduct independent trading, the possibility to study techniques and strategies of the most successful traders while analyzing their signals, and control over the risks: the possibility of risk reduction comparing with manual trading.

Leverage

The leverage that you get depends on the account you are using. The Classic STP account holder can have a leverage up to 1:500, while the Premium ECN account can be leveraged up to 1:100, and the Exclusive VIP account holder can select what leverage they want the account to use. This can be selected when opening up an account and can be changed by contacting the customer service team with the request to change it.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We do not currently know what the maximum trade size is but would suggest keeping under 50 lots whatever it is. We also do not know how many open trades or orders you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

There is an added commission on all the accounts. The Classic STP account has an added commission of $20 per million traded while the Premium ECN account has an added commission of $2 per lot traded, in reality, they are the same thing, just worded differently. There are also swap charges which are interest fees for holding trades overnight, these can be viewed within the treading platform. There is a swap-free Islamic account available for those that cannot pay or receive interest charges.

Assets

There are only forex pairs and metals available, we have outlined the instruments below.

Forex: AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDDKK, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDSGD, AUDUSD, CACCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, CHFSGD, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURDKK, EURGBP, EURHKD, EURJPY, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPDKK, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPSGD, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDSGD, NZDUSD, SGDJPY, USDCAD, USDCH, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDHUF, USDJPY, USDLTL, USDLVL, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY , USDZAR.

Metals: Gold and Silver

Spreads

The spreads on both accounts are very low due to them having an added commission. Pairs such as EUR/USD are as low as 0.1 pips while other pairs are slightly higher such as EUR/AUD starting at 0.9 pips. The spreads are variable which means they move with the markets, the more volatility there is the higher they will be.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit is just $10 which gets you access to the Classic STP account. If you want the Premium ECN account you will need to deposit at least $10,000.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The following methods are available to deposit with, you can use Visa/MasterCard, QIWI Wallet, Bank Transfer, UnionPay, Perfect Money, CashU and WebMoney, there may be others but those are the ones we know of. We do not know if there are any added fees for deposits.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

You can use the same methods to withdraw with, these are Visa/MasterCard, QIWI Wallet, Bank Transfer, UnionPay, Perfect Money, CashU and WebMoney. Once again there may be more available and we do not know if there are any added fees, but be sure to check with your own bank or processor to see if they add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

All withdrawal requests should be processed within 48 hours from Gainsy. After that, it will take between 1 to 5 working days for the withdrawal to fully process depending on the method used to withdraw.

Bonuses & Promotions

There are a lot of bonuses on offer. We won’t go over all of them but we will outline a few just so you can get an idea of the sort of promotions and bonuses that Gainsy offer.

Unified Bonus up to 50%:
Unified Bonus is the additional funds, which are not canceled when the equity of trading account is below the initial balance amount, therefore, Unified Bonus may be fully used in your trading, even during “drawdown”. This promotion may increase your profit generation, saving your positions in case of negative movements and when the market behaves unexpectedly.

Bonus “Easy Income” 10%:
Each company’s client after each replenishment of an account in the amount of not less than 300 USD has the right to order additional investments of 10% from the deposit. These funds can be used in trading and are also available for withdrawing if the client for 6 months does not take out money from an account. If funds are withdrawn before the specified period, the company’s investment funds are canceled automatically.

Standard +30%:
You can open an account with 10000 USD, and start trading 1 lot. As a result, in one month you can earn an extra 5000 USD approximately. Or you can order our bonus “Standard 30” after account replenishment. Then, you start trading with the amount of 13000 USD, not 10000 USD. Consequently, after a 30% bonus credit, you can open an order of 1.3 lots, instead of 1 lot. And under the same circumstances you do not earn 5000 USD, but 5000 USD +1500 USD, i.e. 6500 USD.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are a few different tools available, the firs being a toolbar, which is designed to help you look through finance related websites for news and analysis. There is also a free educational course, this is basically some pages of text about different subjects on trading, okay for beginners but nothing special. There is also a glossary of trading-related terms, a margin calculator, a pip value calculator, and an economic calendar, detailing upcoming news events and the market they may affect.

Customer Service

There is a live chat feature available with someone there to answer your question. Otherwise, you can use the single email address that has been provided, not too many ways to get in touch which is a little disappointing to see.

Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts are a great way to test out the markets or new strategies without any real risk so it is good to see them available from Gainsy. You can select either the STP or ECN account to mimic but we do not know if there is an expiration time or any other details about the demo account.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present on the site: “Please, pay attention, the Company does not provide its services to the citizens of the U.S. and some other jurisdictions. Please, see Client Agreement for more information.” If you are still not sure of your eligibility you should contact the customer service team to find out.

Conclusion

There is a lot of information on the Gainsy website. The way in which this information is laid out can look very busy and can be a little difficult to navigate. There are two different account types, the STP or ECN. In practice, there isn’t too much difference between them apart from a few extra pairs to trade on the ECN account. Trading conditions are fairly cheap with the low spreads and only $2 commission, however, the spreads are a little higher than we sometimes see on ECN accounts. With only currency pairs and metals available there is a small lack of instruments to trade, there also isn’t full disclosure on the deposit and withdrawal methods, so some more information around this subject needs to be added. The other concern that we have is the lack of ways to contact the customer service team, if something goes wrong, it could take a while before you get a resolution.

IFXOption is a Hungarian foreign exchange broker based out of Budapest. They have outlined some of their main objectives.

Their key strategies include:

• Ultra-fast trade execution with no-dealing-desk intervention
• Aggregation of prices from multiple LPs & access to the deep liquidity pool
• Ongoing investment in technology & research

Their visions:

• To make trading accessible to all by offering ongoing support & resources
• To continuously update our services to meet trader demands
• To lead the way by supporting transparency & the adoption of ethical trading
• practices throughout the industry

And their values:

• Unwavering commitment to transparency, excellence & innovation
• Investment in technology and research

As we go through this review we will see if they manage to achieve these targets and values and to see how they compare next to the competition.

Account Types

Should you decide to sign up with IFXOption you will have a choice of three different accounts. Each comes with their own opening requirements and trading features, so let’s look at what is on offer.

Mini Account:
The mini account requires a deposit between $300 and $5000 in order to open. The account comes with leverage up to 1:200, access to an account manager, education and a demo account.

Silver Account:
This account requires an increased deposit of between $5000 to $20000, the account can be leveraged up to 1:500, has access to an account manager, education and demo accounts. The account also comes with a savings plan, loads, lower commissions and swaps, can operate risk-free and gets one free withdrawal per week.

Gold Account:
This account requires a deposit of over $20,000, the account can be leveraged up to 1:1000, has access to an account manager, education and demo accounts. The account also comes with a savings plan, loads, lower commissions and swaps, can operate risk-free and gets one free withdrawal per week.

Platforms

IFXOption uses its own online and mobile trading platform. The only information that they are giving away is the fact that the platform is fast and provides quick execution even during times of high volatility. It is also useable as a desktop WebTrader as well as an app for Android and iOS devices. We did not get to test out the platform, but it is quite a basic platform, offering basic functionality and limited analysis capabilities, it does have built-in news fees and calendar and allows for the modification of trades.

Leverage

Depending on your account, you can get leverage up to 1:1000. We have listed the three accounts below along with their respective maximum leverages.

• Mini Account: 1:200 max leverage
• Silver Account: 1:500 max leverage
• Gold Account: 1:1000 max leverage

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on all three account types start from 0.01 lots. We are not sure what the maximum trade size is or how many trades you are able to have at any one time.

Trading Costs

We know that there are added commissions as there is a discount on them for higher-tier accounts. However, we do not actually know what they are as there is no mention of them on the site apart from that little bit of information, so we do not know how expensive it is to trade with IFXOption. We also know that there are swap charges, but again we are not sure what they are for this broker, they will be charged when holding trades overnight and can normally be viewed within the trading platform that you are using.

Assets

There is a large selection of tradable assets available, we have outlined them below so you can get an understanding of what is available to trade.

Currencies:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURDKK, ERUGBP, EURHUF, USDZAR, EURILS, EURJPY, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDHUF, SUDILS, USDJPY, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY.

Crypto: BTCEUR, BTCUSD

Commodities: Cocoa, Coffee, Copper, Corn, Cotton, Crude Oil, Gold, Natural Gas, Palladium, Platinum, Silver, Soy Bean, Sugar, Wheat.

Indices: CAC 40, DAX, Dow, FTSE, Hang Seng, NMasdaq, Nikkei, S&P 500.

Stocks: Plenty of stocks are available including the likes of American Express, Apply, Coca-cola, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Sony, and Yahoo!

Spreads

The spreads are not shown on the site, so instead we had to look elsewhere,e we found examples of spreads on three different sites which are all around the same value which leads us to believe that they are accurate enough for us to use. The spreads for EURUSD (which are the lowest spreads) seem to start at around 3.6 pips, this is extremely high, and when adding on whatever commission is also present can make it extremely expensive to trade here. The spreads are also variable which means they will move about based on the markets. Different instruments will also have different starting spreads, so while EURUSD may start at 3.6 pips, others will be seen higher.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $300 which will allow you to open up a Mini account. We do not know if this amount is reduced for subsequent top-up deposits once an account has been opened.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There doesn’t actually seem to be any information on the site regarding the deposit methods which is a shame as many potential clients will want to know that there preferred method of transferring funds is available. We also do not know if there are any added commissions when depositing into IFXOption.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

We also do not have any information surrounding the withdrawal methods. This is another big disappointment, as while it may be important to know how to get your money in, many will feel that it is even more important to know how you can get it out. There is also no information surrounding any potential fees, so not only do we not know how to get our money out. We do not know if it will cost us something to do it. We expect that there are withdrawal fees, as the account comparison pages offer one free withdrawal per month for the higher tier accounts, indicating that there are fees on the lower tier account and for subsequent withdrawals.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We also do not know what the processing times are. We would hope that any withdrawal requests would be fully processed within 7 days of the request being made.

Bonuses & Promotions

Looking through the site, we did not come across anything that leads us to believe that there are any active promotions. This does not mean that there won’t be any, so if you are looking for bonuses then you could always contact the customer service team to see if there are any promotions or bonuses coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

The account comparison page indicates that there is education provided with all three accounts. However, there is no information surrounding this on the site so we assume that this is either provided within the trading platform itself or within the backend of the website. At any rate, we are not able to access it and so cannot comment on how helpful it may be.

Customer Service

The customer service team can be contacted in a number of ways, we do not know what their opening times are though.

You can use the online submission form, simply fill it in and wait for a reply via email. They have also provided a postal address, email address, and phone number so you have a choice of methods available to use.

Address: St. Paul’s Churchyard, London EC4V 5EY, UK
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 748 04 88 090

Demo Account

The account comparison page indicates that there are demo accounts available, you just need to create on from within the back end or on the trading platform itself as there isn’t a way to open one from the site directly. The demo account should allow you to test out the markets, and new strategies without having to risk any of your own capital.

Countries Accepted

The statement on the site isn’t very clear and simple states “…it is the responsibility of all visitors to the website to ensure that their interaction with the website is strictly within the frame of the law and corresponds to the strictures enforced in their own country of residence”. As this isn’t very clear, we would recommend contacting the customer service team to see if you are eligible for an account prior to opening one up.

Conclusion

IFXOption offers three different accounts with various different features, the leverage available can go as high as 1:100 which is extremely high. Sadly, the other parts of the trading conditions aren’t great. Spreads are as high as 3.6 pips with an added commission, so it is very expensive to trade here. There is also no information surrounding the funding and fees, which means we do not know how to get money in or out or how much it will cost us. That missing information along with the very high trading costs means we will have to recommend looking elsewhere for a broker to use.

Liirat is a foreign change broker that is being very secretive, we say this as they do not give out any information about themselves, such as their country of origin or their current location or and regulations. The only information they do provide us is a little about their culture and the fact that they wish to focus on their integrity, global diversity, a dynamic work environment, to offer industry-leading customer services, innovation, learning and improvement and to provide a profitable environment.

Account Types

There doesn’t seem to be a selection of accounts, at least they are not clearly indicated on the site, so as we go through the review we will use each section to look closely at the services being offered. If it becomes apparent that there may be more than one account type then we will specify any differences within the review section. If there does not seem to be any differences then there may just be the one account type available to use.

Platforms

Liirat offers MetaTrader 4 as its go-to trading platform. It is an extremely popular trading platform that hosts more than 1,000,000 users trading activities. It can be used from anywhere in the world as it comes as a desktop download, mobile application and web trader. The main features stated by Liirat is that the platform comes with 3 execution modes, 2 market orders, 4 pending orders, 2 stop orders, and trailing stops. You can also perform analysis within the platform or use automated trading with the thousands of compatible indicators and expert advisors.

Leverage

The leverages available at Liirat range from 1:1 up to 1:200 as its maximum. You can select the leverage that you want when you first open up an account, we do not know if you can change the account on an already open account.

Trade Sizes

We can see that the trade sizes start from 0.01 lots, however, we do not have any indications as to what the maximum trade size is or how many trades you can have open at any one time.

Trading Costs

There is a small mention of commissions within the different sections of assets. However, no concrete evidence that there are any charged when trading. Due to this, we cannot say what the overall trading costs are. We do know that swap charges are present which is an interest fee charged when holding trades overnight. They can be both positive or negative and you can view them from within the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

Assets

There isn’t a full breakdown of the available assets, they have specified that there are a few different categories but not the assets and instruments within them. There are forex currency pairs, the site states that there are over 40 currency pairs which include major pairs, minor pairs, and exotic pairs, there are no actual examples of them though. The next set is indices which cover the usual sets as well as futures, Liirit currency offers 6 different forex futures, we do not know how many indices are available.

Next are Bullions, also known as metals, there is Gold and Silver available, we do not know if nay more exotic metals are available to trade. The final category is energies, there are no examples given but we would expect the usual suspects of Crude Oil and Natural Gas to be available, however, we cannot say for sure.

Spreads

This is another aspect of the trading that we do not know, having no information on the spreads as well as the commissions means we do not know what the overall trading costs of trading with Liirat are which is quite an important aspect for prospective clients to know. As there is no information at all we also do not know if the spreads are fixed or variable.

Minimum Deposit

We don’t actually know what the minimum deposit requirement is in order to open up an account, or what the overall minimum deposit amount is. This information is normally provided as you do not want to sing up only to find out you do not have enough for the minimum deposit.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There is absolutely no information on any funding methods, no methods mentioned, no fees mentions and no deposit terms are present on the site. This isn’t building a good first impression for those wanting to trade, as many traders have their own preferred methods to deposit with, so not knowing if it available can be offputting.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

As there was no information on deposits, there also is not any for withdrawals, no methods, terms or fees ar mentioned which again, is quite concerning. The minimum information expected to know which methods are available to sue, as it is vital to know how you can get your money back out of the broker.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We also do not have any concrete information on withdrawal times, we would hope that any withdrawal requests would be fully processed within 7 days of the request being made. However, this will depend entirely on Liirat and the available methods.

Bonuses & Promotions

There is no information on the site indicating any potential bonuses or promotions, so it does not look like there are any active. There is also no evidence of there being any available in the past. You could always contact the customer service team to see if there are any coming up though.

Educational & Trading Tools

There does not seem to be an education side of the site, this includes any tools that may be helpful to your trading. This is a shame as many modern brokers are looking to provide their clients with education or tools to help improve their trading, so it would be good to see Liirat do something similar for theirs.

Customer Service

The one thing that most brokers do is provide you with a contact us page, there isn’t one available on the Liirat site. Instead, there is just a single email address at the top of the page. This is a little concerning, as it is vital to be able to get in contact with the broker that is holding on to your money and trades, so not having more information on their support or more ways to get in touch is a big warning sign to us.

Demo Account

There is no way to create a demo account from on the Liirat site, there also isn’t any mention of them on the site. You are able to download MetaTrader 4 which will allow you to open up a demo account within it, however, the trading conditions won’t give you a good indication of what you would find on Liirat. It’s a real shame to not see demo accounts available as they allow you to test out new strategies or the broker’s trading conditions without having to risk any of your own capital, so this is something that Liirat should look at adding to their site.

Countries Accepted

This is another bit of information that is not available if you are thinking of signing up. We would highly recommend getting in touch with the customer service team just to ensure that you are eligible for an account before you try opening on up.

Conclusion

There is a lot of information missing from the Liirat site, and a lot of it we would consider vital information. We were first hit with a lack of information surrounding the accounts, we still do not know if there is more than one account available. The next was thew trading conditions, we know that the leverage can be between 1:1 and 1:200, but we do not know what the costs of trading are. We don’t know if there are any added commissions or what the spreads are, not even if the speeds re variable for fixed. Along with that is a lack of information about what can actually be traded, we know the four categories but not what is tradable within them.

Most alarming though is the complete lack of information on the deposit and withdrawal methods, this is the most vital information for a service that will be dealing with our money,m no knowing how to get it in or out or how much it will cost us is a real put off. The final bit is the customer service team, just an email sat at the top of the screen is not acceptable in this age of communication, there need to be more methods to get in touch.

With all of that missing information, it is impossible for us to recommend Liirat as a broker to use, instead, we would recommend checking out some of the other reviews to hopefully find the broke that is right for you.

“FXCitizen was founded in 2010 by a capital strong team and veteran with years of experience in the Forex industries. FX Citizen is a trading name of Universe Citizen Limited which is registered in the Republic of Vanuatu. FxCitizen is also regulated by the Republic of Vanuatu Finance Service Commission with the License Number of 14784. We take it seriously in our strong culture of regulation and compliance.” That is what this Forex broker has to say about themselves. Now we will be looking into the services on offer to see what is really on offer and to see how they compare to the competition.

Account Types

There are four different accounts available, each one is offering a slightly different trading experience. Each also requires a different deposit amount in order to open. We have outlined their main features below.

Cent Micro Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of $10 and has a maximum equity limit of $1,000. The minimum trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and there is a maximum trade size of 100 lots allowed. The account can be leveraged up to 1:1000 and there are no added commissions on the account. The stop-out level is set at 30%, there is a swap-free version available and the account can use expert advisors. There is a bonus of up to 35% available and the account has access to commodities.

Standard Mini Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of $10 and has a maximum equity limit of $10,000. The minimum trade sizes start from 0.1 lots if your balance is under $5,000 or 1 lot is it is over $5,000 and there is a maximum trade size of 100 lots allowed. The account can be leveraged up to 1:500 and there are no added commissions on the account. The stop-out level is set at 30%, there is a swap-free version available and the account can use expert advisors. There is a bonus of up to 35% available and the account has access to commodities.

Premium Zero Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of $100 and has a maximum equity limit of $10,000. The minimum trade sizes start from 1 lot and there is a maximum trade size of 300 lots allowed. The account can be leveraged up to 1:200 and there is an added commission for trading on the account. The stop-out level is set at 30%, there is a swap-free version available and the account can use expert advisors. There is no bonus available and the account does not have access to commodities.

Premium ECN Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of $2,000 and does not have a maximum equity level. The minimum trade sizes start from 1 lot and there is a maximum trade size of 500 lots allowed. The account can be leveraged up to 1:200 and there are no added commissions on the account. The stop-out level is set at 40%, there is a swap-free version available and the account can use expert advisors. There is no bonus available and the account has access to commodities.

Platforms

FxCitizen is currently offering its clients just the one trading platform, MetaTrader 5. MT5 is an incredibly popular trading platform for a number of reasons including the following:

• Fully supports any Expert Advisor (EA),
• Customized Expert Advisor available for automated trading
• Ability to create various custom indicators
• Different time periods (from minutes to months)
• Secure trade sessions
• Online news and preview of each trading instrument
• Multi-language program interface
• Built-in help guides for MetaTrader 5 and MetaQuotes Language 5
• History database management
• Real-time data import/export facility
• Signals of system and trading actions
• Internal mailing system and news update
• Complete technical analysis package
• 50+ in-built indicators and charting tools

The platform is also accessible via a desktop download, mobile application or as a web trader.

Leverage

Different account has different maximum leverages we have outlined them below.

• Cent Micro: 1:1000 max leverage
• Standard Mini: 1:500 max leverage
• Premium Zero: 1:200 max leverage
• Premium ECN: 1:200 max leverage

The leverage can be selected when you first open up a new account, it can then be changed on an existing account by contacting the customer service team with your request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes are another aspect that is dependant on the account type that you are using, once again we have outlined them below.

• Cent Micro: 0.01 lots min / 100 lots max
• Standard Mini: 0.1 lots (under $5,000) and 1 lot (over $5,000)/100 lots max
• Premium Zero: 1 lot min / 300 lots max
• Premium ECN: 1 lot min / 500 lots max

While the maximum trade sizes are quite high, we would recommend trading no more than 50 lots in a single trade due to potential execution and slippage issues.

Trading Costs

The Premium Zero account has an added commission of 1 pip per lot traded while the Premium ECN account has an added commission of 2 pips per lot traded. The Other account uses a spread based system so there are no added fees.

There are also swap charges which can be either positive or negative and are charged when you hold a trade overnight, they can be viewed within the MT5 trading platform. The Cent Micro and Standard Mini accounts can have swap-free versions where these swap charges are not present.

Assets

There isn’t a huge selection of assets, but we have outlined them below.

Forex:
EURUSD, USDJPY, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, GBPJPY, AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHFG, EURNZD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPNZD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, USDSGD, USDHKD, USDCHN.

Commodities:
Just US Oil and Gold are available to trade.

Spreads

The different accounts have different starting spreads. If we look at EURUSD, the Cent Micro account has spread averaging from 2 to 3 pips. The Standard Mini accounts have spreads averaging from 2 to 3 pips. The Premium Zero has spreads averaging 0.6 pips and the Premium ECN account has an average spread for EURUSD of 0.8 pips.

The spreads are variable which means they will be influenced by the markets, the higher the volatility the higher the spreads will be. Different instruments also have different average spreads so while on the Premium ECN account. EUR/USD has an average spread of 0.8 pips. EUR/GBP has an average spread of 1.8 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $10 which allows you to use either the Cent Micro account or the Standard Mini account. Once an account has been opened, the minimum top-up requirement is reduced down to $10 for all accounts.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different methods available to deposit with, they are Local Deposit, Credit/Debit Card, Bank Wire Transfer, and Perfect Money. There are no added fees from FxCitizen. However, any bank fees charged when using Bank Wire Transfer will be the client’s responsibility to pay.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, once again they are Local Deposit, Credit/Debit Card, Bank Wire Transfer, and Perfect Money. There is a fee of 2% added to Perfect Money withdrawals but none other added to the other methods. Of course, you should check with your card issuer or bank to see if they have added any incoming processing fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

If withdrawing with Perfect Money or Local Deposit then your request should be fully processed within 24 hours of your withdrawal request. Bank Wire Transfers will take around 1 to 4 working days to fully process and Credit/Debit card withdrawals will take between 3 to 7 working days to fully process.

Bonuses & Promotions

There are two bonuses available, we have outlined some of their features below.

35% Deposit Bonus:
You can receive a 35% bonus up to a maximum of $1,000 on your deposits. Total Deposit Bonus must not exceed 35% of the new account’s Balance during top-up Example: the new Balance after top-up 100 USD is 200 USD and the existing Bonus is 50 USD, thus 35% of 200 USD Balance is 70, thus only Bonus of 20 USD will be offered but not 35 USD as it has reached ‘Maximum Bonus 35% Cap’ and split deposit to gain more bonus is not allowed. The bonus funds can be converted into real funds by trading the bonus x 5 in lots which can be quite a lot and hard to achieve.

Monthly Lucky Draw:
All accounts with a single Deposit of minimum 100USD or traded with a minimum of 1 lot size will be eligible for a chance in the lucky draw of the month. The prizes for the raw include cash prizes of $3,000, $1,500, $500 and $100.

Educational & Trading Tools

The educational side of the site is comprised of a number of topics. There is a page for reasons to trade forex, and one explaining what forex is and how to trade. These sections are quite basic. There are then pages for Technical and Fundamental analysis which contain a lot more detail and could be helpful when starting out to get an idea of the different types of analysis.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available Monday to Friday, 24 hours a day. You can get in touch by using the online contact form. Simply fill it in and you should then get a reply via email. You can also use the postal address provided, the email address or the live chat in either English, Bahasa or Mandarin.

Address: 115 Barrack Road, 3rd Floor, Belize City, Belize.
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

A demo account allows you to test out new strategies and trading conditions without any real risk. They are available from FxCitizen by opening one up from within the MT5 trading platform. We do not know what the trading conditions it mimics or if there is an expiration time.

Countries Accepted

This information is not available on the site so if you are thinking of joining up we would recommend contacting the customer service team first. Just to make sure that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

The account son offer can give you a wide selection of different trading conditions. There is plenty of leverage on offer and the spreads and commissions are not overly expensive. There aren’t as many instruments available to trade as we see in many other brokers, but there are enough of the major currency pairs available. In terms of funding, there is a slight limit to the number of methods available, but there are no added fees for the majority of them which is good to see.

OMF Financial Markets is an online foreign exchange broker that recently won an award for the best cTrader broker. Located and regulated within New Zealand, they offer a wide range of services from forex to CFDs. OMF is committed to providing the best service that they can and so we will be using the review to dive deep into the services on offer to see what is really there and how they compare to the competition in this very competitive industry.

Account Types

There isn’t an account comparison page so we do not have any information for this section. However, as we go through the review, in each section we will outline any potential differences if there are multiple accounts. Otherwise, all the information provided in this review will be relevant to the accounts available.

Platforms

There are a number of different platforms available, we have outlined them below along with some of their main features.

x24:
This platform offers the ability to proactively manage volatile currency markets. OMFx24 is a platform that removes the hassle from sending and receiving payments overseas. A full range of FX tools allows you to effectively manage your currency risk so that you can focus on building your business. Manage your positions, track balances or view margin requirements online. The real-time environment provides you with a complete overview of your FX account.

cTrader:
This platform gives you Straight Through Processing (STP) access to the forex market right from your own P.C., tablet or smartphone. Designed for professionals and novices alike, OMF cTrader is a groundbreaking trading tool, developed to give you secure access to major foreign exchange markets from any location. The platform is highly sophisticated yet extremely user-friendly and intuitive. The STP environment routes all your trades directly to prices aggregated from many prominent banks, avoiding the need for market maker type intervention and doing away with the potential for manipulation and re-quotes.

MarketTrader:
MarketTrader provides direct access to equity markets around the world. Trade listed equities, options, ETFs/ETNs and CFDs in multiple currencies all from the one account. Chart equities, indices, futures and options. Compare and overlay different products. Candlestick, bar and line charts are available on a 30 second to the multi-decadal timeframe. OMF MarketTrader’s customizable overlays, indicators, and moving averages, with the ability to chart option implied volatility, meets the needs of the most demanding technical analyst.

CommTrade:
CommTrade provides a facility where live pricing is listed for all available carbon and electricity contracts. Access the latest spot and forward prices, options pricing and historical data across full range products that can be executed via the platform. Buyers and sellers can log in and place orders when the markets are open. Orders can be executed on a spot or forward basis. Access the information you need to stay fully informed of market developments. Our daily market commentary provides an in-depth analysis of the carbon and power markets to keep you up to date.

Leverage

While we know that the accounts can be leveraged. We do not actually know what the maximum leverage is, or if it can be changed on an already open account.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades and orders you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

There is a fees and commission page which is a little confusing. We would recommend looking at it yourself as it provides a lot of information. The one that we will point out is that when trading Forex, there is an added fee of 0.1%. Swap charges are present and are charged for holding trades overnight. They can be both positive or negative and can be viewed within the trading platform that you are using.

Assets

The assets have been split up into various categories of Forex, Equities, Futures, Carbon, Power, and Dairy. However, there isn’t a breakdown of the available instruments within each category. This is a shame as many potential clients may want to see what instruments are available before signing up, especially if they have their preferred instruments to trade.

Spreads

The spreads will go as low as 1 pip, this is the lowest that the spreads will go and as they are variable spreads they will often be seen higher as they are influenced by the markets. Different instruments will also have different spreads so while one may be as low as 1 pip, others may not go any lower than 2 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount required to open up an account is 10,000 NZD which is a little high and could price out a lot of newer traders. We do not know if this amount reduces once an account has already been opened.

Deposit Methods & Costs

You are only able to deposit using Bank Wire which can limit the number of potential clients as people often like to use other methods. The FAQ states that OMF does not charge for any deposits, but you should check with your own bank or processor to see if they add any charges of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same method is available to withdraw with, so just Bank Wire Transfers. Just like with the deposits, OMF does not charge when withdrawing your funds from them. You should also check your own bank for incoming processing fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

All withdrawal requests are processed the same day as they are requested, if not then they will be processed on the next working day. It will then take between 1 to 5 working days for your request to fully process depending on the processing speed of your own bank.

Bonuses & Promotions

It does not seem that there are any active bonuses or promotions. There is also no evidence that there have been any in the past.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are four pages that equate to the educational side of the site. The first are some webinars. We do not know how often these occur but the past once is available to watch on the site. They go over different aspects of trading and analysis. The next is Seminars, you will need to contact the support team to book and will need to live in New Zealand to attend. There are some videos about forex and trading however they have not been updated since August 2019. The final page has some financial reports, outlining what has happened in the past and also what they feel could happen in the future.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available 24 hours a day 5 days a week and is closed over the weekend and on bank holidays. They have departments in Aukland, Wellington, and Sydney and they provide a postal address, telephone number and email address for each one.

Auckland
Address: Level 2, 37 Galway Street, Britomart, Auckland
Phone: +64 9 520 9310
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Free demo accounts are available for the cTrader platform, you can signup form on the site with a simple form. The demo account allows you to test out the trading conditions (that we have mentioned throughout this review) and strategies without risking any of your own capital.

Countries Accepted

This information isn’t available, but it seems like OMF is aiming their services more towards those that are living in New Zealand. However, if you are interested in joining, we would recommend contacting the customer service team to ensure that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

OMF is aiming its services towards the New Zealand trading community. The minimum deposit if 10,000 NZD which can price out newer traders. There is also just one way to deposit which can be a little limiting. In terms of the trading conditions, the spreads are acceptable, but the commissions have been put in such asway that it can be a little confusing as to how much you will pay. This isn’t made any better with the lack of product specification or breakdown, so we do not really understand how much it will cost and also not what we can actually trade. There are plenty of ways to contact the customer service team which is a plus.

Tradize is a foreign exchange broker based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and was founded in 2013. Tradize promise to provide professional trading conditions with tight spreads and no or low commissions, reliability. However, they mention another broker name here instead of their own, which is rather strange. In this review, we will look into the services being offered to see how they perform against the competition.

Account Types

There are three different accounts available when signing up with Tradize. Each one has its own entry requirement and trading conditions, so let’s get an overview of each.

Micro Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of at least $500, it comes with a variable spread starting with a range of 1.6 pips to 2.2 pips. The leverage on the account is up to 1:500 and there are 44 currency pairs, 4 metals, oils, equities, indices, and Bitcoin available to trade. Minimum trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. The margin call is set at 50% and stop out at 30%. There is no added commission on this account.

Standard Account:
This account requires a minimum deposit of at least $1,000, it comes with a variable spread starting with a range of 1.4 pips to 1.8 pips. The leverage on the account is up to 1:400 and there are 44 currency pairs, 4 metals, oils, equities, indices, and Bitcoin available to trade. Minimum trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. The margin call is set at 50% and stop out at 30%. There is no added commission on this account. The account also comes with a free VPS if your balance is over $5,000.

Premium / ECN Account:
This is the top tier account and so requires a minimum deposit of at least $10,000. The spreads on the account start from 0 pips and due to this, there is an added commission of $10 per round lot traded. The leverage on the account goes up to 1:100 and the trade sizes start at 1 lot and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. The margin call level is set at 50% with the stop out level at 20%. OIt comes with an account manager and a free VPS.

Platforms

The only platform on offer is MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MT4 is one of the worlds most used and most loved trading platform, being used by hundreds and thousands of users. Offering high accessibility, available as a desktop download (PC and Mac), a web trader and as an application for mobile devices. Some of its features include a market watch, multiple order types, thousands of indicators, a huge number of compatible expert advisors, trading history, analysis tools, multiple charts, automated trading and many more.

Leverage

The leverage that you get depends on the account you are using and the following is the maximum leverage available per account.

• Micro: 1:500
• Standard: 1:400
• Premium / ECN: 1:100

The leverage can be selected when opening up a new account and should you wish to change it on an already an open account you will need to contact the customer service team with your change request.

Trade Sizes

When using the Micro or Standard account the trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. When using the Premium / ECN account the trade sizes start at 1 lot and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is, however, whatever it is, we would not recommend trading over 50 lots in a single trade. We are also not aware of how many open trades you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

The Premium / ECN account has an added commission of $10 per round lot traded which is slightly higher than the industry average of $6 per round lot. The other accounts use a spread based system that we will look at later in this review. There are also swap charges which are an interest charge for holding trades overnight, these can often be viewed within the MetaTrader 4 platform and can be both positive or negative.

Assets

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a breakdown of the available assets and instruments so we cannot give you a breakdown, or examples of what is available. This is a little disappointing as potential clients need to know what is available to trade, especially if they like trading a certain asset or instrument.

Spreads

The only information we have on spreads is the information provided on the account overview page. That information is as follows:

• Micro: Variable from 1.6 pips to 2.2 pips
• Standard: Variable from 1.4 pips to 1.8 pips.
• Premium / ECN: Variable from 0 pips

As there is not a full breakdown of instruments we cannot give concrete examples. The spreads are variable though so this means that they move with the markets when there is a lot of volatility they will often be seen higher.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to pen up an account is $500 which will get you the Micro account, if you want an ECN account then you will need to deposit at least $10,000.

Deposit Methods & Costs

Unfortunately, there isn’t a dedicated finance or funding page to the site, the only information that we have are some images at the bottom of the page which indicate that Visa, MasterCard, Skrill, and Neteller are available for depositing. Nowhere on the site does it indicate if there are or are not any added fees for depositing, but be sure to check with your bank or processor to see if they add any of their won.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

As there was no information on depositing there is also not any on withdrawing and the methods or costs available. This is a real shame and Tradize should be making this information public, as not know how you can get your money out and if it will cost you is a bit put off for a lot of potential traders.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We do not know the processing times. However, we can expect your withdrawal requests to be fully processed between 1 to 7 working days based on the method (whatever they are) used.

Bonuses & Promotions

It does not appear that there are any active promotions at the time of writing this review if you want a bonus you could contact the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming ones you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are two things to mention in this section, the first being an economic calendar which is your standard calendar showing upcoming news events and the markets that they may affect. The second is some technical analysis, this is regularly updated and posted and provides ideas of where the market may move and why.

Customer Service

Should you wish to contact Tradize there are limited ways to do it, you can use the online submission form to fill in your query and send it off, you should then get a reply via email. The second way is via email directly. There is also a postal address available but no phone number.

Address: Cedar Hill Crest P.O.BOX 1825,VillaSt. Vincent
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

There doesn’t seem to be a demo account available, we may have just missed it or you need to be a full member to access them. Demo accounts allow potential new clients to test the servers and treading conditions and allows existing clients to test new strategies without any risk. It would be good for Tradize to ensure demo accounts are available for their clients.

Countries Accepted

The following is presented on the website: “Tradize brand does not provide services to residents of the USA, Japan, British Columbia, Quebec and Saskatchewan, and some other regions.“ If you are not sure of your eligibility, then be sure to get in contact with the customer service team to check before signing up.

Conclusion

The review started off strange with Tradize mentioning another broker name instead of their own in their introduction. There are three accounts to choose from, each offering something different, spreads and commission are both quite high when comparing to the competition. There is a complete lack of information on the tradable instruments and the deposit/withdrawal methods which really put us off. Potential clients need to know all this information especially as we will be giving them our money, not knowing how or what it will cost makes us think twice. All of that combined with the limited ways to contact the customer service team doesn’t give us a lot of confidence and we would recommend looking elsewhere.

Trades.com is a foreign exchange broker looking to raise the bar on the industry. They claim to offer innovative trading systems, airtight security, valuable resources as well as a lot of other benefits. We will be using this Trades review to look into what is on offer so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are four different accounts available to use with Trades.com. We will briefly outline the main features of them below.

Bronze Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $5,000. It comes with market news & research, live expert trading sessions, 24-hour service & support, web, mobile & desktop trading platforms video tutorials & ebook and access to a dedicated account manager.

Silver Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $25,000. It comes with market news & research, live expert trading sessions, 24-hour service & support, web, mobile & desktop trading platforms video tutorials & ebook, access to a dedicated account manager, trading signals and premium daily analysis.

Gold Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $100,000. It comes with market news & research, live expert trading sessions, 24-hour service & support, web, mobile & desktop trading platforms video tutorials & ebook, access to a dedicated account manager, trading signals, premium daily analysis, fully licensed asset management, algorithm trading, and private consultation sessions.

Platinum Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $100,000. It comes with market news & research, live expert trading sessions, 24-hour service & support, web, mobile & desktop trading platforms video tutorials & ebook, access to a dedicated account manager, trading signals, premium daily analysis, fully licensed asset management, algorithm trading, private consultation sessions, exclusive promotions, and premium trading terms.

Platforms

The platform on offer is MetaTrader 4 created by MetaQuotes. MetaTrader 4 offers smart automation functionality and delivers at-best order execution on every trade. Enjoy low latency with less requotes, and access real-time data at a single click. It also offers benefits like customized automated EA’s, multi-language/currency support, instant trade execution, professional trading charts, streaming market updates, and leading technical indicators. The platform is also highly accessible and can be used via a desktop download, mobile app or web trader.

Leverage

The maximum available leverage is 1:200 and can be selected when opening up an account. Should you wish to change it you can do so by contacting the customer service team with your request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sixes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lot. We do not know what the maximum trade size it or what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

The account uses a spread based system and so while there is no information on the site about there not being any commissions, we do not think that there are any. Swap fees are also charged. These are charged for holding trades overnight and can be viewed within the MetaTrader trading platform.

Assets

There are plenty of assets and instruments available, and we have outlined them below.

Forex:
EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCAD, NZDUSD, AUDUSD, AUDNZD, AUDCAD, USDCHF, GBPUSD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, CHFJPY, EURGBP, EURAUD, EURJPY, EURCHF, EURNZD, EURCAD, GBPCHF, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPJPY, CADCHF, CADJPY, NZDJPY, USDSGD, NZDCHF, USDDKK, NZDCAD, GBPNZD, USDTRY, EURTRY, GBPTRY, TRYJPY, USDZAR, ZARJPY, USDCNH, USDMXN, USDHKD, USDPLN, EURPLN, EURNOK, USDNOK, USDSEK, EURSEK, USDHUF, EURHUF, EURRON, USDRON, USDRUB, EURRUB, USDCZK, USDILS, EURILS, GBPILS.

Commodities:
Tin, Lead, Nickel, Zinc, Aluminium, Cocoa, Palladium, Platinum, Wheat, Live Cattle, Cotton, Feeder Cattle, Corn, Soybean, Gold, Silver, WTI Crude Oil, Brent Crude Oil, Rice, Heating Oil, Copper, Natural Gas.

Indices:
Plenty of different ones available such as DAX30, Nasdaq, FTSE 100,m S&P 500 and Spain 35.

CFDs:
Gilt10Y, USBond5, EUBond10, USBond10, USBond30.

Crypto:
Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripply and, Bitcoin Cash.

Stocks:
There is a load of stocks available a few of them include Apple, Google, Cisco, Intel, and IBM.

Spreads

While we know the accounts all use a spread based system we do not. Unfortunately, know much about them apart from the fact that they are variable spreads so they move with the markets and increase with volatility.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is $5,000. This will allow you to open up the Bronze account. It is unknown if this requirement is reduced for a further top-up deposit.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There isn’t a complete list of available methods however the site states that Visa, MasterCard, UpayCard, PaysafeCard, Bank Wire Transfer and e-wallets such as WIQI, WebMoney, Yandex and more. There is no mention of any added fees but be sure to check with your own bank or processor to see if they add any of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The majority of the same methods will be used for withdrawal. For clarification, these are Visa, MasterCard, UpayCard, PaysafeCard, Bank Wire Transfer and e-wallets such as WIQI, WebMoney, Yandex and more. We do not know of any withdrawal fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal requests should be processed within 48 hours and fully processed between 1 to 5 days from the date of the request depending on the method used to withdraw.

Bonuses & Promotions

At the time of writing this review, there did not seem to be any active promotions or bonuses. If you are after one, you could always contact the customer service team to find out if any promotions are coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

In terms of education and trading tools, there is an economic calendar that details upcoming news events and the currencies that the news may affect. There is also some market news detailing past news events. A strategy calculator is also present, this is more for working out pip sizes and profit., Finally, there are some trading signals. However, we could not view them so we cannot comment on their accuracy or profitability.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available 24 hours a day 5 days a week and closes over the weekend and on bank holidays. You can contact them by either phone or email.

Phone: +44 208 089 2065
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

We could not locate any demo account but they may be available once you have signed up. If they are not available then it is a shame as demo accounts allow clients to test out the markets and new strategies without risking anything.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is present on the site: “This information is intended for investors outside the United States who are not the US/Japanese citizens and residents. This website is intended for informational purposes only. This website is not directed at any jurisdiction and is not intended for any use that would be contrary to local law or regulation. The products described on this are not offered and may not be sold in the United States/Japan or to US/Japanese citizens and residents.”

Conclusion

The account page doesn’t give a lot of information away about the trading conditions. Unfortunately, we could not find any in regards to spreads and commissions, so the overall trading costs are not known to us. When it comes to assets there are enough to keep you busy and with seemingly no added fees to withdrawals and deposits it can be cheap to get your money in and out. We have given you the information, now it is up to you as to whether they are the right broker for your trading needs.

Finotec is an online foreign exchange broker that is based in the United Kingdom and is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). There isn’t a lot of information stated about themselves so instead, we will be using this review to try and look a little closer at the services that are being offered. Hopefully, by the time you’ve reached the end of this review, you would be able to decide if they are the right broker for you to use.

Account Types

There are three different accounts available the only real differences between them seem to be the commissions that are charged. As such, we won’t be outlining their details here instead of in each section of this review. Any potential differences will be mentioned within them.

Platforms

There are two different platforms available to sue, we have outlined both of them down below so you can get an idea of the platforms on offer.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4):
MT4 is super-fast and effective, easy-to-use and flexible, making it a clear-cut favorite amongst investors. Some of its features include free auto-trading with full EA compatibility and MQL5 support, multi-language support, news feeds directly into the platform itself, direct access to real-time executable prices, trailing stop loss facilities, superb security system, trading signals & over 50 technical indicators, and multiple time frames.

Web XTrade 2r:
This is an online trading platform run by PrimeXM, we cant give a whole lot of information around it as we were not able to get a lot. All we know is that t is an online web trader that allows you to trade…we did say that we didn’t have much information.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available is not actually stated on the site, but looking at various sources around the internet we can see that the maximum leverage available is 1:200. We do not know which accounts this applies for, it may well be all of them. We just know that 1:200 is the limit. It is also not clear to us if a lower leverage amount could be selected instead of using the maximum 1:200.

Trade Sizes

The minimum trade size is 0.1 lots, which is equal to 10,000 base currency using due to a lot being 100,000 base currency units. We are not sure what the trade increments are, they could be 0.01 lots or 0.1 lots. We are also not sure what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades you are able to have at any one time.

Trading Costs

The commissions that you are required to pay will depend on the account type that you are using, so be certain to study each of the available account options. There will also be swap charges which are charged when holding trades overnight. These can be viewed within the trading platform that you are using and can be both positive or negative.

Assets

Unfortunately, there isn’t full break won or product specification available so we do not know all of the assets that are available to trade. We managed to get into one of the trading platforms and so could get at least part of the full list. We have outlined them below.

Currencies:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDDKK, AUDHKD, AUDSGD, AUDUSD, AUDXAR, CADCHF, CADDKK, CADHKD, CADJPY, CADSGD, CHFDKK, CHFHKD, CHFJPY, CHFNOK, CHFPLN, CHFSEK, CHFSGD, CHFZAR, DKKJPY, DKKNOK, DKKSEK, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURCZK, EURDKK, EURGPB, EURHKD, EURHUF, EURJPY, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURRUB, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, EURUSD, EURZAR, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPDKK, GBPHKD, GBPHUF, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPPLN, GBPSEK, GBPSGD, GBPTRY, GBPUSD, GBPZAR, HKDJPY, NOKJPY, NOKSEK, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDHKD, NZDJPY, NZDSGD, NZDUSD, NZDZAR, PLNJPY, SGDHKD, SGDJPY, TRYJPY, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDHUF, USDILS, USDJPY, USDKWD, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR, ZARJPY.

Indices:
AUS200, ESP35, EUSTX50, FRA40, GER30, HKG33, ITA40, JPN225, NASDAQ100, SPX500, SUI20, UK100, US30

Crypto:
BTCEUR, BTCUSD, ETHUSD, LTCUSD, XRPUSD.

Commodities:
Brent Crude Oil, US Crude Oil, Gold, Silver, Palladium, Platinum.

Spreads

The spreads are stated that they start from 0 pips. This is the starting spread and the spreads are variable so they will be influenced and move with the markets. The more volatility in the markets the higher they will be and so they will often be seen a little higher than 0 pips. Different instruments will also have different starting spreads, so while some may be as low as 0 pips, others won’t go any lower than 1 pip as an example.

Minimum Deposit

The amount that you need to deposit will depend on the account type that you want to use. The first account requires a deposit of at least $25,000, then there is an account that requires a deposit of $50,000 and the top tier account requires a deposit of at least $100,000. We are not sure if these amounts reduce once an account has been opened, but with such high amounts, we would expect that they would.

Deposit Methods & Costs

We, unfortunately, we do not know what methods are available to deposit with. Due to the amounts being so high we would expect that Bank Wire Transfers would be available but we cannot say any more than that. We are also not sure if there are any added fees, but be sure to check with your own bank or payment processor to see if they will add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

As we do not know the deposit methods we also do not know the withdrawal method. Again, we would expect Bank wire Transfer to be available, but are also once again not sure whether or not there are any added fees from Fintec.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We do not know what the processing times are. We would expect any withdrawal requests to be fully processed within 7 working days of the request being made. However, we cannot say this for sure.

Bonuses & Promotions

There is no mention of any bonuses anywhere on the site or any evidence that there have been any in the past. However, if you are interested in bonuses you should contact the customer service team to see if there are any coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

This is another section of the site that didn’t appear to have anything available. This is a shame as many brokers are now actively trying to help their clients improve so it would be good to see Finotec do something similar for their clients too.

Customer Service

You can get in touch with the customer service team over at Finotec in a number of different ways, the first in using the online submission form. Fill in your question or query and you should then get a reply via email. You can also use the provided postal address, email address or phone number, so there is a choice of methods available.

Address: Finotec Trading UK Limited, Mappin House, Oxford Circus, London W1W 8HF, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 (0) 20 351 45555

Demo Account

There is a demo account available for the XTrader 2 platform. In order to open one up for the MetaTrader 4 platform, you will need to download the software and open one up from within. This means that the trading conditions won’t completely match those of the live accounts. The demo accounts do allow you to test out the platforms and new strategies without any real risk.

Countries Accepted

We did not notice any specifics surrounding this on the website and so we would recommend contacting the customer service team to see if you are eligible for an account prior to trying to open one up.

Conclusion

The Finotec website doesn’t actually provide us with much information about themselves or the services that they are offering. The first thing that stood out was the huge amount needed for the lower tier account you will need at least $25,000 which will price out a lot of retail traders. It was then concerning that they are asking for so much but giving away no information around how to deposit or if there are any fees. This goes for the withdrawal methods as well. These are such important aspects for a broker that it is a shame that information was not available.

The commissions were average, but just staying 0 pip spreads with no actual examples leads us to believe that they may well be a bit higher. With all the information being a little vague, it is a little difficult for us to recommend Finotec as a broker to use at this point in time.

ALB Forex is an online foreign exchange broker with an ‘About Us’ page is a little confusing. We do not fully understand what they are actually offering or trying to say, but it may be due to a bad translation though. In their own words, the little bit about them states the following, “First Forex company of Turkey to achieve Information Security Standard We care for our investors’ security and securing info is a top priority for us. ISO/IEC 27001 certification, helps you to protect your valuable information assets and protect them. Data, whatever form it takes, should be well-protected when collected and shared.”

We will be using this ALB Forex review to look deeper into the services on offer and to get a better understanding of what is actually on offer from this firm.

Account Types

There are four different account types available to use when trading with ALB Forex. They are the Basic, Silver, Gold and VIP accounts. There isn’t a full breakdown or account comparison page, so instead of finding everything and listing it here. We have outlined the differences in the accounts within each individual section of this review. If there are no differences, then the information we have provided is relevant to all four account types.

Platforms

ALB Forex offers MetaTrader 4 (MT4) as its sole trading platform. MT4 is one of the most powerful and well-used trading platforms, it offers a host of features including a wide range of indicators and graphical tools, with the ability to add thousands of other indicators and also expert advisors for automated trading. The platform has multiple languages, one-click trading, a user-friendly interface, and reliable infrastructure. These are just some of the features that millions of users all over the world love.

Leverage

ALB Forex follows the recommendations of the ESMA which limits the amount of leverage available to their clients. Leverage limits on the opening of a position by a retail client from 30:1 to 2:1, which vary according to the volatility of the underlying:

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices
• 5:1 for individual equities and other reference values
• 2:1 for cryptocurrencies

Trade Sizes

The minimum trade size starts from 0.01 lots which are known as micro-lots and is the equivalent of 1,000 base currency units due to a lot being 100,000 base currency units. The trades then go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots.

Trading Costs

Sadly we could not actually locate information on possible commissions. The way the website translates can be very confusing so we just weren’t able to locate this information. We are also not clear on swap charged but suspect that they will be present unless an Islamic swap-free account is used. Swap information can be viewed from within the MT4 trading platform and will be charged for holding trades overnight.

Assets

The assets on ALB Forex have been broken down into various different categories. We have outlined them below along with the various instruments within each category.

Forex:
EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHFG, USDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURCHF, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURNZD, AUDJPY, GBPJPY, CADJPY, CHFJPY, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, AUDCAD, AUDCHF, ADUNZD, USDTRY, EURTRY, GBPTRY, USDNOK, USDSEK, USDDKK, EURNOK, EURSEK, USDRUB, USDZAR, USDMXN, USDPLN,

Metals:
Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium.

Commodities:
Copper, Corn, Wheat, Soybean, Cotton, Sugar, Coffee, Cocoa.

Energies:
US Oil, UK Oil, Natural Gas, BP, EXXON, USO.

Indices:
SPX 500, DOW 30, NAS 100, GER 30, US 50, UK 100, FRA 40, ESP 35, ITA 40, JPN 225, AUS 200, DXY.

Crypto:
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin.

Spreads

The different accounts have different starting spreads. The Silver account has spreads starting at around 1.5 pips, while the Gold account around 1.2 pips. The gold and VIP accounts have spreads starting from around 0.6 pips. The spreads are variable which means they will move with the markets. The more volatility in the markets, the higher the spreads will be. Different instruments will also have different starting spreads and some will naturally be higher than others.

Minimum Deposit

We do not actually know what the minimum deposit amount is due to the site being a little confusing in its translation. So at this point in time, we cannot say what the minimum deposit amount is.

Deposit Methods & Costs

We could only see evidence of Bank Wire Transfers on the site as they have listed out a number of different bank accounts. We do not know if there are any other methods available to use. Along with this, we do not know if there are any added commissions when depositing, but you should check with your own bank to see if they will add any outgoing transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

As we could only find Bank Wire Transfers for a deposit method. We believe that this would also be the same method for withdrawals. Once again we do not know of any possible fees but as always check with your own bank to see if they will have any incoming processing fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Unfortunately, we do not know what the processing times from ALB Forex are. We would, however, hope that any withdrawal requests would be fully processed within 1 to 7 days from the request being made. The industry standard is around two business days.

Bonuses & Promotions

We didn’t come across any possible bonuses or promotions, but then again we could not translate and understand everyone that was on the site. So if you are interested in bonuses we would suggest getting in contact with the customer service team to check whether there are any coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

In terms of education, there are a couple of pages available. The first is a page with a number of training videos. Unfortunately, they are in Turkish so we do not know the quality or actual content of the videos. There is also a webinar page, but again we do not know the quality of them due to not understanding the language.

Autochartist also seems to be available. Some of its features are designed to identify patterns in charts, with the main benefit being the real-time insights it generates for market movements. Autochartist is constantly scanning the markets on your behalf, and it gives you price alerts whenever a new opportunity presents itself. Its software is designed to identify trading opportunities for you based on support and resistance levels.

Customer Service

The customer service team can be contacted using a few different methods. The first is a postal address that you can send physical mail to. There is also a phone number and email address available to use should you prefer to use one of those methods.

Address: Mollafenari Mahallesi Nuruosmaniye Caddesi No:32 Fatih/İstanbul
Phone: +90 (212) 370 0 370
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available from ALB Forex, they will allow you to test out the trading conditions and also new strategies without having to risk any of our own capital. We do not know if there is an expiration on the accounts and the trading conditions provided should be similar to the ones that are mentioned throughout this review.

Countries Accepted

This information does not appear to be available on the website. So if you are thinking of signing up, we would highly suggest that you should contact the customer service team just to make sure that you are in fact eligible for an account.

Conclusion

The website was very confusing to us. The built-in translation was not working properly and kept reverting back to Turkish. Google translate did not make a great job of it either. From the information that we could see, the trading conditions seemed competitive. There was a limit to the number of ways that you are able to deposit and withdraw with just Bank Wire Transfer being available. Without knowing more of the broker it would be hard for us to recommend them as a broker to use and would suggest looking for another broker to use at this current point in time. Unless you are Turkish and can understand exactly what is being said, then they may be an appropriate broker for you.

First BTC FX is a foreign exchange broker located in Cyprus and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The broker has a white label set up as we have seen the site setup, account settings and about us the information a few times before. The broker claims to offer outstanding customer support, a multi-product bouquet, advanced trading platforms, and tight spreads. We will be using this review to see if they achieve this and to help you decide if this is the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are four different accounts to choose from should you decide to sign up, each offering slightly different features. We will outline them for you now.

Standard Account:
This account has an entry requirement of $500 and does not come with any additional features.

Classic Account:
The Classic account requires a minimum deposit of at least $2,500, it comes with the addition of online chat and access to all platform features such as indices.

Gold Account:
The gold account increases the minimum deposit amount up to $20,000. The account comes with access to online chat, all platform features such as indices, access and use of Autochartist, SMS signals, a VIP manager and an individual direct telephone line.

Premium Account:
This is the top tier account and so requires a minimum deposit of at least $50,000. The account comes with access to online chat, all platform features such as indices, access and use of Autochartist, SMS signals, a VIP manager, an individual direct telephone line, special promotions on one on one training and personal reports of the stock market.

Platforms

The only platform on offer from, First BTC FX is MetaTrader 4 which is is one of the world’s most used trading platforms and for good reasons. A few of its many features include multiple order types, Market watch window, a navigator window, lots of pre-installed indicators and analysis tools, multiple chart setups, the ability for automated trading and order execution capabilities. The platform is also highly accessible, as you can use it as a web trader in your internet browser, a mobile application or as a desktop download.

Leverage

The leverage stated on the main page of the site is 1:200. This is all we have to go on as the accounts page doesn’t actually detail any differences in trading conditions and there are none mentioned anywhere else so it seems that all accounts have the same leverage. This can be selected when opening an account and we are not sure if it can be changed once an account has already been opened. Typically, Forex brokers do allow their clients to reduce and increase their leverage within the given parameters as they wish.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots on all accounts and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is or what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time is.

Trading Costs

We did not see any mentions of commissions for any of the accounts so it appears that there aren’t any. There are however swap charges which are fees for holding trades overnight and these can be viewed within the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

Assets

The different instruments have been broken down into a number of different categories. Unfortunately, there isn’t a full breakdown of the instruments within each group. There are forex pairs of which the site states that there are 50+ different pairs available to trade. Ther are indices but the only one mentioned by name is the FTSE 100, commodities are also there, Wheat, Cattle, Soybeans, Corn, Oragnaged, Gold, Uranium, Copper, Aluminum, Coal, Cotton and Oil are all mentioned but we don’t actually know if they are available to trade. There are also cryptocurrencies but no examples of what is available and finally, shares, with some examples of Lloyds, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Nike, and Tesla. It would be nice for potential clients to have a full breakdown of available assets to better understand what is available to trade.

Spreads

The only spreads that we have to go on are what is mentioned on the home page of the site. It states that the spread for EUR/USD is 1.6 pips. This is the starting spread as they are variable which means they will move with the markets. Different instruments will also have different starting spreads, 1.6 pips is the smallest they will be. It would be helpful for the broker to provide a full list of average spreads for most of the major assets.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is $500 which will allow you to use the Standard account. If you want a higher tier account then you will need to deposit at least $2,500. We do not know if the minimum amount reduces after an account has already been opened.

Deposit Methods & Costs

Sadly there isn’t a dedicated page for funding, the only information we have is some images at the bottom of the website. They indicate that Visa, Maestro, MasterCard, Neteller, and AstroPay are available to use, but we have no confirmation of this. We also do not know if there are any added fees when depositing.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

We also do not know much about withdrawals such as the methods available or any additional fees for withdrawing. If you are using First BTC FX then we would suggest checking with whatever method you use to see if they have any incoming transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

We do not know the exact processing time from First BTC FX. However, we would expect any withdrawal requests to be processed within 1 to 5 working days from the date the request is made, but this will depend on the methods available to use.

Bonuses & Promotions

When signing up for an account there is a bonus mentioned. There is a 100% welcome bonus however the terms of the bonus are rather confusing. It states that if you make a deposit of at least $5,000 you will receive a bonus of $1,500, which indicates that it is a 30% bonus and not a 100% bonus. As there are not dedicate terms and conditions for this bonus we do not know which one actually is or how to convert the bonus funds into real funds.

Educational & Trading Tools

There is a news section of the site which details news from around the world which could be affecting the markets. There is also an economic calendar available that details different upcoming news events and the currencies or markets that they may affect.

Autochartist is a tool that is also available and offers features to help with your trading. It can identify and react to market movements, check the quality and competitiveness of your broker’s pricing, manage your cash exposure, optimize your stop loss and take profits, capitalize on known outcomes of news events and identify and react to market movements that are not typical.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available 24 hours a day 5 days a week and close over the weekends and on bank holidays just like the markets do. You can use an email address, phone number or skype to get in contact. If you have an account higher than the lowest tier account then you will also have access to live chat, and the higher tier accounts will have access to an account manager for support.

Address: PARK LANE MAYFAIR London W1K 1QW UNITED KINGDOM
Phone: + 44 ( 0 ) 1923537198
Email: [email protected]
Skype: firstbtcfx.com

Demo Account

There is mention of a practice account on the main page. However, we could not see how to open up so assume that you need to be fully signed up and can then open one in the client back office. Due to this, we do not know what the trading conditions or expiration times of the accounts are. Demo accounts are great as they allow you to test out new strategies and also the brokers trading conditions without having to risk any of your own capital.

Countries Accepted

We did not locate this information on the side and so we do not know the answer. If you are thinking of signing up, we would suggest that you contact the customer service team first just to check that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

First BTC FX is using a white label solution for their broker so it is very similar to a number of brokers we have reviewed before. The difference between the account is based on features rather than trading conditions and the MetaTrader 4 platform is a great platform to use. The trading conditions are not fully known to us, we know of the spread for EUR/USD but that is it. With spreads that high, we are confident in saying that there will be no added commissions.

There is a lack of information on the available assets which is disappointing, but even worse is the lack of information on funding methods. This is vital information as clients need to know how they can get their money in and out and what it will cost them to do so. With those bits of information missing we can only suggest looking for a different broker that provides you with the vital information you need.

70Trades is an online foreign exchange and CFD broker based out of Cyprus. They do not give a lot of information about their history, however, they have provided a list of what they feel are their main selling points:

• Customer service 24 hours a day, 5 days a week
• User-friendly platforms
• Multilingual support: English, Arabic, and Spanish
• Easy withdrawal process
• Online trading courses
• Markets news and updates
• Professional analysis
• Training sessions for each level
  Webinars with investors from all around the world

We will be going through the website to find out exactly what services are on offer and to see how they compare to the competition.

Account Types

There seems to be three different account types available, and the trading conditions within them all seem to be the same. So as we go through the review any trading conditions will be relevant to all three account types. Below we have outlined some of the additional features that you get from the accounts:

Entry Account:

• A deposit is required between $200 and $1,000
• Introduction lesson with an expert
• 1-on-1 trading session
• Personal account manager
• Trading tutorials
• Beginners eBook
• Super-low Fixed spreads
• Service and support 24/5

In addition to this stater account, there are two additional accounts for more seasoned traders…

Advanced Account:

• A deposit is required between $1,000 and $4,000
• Advanced trading tools
• Access to Daily Updates
• Personal account manager
• 24/5 Support
• 1:200 Leverage
• Advanced trading course

Pro Account:

• This account requires a deposit of at least $4,000
• Fast trade execution
• Advanced trading tools
• 1:200 Leverage
• Technical Analysis
• Access to Daily Updates
• 24/5 Support
• Currency charts

Platforms

The platform on offer is called PROfit. It is available as a web trader and as a mobile application. They aren’t providing a lot of inflation on the platforms, but some of the few features mentioned are that the web trader offers one-click trading, no re-quotes, instant trade execution, and advanced charting system. The web application allows you to trade anywhere, it’s a user-friendly mobile app, and allows you to access market analysis and is suitable for both Apple and Android.

Leverage

The leverage that you are able to get depends on the assets and instruments that you are trading, they are as follows:

So 1:200 is the maximum leverage which is a little below the 1:500 that a lot of brokers now aim for, but still offers a good risk and reward ratio.

Trade Sizes

While most of the information on trading conditions is present we do not have much in regards to the trade sizes. While the minimum deposit if $200, we suspect that this will mean that trade sizes of 0.01 lots. We do not, however, have any idea of what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades and orders you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

There are no added commissions or fees when trading, 70 Trades have stated that multiple times throughout the site. There will be swap charges though, and these are fees that will be either charged or received when you hold trades overnight. These costs can often be viewed within the trading platform that you are using.

Assets

It is unfortunate that there isn’t a full breakdown of the available instruments and assets. Instead, we have just a few examples of each, and have outlined the examples that we know below.

Forex:
EURUSD, GBPEUR, CADCHF, GBPSEK, USDPLN, NZDJPY.

Commodities:
Gold, Silver, Oil, Corn, Coffee, Copper, Natural Gas, and others.

Indices:
CAC 40, S&P 500, FTSE 100, IBEX 35, Nikkei 225, Dow Jones, and others.

Stocks:
Apple, Facebook, Walk Disney, Citigroup, General Electric, and Google are just a few out of the available stocks.

Spreads

The spreads seem to start from around 3 pips. They are fixed spreads which means they will not move with the markets and will not be influenced by them. It is also worth mentioning that different instruments will have different spreads, so while EUR/USD may have a spread of 3 pips, other instruments will be higher.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount that you are able to use to open up an account is $200. This is a reasonable amount and will allow newer traders to join up, and allows for some risk management on the account. We do not know if this amount reduces for any further top-up deposits.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different methods available to deposit with, these are Credit/Debit Card, Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney, and Bank Wire transfer. In terms of any fees, there isn’t anything mentioned dso we are not able to comment on whether they are present or not. What we will do though, is recommend that you contact your own bank or payment provider to see if they will charge any outgoing transfer fees.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods seem to be available to deposit with. Once again they are Credit/Debit Card, Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney, and Bank Wire transfer. Just like with the deposits, there is no further information provided on any possible fees added by 70Trades. As always we would suggest contacting your payment provider to see if they will charge any processing fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

70Trades does not indicate how long it will take for them to process your withdrawal. However, they do state that the process should fully complete within 2 to 6 working days. This time will depend on the method used and the method’s own processing times.

Bonuses & Promotions

Looking through the site, we did not notice any information pertaining to bonuses or promotions. So there may not be any active at the time of writing this account. If you are interested in bonuses, then you could always contact the customer support team to see if there are any you are able to take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are various educational courses available which cover, beginner, experienced and professional trading techniques, including commodities trading, gold trading, and oil trading. We weren’t able to look into the details of them too much so we cannot comment on the suitability or quality of each.

There are a few little tools available. There is a live data center that gives you live prices of various assets, an economic calendar that tells you about upcoming news events and the impact that the events may have on the markets, and finally, there is a news feed available.

Autochartist is a tool that is available to use with 70 Trades. This offers features to help with your trading, it can identify and react to market movements, check the quality and competitiveness of your broker’s pricing, manage your cash exposure, optimize your stop loss and take profits, capitalize on known outcomes of news events and identify and react to market movements that are not typical.

Customer Service

You can get in contact with the customer service time from Monday to Friday between the hours of 8:30 and 17:30. You are able to contact them using a postal address, email address, and phone number, so there is a choice of methods available to use.

Address: Wanakena Ltd, 73 Arch. Makarios III Avenue, Office 301, 1070 Nicosia, Cyprus
Phone: +442031290685
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available once you sign up for a basic account, The demo account allows you to test out the trading conditions as they will mimic those of a real account. It is also a way to test out new strategies without risking any of your own capital. We do not know if there will be an expiration time on these accounts though.

Countries Accepted

The only information available on the site is the following statement “Any information included in this website does not constitute an offer of services for clients residing in any jurisdictions where such offer is not authorized.” This doesn’t really help so we would suggest contacting the customer service team to check whether you are eligible for an account or not.

Conclusion

We have seen a website that looks very much like the 70Trades website before, so it may possibly be a clone of another broker. In terms of the trading conditions, the leverage is fine at 1:200. However, the platform used isn’t as sophisticated as MetaTrader 4. As an example and the spreads are starting very high at around 3 pips, and this can make it quite expensive to trade here. In terms of deposit and withdrawal methods, there are enough available to cater to most needs and there doesn’t appear to be any fees. However, we do not know for sure. Due to the costs of trading, we would personally suggest comparing costs among FX brokers before making your final selections.

AMP Global is an online foreign exchange broker that is registered and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). AMP was originally a US-based broker but has now expanded into the European market which is what AMP Global is all about. AMP Global points out that their insurance for each client of 20,000 EUR is one of their stand out points. Apart from that, they don’t really say a lot about themselves and so we will be using this review to look into the services that are being offered to their clients and so you can decide if AMP Global is the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are two main account types, the trading account, and an Islamic account. There is also a Corporate account but we won’t be looking at that one in this review, as the average Forex trader will not require this account type. We have outlined some of the features of the two main accounts below. In fact, the trading specification of both accounts are exactly the same, so we have outlined them below as if it is just the one account.

Trading Account:
The account requires a minimum deposit of at least 100 USD/EUR/GBP or 6,500 RUB. The account uses MetaTrader 5 as a trading platform and has an STP execution method. There are no requotes or rejections, the account comes with a variable spread starting from 1 pip. There are commissions charged on the account (depends on the market traded) and Islamic swap-free versions are available. The account can be leveraged up to 1:100, with a minimum trade size of 0.01 lots and a maximum trade size of 100 lots, you can also have an unlimited number of trades open at any one time. A lot size is equal to 100,000 base units and the margin call level is set at 100% while the stop out level is set at 50%. There is also negative balance protection, scalping, expert advisors and news trading is all allowed on this account.

Platforms

There are two different platforms available to sue, both from the MetaQuotes company, even though the accounts state that they use MT5, MT4 also seems to be available to use.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4):
MetaTrader 4 s one of the worlds most traded and most loved trading platforms, released back in 2005 it has been improving on every update, some of its features include:

• Access to tight pricing on our full trade offering
• Expert Advisors supported
• Highly customizable charting
• Ticket based trading and more
• Full charting library
• The web platform operates without any additional software or browser extensions
• Execute your trade ideas anytime, anywhere
• Check your positions whenever you want
• Full charting library
• 30 indicators
• Execute your trade ideas anytime, anywhere
• Analyze financial markets through charts & technical indicators
• Check your positions whenever you want

MetaTrader 5 (MT5):
This is the younger brother to MetaTrader 4, it was designed to improve on what MT4 had already built, it is a multi-asset platform that offers superior tools for comprehensive price analysis, use of algorithmic trading applications (trading robots, Expert Advisor) and copy trading. Available on all sorts of devices such as desktop, mobile and as a web trader, it can be used anywhere in the world. A few of its other features include:

• Built-in market analysis tools
• A system with Market Depth and executions
• Netting and hedging accounting systems
• Trade orders, pending and stop-orders
• 3 chart types and 9 timeframes
• Built-in chat, news, alerts and push notifications

Leverage

The account can be leveraged up to 1:100, this is a little lower than what a lot of brokers are aiming for as a lot are now offering up to 1:500. The leverage can be selected when opening up a new account. However, when looking through the FAQ, it states that they are also following the guidelines of the ESMA, this would mean that the following terms are being met:

Leverage limits on the opening of a position by a retail client from 30:1 to 2:1, which vary according to the volatility of the underlying:

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices
• 5:1 for individual equities and other reference values
• 2:1 for cryptocurrencies

So it is not actually clear to use what the maximum leverage will be as both numbers contradict each other. Looking at the product specification it seems like the ESMA leverages are the correct ones.

Trade Sizes

The trade sizes that you get depends on the assets that you are trading. When looking at Forex pairs the minimum trade size seems to be 0.1 lots. This is known as a mini-lot and is worth 10,000 base currency units. The maximum trade size is 100 lots and there is no limit to the number of trades you are able to have open at any one time. Different instruments will have different stating trade sizes, be sure to check the specification for the specific instruments that you wish to trade.

Trading Costs

Multiple places around the site indicate that there will be commissions. However, nowhere does it actually state what they are (that we can see) so we do not know what the actual trading costs of trading with AMP Global are. There is a section of the site that states that they will beat any written commission quote. Whether this means we can find a low quote and they will match it, we don’t know as we could always find an incredibly low figure somewhere.

Assets

The assets have been broken down into various categories. We have outlined them below so you can get an understanding of what sort of assets and instruments are available to trade.

Forex:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURCZK, EURDKK, EURGBP, EURHKD, EURHUF, EURJPY, EURMXN, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURRON, EURRUB, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, EURUSD, EURZAR, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPCZK, GBPDKK, GBPHKD, GBPHUF, GBPJPY, GBPMXN, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPPLN, GBPSEK, GBPSGD, GBPTRY, GBPUSD, GBPZAR, NOKSEK, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDSGD, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDHUF, USDILS, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRON, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR.

Crypto:
Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple.

Indices:
AUS200, EUR50, FCHI, GER30, HSI, J225, SPN35, UK100, SPX, NDX, WS30.

Energies:
UK Brent Oil, US Crude Oil, US Natural Gas.

Metals:
Gold (tradable available USD, EUR, AUD), Silver (tradable against USD and AUD).

Shares:
Apple, Amazon, Alibaba, Bank of America, Daidu, Facebook, Alphabet, Netflix, Tesla, Twitter.

Spreads

Spreads when trading forex pairs can start from as low as 0.5 pips according to the front page. However, the account specification states that they start from 1 pip, so to be safe would say to take note of the higher figure of 1 pip. The spreads are variable which means they will be influenced by the markets, different instruments will also have different starting spreads. So while some may be as low as 1 pip, others may be higher at 2 pips or more.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $100. This is the minimum amount for the initial deposit and it also looks like it is the same for any top-up payments.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The following methods are available to deposit along with the available deposit currencies.

• Credit/Debit Card – USD, EUR, GBP
• UnionPay – USD
• Neteller – EUR, GBP
• Skrill – USD, EUR, GBP
• Bank Wire – USD, EUR, GBP, RUB
• Internal Transfer – USD, EUR, GBP, RUB

There aren’t any added fees from AMP Global themselves. However, you will be liable to pay any transaction fees added by your own bank or payment processor.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods seem to be available to withdraw with. For clarification, they are Credit/Debit Card, UnionPay, Neteller, Skrill, Bank Wire, and Internal Transfers. There is also a number of other images for additional methods, but they are not mentioned within the fees time section of the page. In terms of withdrawal fees, there isn’t anything mentioned so it looks like there are none added by AMP Global. However, you will be liable to pay any fees that are added or charged by your own payment method.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

There is a processing time for each method, however we believe that these are only for deposits. We do not know how long it will take AMP Global to process your withdrawal request but would hope that any requests would be fully processed between 1 to 5 working days from the request being made. This will depend on the processing times of the method you have used to withdraw your funds.

Bonuses & Promotions

Looking through the site and its FAQ we did not see anything that would relate to promotions or bonuses so we do not believe that there are any active promotions at this point in time. If you are after bonuses then you could always contact the customer service team to see if there are any coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There is quite a lot when it comes to the educational side of the site. The first section is about futures, this has a lot of information talking about history and what futures are. There is also a glossary about futures as well as some technical and fundamental analysis, this is information about analysis rather than actual analysis done for you. There is a forex section, which has some basics and a forex related glossary.

The next section is similar but about CFDs, again going over basics and also details on how to trade CFDs. There are some webinars available, you can view the past ones too which is great. They cover various aspects of trading. The final section is a video section, which has various videos covering aspects like using the trading platform, or how to trade different trade sizes.

StereoTrader is a scalable interface available for MetaTrader 5, some of its features include:

• Exchange-Traded Futures, FX and CFD Trading
• Quick access Scalping-Terminal
• Volume Profile and DoM in/on the Chart
• Advanced Order Types incl. Limit-Pullback-Order
• Advanced Day-trading Statistics
• Stop-loss and Order Trailing
• Algorithmic Grid Trading
• Exit automation (based on Time/Equity/growth)
• Fully Automated Strategies (StereoMQL)

Customer Service

The customer support team is available 24 hours a day. They do not specify whether they are available over the weekends though. You are able to get in touch in a wide range of ways. There is the usual postal address, email address and various phone numbers available. There is also a remote access system, live chat, and access to a support forum.

Address: Ayiou Athanasiou Avenue, Kaminion Street 1, 2nd floor, Agios Athanasios 4102, Limassol Cyprus
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +357 22 007182

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available and allow you to test out the servers, conditions, platforms, and new strategies without any risk to your own capital. The demo account offers conditions such as spreads starting from 1 pip, this is a variable spread, it is commission-free, swap-free, can be leveraged up to 1:100, can have a minimum balance of 100 USD/EUR/GBP. The trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up to 100 lots with a lot being worth 100,000 base currency units.

You are able to have an unlimited number of trades open at any one time, the margin call level is set at 100%, the stop out level is set at 50% and there is negative balance protection (however this isn’t really needed on a demo account). The demo account can be used within MetaTrader 5 with scalping, expert advisors, and news trading all being allowed. As far as we can tell, there is no expiration time on the account as long as you regularly use it.

Countries Accepted

The following statement can be found at the bottom of the AMP Global website: “Restricted Regions: AMP Global (Europe) aka AMP Global LTD. does not provide services for citizens of the United States of America and some other regions.”

Conclusion

There is a lot on offer from AMP Global. There was a little bit of confusion with the available leverages, but we believe that they are limited to 1:30 which is very low when comparing to the competition. We are also not aware of what the commissions are, we just know that they are there. So, unfortunately, this means we do not know what the overall trading costs are. There are plenty of assets available to trade which is great. In terms of funding, there are plenty of methods available with no added fees from AMP Group. The customer service team is offering plenty of ways to get in contact which is always a positive thing to see. AMP Group seems like they could be a competent broker to use, but of course, the choice to use them is up to you.

Everest Trade is a foreign exchange broker that is regulated by the VFSC, a zone of preferential taxation that is being regulated by the Financial Supervision Commission for trading in Forex and in the market of derivative financial instruments. There isn’t much information provided about them, so we will need to sue this review as an opportunity to find out more about them and to help you decide if they are the right broker for you to use.

Account Types

There isn’t an account comparison page and going through the site there isn’t any indication that there is more than one account type. As we go through this review if it becomes apparent that there are then we will outline any differences in each section. However, we believe that just the one account exists and so all information provided in this review is relevant to that one account.

Platforms

Everest Trade uses its own trading platform that is available as a web trader and as a mobile application for iOS and Android devices. The platform offers you basic trading abilities and order functionality. It lacks a lot of the customization that you see on platforms like MetaTrader and it also is lacking a lot of the compatibilities with expert advisors and indicators. It does have its own inbuilt indicators, but they are very basic. It would have been nice to see a more established platform available to use.

Leverage

The leverage that you receive is based on the instrument that you are trading. We have listed the different instruments along with the associated maximum leverage.

• Forex: 1:500
• Metals: 1:500
• Stocks: 1:5
• Commodities: 1:100 or 1:10 for Natural Gas
• Indices: 1:5
• EFTs: 1:5

The maximum leverage for Forex can be selected when opening up an account, we are not sure if it can be changed on an already open account but you should request a change by contacting the customer service team.

Trade Sizes

The trade sizes are also dependant on the instrument that you are trading. We have outlined the minimum trade size, increment size, and maximum trade size for each asset group below.

• Forex: 0.01 lot min / 0.01 lot incrmeent / 1,000 lot max
• Metals: 0.1 lot min / 0.1 lot incrmeent / 1,000 lot max
• Stocks: 1 lot min / 1 lot incrmeent / 10,000 lot max
• Commodities: 1 lot min / 1 lot incrmeent / 100,000 lot max
• Indices: 1 lot min / 1 lot incrmeent / 10,000 lot max
• EFTs: 1 lot min / 1 lot incrmeent / 10,000 lot max

We would advise not trading over 50 lots in a single trade, but instead break up larger requests into smaller trades to help with execution and slippage issues.

Trading Costs

There are no added commissions when trading as the available account uses a spread based structure that we will look at later in this review. There are however swap charges which are fees for holding trades overnight, they can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

The assets and instrument shave been broken down into a number of different categories, we have listed them below along with the instruments within them.

Forex:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURACD, EURCHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPUSD, NOKSEK, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZSUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR.

Metals:
Only Gold is available to trade.

Stocks:
Plenty of stocks are available including Aviva, Barclays, Adidas, Siemens, Amazon, and Apple.

Commodities:
Brent Crude Oil, WTI Crude Oil, Natural Gas.

Indices:
CAC 40, DAX 30, FTSE 100, Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, Nikkei 225.

EFTs:
iPath S&P 500, Samsung.

Spreads

The spreads are not specified on the site but they appear to be starting from around 1.1 pips. The spreads are variable which means they will move with the markets and any added volatility can make them grow larger. Different instruments will also have different starting spreads.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is currently y$100 and this will get you access to the one account available. We do not know if this amount reduces once an account is already open.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There isn’t a dedicated page for deposits and withdrawals but there are some images of Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, and Bank Wire Transfer. There may be more options available but they are not stated, we also do not know if there are any additional fees added for deposits.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

We only have the same images to go by when it comes to withdrawals too, so we believe the available methods are Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, and Bank Wire Transfer. Just like with the deposits there is no information surrounding withdrawal fees but be sure to check with your own bank or processor to see if any fees are added by them.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

This is another section where we don’t have any concrete information, we would expect any withdrawal requests to be fully processed between 1 to 7 working days from the request it is made.

Bonuses & Promotions

It does not seem like there are any promotions or bonuses active, this does not mean that there won’t be in the future so if you are interested in bonuses you should get in touch with the customer service team to see if there are any coming up that you can take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There does not seem to be any educational content on the site or any tools to help with your trading. This is a shame as a lot of modern brokers sare now trying to help their clients improve on their trading and knowledge, so it would have been nice to see Everest Trade do something along those lines too.

Customer Service

There isn’t a contact page on the broker’s website. In fact, there is no information on the site indicating any way to get in contact with them, which is a little concerning and enough to send most people looking elsewhere for an FX broker.

Demo Account

We do not know if demo accounts are available s there is no information surrounding them, this is a shame as demo accounts allow you to test out trading and strategies without any real risk.

Countries Accepted

This information is not on the site, we would suggest contacting the customer service team to find out if you are eligible or not but we don’t actually know how to contact them.

Conclusion

Information on the trading conditions was a little hard to find while finding information on the trading platform was even harder. There was also little information to be found on deposit and withdrawal methods, as well as on how to get in contact with Everest Trade. Not the greatest start, middle or end. All of that combined is enough for us to suggest looking elsewhere for your trading needs, as the best Forex brokers tend to be the ones who are the most forthright with the provision of key details such as these.

 

FairMarkets Trading Pty Ltd. is an ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) licensed liquidity provider for over-the-counter derivatives. They aim to offer protection, a fair price, and innovation to their clients. In this review, we will be looking into the service being offered to see if they live up to this expectation.

Account Types

There are two different accounts on offer, the Pro and the Elite account. Both having their own requirement sand trading conditions, so let’s see what they are.

Pro Account:
The Pro account requires a minimum deposit of $500, it has no added commissions and the average spread starts from 1 pip. Leverage can be up to 1:500 and it has access to forex pairs, CFDs, metals, and cryptocurrencies. The account is allowed to hedge trades and has access to FairMarkets 24/5 support team.

Elite Account:
The elite account has a minimum deposit requirement of $25,000. The account comes with a commission of $25 / million and due to the commission, there is an average spread starting from 0.1 pips. The account also has leverage up to 1:500 and has aces to forex pairs, CFDs, metals and cryptos. Hedging is allowed and there is access to FairMArkets 24/5 customer support team.

Platforms

There are three different ways to trade with FairMarkets, let’s look at what they are.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5):
MetaTrader 5 offers the built-in Market of trading robots, the Freelance database of strategy developers, Copy Trading and the Virtual Hosting service (Forex VPS). Use all these services from one place, and access new trading opportunities. MetaTrader 5 is also highly accessible with it being available as a desktop download, application for iOS and Android devices and even as a WebTrader where you can trade from within your internet browser.

FairMarkets Trader:
This is FairMarkets own platform, unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of information regarding it, instead, there is just a little information that states “Our own modern platform and client portal that runs on any device for efficient trading and account management on the go.” No actual information about features or benefits.

Fix API:
This is a more advanced way of trading and requires some coding knowledge so it isn’t really for the retail trader. You can connect directly to FairMarkets via the Financial Information Exchange (FIX) API protocol. Perfect for high-speed trading.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available is 1:500, you can select leverage when signing up for an account. Once an account is open if you wish to change the leverage on it you will need to get in contact with the customer support team with your request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots (also known as a micro lot), they then go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. The maximum trade size is 695 lots which his an oddly specific number, at any rate, we would recommend not trading in sizes larger than 50 lots. As the bigger a trade becomes the harder it is for the markets or liquidity provider to execute the trade quickly and without any slippage.

Trading Costs

The Pro account uses a spread based system that we will look at later in this review so there is no added commission. The Elite account has a commission of $25 / million traded, which equates to around $2.5 per lot traded which is low when comparing it to the standard $6 per round lot traded.

Swap charges also need to be noted, these are interest charges that are incurred for holding trades overnight, they can be both negative or positive and can usually be viewed from within the trading platform of choice.

Assets

FairMArkets have broken down their assets into a few different categories, we will outline some of the instruments available in each.

Forex Currency Pairs:
Plenty of different pairs are available for trading a few of them include AUDCAD, EURCHF, EURUSD, GBPJPY, EURZAR, GBPNZD, NZDUSD, USDMXN, USDTRY.

Crypto:
Just three on offer which are BTCUSD, ETHUSD, and LTCUSD.

Metals:
Just the usual suspects of Gold and Silver are available to trade against the Dollar.

Indices:
A number of different indices are also available, they include FRA 40, GER 30, NAS 100, SPX 500, UK 100, JPN 225 and, US 30.

Energy:
Finally, there are energies, or energy, as there is just one which is US Oil.

Spreads

The spreads you receive depend on a few different factors, the first being the account you are using. The Pro account has spreads starting from 1 pip while the Elite account has spreads starting from 0.1 pips. The spreads are variable (also known as floating) so this means that when the markets are being volatile, the spreads will often be seen higher. It is also important to note that different instruments and assets have different starting spreads. So while EURUSD may start at 1.2 pips, other assets like GBPJPY may start slightly higher, in this case, 1.8 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open an account is $500, this gets you the Pro account. If you want the Elite account then you will need a deposit of at least $25,000. It is unknown if the minimum deposit reduces or not once an account is already open.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The methods stated on the site as being accepted are Bank Wire Transfer, Visa Credit / Debit, MasterCard Credit / Debit, and Alipay. There is no information surrounding any fees so we can not comment on that part however, we can say to check with your processor prior to making a deposit 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 Bank Wire Transfer, Visa Credit / Debit, MasterCard Credit / Debit, and Alipay. Just like with the deposits there is no information surrounding any fees for withdrawing. So as usual, be sure to check with your bank or processor to see if they add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Unfortunately, this information is not stated on the site. We would hope that withdrawal requests would be processed within 48 hours. We can say that once they are processed, using Bank Wire Transfer or card withdrawals, it can take an additional 1 to 5 working days for your funds to become available for use.

Bonuses & Promotions

We could not locate any information on the website in regards to bonuses or promotions so it does not appear that there are any active ones at the time of writing this review. If you are interested in bonuses then be sure to check back regularly or get in contact with the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming bonuses or promotions.

Educational & Trading Tools

There doesn’t appear to be anything in regards to education or trading tools. This is a shame as a lot of brokers these days are looking to help their clients improve and become more profitable with educational courses or tools to help them trade or analyze. It would be nice to see FairMarkets do something similar for their clients.

Customer Service

Should you wish to get your questions or queries to FairMarkets, you can do so using an online submission form to fill in your query. You should then get a reply via email. They also have an email address to use or a phone number should you wish to speak to someone directly. The customer support team is open 24/5 and is closed over the weekend and on bank holidays just like the markets are.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available, you need to sign up. Prior to signing up there is, unfortunately, no information surrounding the account available such as which account it mimics or if there is an expiry time on the account. This information would be nice to have before needing to sign up to find out.

Countries Accepted

The only statement on the site regarding this is as follows: “FairMarkets Trading Pty Ltd. is a company registered and regulated in Australia by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investment Commission) and holding AFS license number 424122 ACN 159166739. As a consequence of our financial services being provided outside of Australia, the AFS license and Australian regulation only apply to financial services provided to Australian residents.”

So if you are interested in signing up for an account, we would recommend getting in contact with the customer service team to find out if you are eligible for an account or not.

Conclusion

FairMarkets started off very well, offering some good trading conditions and accounts. They are relatively cheap compared to the competitions when it comes to trading costs. The main downside is the lack of information surrounding the deposits and withdrawals. It is important for us and clients to know how they can send and receive their money as well as how much it will cost them. This information is vital and FairMArkets should look to include it on the website.

Dax1001 is an international foreign exchange broker that aims its services at both novice traders and experienced ones. Some of their main selling points are stated as having the fastest system of trading order execution, guaranteed daily customer support with quick problem resolutions, multiple account types to choose from and a powerful and adaptable trading platform. Throughout this review, we will be looking into the services that Dax1001 offers to see how they compare to the competition and so you can decide if they are the right broker for your trading needs.

Account Types

There are three different account types on offer, the account comparison page does not give a lot of information, but we have outline date information that it does give below.

Basic Account: This account type is sufficient for beginners who are just starting to earn money on a market trade and avoid serious financial risks.

Gold Account: The Gold account is a good choice for the more experienced trader; it includes a wider range of tools.

Platinum Account: The Platinum account would be perfect for well experienced professional traders, who are ready for big deals and major risks.

As the trading conditions offered by them is not stated on this page, as we go through this review, we will outline any differences between them within each individual section of the review, this way you can get a better understanding of what makes each account type unique.

Platforms

Dax1001 offers just a single platform for use with their accounts and that one platform is MetaTrader 4 (MT4). MetaTrader 4 comes with a whole host of features including online quotes and interactive charts in 9 periods. This option allows you to study the movement of quotations, and respond to market changes immediately. 23 analytical objects and 30 built-in technical indicators that will assist in considering and predicting price fluctuations in the most convenient way for the trader.

The built-in Market of trading tools makes the analytical possibilities of traders unlimited by allowing them to install additionally thousands of robots. The library of additional indicators is free and available for all users. The platform can also be used as a desktop download, webtrader within your internet browser and as an app downloadable to your Android or iOS devices.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available seems to be at 1:300 for all three account types, the leverage that you desire can be selected when you first open up an account. Should you wish to change it on an already open account then you can do so by sending a change request to the customer service team. Make sure that there are no open trades at the time of the request, otherwise, any changes cannot be made.

Trade Sizes

The minimum trade size available s 0.01 lots, this is also known as a micro lot and is equal to 1,000 base currency units. An overall lot is worth 100,000 base currency units. The trade sizes go up in increments of 0.01 lots but we do not know what the maximum trade size is. We also do not know how many trades and orders you are able to have at any one time.

Trading Costs

There is no mention of any commissions, but also no mention that there aren’t any so we are not entirely sure what the cost of trading actually is. There are swap charges on the accounts, these are fees that are charged when holding trades overnight. Swap fees are based on the change of interest between markets and can be both positive or negative, and can be viewed fro within the MT4 trading platform.

Assets

The assets on Dax1001 have been broken down into various categories. Unfortunately, there is not a full breakdown of the available assets. We have outlined the information we do know in each category below.

Currency Pairs:
There are over 50 currency pairs available which include the basic currency pairs (also known as majors) which are the most popular currency pairs to trade. There are also cross-currency pairs available which usually do not contain the USD currency. Finally, there are also exotic currency pairs available which include smaller economic currencies such as those from Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.

Indices:
There are a number of different indices available, these are normally stock portfolios and some of the ones mentioned include the Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq, Nikkei, Dax 30 and FTSE 100 form the UK.

Metals:
Looking through all the information provided it seems that Gold, Silver, Platinum, and Palladium are all available to trade.

Energies:
Through the Dax1001 platform, you are able to trade energies such as Natural Gas, Brent Crude Oil, US Crude Oil, Plastics, and Gasoline to name just a few.

Futures:
There are futures that include various assets from the other categories including currencies, securities, goods, energy resources, and stock indices.

Shares:
There are shared from all over the world available to trade, the examples that are given include the likes of Alphabet, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Alibaba, and Tesla.

Spreads

There aren’t actually any examples of the available spreads and so because there are no spreads known and also no commissions known. The overall cost of trading with Dax1001 is completely unknown to us. The only information that we have about the spreads is that they are supposed to be low and that they are variable. This means that they can be influenced by the markets, the more the markets move the higher the spreads will be. It should also be noted that not all instruments will have the same spreads, some will naturally be higher than others.

Minimum Deposit

There does not seem to be a minimum deposit level, as you can open up an account using just $1. We would always recommend starting with a higher amount though as starting with a sum that is too low can make profits harder to come by and it is also harder to use proper risk management.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The only methods mentioned as available are Visa, MasterCard, and Bank Wire Transfer. The same page does state that there are a lot of methods available, so whether there are some additional ones available that aren’t mentioned, we do not know.

Dax1001 doesn’t take fees for transferring money to your account. A standard commission should be paid only if you transfer money from debit and credit cards. In this case, you should pay up to 2.5% of the sum you transfer. This money is paid to cover the expenses on card payment processing. Sometimes a payment system collects fees for using its electronic invoices or servicing bank cards s you should check with your own card issuer or bank for any additional fees added from them.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods should be available to withdraw with, for clarification purposes those methods are Visa, MasterCard, and Bank Wire Transfer. Dax1001 does not state whether they add any additional commissions or fees when withdrawing funds with them. You should, however, check with your own bank or card issuer as some may charge an incoming processing fee which you will be liable to pay.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal requests will be processed on working days from 09:00 until 18:00 local time (GMT+2), except weekends and public holidays. Queries sent after 18:00 p.m. will be considered during the next working day. Once the withdrawal request has been processed, it may take between 1 to 5 additional days for the withdrawal to be fully processed by your own bank or card issuer and to be available for use.

Bonuses & Promotions

The only promotion that is shown on the site is the fact that there is a demo account available, so this isn’t really much of a promotion. There are mentions of bonuses around the site but no information about them, so they may have been available in the past. So if you are looking for bonuses, you may have some luck if you contact the customer service team to see if there are any active or coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

The educational side of the site is very basic, it involves an FAQ which is more about the broker rather than trading (it actually only has questions and no answers, so it’s not the most useful FAQ). The only other section is a glossary which contains forex related terms, good to come back to if you come across something you do not know, but there are more comprehensive glossaries out there on the internet.

Customer Service

The contact us page is a little basic, there are no details about the operating times of the support team, so we do not know their opening and closing times. There is also a limited way to contact the team, you can use the email address provided or the phone number. It is good that they have provided a phone number as that is what many brokers leave out.

Demo Account

Demo accounts allow you to test out the servers, platform, and trading conditions, as well as new strategies without any real risk. Dax1001 is offering demo account to their clients or potential clients. The demo account uses the MetaTrader 4 platform and will use the same trading conditions mentioned throughout this review. So we, unfortunately, do not know them all, and we also do not know if there is an expiration on the accounts.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site, so we would recommend contacting the customer service team before signing up just to make sure that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

Dax1001 does not make their trading conditions very clear, we know the platforms available and that you can be leveraged up to 1:300 but that is about it. We do not know the spreads or commissions, so the overall cost of trading is a complete mystery to us. We also do not have a full breakdown of the available assets, just some explanations and a few examples here and there. The deposit and withdrawal methods are also limited, the good news is that there are no fees though. There is a lot of information missing, so much that it makes it hard for us to recommend Dax1001 as a broker to use at this current point in time.

FCMarket claims to be one of the most outstanding and reliable online forex trading consultants in the industry. Some of the features listed on their company profile include:

• Trade Forex, Indices, Commodities & CFDs
• Tight Spreads from as low as 0.1* (EURUSD)
• Flexible leverage up to 1:1000
• EAs, Scalping, and Hedging allowed
• Winner of 18 Industry Awards
• Only top tier international banks are used
• Client funds are held in segregated accounts
• Full transparency
• Swap-free Islamic Account
• Premium Account from just $500
• VIP Account for the ultimate trading experience
• Licensed by SVG FSA

Looking at this list and information around the site we can already see a lot of potential contradictions. FCMarket seems to use the services of multiple different brokers to help create their own, mixing and matching, and we will outline these collaborations as we go through this FC Market review.

Account Types

We believe that there may be more than one account type, however, there aren’t any definitive differences shown apart from the odd account name here and there. As we go through the review we will outline any potential differences in the accounts in each individual section so you can get a better understanding of what is on offer.

Platforms

FXMarket uses MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform, MT4 is one of the most used and trusted trading platform which has a whole host of features including:

• Working with securities of Forex, Futures and CFD markets
• Instant Execution, Request Execution, Market Execution
• Confidentiality of all trading operations
• Unlimited charts quantity
• Support of various timeframes (from minutes up to months)
• A large number of technical indicators and line studies
• Experts, Custom Indicators and Scripts
• MultiLanguage program interface
• Realtime data export via DDE protocol
• Signals of system and trading actions
• Getting on-line news from financial markets
• Internal e-mail system
• Printing charts and completed trading transactions statements
• Accessible as a desktop download, mobile application, and web trader.

Strangely the site indicates that you will be downloading the FxPro MT4 platform rather than its own.

Leverage

If your account has less than $400,000 then you can have a maximum leverage of 1:400. If your account has a balance over $400,000 then your account can be leveraged up to 1:100. You can select the leverage when opening up an account and can change it by contacting the customer service team with the change request. The opening statement from the broker indicates that the maximum leverage available is 1:1000 so this is a little contradictory to the rest of the information on the website.

Trade Sizes

A lot is equal to 100,000 units and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots. Trade sizes go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades and orders you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

We do not know if there are any additional commissions as the information is not present on the site. We do know that there are swap charges which are fees charged when you hold a trade overnight, and these can be viewed within the MT4 trading platform and can be both positive or negative.

Assets

The asset list provided comes from HF Market, so it seems like they use the same assets provided by them, we have outlined them below.

Forex Major Pairs:
CADCHF, CADJPOY, CHFJPY, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURUSD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDJPY.

Forex Minor Pairs:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, EURAUD, EURCZK, EURDKK, EURHUF, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURZAR, GBPAUD, GBPNZD, GBPZAR, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDHUF, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR, ZARJPY.

Commodities Spot:
Palladium and Platinum

Commodities Futures:
US Cocoa, Coffee, Copper, US Cotton No 2, Sugar #11

Indices (also available as futures):
AUS 200, FRA 40, GER 30, JPN 225, NETH 25, SPA 35, SUI 20, UK 100, USA 100, USA 30, USA 500.

Metals and Energies Spot:
UK Brent Oil, US Crude Oil, Silver (USD and EUR), and Gold (USD and EUR).

Metals and Energies Futures:
US Natural Gas, UK Brent Oil, US Crude Oil.

Shares:
There are plenty of shares available including the likes of Apple, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Tesco, RBS, Microsoft, and Netflix.

Spreads

The minimum spread starts from 1 pip. The spread is variable which means they move with the markets, the more volatility or lack of liquidity can cause the spreads to widen and grow larger. The different instruments will also have different natural spreads, so some will always be higher than the others.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account stated on the FAQ is $500. However, on the account opening page, it states that the minimum required is $50, so we are not sure which figure is the correct one.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few methods available to use to deposit, these are Bank Wire Transfers, Skrill (MoneyBookers), WebMoney, Neteller, Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, Visa Electron), CashU, UKash, FinalPay. We do not know if there are any added fees, you should always check with your own bank or processor to see if they will add any outgoing transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Bank Wire Transfers, Skrill (MoneyBookers), WebMoney, Neteller, Credit Card (Visa, Mastercard, Visa Electron), CashU, UKash, FinalPay. It is not stated if there are any added fees or not, but some banks and processors will charge a fee for incoming transfer processing. Make sure to check with the method you use to see if there are any added commissions from them.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

It can take up to three days for a withdrawal request to be processed by FCMarket. It can then take an additional 1 to 5 working days based on the method used and its own processing times.

Bonuses & Promotions

There does not appear to be any bonuses on offer, you could always check with the customer service team to see if there are any coming up that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are some very basic information pages provided which make up the majority of this section, they cover topics such as: What is Forex?, Forex History, Margin & Leverage, What is CFD?, Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis. There is also a forex glossary that details different trading terms so you can refer back to if you come across something you do not know the meaning of. There is also an economic calendar that details different news events and what potential impact they could have on the markets.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available 24 hours a day from Sunday to Friday. The only method of communication provided ina via email address. This is a little disconcerting as many people prefer to speak to someone directly, so having a phone number available would be beneficial for those clients.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available. You will need to download the MT4 platform and open up a demo account within it. Due to this, we do not know what the trading conditions are but would hope that they will match the live ones. We also do not know if there is an expiration time on these demo accounts. Again it mentions the FxPro demo accounts and not their own, you can use these accounts to test out new strategies without any real risk.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site so if you are thinking of signing up we would recommend contacting the customer service team prior to opening up the account, just to make sure that you are eligible.

Conclusion

There is quite a lot of confusion and some noted contradictions on the FCM website. The leverage has different values, as does the minimum deposit. Some information is taken from FCMarket directly while other bits come from FxPro and HFMarkets, so we do not really know what is going on as we have seen a broker take information from multiple other brokers before. The trading conditions that are on offer are average and the spreads are acceptable, but we do not know if there are any added commissions on the trading. Plenty of assets are available. Another downside worth mentioning is the limited ways to get in contact with the customer service team. We never really like brokers that use aspects of other brokers to build their own service, this along with all the discrepancies in the information can make FCMarket and hard broker to recommend.

BlueStarFX does not give a lot of information about themselves away, only stating that they are an established ECN broker serving both individual and corporate clients. They have a comprehensive range of tradable assets, technical support, consulting services and they have a goal of making the trading process efficient, hassle-free and above all, profitable. We will be going through the services on offer to see if they do offer these things or if they are a broker you would be better to avoid.

Account Types

There are two different accounts available, we will outline some of the basic features of the account below.

Variable Spread Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $500, spreads on this account start from 1.6 pips and are variable. The account can be leveraged up to 1:500 and trading starts from 0.01 lots.

ECN Pro Account:
The ECN Pro account requires a minimum deposit of at least $1,000. Spreads on this account start from 0.2 pips and the account can be leveraged up to 1:1000. Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and there is an added commission of $10 per round lot traded on the account.

Platforms

The only platform on offer is MetaTrader 4 which is a great option to have. MetaTrader 4 is a highly popular trading platform due to its many features. These include its accessibility, it is available as a desktop download, web trader and as an application for your mobile devices. Its distributed architecture, robust security system and convenient mobile trading are some of the core competencies that give MetaTrader 4 its compelling competitive advantages, offering the perfect solution to the even most demanding trading needs.

MT4 is also perfect for traders of all experience levels and is recognized for its user-friendly interface, advanced charting features, technical analysis tools, and automated trading capabilities. Our MetaTrader 4 platform supports multiple account base currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, and PLN. It is also available in over 30 different languages.

Leverage

If you are using the Variable Spread account then the maximum leverage is 1:500. If you are using the ECN Pro account then your leverage can go up to 1:1000, we would suggest not going over 1:500 though as higher leverage can increase risks. Leverage can be selected when opening up an account and should you wish to change it you will need to contact the customer service team with your request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on both accounts start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We are not clear on what the maximum trade size is but would recommend not trading over 50 lots due to execution issues. We are also not clear on what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time is.

Trading Costs

The ECN Pro account has an added commission of $10 per round lot traded which is a little higher than the industry average of $6 per round lot traded. The Variable Spread account does not have any added commissions as it uses a spread based system.

There are swap charges on both accounts, these are fees for holding trades overnight or over the weekend. They can be positive or negative and can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

There is a very small list of assets detailed on the site, we believe that this is all that is available if it is then there really isn’t much to trade at all.

Forex:
EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, USDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, EURJPY, EURCHF, EURGBP, AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY.

Spreads

The starting spreads that you get depend on the account you use. The Variable Spread account has spreads starting from 1.6 pips, while the ECN Pro account has spreads starting from 0.2 pips. The spreads on both acocunts are variable which means they move with the markets and added volatility in the markets will mean more movement on the spreads. The different instruments will also have different starting spreads so not all spreads will be the same.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount required to open up an account is $500 which will allow you to open up the Variable Spread account. If you want the ECN Pro account, you will need to deposit at least $1,000. It is not known if the minimum amount reduces once an account has been opened.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There is a little confusion as to which methods are actually available. When looking at the bottom of the screen there are images of Bank Wire transfers, MasterCard, Visa, WebMoney, CashU, Ukash and Skrill, however when going to the deposit page, the three options given are Bank Wire, Counter Deposit and Bitcoin, so we would suggest that those three are the real options available to use. It is not clear to us if there are any added fees, but whatever method you use, be sure to check with them to see if there are any added transfer fees.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

When we go to the withdrawal page the only two options stated are Bank Wire and Bitcoin. Just like with the deposits, we are not sure if there are any added fees for the withdrawals but check with your bank to see if they have any incoming transaction fees added by them.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Unfortunately, this information was not stated. However, we would expect BlueStarFX to process any withdrawals within 48 hours of the request and so depending on the method used the withdrawal request should be fully processed between 1 to 5 working days from the request being made.

Bonuses & Promotions

We did not see any information relating to bonuses or promotions, so there may not be any active at the time of writing this review. If you are interested in promotions then we would suggest contacting the customer service team to find out if there are any upcoming promotions you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

The only educational tool that seems to be available is an economic calendar. This details upcoming news events as well as detailing which currencies they may have an effect on. It would have been nice for there to be more education as a lot of brokers are now looking to help their clients improve their trading so it would be nice to see BlueStarFX follow in those footsteps.

Customer Service

The customer service page only contains a web form to fill in. You can fill it in with your question or query and then you should get a reply via email. There doesn’t seem to be any other way to get in contact which is a little concerning. The minimum expected would be an email address being available with there also being an expectation of a postal address or phone number being available to use.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available, the account has a choice of ECN spreads or Variable spreads and uses the MetaTrader 4 trading platform. There aren’t any further details on the demo account such as whether or not there is an expiration time on the account. Demo accounts are great as they allow you to test out the trading conditions and also strategies without risking any of your real capital.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site so we would recommend contacting the customer service team prior to signing up just to make sure you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

BlueStarFX does not offer up much information about themselves which makes it hard to form a full opinion on them. The trading accounts offer some variation in regards to spreads and available leverage, the commission on the ECNM account is a little high at $4 per lot higher than the industry average of $6 per lot traded. The main confusion comes from the deposit and withdrawal methods. Lots of images at the bottom of the site which seemingly has no reason to be there as those methods are not available to use. There is also no information on any potential fees for moving your money. The final point we want ed to make is on customer service. There just aren’t enough ways to contact them. It is no longer acceptable to just have an online submission form. There needs to be a more personal way to get in contact also. For these reasons, we cannot recommend BlueStarFX as a broker to use at this point in time.

MRG Forex is an online foreign exchange broker that doesn’t give much about itself away. They are committed to expanding our knowledge to help our clients achieve their unique financial goals. Their mission is to foster mutual and long relationships with our clients by providing every ideal condition to fulfill their trading potential. Throughout this review, we will be looking into the services on offer to see exactly what is on offer and so see how they stand up to the competition.

Account Types

Should you decide to sign up with MRG Forex then you will have a choice of four different accounts to use, each one has its own requirement to pen and offers slightly different trading conditions, so let’s look at what they are.

Basic Account:
This account requires $10 to open, it has a minimum trade size of 0.01 lots and a maximum trade size of 1 lot. The spreads on the account start from 2 pips and the account has swap charges for holding trades overnight. There is no commission on the account and it can be leveraged up to 1:500. There are 29 trading products available on this account.

Sharia Account:
This account requires $3,000 to open, it has a minimum trade size of 0.1 lots and a maximum trade size of 20 lot. The spreads on the account start from 0.8 pips and the account does not have any swap charges. There is an added commission of $20 per lot traded on the account and it can be leveraged up to 1:200. There are 29 trading products available on this account.

Infinite Account:
This account requires $50,000 to open, it has a minimum trade size of 0.1 lots and a maximum trade size of 30 lot. The spreads on the account start from 0.8 pips and the account does not have any swap charges. There is an added commission of $15 per lot traded on the account and it can be leveraged up to 1:200. There are 29 trading products available on this account.

Premium Account:
This account requires $300 to open, it has a minimum trade size of 0.1 lots and a maximum trade size of 10 lot. The spreads on the account start from 0.8 pips and the account has swap charges for holding trades overnight. There is an added commission of $10 per lot traded on the account and it can be leveraged up to 1:200. There are 29 trading products available on this account.

Platforms

MRD Forex wants to offer only the best in trading platforms, they are currently offering just the one platform which is in the form of MetaTrader 4. MT4 comes with a whole host of features including its accessibility, usable as a desktop download, mobile application, and web trader. It also allows you to use three types of order execution to make entering the market instantly or at a specific time possible. MT4 contains a technical analysis package comprised of 30 built-in indicators and more than 2,000 free custom indicators, as well as 700 indicators that are for purchase. It is fully customizable algorithms can be developed for trade automation using the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and MQL4 programming language. MT4 provides a live news feed, as well as programmable alerts to keep users aware of changing market conditions.

Leverage

If you use the Basic account that you can get leverage up to 1:500. If you use the Sharia, Infinite or Premium account the maximum leverage available to you is 1:200. The leverage can be selected when first opening up an account and can be changed by sending a request to the customer service team.

Trade Sizes

We have outlined below the different minimum trade sizes as well as the maximum trade size of each account.

• Basic Account: Min 0.01 lots / Max 1 lot
• Sharia Account: Min 0.1 lots / Max 20 lots
• Infinite Account: Min 0.1 lots / Max 30 lots
• Premium Account: Min 0.1 lots / Max 10 lots

We do not know how many trades you can have open at any one time.

Trading Costs

There is an added commission on the few of the accounts. The Sharia account has an added commission of $20 per lot traded, the Infinite account has an added commission of $15 per lot traded and the Premium account has a commission of $10 per lot traded. All of them are rather high when you compare them to the industry average of $6 per lot traded. The Basic account does not have any commission and instead uses a spread based system.

There are also swap charges on the Basic and Premium accounts. These are charges for holding trades overnight and can be viewed within the trading platform you are using. The Sharia and Infinite accounts do not have three charges and this is reflected in the higher commissions charged.

Assets

The assets have been broken down into categories that we will outline below, there arent a lot of them available.

Forex:
USDJPY, EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, USDCAD, EURGBP, AUDJPY, AUDCAD, AUDCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCHF, EURJPY, GBPJPY, EURCAD, AUDNZD, NZDJPY, EURNZD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPNZD.

Commodities:
Gold and US Crude Oil are the only ones available.

Indices:
Just Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and Dow Jones 30 are available to trade.

Spreads

The Basic account comes with a starting spread of 2 pips while the Sharia, Infinite and Premium account still has a starting spread of 0.8 pips. 0.8 pips are quite high for commission-based accounts. The spreads are variable which means they move with the markets when there is more movement in the markets, the spreads will often be seen higher. Different instruments will also have different starting spreads, the listed number above are simply the minimums.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $10 which gets you to access to the Basic account. If you want a different account you will need to deposit at least $3,000 for the Sharia account, $50,000 for the Infinite account and $300 for the Premium account. Once an account has been opened, the minimum top-up value for all accounts is $10.

Deposit Methods & Costs

You can currently use Bank Wire Transfer, Credit/Debit Card, Skrill, FasaPay and Indonesian Local Bank Transfers to deposit into MRG Forex. It is not known if there are any added fees for depositing but you should 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 use to withdraw, for clarification these are Bank Wire Transfer, Credit/Debit Card, Skrill, FasaPay and Indonesian Local Bank Transfers. Once again there is no mention of any potential fees, but also no statement saying that there are no fees. As always you should check with your own bank or processor to see if the change for any currency conversion or incoming processing fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

MRG Forex will aim to process all withdrawal requests within one business day of the request being made. The total time for the withdrawal to fully process will depend on the method used and could take an additional 1 to 5 days to process depending on the speed of the processor or bank used.

Bonuses & Promotions

The following is stated in the FAQ section of the site under the question of “Does “Maxrich Group LTD” offer bonuses?” is listed, with the answer being, “No, and we advise traders to be wary of free money and the firms that offer such incentives. Maxrich Group LTD makes money fairly from commissions, and as such, we do not need to offer financial incentives to sign up potential traders.” They do, however, appear to offer cashback bonuses of up to 100%, as well as a “Grand Jackpot” trading contest that offers a top prize of $15,000. See the MRG website for more details on these offerings.

Educational & Trading Tools

Looking through the site there does not appear to be any education material or trading tools which is a shame to see as a lot of modern brokers are now looking to help their clients improve on their trading. It would be nice to see MRG Forex do something similar for theirs.

Customer Service

The only way to get in contact with the customer service team is via an online submission form, and you need to fill it in and you should then get a reply via email. It is a shame that there aren’t any other additional ways to get in touch with the support team, as it does not help to build a sense of trust.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are a great way to test out the markets and strategies without risking any of your actual capital. We know that they are available from MRG Forex but we do not know the conditions such as which accounts they mimic or if there is an expiration time on the accounts.

Countries Accepted

The FAQ states that residents from the United States are not accepted, but citizens from all other countries are accepted.

Conclusion

MRG Forex offers four different accounts each containing slightly different reading conditions. The one that stands out is the commissions, and they are extortionately high. In fact, some are twice or even three times the industry average of $6 per lot traded. There is also a very limited number of assets available to trade, along with the limited funding methods with unknown fees. For us, another major concern was the fact that there is only an online submission form to use in order to contact the support team. This does not build confidence and there needs to be more ways to get in touch. All of those things combined are enough for us to suggest looking elsewhere for your trading needs.

eDeal FX is a Saint Vincent and the Grenadines based foreign exchange broker. Their vision is to become one of the best forex brokers online, to inspire everyone by making the trading platforms readily accessible, and to continuously change and to be perfect professionals. eDeal FX also wants to provide an efficient and committed service and to provide fruitful indicators to their clients. Throughout this review, we will be looking into the services on offer to see if they manage to achieve these things and so you can decide if they are a broker you would want to trade with.

Account Types

There are 5 different accounts to choose from should you decide to sign up with eDeal FX, lets briefly look at their features.

All Accounts:
All account some with the following features: Forex currency pairs, spot metals, and oils, contract sizes of 100,000, no swap fees, no commissions, hedging is allowed, variable spreads, trade sizes starting from 0.01 lots. Use of expert advisors is allowed, there is also access to trading signs & alerts, one-click trading, use of the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and, access to live chat, email, and telephone support.

Professional:
The minimum deposit for this account is $5, it has leverage up to 1:500 and has a maximum trade size of 5 lots which a maximum of 150 open trades at any one time.

Extreme:
The minimum deposit for this account is $100, it has leverage up to 1:100 and has a maximum trade size of 60 lots which a maximum of 300 open trades at any one time.

Ultimate:
The minimum deposit for this account is $100, it has leverage up to 1:100 and has a maximum trade size of 10 lots which a maximum of 100 open trades at any one time.

Advanced:
The minimum deposit for this account is $20,000, it has leverage up to 1:300 and has a maximum trade size of 80 lots which a maximum of 400 open trades at any one time.

Prime:
The minimum deposit for this account is $100, it has leverage up to 1:100 and has a maximum trade size of 10 lots which a maximum of 100 open trades at any one time.

Platforms

eDeal FX uses MetaTrader 4 from the MetaQuotes company as their only trading platform. It is one of the world’s most popular trading platform and comes with a whole host of features to make your trading life easier. These features include a complete friendly interface for ease of use, news feeds every second to keep traders updated, ready state analytical tools for your requirement, various best in class charts and calculations, developing advises from experts to use them on the go, multilingual platform, anytime account statement, real-time fund details, a summary of portfolios, unrealized/realized profits and loss and allocations and, effective and efficient indicators to determine trade dependencies and trailing stop loss facility. MetaTrader 4 is available on multiple paltforms including desktop, mobile devices and as a trader on your web browser.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available depends on o the account type you are using, we have outlined them below.

• Professional: Up to 1:500
• Extreme: Up to 1:100
• Ultimate: Up to 1:100
• Advanced: Up to 1:300
• Prime: Up to 1:100

Leverage is selected when first opening up an account. Should you wish to change it afterward, you will need to contact the customer service team with your request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on all accounts start at 0.01 lots which are known as a micro lot, they then go up in increments of 0.01 lots. The maximum trade size depends on the account you are using, as it the maximum number of open lots/trades at anyone, time, so we have outlined them below.

• Professional: 5 lots / 150 trades
• Extreme: 60 lots / 300 trades
• Ultimate: 10 lots / 100 trades
• Advanced: 80 lots / 400 trades
• Prime: 10 lots / 100 trades

We would suggest not trading over 50 lots in a single trade due to execution speed and slippage.

Trading Costs

There is no added commission on any of the accounts as they all use a spread based system, there is also no swap charges on the accounts. Please check the spread section of this review for overall trading costs.

Assets

eDeal FX has broken down their assets into two different categories, we will now outline what can be found in each.

Forex:
AUDUSD, USDKPY, EURJPY, EURGBP, USDCHF, USDCAD, NZDUSD, EURCHF, NZDJPY, CADCHF, CADJPY, AUDJPY, GBPUSD, EURCAD, GBPCHF, CHFJPY, AUDCAD, AUDNZD, GBPCAD, EURAUD, AUDCHF, NZDCHF, GBPAUD, USDSGD, USDHKD, ZARJPY, NZDCAD, GBPNZD, EURNZD, USDCNH, USDDKK, USDTRY, USDCZK, USDHUF, USDSEK, USDNOK, EURPLN, EURNOK, USDPLN, EURHUF, EURDKK, EURRON, USDRON, USDMXN, USDZAR, USDRUB.

Metals and Energies:
UK Brent Oil, US Crude Oil, Solver (EUR and USD), Gold (EUR and USD) and, US Natural Gas.

Spreads

Spreads seem to start around 2.1 pips, it does not look like there are many differences between the accounts, at least not stated in the contract specification or accounts pages. The spreads are available which means they move with the markets when there is a lot of volatility they will often be seen a lot higher than when the markets are calm.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is currently $5, and this will get you the Professional account.

Deposit Methods & Costs

Unfortunately, it does not appear that there is any information about deposits, so we do not know which methods are available to use or if there are any fees for depositing. This can out of a lot of potential clients who need to know that they can use their preferred method to deposit.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

Just like with the deposits, there is no information about withdrawals either, we do not know how we can get money out or how it will cost us. This will prevent a lot of people signing up and it is vital to know how you can get your money back out.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

As there is no information about withdrawals we also do not know the withdrawal or processing times. We would hope that you would have your request fully processed between 1 to 7 business days from the request depending on the methods which are actually available.

Bonuses & Promotions

In regards to bonuses or promotions, there seems to be just the one available when we wrote this review, this is a Cashback offer. We have outlined what you can earn below:

Educational & Trading Tools

There are a few different resources in regards to education and tools, with the first being a simple page detailing information about what Forex is and how it works. There is a market news section, however, the page is not loading properly for us. There is then an economic calendar, and this details upcoming news events and also which currencies or markets they may affect. There is also daily technical analysis, weekly technical analysis, and blogs. Unfortunately, these were not working at the time we were looking at the site. There are also daily, weekly and monthly pivot tables available.

Customer Service

You can contact the customer service team via live chat, phone or email…the choice if yours. They have support in a number of different languages and locations including Hong Kong, the USA, Dubai, India, Australia, Qatar, and the Maldives.

USA Support:
Address: #13401, Metric BLVD APT 411, Austin, Texas-78727, United States of America
Phone: +1 513 746 1112

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available and it just takes a short form to get on up and running. You can select leverage up to 1:500 and a balance of up to 1,000,000. We do not know which account it uses the trading conditions from or if there is an expiration time. Demo accounts are a great way for you to test out the trading conditions and servers, it also allows you to test out new strategies without risking any real capital.

Countries Accepted

This information is not made readily available on the site, so if you are thinking of joining, be sure to check your eligibility with the support team prior to joining.

Conclusion

There is a lot of information missing from the eDeal FX website. We have no understanding of what the deposit or withdrawal methods are, and this makes it hard for us to build any level of trust. eDeal FX will be dealing with our money, we need to know how we can get it in, out and how much it will cost us. The trading conditions seem fine. The spreads can be a little high but there is no added commission or swap charges. In terms of tradable assets, there are enough currencies but not much else so it would be nice for there to be more instruments to trade. Because of the missing information, it is very hard for us to recommend eDeal FX at this point in time.

Navitas is a foreign exchange broker based in Bermuda. They are a broker that likes to think of themselves as active and ready to innovate. Their mission involves providing traders and investors with the best trading environment, giving their employees the best working conditions, and to generate value with a difference and to inspire a moment of optimism and happiness. We will be delving deep into the site to see exactly what is on offer, so you can then decide if they re the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are just two different accounts to choose from when signing up with Navitas Markets, so let’s look at what they offer.

Classic Account:
This account requires a deposit of at least $50 and must be in USD, it comes with floating spreads starting from 1 pip and can be leveraged up to 1:500. The minimum trade size is 0.01 lots and the account has access to forex, metals, commodities, and indices. It uses the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and has no added commissions on forex pairs. A margin call is set at 60% with the stop out level set at 40%. Swap-free accounts are also available and the account has negative balance protection.

Dynamic Account:
This account requires a deposit of at least $5,000 and must be in USD, it comes with floating spreads starting from 0.6 pip and can be leveraged up to 1:500. The minimum trade size is 0.01 lots and the account has access to forex, metals, commodities, and indices. It uses the MetaTrader 4 trading platform and has no added commissions when trading forex pairs. A margin call is set at 60% with the stop out level set at 40%. Swap-free accounts are also available and the account has negative balance protection.

Platforms

The only platform on offer from Navitas Markets is MT4. MT4 is an all-in-one trading platform with a user-friendly interface and easy to use functionalities allowing traders to analyze the markets, place orders and manage their own risk all with a single click. Traders can also manage several trading accounts simultaneously, not to mention its cutting edge technology which includes a web-based solution enabling traders to trade at any time from any device and from anywhere in the world.

Leverage

Both accounts can be leveraged up to 1:500 and this can be selected when opening up an account. You can request for it to be changed on an already open account by contacting the customer service team.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on both accounts start from 0.01 lots (known as a micro lot) and go up in increments of 0.01 lot so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is or how many trades you can have open at any one time.

Trading Costs

There are no added commissions on either of the accounts as they use a spread based payment structure. There are swap fees that are charged for holding fees overnight, swap-free versions of each account are also available.

Assets

The instruments and assets at Navitas Market shave been broken down into a number of different categories. We have outlined them for you below.

Forex:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDHUF, AUDZND, AUDUSD, CADJPY, CADNOK, CADSEK, CHFJPY, CHFHUF, CHFSGD, EURUAD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURCNH, EURCZK, EURGBP, EURHUF, EURJPY, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURRUB, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPHUF, GBPTRY, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDHUF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, SGDJPY, TRYJPY, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDHUF, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDCAD, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, ZARJPY.

Metals:
Gold and Silver.

Indices:
EU50, JPY225, US30, FRA40, AUS200, GER30, NETH25, Spain35, UK100, US100, US500, SWE30, Swiss20,, HK50, UK250, Italy40.

Commodities:
WTI Crude Oil, Brent Crude Oil, and Natural Gas

Shares:
There are plenty of shares available including Amazon, American Express, McDonald’s, Apple, General Motors, and Tesla Motors.

Spreads

The spreads that you get vary slightly depending on the account. The Classic account has spreads starting from around 1 pip while the Dynamic account has spreads starting from around 0.6 pips. The spreads are variable which means they move with the markets, the more volatility in the markets the higher the spreads will be, different instruments and assets will also have different starting spreads.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required is $50 which gets you the Classic account. If you want the Dynamic account you will need to deposit at least $5,000.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a number of different ways to deposit which include Neteller, Skrill, Visa, MasterCard, Bank Wire, fasapay and UnionPay. There are no added fees when depositing, however, be sure to check with your own bank or processor to see if they will charge any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available for withdrawal, but there are no added fees. We have outlined them below.

• Neteller: 2% capped to USD 30.00 / minimum USD 1.00 per transaction
• Skrill: 1% capped to USD 10,000
• Visa: up to EUR 1.5 per transaction
• MasterCard: up to EUR 1.5 per transaction
• Bank Wire: It depends on the corresponding and intermediary banks.
• FasaPay: 0.5% per transaction (max approx. $5)
• UnionPay: 1.2% per transaction (max approx. $5)

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal requests should be fully processed between 1 to 5 days from the date of the request depending on the method used.

Bonuses & Promotions

There doesn’t seem to be any active promotions at the time of writing this review. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any, so be sure to check back regularly just in case any have come up.

Educational & Trading Tools

The educational and tools section of the site has a few different things available. The first is a set of articles looking at different things about trading such as what is forex or an introduction to fundamental analysis. There is an infographic that just shows what forex trading is, some seminars, and a glossary of different trading-related terms. There is also an economic calendar detailing different news events and the effects they could have. You can view the current exchange rates, heat map, market times, and trading-related news on the site too.

Customer Service

You can contact the customer service team using the email address provided or the telephone number.

Account Email: [email protected]
Partnership Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44 1216476059

Demo Account

Practice accounts are available from Navitas Markets. When signing up for a demo account you can select a demo floating account with USD base currency, a choice of leverage between 1:1 and 1:500 and a balance from between 500 to 5,000,000. The demo account allows you to test the markets and new strategies without risking any of your own capital.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is available on the site: “NavitasMarkets does not offer its services to residents of certain jurisdictions such as USA, Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and North Korea.”

Conclusion

The two accounts on offer are not a whole lot different from each other. The only changes in the trading conditions are slightly lower spreads, but with the Classic account starting from 1 pip it isn’t a huge deal (although we expect the spreads to be quite a bit higher in reality). Plenty of assets are available to trade with which is good. There are added fees for withdrawing but the majority of them are quite low. It would still be nice to see these removed. Overall, Navitas Markets seems to tick off most of the boxes and should meet the needs of the vast majority of Forex traders.

Markets Online is an online forex and CFD broker which was founded in 2017 and is located in Seychelles. They claim to offer the same old trading concept that other brokers do, just better. They are offering more opportunities to trade, a dedicated customer support team and a state of the art trading platform. In this review, we will be looking into what is on offer to see if they really do offer these and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are three different account types on offer from Markets Online, each having its own entry requirement and trading conditions, so let’s look at a brief overview of them.

Essential Account:
The essential account needs a deposit between 250 to 999 EUR, USD or GBP, it comes with a maximum leverage of 1:100 and has no added commissions apart from on stocks. It comes with standard training as well as access to over 200 assets. Finally, it has access to courses, webinars, articles, and news, swap charges are also charged for holding trades overnight.

Professional Account:
The professional account increases the deposit requirement to between 1,000 and 4,999 USD, GBP or EUR. It has maximum leverage up to 1:150 and has no added commission apart from on stocks. Swap charges are present for holding trades overnight and it has access to advanced training, over 200 assets to trade, access to courses, webinars, articles and news and it also has negative balance protection so you cant lose more than you deposited.

Premium Account:
This is the top-level account and requires a deposit between 5,000 and 50,000 GBP, USD or EUR. It does not have any added commissions apart from on stocks and it has access to expert training, access to 200+ tradable assets, access to courses, webinars, articles, and news. It also has negative balance protection, 1-month commission-free trading and it gets a priority service.

Platforms

Markets Online offers the well-known MetaTrader 4 platform, making it available for several operating systems. The power of MT4 goes without saying at this point, so there is certainly no problem to report in this area.

Leverage

The leverage you receive is based on a number of different factors, with the chosen account type and asset type being the primary determining factor. Please see the accounts breakdown for the maximum leverage level for each.

The numbers are relatively low when comparing to other brokers, as many brokers are now looking to get leverage up to 1:500. Of course, some are regulated and cannot, but the numbers above seem low in comparison to what they could be.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. We could not locate the maximum trade size. However, whatever it is, we would recommend not trading in sizes larger than 50 lots, as the bigger a trade becomes the harder it is for the markets or liquidity provider to execute the trade quickly and without any slippage. We could also not locate information regarding the maximum number of open trades allowed at any one time.

Trading Costs

There are no added commissions on any of the accounts apart from when trading stocks, where the commissions are 0.10% on the Essential account, 0.09% on the Professional account and 0.07% on the Premium account. Swap charges are present though, these are interest charges that are incurred for holding trades overnight. They can be both negative or positive and can usually be viewed from within the trading platform of choice.

Assets

Markets Online state that there are over 200 available assets to trade. There is, unfortunately, no full breakdown of the entire asset index. Instead, they have broken them down into 4 different asset classes and given a few examples of each.

Forex:
EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, AUDUSD.

Stocks:
APPL, FB, JPM, KO, MSFT.

Commodities:
Gold, Silver, Platinum, US Oil, UK Oil.

Cryptocurrencies:
ETHUSD, ETHEUR, LTCUSD, LTCEUR, XRPUSD.

Spreads

Due to there being no added commissions on the accounts, they use a spread based system to generate their earnings. Unfortunately, information about spreads is not readily available and we could not locate it. This is strange as a lot of potential clients will come looking for the costs of trading and will be forced to contact the support team for this information. Markets Online need to add this information to the website, at least examples if not a full breakdown.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount is 250 EUR, GBP or USD. This is required to open an Essential account and is also the minimum amount for any subsequent top-up deposits.

Deposit Methods & Costs

It seems that there are just two methods available to deposit with, these are Bank Wire Transfer and Credit/Debit Card. Bank Wire Transfer can only be used to deposit in EUR or USD and the minimum deposit for this method is 1,000 EUR or USD. Markets Online do not add any commissions to bank deposits, however, check with your bank to see if there are any transfer fees of their own. Credit/Debit Card can be used to deposit in EUR, USD or GBP, and has a minimum deposit amount of $250. There are no added fees for this method.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same two methods are available for withdrawing, for clarification these are Bank Wire Transfer and Credit/Debit Card. Bank Wire Transfers must be done in the same currency that was deposited. Withdrawals with this method have an added charge of 50 USD, EUR or GBP. Along with the fee added by Markets Online, make sure to check with your own bank to see if they add any fees of their own. Credit/Debit Card withdrawals must be in the same currency as was deposited. There is an added fee of 25 USD, EUR or GBP for each withdrawal. Be sure to check with your card issuer to make sure they do not add any of their own also.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Bank Wire Transfers will take between 5 to 7 business days to complete. Credit/Debit Card withdrawals will take between 3 to 5 business days to complete. These times include processing from Markets Online and potential processing time from your bank or card issuer.

Bonuses & Promotions

We could not locate any information on the website in regards to bonuses or promotions so it does not appear that there are any active ones at the time of writing this review. If you are interested in bonuses then be sure to check back regularly or get in contact with the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming bonuses or promotions.

Educational & Trading Tools

There doesn’t appear to be anything in regards to education or trading tools. This is a shame as a lot of brokers these days are looking to help their clients improve and become more profitable with educational courses or tools to help them trade or analyze. It would be nice to see Markets Online do something similar for their clients.

Customer Service

If you have any questions or queries you can get in contact with the customer service team over at Markets Online in a few different ways. You can use the online submissions form to fill in your query and you should then get a reply via email. There is also a phone number available and also an email address if you wished to message them directly or talk to someone in person. The customer service team is available 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday.

Demo Account

There doesn’t seem to be a demo account on offer, or at least we could not find any information about one. This is a shame as demo accounts allow potential new clients to test out the trading conditions and servers while it allows current clients to test out new strategies without risking any of their capital. This is an area that should be invested in and demo accounts should be made available.

Countries Accepted

A statement on the website states that they do no allow certain jurisdictions including the United States and Canada. If you are unsure of your eligibility we would recommend getting in contact with the customer support team to find out.

Conclusion

The Markets Online accounts seem accessible with a minimum deposit of 250. There isn’t too much information present about the trading conditions though, with things like spreads being completely unknown. There are no commissions on the accounts (apart from stocks) which is great. In terms of depositing and withdrawing, there are very limited processors with just bank and cards. Deposits are good with no added fees, but when withdrawing you are hit with some pretty hefty fees. The provision of an MT4 platform is excellent, but seemingly there is a lack of demo accounts. More information is needed on the site for us to be able to recommend them as a broker to use.

Double Million is a forex broker based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and was founded in 2011. It was formed with the goal to improve traders’ abilities and empower them to trade safely, professionally and with self-confidence. They aim to do this through advanced trading platforms and in-depth trading. We will be using this review to look into the services being offered so you can see what is on offer and decide whether they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are four different account son offer, each with their own requirements and trading conditions, so let’s look at what is on offer.

Mini Account:
This account needs a deposit of up to $2,500. It doe snot have robots enables and can be leveraged up to 1:200. There is an added commission on the trading and it does not have access to 24/5 support. It has access to half of the educational materials and does not have a dedicated account manager. It uses standard spreads and it does not have access to bonuses, indices or stocks.

Standard Account:
This account increases the required deposit and it is now up to $10,000. The account can not use robots and can be leveraged up to 1:300. There is an added commission to each lot traded and it has access to the 24/5 support system. The account has access to 75% of the educational material and has access to a dedicated account manager. It uses standard spreads and there is a bonus available up to 35%, it has access to indices but not stocks.

Gold Account:
The Gold requires a deposit that goes as high as $25,000. The account can use robots and can be leveraged up to 1:400. There is no added commission on this account and it has access to the 24.5 support team. It has full access to the educational material and has access to an account manager. The spreads are stated as low and there is a bonus of up to 50%, both stocks and indices are available to trade.

VIP Account:
This account requires a deposit of over $25,000. It can use robots and can be leveraged up to 1:400. There is no added commission on this account and it has access to the 24.5 support team. It has full access to the educational material and has access to an account manager. The spreads are stated as low and there is a bonus of up to 50%, both stocks and indices are available to trade.

Platforms

It is not clear to use exactly what platform is being used, we have outlined the three versions below to get an understand ing of the features.

Desktop Trader:
The desktop trader contains all relevant data that can be shown on one screen for convenience. Traders can execute one-click deals, limit orders and personalize according to preference. The desktop trader allows you to install your own Robot, with live direct quotes, advances and updated charts that are easy and friendly to use. You can also install with the trader almost any other technology or indicators that may help you’re trading. Some features include a one-click deal opening, full single screen function, Microsoft.Net technology, customized view, and advanced integrated charts.

Web Trader:
Web Trader is based on the desktop platform allowing you to use the same advanced features, charts, analytics, indicators, and tools. The web-based platform is ideal for traders who travel and need full accessibility anytime anywhere. Some feature includes over 200 tradable instruments, no download or installation required, standard browser access and, firewall access management.

Smart Phone Platform:
Stay connected at any time with the most accurate market rates at your fingertips with our new and innovative mobile platform. Some features include the ability to place trades quickly at any moment, constantly be able to monitor your positions, trade over 200 stocks, indices, currency pairs and commodities, complete access to balance sheets, equity and margin details, execution gestures such as Swipe to Close and, easy customizable easy layout for easy usage.

Leverage

The leverage that you can get depends on the account that you use, we have outlined them below for you.

• Mini Account: 1:200
• Standard Account: 1:300
• Gold Account: 1:400
• VIP Account: 1:400

The leverage you prefer can be selected when first opening up an account. We are not sure if you can change the leverage on an already open account, but you should contact the customer service team if you have such a request.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We are not sure about what the maximum trade size is or what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time is.

Trading Costs

The Mini and Standard accounts both have an added commission on their trading. Unfortunately, we do not know what this commission is as it is not mentioned anywhere, we know it exists, just not how much it is. The Gold and VIP accounts do not have any added commissions. Swap charges are present on all account types and these are charged for holding trades overnight. These can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

Sadly, there is not a full breakdown of the available asset or instruments so we are not able to comment on this. It is a shame that they are not available s a lot of potential clients may look to see what is available as many people have a particular instrument that they like to trade. Not knowing if it is available could make them look for somewhere else that does have it.

Spreads

As there is no breakdown of assets, there is also no breakdown of spreads. The account page indicates standard and low spreads, but we do not really know what these mean. The spreads are, however, variable which means they move with the markets. The more volatile the market, the higher the spread swill be. Different instruments will also have different natural spreads so some will always be higher than others.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit for the first deposit is $1,000. This would allow you to access the Mini account as this account can have a balance of up to $2,500. It is not known what the minimum deposit for any subsequent deposits is but it sounds like it will be reduced from the $1,000.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There doesn’t seem to be any information on deposit methods available on the site which is a big shame. It is vital for people to know how they can get their money into a broker and also how much it will cost them. This information needs to be added to the site.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

Possibly more important than the deposit methods are the withdrawal methods. These are again not available, potential clients need to know how they can get their money back and out and if it will cost them to do so, not having this information makes it hard to build any trust with the broker.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

As we do not know the withdrawal methods we also do not know the processing times for them. We would hope that any requests would be fully processed between 1 to 5 days from the request being made but we cannot say this for sure.

Bonuses & Promotions

The account comparison page indicates some bonuses of up to 50%. However, there is no relevant information about these bonuses so we do not know the terms. We can assume that they are a deposit bonus, but we do not know if they are convertible to real funds and if they are, how to do it.

Educational & Trading Tools

Just like the bonuses, there is mention of education and training on the account page, but nowhere else on the site. We assume it is accessible once you are fully signed up but this means that we are not able to comment on the usability or quality of the training available.

Customer Service

The contact us page is what you would expect of a Forex broker. There is an online submission form as well as a postal address, email address and phone number to choose your method of contact from.

Address: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, P.O. Box 1510, Beachmont Kingstown Saint Vincent

We are not sure about the opening times, but one of the perks of the upper-tier accounts is the use of a 24/5 customer service team. For people not with that account, the times may vary.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available and it seems like you can have as many as you like. Without being fully signed in we cannot see the options available for the demo accounts such as which accounts they mimic. Demo accounts allow you to test out eh markets and trading strategies without risking any real capital.

Countries Accepted

This information is not available and so we cannot comment on it. If you are looking to sign up, we would suggest contacting the customer service team to see if you are eligible prior to creating an account.

Conclusion

There are plenty of options when it comes to accounts, but it is not fully clear what the differences between them are. Different bonus amounts, spreads, and commissions, all with no information on what any of them actually are. We have no idea what the trading costs are and even more worryingly, we have no idea how to deposit or withdraw and if it will cost us to do so. Not to mention the complete lack of information on available assets. With so much information missing, we cannot recommend Double Million as a broker to use at this point in time.

Trade.Berry was founded with a vision to host the most transparent social trading community ever created. Founded in 2014, located in Cyprus and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec). Trade Berry aims to provide a fully transparent platform and is their priority to build and maintain long term relationships with their traders by providing exceptional support and transparency of their platform. In this review, we will be looking into the services being offered to see what they really provide.

Account Types

There are 5 different accounts available to choose from when signing up, each with their own features and trading conditions, so let’s see what they are.

Standard Account:
The account requires a minimum deposit of at least $250, the account can be in EUr, USD, GBP or RON. It comes with a platform introduction and if available access to a dedicated client relationship manager. It has access to the daily market brief, no access to the trading central research and no added explanation of trading strategies. It has full access to the social sharing and community side of the broker and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots, it has fixed spreads and no added commissions. In terms of instruments, it has Forex, Commodities, Indices, and Stocks available, leverage is 1:30 max (1:400 for professional traders) and it also comes with negative balance protection.

Premium Account:
The account requires a minimum deposit of at least $250, the account can be in EUr, USD, GBP or RON. It comes with a platform introduction and access to a dedicated client relationship manager. It has access to the daily market brief, partial access to the trading central research and if available an added explanation of trading strategies. It has full access to the social sharing and community side of the broker and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots, it has fixed spreads and no added commissions. In terms of instruments, it has Forex, Commodities, Indices, Stocks and, Crypto available, leverage is 1:30 max (1:400 for professional traders) and it also comes with negative balance protection.

Advanced Account:
The account requires a minimum deposit of at least $250, the account can be in EUr, USD, GBP or RON. It comes with a platform introduction and access to a dedicated client relationship manager. It has access to the daily market brief, partial access to the trading central research and an added explanation of trading strategies. It has full access to the social sharing and community side of the broker and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots, it has fixed spreads and no added commissions. In terms of instruments, it has Forex, Commodities, Indices, Stocks and, Crypto available, leverage is 1:30 max (1:400 for professional traders) and it also comes with negative balance protection.

Expert Account:
The account requires a minimum deposit of at least $250, the account can be in EUr, USD, GBP or RON. It comes with a platform introduction and access to a dedicated client relationship manager. It has access to the daily market brief, full access to the trading central research and an added explanation of trading strategies. It has full access to the social sharing and community side of the broker and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots, it has fixed spreads and no added commissions. In terms of instruments, it has Forex, Commodities, Indices, Stocks and, Crypto available, leverage is 1:30 max (1:400 for professional traders) and it also comes with negative balance protection.

Elite Account:
The account requires a minimum deposit of at least $250, the account can be in EUr, USD, GBP or RON. It comes with a platform introduction and access to a dedicated client relationship manager. It has access to the daily market brief, full access to the trading central research and an added explanation of trading strategies. It has full access to the social sharing and community side of the broker and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots, it has fixed spreads and no added commissions. In terms of instruments, it has Forex, Commodities, Indices, Stocks and, Crypto available, leverage is 1:30 max (1:400 for professional traders) and it also comes with negative balance protection.

Platforms

TradeBerry uses its own trading platform that they have developed themselves. Trade.Berry’s vision is to host the most transparent social trading community ever created. That is why they joined forces with TOOMIT to create an ultra-fast platform offering the transparency they want for their community of traders. Features include execution in milliseconds, no dealing desk intervention, no delays, fast trading option, instantly tradable quotes, high liquidity, no requotes, copy trading, auto-translate chat, see analysis posted by other traders, create a blog and build your audience, provide feedback to your trader network, share your analysis, TradingView intuitive charts, variety of indicators, compare multiple instruments and position/order display.

Leverage

Trade.Berry follows the recommendations and guidelines from ESMA. Below are the levels that one can expect as a retail trader. Note that limits on the opening of a position by a retail client from 30:1 to 2:1, which vary according to the volatility of the underlying.

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices
• 5:1 for individual equities and other reference values
• 2:1 for cryptocurrencies

If you are considered a professional trader which means having a net worth over $500,000 and having made considerably large trades in the past year then you are eligible to have the leverage raised up to 1:400.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes for all accounts start from 0.01 lots which are also known as micro-lots. They then go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We are not clear on the maximum trade sizes. However, whatever it is we would recommend not trading in sizes larger than 50 lots, as the bigger a trade becomes the harder it is for the markets or liquidity provider to execute the trade quickly and without any slippage.

Trading Costs

There is no added commission on any of the accounts as they all use a spread based system. There are swap charges to think about though. These are interest charges that are incurred for holding trades overnight, and they can be both negative or positive and can usually be viewed from within the trading platform of choice.

Assets

Trade.Berry has broken down its assets into 5 different categories, each with different instruments within them. They haven’t broken down their assets into each one so we will just give a little overview.

Forex:
The most accessible assets for trading fall under the FOREX category mainly due to the high liquidity and availability of a 24/5 market. This translates into the availability of prices for the traders. Trade more than 30 currency pairs to trade on.

Commodities:
At TradeBerry, clients can trade CFDs on a variety of commodities from soft commodities such as coffee and sugar, precious metals such as gold and silver, and Energy commodities such as Crude Oil and Natural Gas. The price of commodities is usually moved by market supply and demand.

Indices:
A stock index is a measurement (average) of the price performance of a specific group of shares. Examples include the FTSE 100 that represents the 100 largest stocks trading on the London Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ that represents the largest stocks for technology in the US. Clients can trade CFDs on futures relating to various indices.

Stocks:
Clients are able to trade on stocks in the form of CFDs. Trading Contracts for Difference (CFD) means that traders can take advantage of price movements on their preferred stocks without the hassle or costs of ownership.

Crypto:
Unfortunately, the page for Cryptos is not working at the moment so we are unable to see any examples of what sorts of cryptocurrencies are available to trade.

Spreads

There are a few examples of spreads available on the site. There is also a little confusion, on the accounts page it states that all the account shave fixed spreads. However, when looking at the product specification, they all say variable, so we are not sure which one it is. EUR/USD seems to have a spread of 1.2 pips, other instruments will naturally have a different spread and if we look at EURGBP it has a starting spread of 1.8 pips. If the spreads are variable, it means they will move with the markets. While if they are fixed it means they will remain the same no matter what happens in the market.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount is $250. This will seemingly get you to access all the accounts which is a little strange to us as no one would sign up to the lower accounts, so we believe the figures may be wrong.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different available deposit methods, these are Visa Credit / Debit, MasterCard Credit/Debit, Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller and, Skrill. There are no added fees from Trade Berry. However, you should check with your bank or card issuer to see if they add any transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Visa Credit/Debit, MasterCard Credit / Debit, Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller and, Skrill. Just like with deposits there are no added fees but be sure to check with your own bank and card issuers to see if there are any added charges from them.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal request processing will take up to 24 hours. Once this is complete Visa, MasterCard, and Bank Transfers will take between 2 to 10 business days to clear while Neteller and Skrill can take up to 2 business days.

Bonuses & Promotions

We could not locate any information on the website in regards to bonuses or promotions so it does not appear that there are any active ones at the time of writing this review. If you are interested in bonuses then be sure to check back regularly or get in contact with the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming bonuses or promotions.

Educational & Trading Tools

The education side of the site has a few different features, there is a video section which has over 50 different video tutorials covering various subjects such as trade different strategies, or how to analyze certain patters. The E-book section has an E-book to download titles “Basics of CFD Forex Trading”. There is also a trading calculator to help you work out the profit of a trade. The economic calendar outlines different upcoming news events and also shows which currencies they may affect. Finally, there is a Trade.Berry chat. This feature allows one to communicate with others and request help with analysis and trading.

Customer Service

The customer service team is available 24 hours a day 5 days a week and is closed at the same time as the markets over the weekend. In order to talk to the customer care team, you can use a few different phone numbers, once for the UK, one for Romania and one for Cyprus. You can also use the available email should you wish to communicate that way.

• United Kingdom: (+44) 203 150 0229
• Romania: (+40) 312 295 634
• Cyprus: (+357) 25 262020
• Email: [email protected]

You can also get in touch with Corporate should you need to using telephone, fax or email, there is also a physical address available.

Christophides House Office 201, 28 Ayias Zonis Street, Limassol 3027, Cyprus
Tel: (+357) 25 262020
Fax: (+357) 25 331522
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available, and you need to sign up for an account to access it. As all trading conditions seem to be the same for all accounts you can use the information we have provided above to work out the trading conditions of the demo account. There is no indication of an expiration time on the accounts so hopefully, they work indefinitely. Demo accounts allow potential new clients to test out the service being offered and allows existing traders to try new strategies without risking their own capital.

Countries Accepted

The information about which countries are accepted and which are not is not present on the website. If you are interested in joining, be sure to get in contact with the customer service team to check if you are eligible for an account or not.

Conclusion

Trade.Berry confused us a little with their accounts, as they all seem to have the same entry requirements and the same trading conditions The only differences are a few educational tools, but with the entry requirement being the same, everyone will just go for the Elite account. The spreads are average. For non-commission accounts, they are in line with the rest of the industry. There are a few different ways to deposit and withdraw and each having no additional fees is a big plus. The full break down of assets and instruments is a little overwhelming as it is all on a single page rather than broken down into categories. Overall, there seems to be plenty to trade at Trade Berry and the broker seems poised to meet the needs of a wide variety of Forex traders.

Alpha Group is an online foreign exchange broker that aims to put your needs and interests in first place. It promises to always treat you with respect and kindness, to display the highest standard of personal and professional integrity, to explain the reasons behind any recommendations and advice, to closely monitor the progress of your investments, to talk and inform you on a regular basis, to apply knowledge and technology for your benefit and to only consider recommending appropriate investment for your objectives and risk tolerance. Those are the promises from Alpha Group, we will be using this review to see if they stick by them, or if they fall short.

Account Types

There isn’t an account comparison page and a lot of the information on the site indicates that there may only be one account type available. As such, we will be using each section of this review to outline any key features and conditions.

Platforms

Alpha Group uses MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform, released by MeaQuotes in 2005, MT4 has become one of the worlds most popular trading platforms. It is full of features to help with your trading and analysis like the built-in technical indicators allow you to analyze securities’ quotes, whilst the MQL4 network enables the development and usage of automated trading strategies. It is highly accessible and can be used as a web trader, mobile application or as a desktop download. Hosting an easy to use user interface, compatibility with expert advisors and indicators and a huge amount of customization, MT4 should be perfect for your trading needs.

Leverage

The account can be leveraged up to 1:200. Leverage can be selected when you first open up an account and should you wish to change it on an already open account you will need to contact the customer service team to request this.

Trade Sizes

The trade size that you get will depend on the instrument that you are trading, we have outlined them below within each available category.

Forex:
The minimum trade size is 0.01 lots, the trades then go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is and we also do not know how many trades or orders you can have open at any one time.

Commodities:
Gold, Palladium, Platinum, and Copper have a minimum trade size of 1 lot while Silver has a minimum trade size requirement of 50 lots. We do not know what the maximum trade size is for commodities.

Indices:
All indices listed in the asset section of this review have a minimum trade size of 1 lot, with the exception of HKG 33 which has minimum trade size of 10 lots and JNP 225 with a minimum trade size of 100 lots. Once again we do not know what the maximum trade size is for indices.

Trading Costs

The only information surround fees is a statement that says that there operation costs in the currency markets are much more efficient than common fees and expenses in purchasing and selling shares in the stock market. What that means we have no idea but we think they are trying to say they have, low fees, no actual indication what they are though. There are swap charges, these are fees for holding trades overnight and can be both positive or negative, these charges can be viewed within MetaTrader 4.

Assets

The instruments and assets have been separated into a number of different categories, we have listed them below along with some of the available instruments.

Forex:
Not all pairs are stated but the ones we do know include ERUUSD, EURJPY, GBPUSD, EURGBP, USDJPY, EURCHF, USDCHF, GBPJPY, USDCAD, GBPCHF, AUDUSD, CHFJPY, NZDUSD, and EURCAD.

Commodities:
Gold, Silver, Platinum, Palladium, and Copper are available to trade.

Indices:
The available indices include US 30, SPX 500, NAS 100, UK 100, GER 30, ITA 40, ESP 35, FRA 40. HKG 33. JPN 225, SWE 30, SUI 30, AUD 200, EUSTX 50.

Spreads

We, unfortunately, do not know what the spreads are, as they aren’t indicated on the website. They have been described as low but that doesn’t really mean anything The main bit of information that we do know is that they are variable and will move with the markets (added volatility will often see the spreads move higher). Different instruments will also have different spreads.

Minimum Deposit

There doesn’t seem to be any information surround funding methods which includes information about what the minimum deposit amount it, so at the moment we do not know how much you will need to open up an account.

Deposit Methods & Costs

As mentioned above there isn’t any information available on the site that relates to funding, so this included the available deposit methods or any fees that come with them. This is a shame as Alpha Group will be dealing with our money so the least they could do is detail the methods are available and any fees relating to them.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

Just like the deposits, we do not know what methods are available to withdraw with. This is just as vital to know as once your money is in, you need to know how to get it back out and how much it will cost you to do so. Not having this gives an impression of hiding the information and most potential clients will look elsewhere for a more transparent broker.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

This is another section where we do not know any concrete information. We would hope that any withdrawal requests would be fully processed between 1 to 7 days from the date of the request being made, but we cannot be certain.

Bonuses & Promotions

There doesn’t seem to be any active promotions or bonuses at the time that we are writing this review. If you are interested in taking part in promotions, you could always contact the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming bonuses you can take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

Many modern brokers ar enow trying to supply their clients with information and tools to try and help them improve their trading and understanding of forex. So it is a shame to see no such resource available from Alpha Group. It would be good to see them add something to move more in line with the competition.

Customer Service

The customer service details are found at the bottom of the page, there are contact details for their Latin American address and their European address. We have detailed the information below.

Latin America:
Address: Information Alpha Group (IAG), Avda. Ejército Nacional 843-B, Torre Corporativo 1 Piso 5, Col. Granada Del. Miguel Hidalgo, CP 11520 México D.F., México
Phone: +52 554 170 8513
Email: [email protected]

Europe:
Address: St John’s House, St John’s Square, Clerkenwell, London EC1V 4JL, United Kingdom
Phone: +44 203 129 9895
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

There isn’t any information directly relating to a demo account but as you can download the MT4 platform, you can always create an account through the terminal. The trading conditions of these accounts are not known to us. We also do not know if there would be an expiration time. A demo account is a great feature to have as it allows you to test out the markets and new strategies without applying any risk to your capital.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site. If you are thinking of signing up for an account with Alpha Group, we would recommend getting in touch with the customer service team first in order to ensure that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

It was quite difficult to find the information we needed and the site was poorly laid out. The trading conditions aren’t fully known to us and we do not know what the commissions are or what the spreads are. In fact, a lot of the information we wanted is not available. The most concerning is the lack of information on funding, both deposit and withdrawal methods are unknown as are any potential fees. Without this information, we do not know how expensive it is to trade with Alpha Group and that is one of the most important things when choosing a broker to use. So without all of that, we would currently recommend looking elsewhere for a more transparent broker.

Finarix was founded in 2016 and is a Bulgarian based forex and CFD broker. They currently boast over 800,000 registered users and over 7,656,000 trades executed per month. Their aims are to provide a secure trading experience through advanced encryption and firewall technologies, being innovative and flexible to enhance user experience and maintain a good reputation in the Forex industry and to uphold the highest standards of regulations and compliance. We will be going through the services being offered to see if they achieve this and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

Should you decide to sign up with Finarix, there will be a selection of 4 different accounts, each with varying requirements and features, so let’s see what they are.

Takeoff Account:
This account requires a deposit between $250 and $2,499. It has a welcome bonus of up to 25% and access to a daily analytical market update, it also has a reliable customer service team, regular promotional email alerts, and entitlement to join regular webinars.

Standard Account:
This account requires a deposit between $2,500 and $9,999. It has a welcome bonus of up to 50% and access to a daily analytical market update, it also has a reliable customer service team, regular promotional email alerts, and entitlement to join regular webinars. It also comes with a personal trading advisor and 2 weeks of free trading signals.

Premium Account:
This account requires a deposit between $10,000 and $49,999. It has a welcome bonus of up to 75% and access to a daily analytical market update, it also has a reliable customer service team, regular promotional email alerts, and entitlement to join regular webinars. It also comes with a personal trading advisor and 3 weeks of free trading signals.

Elite Account:
This account doesn’t have any set requirements or features, you will need to get in contact with the customer service team to see if you are eligible for this account type.

Platforms

Finarix uses MetaTrader 4 as their only trading platform MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is one of the world’s most popular trading platforms and for good reason. Released in 2005 by MetaQuotes Software, it has been around a while, it is stable customizable and full of features to help with your trading and analysis. MT4 is compatible with hundreds and thousands of different indicators, expert advisors, signal providers and more. Millions of people use MT4 for its interactive charts, multiple timeframes, one-click trading, trade copying and more. In terms of accessibility, MT4 is second to none, being made available in several formats.

Leverage

Leverage is not stated, Finarix uses a different trading method and does not use lots, so there may be no additional leverage offered due to the method used.

Trade Sizes

Finarix uses a different trading method, they do not use the traditional lots as most other brokers do. Instead, you trade via currency, the current minimum trade size is 3 EUR, USD or GBP. The maximum is 10,000,000 USD, GBP or EUR.

Trading Costs

We believe that there will be a commission on the trading at Finarix, however, we are not able to locate what it is.

Assets

The assets have been broken down into three different categories, Currencies, Commodities and Stocks.

Currencies:
There isn’t a full breakdown of the available currencies, however, a few examples are given which are EURUSD, USDJPY, GBPUSD, USDCAD and, USDCHF.

Commodities:
Again there isn’t a full breakdown, the three examples of instruments given are Gold, Silver and Brent Crude Oil.

Stocks:
Once again, no breakdown, examples given within the text include Netflix, Alphabet, Apply, McDonald’s, Nike, and Barclays.

Spreads

Finarix uses a different style of account, and so there are not the traditional spreads and so we cannot really say much for this section.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount is currently set at $250.

Deposit Methods & Costs

It appears that Bank Wire Transfer and Credit/Debit cards are the only way to deposit with Finarix. There is no mention of any added fees. However, there is also no mention that there aren’t any so we are not 100% sure if there are any. Be sure to check with your own bank and processor to see if they add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same two methods are available for withdrawal, these being Bank Wire Transfer and Credit/Debit card. There are some additional charges for withdrawing. The minimum withdrawal amount is $100.

• Debit Card: 25 EUR, USD or GBP
• Credit Card: 25 EUR, USD, GBP + a processing fee of 10 USD, 5 GBP or 7 EUR
• Bank Wire: 50 USD EUR GBP

The charges seem to be quite steep for withdrawals which is a shame to see.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

There isn’t a fixed processing time. Even so, you should likely expect to receive your funds within 1 to 5 business days depending on the method used and the processing of your card issuer or bank.

Bonuses & Promotions

The account page tells us that there are some welcome bonuses that are based on the account you use.

• Takeoff: Up to 25%
• Standard: Up to 50%
• Premium: Up to 75%

However, the terms of these promotions are not known to us and so we cannot comment on how worthwhile they are.

Educational & Trading Tools

The success center contains a number of different articles. It doesn’t have anything that will really improve your trading so if you are looking to learn you will need to look elsewhere.

Customer Service

There are just a few ways to get in contact with Finarix which is a bit of a shame. You can use the online submission form to fill in your query and then get a reply via email. You can also use a number of emails to email them directly.

It would be nice to see further ways to get in contact such as a phone number.

Demo Account

When you click on the platform button on the site it will take you to a web trader, you can select a demo account and it will create a demo account for you to use this demo account then can then be used in MetaTrader 4. You can choose the balance, base currency and leverage for the demo account. There is no information about expiration times or anything like that as it uses the MetaQuotes demo rather than its own.

Countries Accepted

The information about which countries are accepted and which are not is not present on the website, so if you are interested in joining be sure to get in contact with the customer service team to check if you are eligible for an account or not.

Conclusion

The Finarix website is missing a lot of information regarding its trading conditions, most notably would be the lack of information about commissions. There is a limited number of ways to deposit, along with a limited number of ways to withdraw, that coupled with the large withdrawal fees can make it expensive to remove your money. There are also limited ways to get in contact with the customer service team. The way Finarix works is slightly different from the traditional broker, so if you are looking for a more traditional trading experience then you will need to look elsewhere.

ECM is an international foreign exchange broker and is situated in Vanuatu. ECM states the following: “ECM Group uses low-cost trading, cutting edge technology, advanced educational programs, innovative computer, financial technology, and world-class customer service to provide Internet-based forex trading and currency information services to everyone, from individuals to large corporations, from portfolio managers to financial institutions.” Throughout this review, we will be looking int the service being offered to see if they live up to this and so you can decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

ECM does not have a page set up to outline the different accounts that are available or what their trading conditions are. As we go through this review, we will outline any differences in accounts in each section. This will give you a better understanding of the smaller details, however, if there are seemingly no differences we will just put the information that we have available to us.

Platforms

Only MetaTrader 4 is available to trade with, we say only, it is more than capable of performing any of the trading tasks that you may require. ECM has listed a few of the potential benefits of using MT4 as access to an Internal email service, simple user interface, a highly secure trading platform, programmable system language, the ability to review past trades and performance, compatibility with Expert Advisor applications and automated Trading. The platform is also highly accessible as it can be used as a web trader, mobile application or as a download for your desktop/laptop computer.

Leverage

The leverage that you get depends on the account balance that you have. The available leverage is as follows.

• Balance of $100 = Leverage up to 1:500
• Balance of $5,000 = Leverage up to 1:200
• Balance of $10,000 = Leverage up to 1:100

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes start as low as 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. We are not sure what the maximum trade size is but whatever it ends up being we would not recommend trading over 50 lots in a single trade. It is also not clear to use what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time is.

Trading Costs

There are no mentions of any commissions charged on trading, so we are not sure if there is any or not. We do know that swap charges are present these are fees charged for holding trades overnight and can be both positive or negative and can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

The assets have been broken down into various categories and different instruments placed within them, we will now outline the available instruments to trade.

Forex: AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDCHF, AUDUSD, AUDCAD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, GBPCHF, GBPUSD, CADJPY, CADCHF, EURAUD, EURGBP, EURCAD, EURJPY, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURCHF, EURTRY, EURUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDUSD, NZDJPY, CHFJPY, USDCAD, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDHKD, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSGD, USDZAR, USDSEK, USDCHF, USDTRY, USDHUF.

Precious Metals: XAUUSD (Gold), ZAGUSD (Silver).

Shares: Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing, Chevron, Cisco Systems, Citigroup, Exxon Mobil, Facebook, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Google, IMB, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, JP Morgan Chase, MasterCard, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Netflix, Oracle, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Tesla, Visa.

Commodities: Australis 200, Brent Oil Futures, China A50, Crude Oil Futures, Euro Stoxx 50, France 40, Germany 30, Hong Kong Index, Japan 225, Natural Gas Futures, UK 100, US 30, US 500, US Tech 100.

Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple.

Spreads

There isn’t too much information surrounding spreads. The only real information that is available is on the contract specification page which simply states that there are fixed spreads of EURUSD starting from 3 pips. Fixed spreads mean that they do not move, no matter what is happening in the markets they will remain the same. Fixed spreads are often higher than the starting level of variable spreads and different instruments will have different fixed spreads. 3 pips is a little high for EURUSD so some of the other pairs could be rather expensive to trade.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit to open up an account is $10 and this remains the minimum deposit after an account has been opened.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The only methods available to deposit with are Credit/Debit Card, Bank Wire Transfer, and Local Bank Transfer. There are a few added fees that we have outlined for you below.

• Credit/Debit Card – 3% fee
• Local Bank Transfer – No fees
• Bank Wire Transfer – 20 USD

When using Credit/Debit or Bank Wire Transfers you should also check with your card issuer or bank to see if they add any transfer fees of their won.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

You can withdraw using the same methods, for reference, these are Credit/Debit Card, Bank Wire Transfer, and Local Bank Transfer. There are no fees when using Credit/Debit Card or Local Bank Transfers, but when using Bank Wire Transfer there is an added fee of 20 USD. As usual, also check with your bank or card issuer to see if they add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

The amount of time it takes for your withdrawal request to fully process with depending on the method you have used. We have put them below for ease of understanding.

• Credit/Debit Card – 2 – 5 working days
• Local Bank Transfer – 1 – 2 working days
• Bank Wire Transfer – 3 – 5 working days

Bonuses & Promotions

There seems to be a 100% bonus available, the details of which there aren’t many. You can receive a bonus from 10% to 100% up to a total of $10,000. The actual terms such as how to convert the bonus funds into real funds are not stated so it is impossible for us to say how worthwhile this promotion is.

Educational & Trading Tools

In terms of education, there are some basic guides to go through, these are simple pages of information on various subjects including Forex Essentials, Exchange Rates, and Quotation, Forex Market Players, Fundamental Analysis, Characteristics of Forex Market, Key Factors Affecting Forex and, Technical Analysis. There isn’t any actual analysis, just brief outlines of what it means. This is ok if you are completely new to trading, but anyone that has traded before won’t find it all too helpful. A VPS is also available but this will cost you, many other brokers offer them for free so it doesn’t feel like the best of deals here.

Customer Service

The contact us page consists of just a single contact form, fill it in and you should get a reply via email. Luckily, when you scroll to the bottom of the page there is also a phone number and email address available, but these should be made a lot more prominent and available on the contact us page.

Phone: (+1) 646 568 9771
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available which is great as they allow you to test out the servers as well as new strategies without risking any of your real capital. The only option that you are given when selecting a demo account is the deposit amount, you do not get to select anything else such as leverage so these conditions ar eunknonw., It is also unknown if there is an expiration on the accounts as some broker limit the time an account stays open in order to save server space.

Countries Accepted

We did not notice a mention of eligible countries so if you are thinking of signing up we would recommend contacting the customer service team first just to ensure that you are eligible for an account.

Conclusion

ECM does not make a lot of the required information easy to access or clear. We are still not sure about the accounts as there are mentions of different ones but very few differences shown. In terms of trading conditions, the fixed spreads starting at 3 pips is relatively high and makes it quite expensive to trade here. There are enough assets to trade but there was a lack of information on withdrawing, this information is vital as we need to know how to get our money out and how much it will cost us. Without that information and the lack of clarity, we find it hard to recommend ECM as a broker to sue at this point in time.

Sigma Capital is a UK based foreign exchange broker. They were founded with the objective to provide traders with a safe, easy and low-cost entry into the foreign exchange markets. Their aims are to become a leading global broker in the financial services industry, powered by technological innovation, exclusive products, and flawless trading conditions in order to serve and exceed the expectations of our traders, investors, and stakeholders. We will be using this review to look into the services being offered to see if they achieve this and so you can decide if they are the right broker for your trading needs.

Account Types

It seems that there are just two different accounts to choose from if you decide to sign up, we have detailed them below.

Standard Account: The Standard account requires a minimum deposit of $500. It can have a base currency of USD, EUR, GBP, PLN or AED and has leverage up to 1:500. It has a variable spread with no added commission, It uses a market execution mode and micro-lots (0.01 lots) are the minimum trade size. It uses MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform and has access to indices, commodities, stocks, crypto and the account also has swap charges.

Pro Account: The Pro account increases the minimum deposit of up to $20,000. It can have a base currency of USD, EUR, GBP, PLN or AED and can be leveraged up to 1:500. It has a variable spread that is 0.5 pips better than the Standard account with no added commission, It uses a market execution mode and micro-lots (0.01 lots) are the minimum trade size. It uses MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform and has access to indices, commodities, stocks, crypto and the account also has swap charges.

Platforms

MetaTrader 4 is the platform of choice from Sigma Capital. The MetaTrader 4 platform is a powerful tool for processing dozens of different financial instruments and is used by retail investors to buy and sell currencies. In addition to allowing users to trade in Forex, the MT4 platform supports Future, Indices, Equities, and other CFD transactions. It is highly accessible, usable as a desktop download, mobile application, and web trader. Its distributed architecture, robust security system and convenient mobile trading are some of the core competencies that give MetaTrader 4 its compelling competitive advantages. Offering the perfect solution to even the most demanding trading needs.

Leverage

The maximum leverage on offer for each account is 1:500. This can be selected when opening up a new account and should you wish to change it on an already created account you will need to contact the customer service team with your request.

Trade Sizes

The minimum trade size on both account si 0.01 lots also known as micro-lots, the trade sizes then go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade would be 0.02 lots and then 0.03 lots. Looking through the site we could not find information on the maximum trade size or the maximum number of trades that you can have open at any one time.

Trading Costs

There are no added commissions on any of the accounts as they both use a spread based system that we will look at later in this review. There are swap fees which are charges for holding trades overnight, these can be both positive or negative and can be viewed within the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

Assets

There are over 470 total assets and we have been broken down into a number of different categories, including FX pairs, commodities, stocks, metals, and more. We did not see any cryptocurrencies, and this could certainly be an issue for a number of traders.

Currency: AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURCZK, EURDKK, EURGBP, EURHKD, EURHUF, EURJPY, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURSGD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDCZK, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDHUF, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDTRY, USDZAR

Metals: Silver, Gold, and Platinum.

Indices: 100GBP, 200AUD, 225JPY, D30EUR, E50EUR, F40EUR, H33HKD, NASUSD, SPXUSD, U30USD.

Commodities: Brent Crude Oil, WTI Crude Oil, and Natural Gas.

Futures: Coffee Arabica and Coffee Robusta.

Shares: There are 193 different shares available which include the likes of Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Facebook, Google, and Netflix.

Spreads

If we look at EURUSD, the starting spread is 2.4 pips on the Standard account, the Pro account states that it is 0.5 pips better than the Standard account so this would mean that the spread will be at 1.9 pips. The spreads are variable which means they move with the markets and do not stay the same when there is added volatility they will be seen higher. Different instruments also have different starting spreads, as EURUSD is stated at 2.4 pips. GBPCHF as an example is stated as having a starting spread of 5 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $500 this will get you the Standard account, any subsequent deposit requirements, once an account is open, is reduced down to $5.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different methods available, these are Visa, MasterCard, MegaTransfer, Skrill, Neteller, Ngân Lượng, and Bank Wire Transfer. There are no added fees and Sigma Capital will cover any fees from their site, so any potential fees for you would be anything added by your card issuer or bank.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Visa, MasterCard, MegaTransfer, Skrill, Neteller, Ngân Lượng, and Bank Wire Transfer. Ngân Lượng has a withdrawal fee of 0.5%, however, all other methods are covered by Sigma Capital. You should check with your own bank to see if they add any transfer fees as you will be responsible for paying those.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Any withdrawal requests will be processed within 24 hours. The time a request takes to fully process will depend on the method used. The majority will fully process within 48 hours but Bank Wire Transfers may take between 2 to 5 working days depending on your bank’s processing times.

Bonuses & Promotions

It seems that a bonus is available, however, there are no details. The bonus page is simply stating that there is a welcome bonus and then says to get in contact for more information. It is nice that there is a bonus available should you want it, but there needs to be more information on what it is and what the terms are so we can work out if it is worth taking or not. So if you are after a bonus, get in contact with the customer service team.

Educational & Trading Tools

The Academy on the site isn’t really an academy, it is comprised of a few different pages, one of which is a trading glossary, detailing what different terms mean which is nice if you come across something you do not know the meaning of. There is a how-to trade section, but this provides incredibly basic information on how to use MT4. There are actually three pages based on how to use MT4. Apart from that, there doesn’t seem to be much else to help you with your treading or analysis so you will need to look elsewhere for your educational fix.

Customer Service

The contact us page consists of an online submission form and that is it, you can fill in your question or query and you should then get a reply via email. Luckily, towards the bottom of the website, there is an email address and phone number available. These should be made more prominent on the contact us page though.

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: +44 203 150 3646

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available and allow you to test out the trading conditions and new strategies without risking any real capital. The details of the demo account are not stated so we do not know what the trading conditions are or if there is an expiration time on the account.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is available on the website: “In certain jurisdictions, the provision of our services and dissemination of information contained on this website may be prohibited or restricted by applicable law. Our services and information are not addressed to the people from these jurisdictions. The user of this website shall make sure that the use of our services and information does not violate the legal prohibitions and restrictions in his/her place of residence. Sigma shall not bear liability for the use of its services and information by a person from the place where activities of Sigma is prohibited or restricted by applicable law. The user is solely responsible for complying with all applicable laws in the relevant jurisdiction.”

If you are unsure of your eligibility, we would recommend contacting the customer service team to find out prior to signing up.

Conclusion

The two different accounts on offer do not offer a huge amount of variety. In fact, the only main difference is a slightly reduced spread. Talking of spreads, they are a little on the high side, making trading at Sigma Capital a little expensive, yet nothing we haven’t seen before. There are plenty of assets to trade so you should always be kept busy, there are also enough deposit and withdrawal methods to cater for the majority of traders, there are also no added fees for either depositing or withdrawing which is great. The information provided by Sigma Capital makes them look like a decent broker to use, but the final decision is all yours.

Trade FXM doesn’t offer a huge amount of information about themselves. The Glasgow based broker tries to stand out from the crowd with instant withdrawals, a wide variety of deposit/withdrawal methods, multiple trading platforms, more than 80 currency options, technical analysis, more than 120 tradable assets, free VPS and more. We will be using this review to see the services in action and so you can decide if they are the right broker for your trading needs.

Account Types

Should you decide to sign up with Trade FCM, there will be a choice of 4 different accounts, each having its own trading conditions and requirement. Here is a brief overview of them all.

Mini Account:
This account requires a deposit of $500, it has spread starting from 1.6 pips and minimum trade sizes of 0.01 lots. The maximum leverage available is 1:1000 and it uses market execution. Trade sizes go up in increments of 0.01 lots and the margin call is set at 60% with the stop out level at 40%. The account comes with a personal account manager, there is also a commission on the trading and a 30% welcome bonus is available.

Standard Account:
This account requires a deposit of $1,000, it has spread starting from 1 pip and minimum trade sizes of 0.01 lots. The maximum leverage available is 1:1000 and it uses market execution. Trade sizes go up in increments of 0.01 lots and the margin call is set at 40% with the stop out level at 20%. The account comes with a personal account manager, there is also a commission on the trading and an 80% welcome bonus is available.

Gold Account:
This account requires a deposit of $2,000, it has spread starting from 0.8 pips and minimum trade sizes of 0.01 lots. The maximum leverage available is 1:1000 and it uses market execution. Trade sizes go up in increments of 0.01 lots and the margin call is set at 40% with the stop out level at 10%. The account comes with a personal account manager, there is also a commission on the trading and a 50% welcome bonus is available.

Professional Account:
This account requires a deposit of $5,000, it has spread starting from 0.6 pips and minimum trade sizes of 0.01 lots. The maximum leverage available is 1:1000 and it uses market execution. Trade sizes go up in increments of 0.01 lots and the margin call is set at 40% with the stop out level at 10%. The account comes with a personal account manager, there is also a commission on the trading and a 40% welcome bonus is available.

Platforms

There are two different platforms on offer from Trade FCM and both of them are from MetaQuotes. Let’s briefly look at the features included in them.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4):
The powerful MetaTrader 4 trading system allows you to implement strategies of any complexity. The Market and pending orders, Instant Execution and trading from a chart, stop orders and trailing stop, 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 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.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5):
MetaTrader 5 is a multi-asset platform that allows trading Forex, stocks, and futures. The platform represents the all-in-one concept and offers impressive analytical tools. It allows opening up to 100 charts of currency and stock quotes at a time. The 21 timeframes available enable a comprehensive detailed analysis of all minor price movements. You can subscribe to a signal of a successful trader, and MetaTrader 5 will automatically reproduce all his trades on your account. The platform, just like MT4 is accessible as a desktop download, mobile application or from within your internet browser in the form of a web trader.

Leverage

The maximum leverage available on all accounts is 1:1000, this is rather high and we would not recommend using more than 1:500 due to it having a better risk and reward ration. Leverage can be selected when opening up a new account, we are not sure if it can be changed once an account is open.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes on all accounts start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. It is not known what the maximum trade size is or how many open trades you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

The account comparison page indicates that there is an added commission on all of the accounts but nowhere on the site does it indicate what the commission actually is, so, unfortunately, we do not know what the trading costs for the accounts actually are. There are also swap charges, these are fees for holding trades overnight and can be viewed within the trading platform of your choice.

Assets

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a breakdown or product specification of the available instruments so we cannot say what is available and what is not. This is a shame as a lot of potential clients may look for their preferred instrument and not knowing if it is available or not, will go and look elsewhere.

Spreads

As there is no breakdown of instruments we do not have exact examples of spreads, we can only go on what is described on the accounts page which we have outlined below. The spreads are variable which means they move with the market and any added volatility will often make the spreads grow larger.

• Mini Account: Starting from 1.6 pips
• Standard Account: Starting from 1 pip
• Gold Account: Starting from 0.8 pips
• Professional Account: Starting from 0.6 pips

Minimum Deposit

The minimum amount required to open up an account is $500 which allows you to open up a Mini account. It is no known to us if this amount reduces once an account has already been opened.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are quite a few different methods available, the ones listed on the site are Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron, Maestro, American Express, Diners Club, JBB, Discover, Skrill, PayPal, Neteller, and Bank Transfer. The information that is missing is in regard to any potential fees so we are not sure if there are any added by Trade FCM.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

It appears that the same methods are available for withdrawing, for clarification these are Visa, MasterCard, Visa Electron, Maestro, American Express, Diners Club, JBB, Discover, Skrill, PayPal, Neteller, and Bank Transfer. Just like with deposits there is also no information regarding any potential withdrawal fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Unfortunately, we do not have any information on withdrawal times. We would hope that any requests would be fully processed between 1 to 5 days from the date of the request depending on the method used.

Bonuses & Promotions

There is something called a Champion Account, this account will give you a margin bonus up to 200% ($5,000 max) and you also get $2 per lot traded. The margin bonus is for treading only and cannot be withdrawn but any profits can be. The full terms of the promotion are not sated on the promotion page.

Educational & Trading Tools

There is a trading central available to clients, we did not have access to it as we did not have a fully verified account. The trading central apparently offers analysis, signals and more, but we cannot clarify this or the actual quality of the content.

Customer Service

Should you need to contact the customer service team you can do it via an online submission form. Simply fill in your question and you should get a reply within a day or so. You can also use the phone number, postal address, or email provided.

Address: 4578 Marmora Road, Glasgow, D04 89GR
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +44-2081337628

We did test the live chat function and are happy to report that we did receive a response quickly and did have all of our questions answered.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available and allow you to test out the trading conditions and strategies without any risk. When signing up for a demo account you can choose between any of the four account types and so the account will mimic the condition of the one selected. We do not know if there is an expiration on the accounts though.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site and so if you are thinking of signing up for an account we would suggest contacting the support team to check your eligibility prior to creating an account.

Conclusion

The four different accounts don’t actually provide you with that much variety. The major differences are in the spreads. There are added commissions but we don’t know what they are, so the full trading costs are not known to us. Along with this is a lack of information on the tradable assets, not knowing what is available can make it hard to gauge if it is worth signing up, especially if you have some prefeed instruments. Talking of missing information, there isn’t anything in relation to deposit or withdrawal fees which is another shame. There is just too much information missing for us to be able to recommend Trade FCM as a broker for your trading needs.

Fortissio is a foreign exchange broker located in Greece and is licensed and regulated by HCMC (Hellenic Capital Market Commission). They offer 5 reasons as to why someone would want to trade with them which include their PROfit trading platform which they claim to be a leading platform in the industry, their customer service which is dedicated and always accessible, and they are fully regulated as mentioned above. They also offer market tools to help with your analysis and trading and finally, you can choose to trade over 130 different instruments. We will be using this review to help you decide if they are the right broker to sue by looking in detail into the services that are being offered by Fortissio.

Account Types

There is a selection of six different account s available from Fortissio, they each have varying features that we will briefly outline below.

Basic Account: This account requires a deposit between €200 and €1,999. It comes with access to a free ebook, free training, one-click trading and pop up alerts.

Discovery Account: This account requires a deposit of between €2,000 and €4,999. It comes with access to a free ebook, free training, one-click trading, pop-up alerts, a price discount of 5% and a rollover discount of 5%.

Silver Account: This account requires a deposit of between €5,000 and €9,999. It comes with access to a free ebook, free training, one-click trading, pop-up alerts, a price discount of 10% and a rollover discount of 10%. It also comes with access to trading central for one month.

Gold Account: This account requires a deposit of between €10,000 and €14,999. It comes with access to a free ebook, free training, one-click trading, pop-up alerts, a price discount of 15% and a rollover discount of 15%. It also comes with access to trading central for two months.

Diamond Account: This account requires a deposit of between €15,000 and €29,999. It comes with access to a free ebook, free training, one-click trading, pop-up alerts, a price discount of 20% and a rollover discount of 20%. It also comes with access to trading central for three months as well as a personal customer service agent.

VIP Account: This account requires a deposit of €30,000 or more and is the top tier account. It comes with access to a free ebook, free training, one-click trading, pop-up alerts, a price discount of 25% and a rollover discount of 25%. It also comes with access to trading central for three months as well as a personal customer service agent.

Platforms

Fortissio uses its own trading platform. While we do not have any hands-on experience with using it, we do know that some of its features include it being web-only so there is no download required, over 150 tradable instruments, available in 6 languages, offers daily market updates, has in-platform support, is fully customizable, available as both a web platform and a mobile platform, and it also provided analysis and alerts.

Leverage

Fortissio follows the recommendations from ESMA, so the following restrictions are in place.

Leverage limits on the opening of a position by a retail client from 30:1 to 2:1, which vary according to the volatility of the underlying:

• 30:1 for major currency pairs
• 20:1 for non-major currency pairs, gold, and major indices
• 10:1 for commodities other than gold and non-major equity indices
• 5:1 for individual equities and other reference values
• 2:1 for cryptocurrencies

If you are considered a professional-client then the maximum leverage increases up to 1:200 as a new maximum.

Trade Sizes

The minimum trade size is 1,000 units which are the same as a micro lot or 0.01 lots. Trades then go up in increments of 0.01 lots so the next trade is 0.02 (2,000 units) lots and then 0.03 lots (3,000 units). We do not know what the maximum trade size is or how many open traded you can have at any one time.

Trading Costs

There are no added commissions when trading with Fortissio. Instead, all accounts use a spread based system that we will look at later in this review. The accounts are charged with swap fees though, these are charges for holding trades overnight they can be both positive or negative and can be viewed from within the trading platform you are using.

Assets

The assets have been broken down into a number of different categories, we have outlined them below along with the available instruments.

Forex: AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CHFJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURGBP, UERJPY, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURRUB, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNZD, GBPTRY, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, TRYJPY, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR.

Metals: Gold and Silver.

Commodities: Aluminum, Palladium, Coffee, Corn, Wheat, Cotton, Sugar, Soybean, Brent oil, Copper, Platinum, USDNDX, Crude Oil.

EFTs: iShares iBoxx and QQQ.

Indices: CAC 40, DAX INDEX, DOW JONES, FTSE 100, NASDAQ, NIKKEI, S&P 500, IBEX 35, WIG20.

Stocks: Apple, Amazon, Boeing, Walt Disney, eBay, Google, Intel, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Pfizer, and more.

Spreads

The spreads seem to be starting from around 3 pips, and this is relatively high as the spreads are variable. With added volatility in the markets, they will often be seen even higher than 3 pips. Different instruments also have different spreads so while some may start at 3 pips, others may start at 5 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is 200 EUR. This will allow you to use the Basic account. You will need to deposit more in order to access one of the higher tier accounts.

Deposit Methods & Costs

In order to get the full breakdown of deposit methods, you will need to have an account. The methods that we do know are available include Visa/MasterCard, Bank Wire Transfer, Maestro, Skrill, Neteller, ecoPayz, and Klarna. There may be more, but those are the ones we know of. Fortissio does not add any fees or charges to the deposits. However, you should check with your own bank just to see if they add any transfer fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods should be available to use as withdrawal methods. For clarification, these are Visa/MasterCard, Bank Wire Transfer, Maestro, Skrill, Neteller, ecoPayz, and Klarna. Once again, there are no added fees from Fortissio, but be sure to check with your bank or processor to see if they add any processing fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Fortissio will process withdrawal requests within 24 hours of the request being made. The amount of time it takes after this will depend on the method used but should be fully processed between 1 to 5 days from the time Fortissio process the request.

Bonuses & Promotions

While there aren’t any specific bonuses or promotions, you are able to get a price discount of up to 25% as well as a rollover (swap fee) discount of up to 25%. If you are interested in bonuses, then you could always contact the customer service team to see if they have anything available or if something will be coming up in the future that you could take part in.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are a few different tools and services that you could take advantage of from Fortissio. The first is some market analysis, but the issue is that it is updated infrequently, once every few weeks but it provides some insight into where an expert thinks the markets could move. There is also a chart section, but it is not currently showing any actual charts. There is also an economic calendar that is detailing different news events that are coming p and also indicates any effect that they could have on the markets. The market news sections updated daily and give you information on recent news events. Finally, there is an SMS service where you can get SMS alerts for news and prices.

Customer Service

You can contact Fortissio using an online submission form. Simply fill it in and you should get a reply via email. They have also provided you with a postal address, phone number and a number of different email addresses for the company, complaints, information, dealing, international contact and customer services.

Address: 4, 28th October Street, Marousi, Greece.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +302112340925

The customer service team is available Monday to Friday from 07:00 to 19:00 GMT.

Demo Account

Demo accounts allow you to test out the trading conditions and new strategies without risking any of your own capital, so it is quite an important aspect of a forex broker. As such, it is strange to us that they do not seem to be available from Fortissio. This is something that Fortissio should really look at adding to their available services as many traders wish to test things out before joining.

Countries Accepted

This information is not present on the site so if you are thinking of joining up then we would recommend contacting the customer service team first just to be sure that you are eligible to trade with them.

Conclusion

Fortissio offers a lot when it comes to account choice, but there isn’t a huge difference between them, mainly just a discount on swap fees. They follow the ESMA recommendations so the leverage for retail clients is very low when comparing to other brokers who do not. Spreads are also a little on the high side, starting at 3 pips, as they are variable when there is volatility in the markets it can become very expensive to trade. Plenty of ways to deposit and withdraw with no added fees is positive as is the large number of ways to contact different departments for support.

You now have all the information you need to decide if Fortissio is the right broker for you. If not, then be sure to check out some of the other Forex broker reviews that we offer to help find the perfect one for you.

Fidelis Capital Markets is a foreign exchange broker located in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Their main goals and aims focus on customer satisfaction, offering the best forex trading products as well as conditions within a flawless STP environment. Their core values are trust, reliability, and transparency. So in this review, we will be looking into the services being offered so you can decide if they live up to those goals and decide if they are the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are 6 different accounts on offer from Fidelis, each one requirement a different deposit amount and also offering different trading conditions, here is a brief overview.

Mini Account: The Mini account requires just $10 to open, it has leverage up to 1:400, and the trade sizes range from 0.01 lots up to 100 lots. The base currency must be in USD and it uses ECN/STP execution. There is no commission for forex or metals but there is a commission of $12.5 on CFDs (per side). The margin call is set at 100% and the stop out level set at 50%, this account can also be used as an Islamic account. It has access to both MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) as trading platforms. It also has access to 24/5 customer support, a personal account manager, free training, no requotes, credit card deposit/withdrawals, the client cabinet, free signals, news trading and is able to perform scalping and hedging.

Rookie Account: The Rookie account increases the minimum deposit up to $50, the account can only be in USD. It comes with leverage up to 1:400 and also uses ECN / STP execution methods. The commission remains at 0 for forex and gold, however, silver has a commission of $7.5 and there is also a commission of $7.5 for CFDs. The margin call and stop out are set at 100% and 50% respectively and the account can also be used as an Islamic account. It can use both MT4 and MT5 as trading platforms. The account also has access to 24/5 customer support, a personal account manager, free training, no requotes, credit card deposit/withdrawals, the client cabinet, free signals, news trading and is able to perform scalping and hedging.

Prime Account: The Prime account increases the minimum deposit up to $100, leverage is maxed at 1:400, trade sizes range from 0.01 lots to 100 lots. Account must be in USD and it uses ECN/STP execution. There is now a commission of $3 for forex, $4.5 for metals and $4.5 for CFDs. Margin call and stop out levels remain at 100% and 50% and the account can be used as an Islamic account. It can use both MT4 and MT5 as trading platforms. It also has access to 24/5 customer support, a personal account manager, free training, no requotes, credit card deposit/withdrawals, the client cabinet, free signals, news trading and is able to perform scalping and hedging.

Elite Account: The minimum deposit jumps up to $5,000 with this account, maximum leverage remains at 1:400, trade sizes range from 0.01 lots to 100 lots. Account must be in USD and it uses ECN/STP execution. There is now a commission of $2.5 for forex, $4 for metals and $4 for CFDs. Margin call and stop out levels remain at 100% and 50% and the account can be used as an Islamic account. It can use both MT4 and MT5 as trading platforms. It also has access to 24/5 customer support, a personal account manager, free training, no requotes, credit card deposit/withdrawals, the client cabinet, free signals, news trading and is able to perform scalping and hedging.

Unique Account: The Unique account increases the minimum deposit up to $10,000, the account can only be in USD. It comes with leverage up to 1:200 and also uses ECN/STP execution methods. There is a commission of $1.25 per side for forex, metals and, CFDs. This account can only use MetaTrader 4 as its trading platform. It also has access to 24/5 customer support, a personal account manager, free training, no requotes, credit card deposit/withdrawals, the client cabinet, free signals, news trading and is able to perform scalping and hedging.

Hero Account: This account reduces the minimum deposit back down to $100. It has leverage up to 1:200 and trade sizes ranging from 0l01 lots up to 100 lots. It uses ECN/STP for execution and there is a fixed trading commission of $2 for each trade. The Margin call is set at 100% and stop out at 50%, Islamic accounts are also ok. This account can only use MetaTrader 5 as its trading platform. It also has access to 24/5 customer support, a personal account manager, free training, no requotes, credit card deposit/withdrawals, the client cabinet, free signals, news trading and is able to perform scalping and hedging.

Platforms

There are two main platforms and then a social trading platform available. Let’s briefly look at the features.

MT4: MT4 is one of the worlds most popular trading platforms, it offers a whole host of features that can help benefit you as a trader, some of these include ZERO commission account on spreads account, spreads from 0.0 pips on commission account, all accounts are STP accounts, direct market Access, micro Lots available for Spot Forex and Metals, no Dealing Desk, EA, scalping, and hedging allowed

MT5: MT5 is the newest MetaTrader platform version. It offers features such as allowing both hedging (by request) and Nettingm offering 38 technical indicators, 44 analytical objects, 21 timeframes, and an unlimited number of charts. It also provides Market depth and it also provides an economic calendar.

Social Trading: Social trading as about finding traders that suit your style and then copying their trades in the hope they are profitable. You are able to use both ZuluTrade and MyFXBook to do the copy trading. You will need to research different traders to find the right one for you, there is often a small commission on the trading or increased spreads as they platforms need to pay the trader commission on each trade.

Leverage

The Mini, Rookie, Prime and Elite accounts all have leverage that can go as high as 1:400, the Unique and Hero accounts have leverage as high as 1:200. Leverage can be selected when opening up a new account and you can change it on an account that is already open by contacting the customer service team.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes for all accounts start from 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. The maximum trade size is 100 lots but we would not recommend trading over 50 lots in a single trade.

Trading Costs

The costs of trading can be a little confusing so we have outlined them below. Where we write “/ps” it means per side which means it is charged for opening and for closing, so a round lot will be double this amount.

Mini:
Forex – $0
Metals – $0
CFDs – $12.5 /ps

Rookie:
Forex – $0
Gold – $0
Silver – $7.5 /ps
CFDs – $7.5 /ps

Prime:
Forex – $3 /ps
Metals – $4.5 /ps
CFDs – $4.5 /ps

Elite:
Forex – $2.5 /ps
Metals – $4 /ps
CFDs – $4 /ps

Unique:
Forex – $1.25 /ps
Metals – $1.25 /ps
CFDs – $1.25 /ps

Hero:
$2 fixed fee

There are also swap charges which are charges for holding trades overnight, these can be viewed from within the trading platform of your choice.

Assets

Assets have been broken down into four different categories, we will outline the instruments within each.

Forex: There are 62 different pairs available to trade, some of them include AUDCAD, CASCHF, EURAUD, EURGBP, EURUSD, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, NZDUSD, USDSEK, USDTRY and, USDZAR.

Precious Metals: The only available metals are Gold and Silver.

CFDs: The CFDs include indices, commodities, and shares, some examples are STSE 100, Nasdaq, US Oil, UK Oil, and Natural Gas.

Crypto: A few different coins, some tradable just against USD while some are also tradable against EUR. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Ripple, ZCash and, Bitcoin Cash.

Spreads

This seems to be where the information stops. Unfortunately, there are no examples of spreads mentioned on the site. The only information is that they are variable which means they will move wit the markets and will be higher during periods of volatility.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to open up an account is $10 which will get you the Mini account. Once an account is open the minimum deposit drops down to $5.

Deposit Methods & Costs

There are a few different ways to deposit, each having its own potential fees, so we have outlined them below.

• Bank Wire Transfer – Deposits over $5,000 no fee, below $ 5,000 bank fees
• Visa/MasterCard – 3.35% fee on deposits below $ 5,000
• Skrill – No fee
• Neteller – No fee
• Fasapay – Deposits over $5,000 no fee, below $ 5,000 fee 0.50%
• WebMoney – Deposits over $5,000 no fee, below $ 5,000 fee 4%

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

When withdrawing the same methods are available, they also have their own fees.

• Bank Wire Transfer – Only bank fees
• Visa/MasterCard – No fee
• Skrill – No fee
• Neteller – No fee
• Fasapay – 0.5% fee
• WebMoney – 2% fee

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal times depend on the method you are using. We have outlined them for you below.

• Bank Wire Transfer – 3-5 working days depending on bank
• Visa/MasterCard – Must be withdrawn to another method
• Skrill – Within the day
• Neteller – Within the day
• Fasapay – Within the day
• WebMoney – Within the day

Bonuses & Promotions

There are a few different aspects to the promotions but the only real promotion is around trade insurance. However, the terms of the promotion are not really known so it is hard for us to truly comment on it.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are a few small tools available the first is an economic calendar that will outline any upcoming news events along with which currencies the events may affect. The second tool is something called trading central analysis, this outlines some analysis of the markets. There is also an indicator for MetaTrader 4 that can be downloaded surrounding this analysis.

Customer Service

Customer services can be contacted in a number of different ways and are open 24/5. There is an online form to fill out in order to request a callback, so fill it in and someone should give you a call.

There is also a physical address along with three different phone numbers and email addresses.

Address: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, Beachmont, P.O.Box 1510, Kingstown Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Phone: +65 31635717
Malaysia: +60 392121910
Singapore: +65 31635717

Customer Service: [email protected]
Accounting: [email protected]
Documentation: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available but unfortunately, there is no information surrounding them such as trading conditions or possible expiration times. Demo accounts are good because they allow new traders to test out the servers and trading conditions while allowing experienced and existing clients a chance to test out new strategies without risking their own capital.

Countries Accepted

The following statement is on the website: “Fidelis Capital Markets does not offer its services to residents of certain jurisdictions such as the USA, and British Columbia.” If you are unsure of your eligibility, then be sure to get in touch with the customer service team to find out.

Conclusion

Fidelis claim to be offering competitive trading conditions. However, we find it hard to confirm this. The commissions being charged can be extortionate, especially on the lower tier accounts, and it doesn’t help that there aren’t any spreads displayed on the site to see how they compare to the competition. There are enough ways to deposit and withdraw, some with fees and some without. In terms of assets, there are lots of forex pairs, but a lack of anything else (apart from crypto coins). Leverage is good at 1:400 offering a good profit potential. While Fidelis may be competent, the missing information can make it hard to recommend this Forex broker at this point in time.

BCR is a forex broker based in the British Virgin Islands that aims to bring a new level of trading to the industry. Offering segregated bank accounts, 80+ tradable assets, 24/5 customer support, comprehensive educational tools, and an ideal trading environment, BCR is set to appeal to a large variety of FX traders. We will be looking into the services being offered to see if these are what they say they are, and also to help you decide if this is the right broker for you.

Account Types

There are two main account types available and then an additional swap-free account, let’s have a look at what they offer.

Standard Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $300, it comes with a spread starting from 1.7 pips and does not have any added commissions. The maximum leverage goes as high as 1:400 and the base currency can be in AUD, USD, GBP or EUR. It states lot per transaction which we assume means the maximum lot size which is 10 lots. There are swap charges on the account and the account is also eligible for promotions.

Alpha Account:
This account has a minimum deposit requirement of $300, it comes with a spread starting from 0 pips and so have an added commission of 9 AUD / 8 USD / 6 GBP / 7 EUR per lot traded. The maximum leverage goes as high as 1:400 and the base currency can be in AUD, USD, GBP or EUR. It states lot per transaction which we assume means the maximum lot size which is 20 lots. There are swap charges on the account and the account is not able to take part in promotions.

Swap-Free Account:
This account can use the same features as either of the other accounts with the main difference being that there are no swap charges, instead, there is an administration fee added to the account.

Platforms

Just the one platform which is MetaTrader 4. MT4 combines advanced features with an intuitive interface that allows you to set up your personal computer as a personalized trading station. MetaTrader 4 (MT4), which was developed by MetaQuotes, is one of the most popular and awarded trading platforms worldwide, and is utilized by over 300 brokerage companies and banks worldwide for their core trading services and operations. The platform also allows for the trading of CFDs across a range of popular instruments such as Forex, metals, commodities, indices, etc.

Leverage

All three accounts shave maximum leverage of 1:400. This can be selected when first opening up an account and can be changed on ana already active account by sending a request to the customer service department. If your account balance goes above $100,000 then the maximum leverage available is reduced.

Maximum Leverage Available:

• 100,000 or above 1:100
• 200,000 or above 1:50
• 300,000 or above 1:25
• 500,000 or above 1:20
• 1,000,000 or above 1:10

Trade Sizes

We are a little confused over the trade sizes, as the account page states that the lot per transaction is 10 or 20 depending on the account. We do not know what this actually means and assume it is the maximum with the minimum being 0.01 lots. The maximum number of open trades you can have open or pending is 200.

Trading Costs

The Alpha account has an added commission on its trading which is 9 AUD/8 USD/6 GBP/7 EUR. This is slightly over the industry average of $6 per lot traded but not by too much. The Standard account uses a spread based system and so there are no added commissions. The Standard and Alpha accounts both have swap charges for holding trades overnight, while the Swap-Free account doesn’t but does have an administration charge of $10 if trades are held over the weekend.

Assets

The asset have been broken down into a number of different categories below. We will outline them along with the instruments within them for you.

Forex: AUDCAD, AUDJPY, AUDUSD, AUDCHF, AUDNZD, CADJPY, CADSHF, CHFJPY, EURCAD, EURAUD, EURCHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURUSD, EURNZD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPNZD, GBPJPY, GBPUSD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDJPY, USDCNH, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDSEK, USDTRY, USDZAR, EURNOK, EURSEK, EURTRY.

Metals: XAUUSD, XAGUSD, CPDUSD, XPTUSD.

Commodities: XBRUSD, XTIUSD, XNGUSD.

Indices: US500, US100, US30, JPON225, AUD200, GER30, EUSTX50, FRA40, ESP35, UK100, CNH50, HKG50.

Cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin and Etherum.

Shares: Plenty of shares are available including Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla, Microsoft and MacDonald’s.

Spreads

The Standard account uses a spread based system and so the spreads are seen a little higher than the Alpha account. They seem to start around 1.6 pips while the Alpha account can have spreads starting as low as 0 pips. The spreads are variable on both accounts so they will constantly be moving and different instruments also have different starting spreads, so while EURUSD may start at 1.6 pips. Another asset such as AUDJPY is starting higher at 2.4 pips.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to pen up an account is $300. This will get you access to any of the three available accounts. We do not know if this amount is reduced for any further top-up deposits.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The currently available methods for depositing are Bank Transfer, Direct Debit, Visa/MasterCard, UnionPay, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, POLi and Broker to Broker. There are no added fees for any deposits, however, you should check with your own bank or processor to see if they will add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Bank Transfer, Direct Debit, Visa/MasterCard, UnionPay, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, POLi and Broker to Broker. There are no added fees for any withdrawals, however, you should check with your own bank or processor to see if they will add any fees of their own.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

The withdrawal times give are as follows “Intraday (before GMT 22:00) or the day after (after GMT 22:00 00). In case of a holiday or non-business day, the withdrawals will be postponed until the nearest business day.” It will then take between 1 to 5 days for the bank or processor to fully process your withdrawal based on the method used.

Bonuses & Promotions

At the time of writing this review, there was a 10% bonus taking place. The promotion is simple, simply deposit over $2,000 and you will receive a bonus of 10%. In order to withdraw the bonus, you must trade the number of lots which is equal to the bonus x 20%. So, on a bonus of $200, you will need to trade 40 lots in order to withdraw it.

Educational & Trading Tools

There are a few different tools available, with the first being called Market Live, which simply posts current news from the markets. There is also a market insight which is a little bit of analysis and opinions on where the markets could go. There is also a glossary of trading-related terms to check if you come across something you do not understand and an events notice board of different market holidays and events. The education section is simple, offering some pages about different topics of trading. This is good if you are a beginner, but if you have traded before then it won’t be anything new to you.

Customer Service

You can contact BCR using the provided web form, simply fill it in and get a reply via email. You can also use the live chat feature, the postal address, a variety of phone numbers, and email addresses to reach the department you need.

Address: BCR Co Pty Ltd, Trident Chambers, Wickham’s Cay 1, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Phone: +44 3300010590
Email: [email protected]

Demo Account

Demo accounts allow you to test out new strategies or training without any real risk, so it is good that BCR is offering them. You can use a demo account that mimics the Standard account or the Alpha account and so the trading conditions will match them. We do not know if there is an expiration on the demo account.

Countries Accepted

The following information is available on the site: “BCR BVI will not open accounts or provide CFD services in the below-listed jurisdictions: The Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Lebanon, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Yemen, North Korea, Iran, Libya, The Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Myanmar, Russia/Ukraine, Syria, and Zimbabwe. Products and Services offered on this website are not intended for residents of the United States.”

Conclusion

The two different accounts offer you two very different trading experiences. One commission-based and the other spread-based. The pricing on both seems reasonable and neither is massively overpriced. There are also loads of assets available to trade which is great tot see. In terms of deposit and withdrawals, there are enough methods to cater for most and there are no added fees which are other positives. The platform offered and service provided by BCR looks very promising on paper, but the decision to use them is ultimately up to you.

Arum Capital is regulated by a European Licensincing body (CySEC) and is fully compliant with the MIFID policy. Arum Capital have been operating their business since the year 2007. On the surface, this broker appears to be very well rounded and seems to offer a lot of appealing factors including a wide variety of tradable assets (over 65 in total) and also the newer, most popular trading platform, MT5. The website is very clearly set out making navigation quick and easy. There is also a live chat facility available for fast communication/assistance should you require it, although it should be noted that this link seldom appears to work.

Account Types

The website sets out the live account types for ease of comparison. Traders have the option to choose from either the ‘ECN.STANDARD’ or the ‘ECN.CLASSIC’. Both have many of the same features: $500 minimum deposit, access to MT5 trading platform, and maximum leverage of up to 1:30. Both Scalping and hedging are allowed on both account types also. The only real difference between the two accounts is that the Standard account has spreads (floating) starting from 0.0 pips while the Classic accounts’ spreads (floating) start from 0.7 pips.

Platforms

Arum Capital gives its clients access to the latest version of Meta Trader, which is the newly revised and growing in popularity, MT5. clients can trade on both MT5 web-based platforms as well as mobile (iOS/Android). The MT5 platform is definitely gaining appeal to the more high level experienced traders who seek more detail in their trades, with access to 38 technical indicators, 21 timeframes and 6 variations of pending orders, just to mention a few features.

Leverage

Due to the fact that Arum Capital comply with the MIFID policy under the CySEC regulation requirement, the maximum leverage that clients may use is 1:30 (applicable to both Standard and Classic accounts). Although this is relatively low in comparison to what competitors can offer, bear in mind that the minimum deposit requirement is set higher than average, meaning that clients are likely to trade larger trade sizes so smaller leverage would likely be ideal and preferable in that case.

Trade Sizes

The minimum trade size allowed is set at the standard 0.01 lot, while the maximum clients can trade is 100 orders (including pending). Both of these limits are flexible in terms of giving traders the ability to trade small sizes and not be pushed into trading large trade sizes given the fact the minimum deposit is set relatively high.

Trading Costs

Both the Standard and Classic accounts charge swap (overnight) fees as but only the Standard account charges commission fees, the Classic is commission-free however this account offers higher spreads, which is where the broker makes their profit from instead. Do note however that the Classic account does charge trade commissions if you were to trade cryptocurrencies. All relevant commission charges are set out of course ont he website but note that the crypto commission fees are a fair bit higher in comparison to other brokers, so do bear this in mind if you are trading cryptos.

The commission fees for the Standard account are set out on the website, specific to each individual tradable pair/asset. All in all, the commission fees are reasonable and not extortionate by comparison to competitors, for the most part.

Assets

Arum Capital is not short of offering a wide variety of tradable assets to its clients and this is definitely an element of this broker which makes them stand out competitively. ArumCapital offer over 100 tradable assets in total including:

• 69 currency pairs
• 11 CFD-contracts on indices
• 7 CFD-contracts on metals
• 3 CFD-contracts on energy
• 5 CFD-contracts on crypto-currencies

Arum Capital should also be commended for the liquidity providers they are in partnership with (Lmax exchange and Swissquotes) who are renowned for providing top tier liquidity and tight spreads.

Spreads

As mentioned earlier, the spreads between the two live account types do vary- the Standard account may seem more preferable since it offers spreads starting at 0.0 (floating) however this account carries commission fees. On the other hand, the Classic account has floating spreads starting from 0.7 pips but does not charge commission fees, apart from for the crypto pairs offered. While one account may appeal to you over the other, bear in mind that where there are 0 spreads, the broker earns from the client via the commission and visa versa, so essentially the client cost is relatively equal no matter which account type you opt for.

Only the FX majors have displayed directly on the website with their live variable spreads but to actually see ALL live floating spreads, the only way would be to open a demo account and try out the demo environment before opening the live account to ensure these spreads fit well with your trading expectations, style, and strategies.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to get started in trading with Arum Capital is $500 for both the Standard and Classic accounts. This minimum could be seen as relatively higher than what many brokers offer, which is also indicative of the type of client trader this brokerage service is aimed at; expansive trader knowledge and experience and for traders who likely wish to trade substantial volume.

Deposit Methods & Costs

Arum Capital offers a fair selection of deposit methods to their clients:

• Skrill
• Neteller
• Visa and MasterCard (debit/credit)
• Qiwi
• Wire Transfer

The timescales and costs are not at all mentioned on the website, and there is not an FAQ page to refer to find out timescales or costs involved. The Live Chat facility also did not serve its purpose in this case at the link appears to be broken. However, as standard goes, Skrill and Neteller are likely the fastest options to fund your trading account.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

The withdrawal methods available with Arum Capital are the same as the funding methods (Wire Transfer, Skrill, Neteller, Bankcard and Qiwi). Again, the website does not tell us the costs involved here but it is always best to check with the provider you choose to use first and enquire if you are liable for any fees. Typically the fees with non-standard banks, i.e Skrill or Neteller, have low fees or none at all. But, this may also depend on the amount you are transferring, too.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Unfortunately, timescales for withdrawals are not something that is provided freely on the website by Arum Capital which is a little odd seeing as they are very transparent with every other aspect of their service. Although this would usually be a cause for concern, this broker cannot be deemed unreliable as they are fully regulated and compliant with CySEC for many years and do not receive complaints or negative feedback in regards to delays in deposit/withdrawal transactions. Having said that, it is still unhelpful that such timescales and fees involved (if any) are not displayed on the website, or in an FAQ.

Bonuses & Promotions

Arum Capital does not offer any bonus or promotional schemes that could sway their clients into depositing copious amounts of money or feeling pressured to do so. This is definitely a positive most likely stemming from the regulatory status they adhere to.

Educational & Trading Tools

Arum Capital is not overly focussed on providing their clients with trading education, which definitely highlights the sense that their target audience is adequately experienced traders, who do not require such tools. What can, however, be found on the website, which is helpful to all traders, is technical analysis articles and daily analyzed charts on particular markets in focus for that day. This is a highly useful tool for all clients to use when charting up before beginning a trading session.

Customer Service

The customer service from Arum Capital is the one aspect that many could say is a bit of a let down when it comes to the broker; although this broker provides a solid and legitimate service, well rounded and efficient, the same cannot be said for the customer support team. More often than not, a broker can be fairly judged on the level of customer support they provide, which in turn often reflects the level of care the broker has for its clients in general. This is not the case with this broker, as stated earlier, however, it is disappointing that the customer service is very inefficient with the fact their live chat link is consistently broken, and their telephone line is not always available during all ‘normal working’ GMT hours.

Something that could be improved with this broker is perhaps adding an FAQ page, especially in the absence of a responsive and efficient live chat. An FAQ page can also serve to keep the client ques down as it can be used as a quick reference guide without having to speak to an agent directly.

Demo Account

Arum Capital does offer their live trading conditions in a demo environment which is always ideal to take advantage of to fully establish if this broker meets your trading expectations and is suitably in line with your trading style and needs.

Countries Accepted

Given the fact that Arum Capital is fully licensed and regulated by CySEC, it should be known that restrictions are therefore in place to not accept particular client traders of certain countries and jurisdictions, which include: USA, Canada, Japan, Brazil, North Korea, Belgium, France, and the non-cooperative countries under FATF. This is clearly set out in the website disclaimer also.

Conclusion

Arum Capital has been operating a solid and decent all-rounder service for a number of years but does not seem to gain a lot of social media traction in the way of outstanding reviews. However, this broker does offer a great service in terms of liquidity, spreads, payment methods, and trading platform. The one element this broker lacks is the client support area which certainly has room for improvement; the live chat facility would be useful to all traders, especially int he case of a complex trade query, and an FAQ page would be useful to not just existing clients, but also prospective ones too.

This broker is certainly a good option if you are looking to deposit a substantial sum, and are an adequately confident, and well-experienced trader.

Although HMS Markets was established in the year 1972, the broker would not officially launch its trading service until 2001. HMS Markets is headquartered in Luxembourg, where it is fully regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier Luxembourg (CSSF). The broker’s website is highly organized for ease of navigation, although the website itself is incredibly sparse, with very little information available.

Account Types

HMS offers 3 versions of trading accounts, which include Individual, Joint and Corporate accounts. All accounts have access to the same tradable markets (Forex, Futures, and Stocks) and all have a minimum deposit requirement of 1,000 Euros or equivalent currency. There is very little information on account specifications other than that and the fact that all clients will trade on a customized HMS Markets platform.

Platforms

HMS Markets takes pride in the fact they have developed their very own trading platform as an alternative to offering only the standard MT4. Instead, clients can trade on either HMS TraderPro or HMS TraderGo. HMS TraderPro appears to be only compatible on a PC desktop and has some useful features including market analysis, price monitoring, and research functions, so clients have access to many handy tools all rolled into one interface. If you are someone who likes to trade on the go, the TraderGo function lives up to its name; this platform can be used on all devices (iOS, Android and Web).

Leverage

Leverage is not mentioned on the FAQ page, so we emailed the customer support team to find this information out. After waiting two working days and the additional 48 hour weekend, we are disappointed to report that we received a response to our email enquiry. It is incredibly disconcerting when an FX broker does not respond to their clients, or if they seem to be unreachable. What if there was a case of a complex trade query that needed to be resolved quickly?

Trade Sizes

It is odd that yet again HMS Markets has been inadequate with the provision of basic information on the FAQ page/website in general. The minimum and maximum trade sizes are not mentioned at all, and since the customer support team was totally unresponsive we cannot confirm if this broker deviates from the ‘norm’ minimum trade size, which for many brokers, is set at 0.01, or has other requirements in place.

Trading Costs

The FAQ page on the HMS Markets website does outline the commission fees, but specific fees are not mentioned. As such, it is assumed that the commission is taken via the spread, as stated in great detail for each tradable pair. This may be a benefit for some traders as it is one less ‘cost’ to consider but of course, do not dismiss the fact that the spread is still essentially a cost to the client, it is just more disguised.

Assets

Aside from offering over 160 FX (and crosses) CFDs, HMS Markets offers a strong variety of assets to trade including Forex Spot, OTC Options and Forward Outrights. All symbols can be found directly on the website, and there is even a handy drop-down search feature to search for specific symbols. The addition of cryptocurrencies would be nice to see, but overall, the asset index is solid.

Spreads

The first thing to note is that HMS Markets offers Fixed spreads rather than floating, which may or may not be attractive to you as a trader and/or suitable to your trading style and strategy. Nevertheless, all spreads are set out on the website, for each tradable pair available, so you can easily check out the ‘target’ spreads you will be trading with when you open the live account. From the ‘target’ spreads displayed, it would seem that HMS Markets does offer competitive spreads, even taking into consideration that this broker makes their profit from the spread, so that is a definite plus for the client.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit required to trade with HMS Markets is 1,000Euros or equivalent currency which is certainly higher than the average minimum deposit set by the majority of competitive Forex brokers. This is also a subtle indication of the level of trading skill and experience required to trade with this broker since this is not a small capital that many would-be blase about depositing.

Deposit Methods & Costs

It is odd that the HMS Markets FAQ page does not outline all deposit methods available, which is both confusing and unhelpful. We contacted the Customer Service team via email, as live chat is not available, and still, to date, have not received a response (after a 4-day wait).

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

At this point, it should be highly questioned as to why HMS Markets has not outlined the deposit and withdrawal methods available to their clients. In addition to that, it does not respond to their client emails. This is not only concerning, but also highly frustrating as this is one thing that will scare prospective clients away.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

As mentioned above, the HMS Markets withdrawal methods are not stated on the website, and the customer support team are still yet to respond to our email enquiry regarding payment methods, costs and expected withdrawal timeframes.

Bonuses & Promotions

HMS Markets do not offer any deposit bonus schemes or promotional schemes that could entice clients into depositing. It is likely that this is due to a regulation policy that they adhere to. This is not necessarily a negative, as the requirements surrounding deposit bonuses can be tough to meet. However, there are still those who like to take advantage of these types of offers, regardless of the requirements which must be met.

Educational & Trading Tools

HMS Markets does not offer any trading educational packages on its website. However, they do offer some basic explanations on some trading jargon within their FAQ page, which would serve useful to those who are new to the world of Forex trading. The fact this broker offers sparse information but instead is a straightforward trading broker, once again reiterates this broker targets adequately experienced traders.

Customer Service

The HMS Markets Customer Service is supposedly contactable via both email and telephone. The website does not tell us the hours of operation. The customer service in a broker, or lack of, in some cases, says a lot about a broker’s care for their clients. In this case, it puts nothing but doubt into potential and existing clients, especially given the fact the FAQ page provides very little information.

Demo Account

Before registering as a live HMS Markets client, traders have the option to open up a demo account to try out the trading conditions offered in a risk-free, practice environment. Of course, it is always advised to open a demo account and trade for some time first before going live, to ensure you are fully aware of the live trading conditions you will be faced with when you deposit real money. Opening a demo account may be the only way to access actual details about the trading conditions that this broker offers.

Countries Accepted

Due to regulation policy compliance, HMS Markets does not accept residents of the USA to trade with them. Bear in mind this will be screened as part of the verification process when clients are obliged to submit photographic proof of identification and document proof of residency dated within recent months.

Conclusion

Although on the whole, this broker does seem to offer some very solid trading conditions, appealing to the more experienced traders who are likely to deposit large capital, to many other traders, the website itself is enough to deter them from opening a live account. The HMS Markets website is incredibly ambiguous and does not display even the most basic of trading conditions that one would assumably want to know even before backtesting this broker on a demo, as to not waste their own time.

In addition, the customer support service is the second off-putting barrier, hindering many from signing up to this broker as they are TOTALLY unresponsive which is concerning in the case of a trade query, let alone general questions being left unanswered. Should you be seriously considering this broker for your live trading account, do make sure that you have a means of contacting a representative with ease and have all your questions answered before registering and depositing.

Britonprice is one of the brands belonging to the SolutionsCM Ltd group and also related to Media Group Ltd, and other participants in what seems to be an organized network for many brokers allegedly based in Bulgaria. Few other brands are belonging to these groups and not much is known about them for a reason. Britonprice is an unregulated broker, offering CFD trading as well as Binary Options but visitors to their website will not know anything about their services nor what kind of trading conditions is offered. The whole website is designed to look like a high-class serious business with zero transparency on the company or trading.

There are a few pages and the structure is simple, meaning little effort is made into sections that do not directly lead to account opening or deposit. Most of the visitors will be in disbelief when they see the minimum deposit requirements but this practice is common for gray area brokers. The ratings about this company are all negative but are rare, most of the users report aggressive phone sales and withdrawal frauds. This Britonprice review will reveal if there are red flags or anything related to your investment decision.

Account Types

You will easily find the Account packages offer on the homepage of Britonprice’s website. 5 account types do not have different trading conditions but the increasing number of additional services as the minimum deposit goes up. Starting with the Micro Account, according to the broker, you will receive only Market Reviews and a 10% margin loan. Now, by margin loan, it is probably meant as a form of a non-withdrawable bonus that acts as margin support.

The second in tier account is the Mini Account, offering up to 25% margin loan and additional live stream trading webinar. Interestingly, as the minimum deposit requirement gets higher, so does the margin loan. The Silver Account is already having a serious minimum deposit requirement most traders will never even consider. Silver Account benefits are a Personal Account manager and up to 35% margin loan.

The Gold Account features even more benefits as promoted by Britonprice. These are weekly one on one trading sessions, personal broker and margin loan increased to 50%.
Diamond Account is the ultimate offer that includes the highest leverage, up to 75% loan margin and an additional VIP invites to events in addition to the Gold Account benefits. The minimum deposit requirement for this account is one of the highest in the industry, but the truth is a bit different. More on this topic in the Minimum Deposit section of this review.

Note that Britonprice does not disclose any information about the spreads, swaps, assets, and other specifics about trading. This is not enough information for a sale, there is a possibility that the first step marketing is done via email or other landing pages and that the Britonprice website just acts as a portal.

Platforms

Britonprice does not hold any MetaTrader licenses. They have a web-accessible platform only available by logging through their website. This platform can be described as basic and will not satisfy advanced traders. It is integrated with your profile management that includes deposit/withdrawals, ID documents upload, position history, and balance. A completely black theme is used with a dominant chart on top and an asset list on the bottom half of the screen. Chart style can be set as a line, area (line with a shadow), candlestick, and OHLC. Timeframes are the same as with the MetaTrader platforms but with the addition of a Tick timeframe, capturing every price movement in a stamp.

Users will have the ability to change the background to white but no other coloring is possible. The top right corner will also have a button for the indicator insertion, and there are 20 in total to choose from. The indicators can be adjusted but there are no advanced settings, mostly it comes down to just setting the periods and the coloring All of the indicators are well known such as ATR, Billinger Bands, CCI, Parabolic SAR, and others. The chart can be set to fullscreen but then you will be redirected to the TradingView charting, with all the options and tools TradingView has. So, in a way, this is a more professional option for those that need more functionality.

On top, you will see your financial status, the Balance, margin, Equity, Profit/Loss and Margin level. On the left side, there is a menu with some integrated features like the News, Live TV, Biggest Gainers and Losers, Trades, and Favorite assets list. Live TV is set to broadcast the Ruptly Today channel from Russia and the News section will open the news feed from Yahoo Finance. As for trading orders options, there are pending orders and alerts that can be set to notify on price level triggers. Notifications can be sent by SMS, email and on the platform. In the bottom part of the platform is the watch window with an asset category selection bar and a search field.

The information about the instrument is very limited. There is no info on swaps, Stops level or trading sessions like the broker does not have them. Certainly, the instrument selection range is very extended and competitive with the biggest brokers in the industry. More on instruments range in the Asset section. We could not check for the execution times or if there is enough liquidity due to platform and account restrictions. This platform does not support any kind of automated trading scripts.

Leverage

The leverage is published as 1:200 for all account types except for the Diamond, where the leverage is 1:300. Interestingly, the leverage is usually lower as the balance is higher, but it seems the broker does not care about the risks, it is more likely that the Account packages are just a ruse. Since there is no information about the trading conditions on the website, we will disclose what we see in the web trader. The leverage for Forex majors and other currency pairs is 1:200. For Indexes, it is 1:20 and for Cryptocurrencies, it is 1:5. Bitcoin has a future CFD option where the leverage is 1:20. Precious metals have 1:20 both on spot and as futures CFDs. The same leverage is for Stocks, ETFs, and Bonds.

Trade Sizes

Britonprice does not have any published information on the trade sizes. The platform displays only unit sizes, not lots or contract sizes. For the Forex, the minimum amount to open a trade is 1000 units and it is in line with the 0.01 lots or micro-lots for 100,000 units contract size. For Bitcoin, it is set as one, which is a very large amount considering the price of Bitcoin nowadays (around $9000). For Ethereum it is also 1 so some coins are more affordable to open. Precious metals are also set to 1 and this could be related to one ounce. In that case, the minimum amount is 0.01 lots. This trade size setting is also true for Stocks and ETFs. There is no information on Stop Outs or Margin Calls.

Trading Costs

Britonprice does not disclose any information about the costs, including the platform. What we have noticed is that there is no swap information or rollover and for the commission, it is set at 0%. It is possible that Britonprice is a no commission broker but remains unclear on their other trading costs. In the case of inactivity, the broker Terms & Conditions state a $25 annual fee charged if there is no activity for 12 months.

Assets

Britonprice instrument range is impressive. Few brokers can be this competitive by offering Forex, Precious Metals, Commodities, Indexes, Stocks, ETFs, Crypto, and also Bonds. All of these categories are extended, not just offering a minimal number of trading assets. Starting with the Forex, there are a total of 52 currency pairs. All majors and minors are present with the addition of a good number of exotics. Still, some of them are not open for trading. The ones that are available include Scandinavian currencies, USD/MXN, USD/PLN, USD/ZAR, USD/HKD, GBP/CNH, EUR/PLN, and EUR/MXN.

The Precious metals range is full and some more. Ther are spot Silver and Gold and their futures CFD optional instruments. Platinum and Palladium are present as futures as well, and also Copper which is considered as commodity metal. If we could add Zinc, Aluminium and other metals, this range could attract even the most demanding metal traders.

Indexes are also very extended with some rare Indexes that relate to classics. A total of 18 out of 22 instruments are tradeable. What is uncommon to see is the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, Russell 2000, Swiss Index, S&P Canada 60, S&P 500 Volatility Index, US Dollar Index, CNX India Index, China A50, and Euro STOXX Banks Index.

Commodities offer is great. All of them are traded as futures CFDs. There are 8 different agricultural commodities and 6 energy commodities. You can trade Brent and Crude Oil, Heating Oil, Natural Gas, Gasoline, and EU Gasoil. From agriculture products, we see Soybeans, Wheat, Sugar, Soybean meal, Orange Juice, Cotton no.2, Corn, Coffee, and Cocoa.

Stocks range is very extensive and they are categorized by company founding countries, Canada, Australia, US, UK, Swiss, Spain, Russia, Italy, Germany, and France. There is no info on any kind of dividends payments or credits. The ETF range is also extreme, and one of the most extensive we have seen. There are over 50 ETFs to select from, and the diversity is a hedging trader’s heaven. You can find Biotechnology ETFs, Country Index ETFs, Gold mining, Emerging markets, Bull ETFs, Volatility VIX, SpreadsMSCI Countries ETFs, Insurance, Banks, Real Estate, and so many more.

The Bonds range is not limited to the US Treasury Bonds but also other countries making a total of 9 tradeable and a few closed for trading. Interesting options are Canada Bonds, Euro Bobl, Euro Bund, Euro Buxl, and Euro Schatz. The Cryptocurrency range is good but not as some specialized brokers can offer. Still, a total of 17 instruments is not that easy to find. Rare to see coins are Cardano, Bitcoin Gold, Dash, EOS, IOTA, Ethereum Classic, NEO, Qtum, TRON, Stellar, Zcash, and Monero. They are all quoted against the USD.

Spreads

There is no information on the spreads, even on the platform. The platform shows Bid and Ask prices so the spreads can be calculated. From what we notice, the spreads are a floating type. For the EUR/USD the spread is 36 points, but note that we consider this to be true for all account types. By the somewhat wider spreads, this broker is unfit for scalpers and fast trading strategies. GBP/USD spread is 42 points, AUD/USD has 22 points and USD/JPY 53 points. Minors spread is mildly wider, for example, AUD/CAD has 30 points, CHF/JPY 41 points, GBP/NZD has 71 points, NZD/USD 22 points. Exotics spread is higher but very competitive for exotics. For some insight, USD/MXN has only 71 points spread, USD/PLN 158 points, and USD/ZAR 575 points.

Minimum Deposit

One of the highlights of the Britonprice is their minimum deposit requirements that start from €5000 for the Micro Account. Upon further inspection of the deposit process once logged in, we have noticed that the minimum amount is actually $50. This means that the information on the website is probably false and acts to lure high deposit amounts. For reference, mini Account requires €7000, Silver 10,000, Gold 30,000 and Diamond 100,000 EUR.

Deposit Methods & Costs

Deposit methods only involve VISA or MasterCards form what we see on the platform. Deposit channels are not disclosed on the website. You have two options to select a payment processor. One is Wirecapital from Russia and the other one is the Certus Finance that has terminated the Britonprice merchant account. Note that it is possible that by using this card processor you might void your right on the chargeback. As for the costs, no information is available.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

There is a minimum os $50 required for a withdrawal to be processed. It is not known what methods are available and this is very concerning. The only method is filling out a form and submit to the broker. Based on the information required for this form, we are certain that it is not the final step as no bank account info is required, if the form is not just a fake stage.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

According to the legal document info, Britonprice will process the withdrawal request within 5 business days.

Bonuses & Promotions

There are no bonuses offered. Note that the margin loan mentioned for every account type could be a form of a margin support bonus. There are no IB or other referral programs.

Educational & Trading Tools

Britonprice has an educational section on the website. This is written content that covers the basics of trading. The topics are Forex Basics, Risk Management, Fundamental and Technical Analysis, Trading Plan and Trading Volatility. The Forex Basics content is very short and rudimentary, mentioning a few scenarios when to buy and sell and other terms such as leverage, pip, etc. The Fundamental Analysis states several factors on the market such as Geopolitical tensions, Central Banks, Economic Reports, Weather, and Seasons. Nothing is said on how to interpret and some examples.

Technical Analysis is the least developed page with a few bulleting and pictures. The quality and the level does not have much value for beginners. No strategies or indicators are mentioned. The Trading Plan is a much longer page with solid tips and topics. This includes how to build a plan, key components, motivation, goals, trading style, etc.
Trading Volatility sounds like the most interesting content with pictures and some ideas. But, the content is mixed with the NFP event, support, and resistance and tips on trading the news. Note that this material low quality and on some points even misleading.

Customer Service

The broker has a few classic contact channels but they are all slow. The phone used is an IP number not set to receive calls. The chat service does not exist and the email response is longer than 24 hours as we did not receive a response.

Demo Account

The lack of the Demo account is another confirmation that the broker does not invest in non-deposit services.

Countries Accepted

There is no list of countries not accepted. Please contact the support team should you have any issues with opening an account or wish to know if clients from your location are or are not welcome.

Conclusion

This section of the Britonprice review will disclose some more information not directly related to the services but important for decision making. There is an interesting point in the Terms and Conditions document (9.2). It is stated that the trader will not attempt to make a chargeback, deny or reverse any payment made and to reimburse the broker if such an attempt is made. This is an almost comical statement that confirms another red flag about the legitimacy of Britonprice.

The broker entitled itself also to withhold any deposits by clients with certain credit cards. There are many more issues that further paints this broker with fraud paint. Transparency is non-existent, the platform even with so many assets may be a fake feed using the TradingView, deposit, and withdrawal channels are suspicious at best and there is no verifiable location, regulation or support. The minimum deposits may be fortunately high enough to turn away most visitors, but the broker utilizes a high-deposit low-frequency model to avoid payment processor blacklisting (one already canceled). Payment processors will block the merchant with a high percentage rate of chargebacks.

To finalize, using the card may give you a possibility to pursue a chargeback but the risk is too high to even consider a deposit for reasons above.

Cappro FX is a brand established in 2013 with the offices in India, Hong Kong, and London. This broker offers ECN trading environment, it is not regulated and the presented license or confirmation that they are a private company called Cappro Capital Limited, does not mean much to traders. Cappro FX describes themselves as a Forex leader, the best choice for traders with positive results, using cutting-edge, innovative technology to provide quality service and some more praises. None of these are backed up or relative to other parties where traders can confirm the statements, proving all of the About Us page content to be just the usual promotional, inconclusive and false statement.

Interestingly, the broker also mentioned the FSCS fund for the FCA licensed brokers, with a link to the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme) website, but does not disclose their FCA license since they do not have it. Therefore, FSCS protection is another false statement. This practice of having unethical manipulation with false promotion raises suspicion on anything else Cappro Fx offers. The website is designed with a modern, wide-margin page with styling animations and a whole page scroll movement that can give an impression of a quality-made website, pleasant to the eye. It is positive to see some educational and other material in the Tools section, and also a demo account where you can peek on the trading conditions. Transparency about the trading conditions is better than about the company.

The broker image is not good among the users, from what little attention the brand has received, thus confirming that Cappro is not a leader in any category. There is an interesting connection to IC Markets, a well-known broker, on some benchmark sites and the broker name mention in the Cappro Fx FAQ page, but none of the brokers confirm any connection between the two. This Cappro FX review will reveal all the important information for your decision to trade with them.

Account Types

The broker is using the ECN model but it looks like there is only one ECN account. Pro Trader Account is the affordable account of the two with a very low minimum deposit requirement. Other differences are noticeable with the trading volume sizes and instruments offer but both account types are the same on all other points. ECN Trader Account requires a higher deposit but offers the ECN trading environment and more asset categories. Both accounts are available in USD and EUR currency according to the comparison table. Whatsmore, 5 digit pricing, Swap-free accounts, scalping, Expert Advisors and hedging is available and allowed.

Margin Call is set to 25% and Stop Out is at 20%. PAMM/MAM accounts are available. Scalpers and EA are allowed but we have read a very short Terms and Conditions pop up with a statement that scalping techniques less than two minutes are prohibited, all trades are required to be held at least two minutes or longer. Penalty may cause profits and rebates to be forfeited.

Platforms

Cappro FX is a MetaTrader 4 platform broker only. It is offered as a downloadable installer for Windows, and for mobile devices running on iOS and Android. Web-accessible MT4 is not available and also the Mac operating system is not supported. Some users use emulators to run Windows designed programs in Mac. Upon installation of the platform, we have noticed some irregularities. The platform is not registered to Cappro FX but to Hermes Market, an alternative broker offering dubious services. The severs also bear the same name on the Live and Demo versions with a 31ms ping rate.

Everything is inline with the MT4 defaults, with 4 usual forex charts set on the H4 timeframe. The client is updated to the latest version without any added indicators or templates. In the symbols listing many groups may be confusing at first. Indexes and Commodities are placed into one group which has 3 parts. It may look like the instrument range is very broad because of this but it is not that extensive. One-click trading buttons are visible and ready. The specification window is providing enough information about the trading conditions. Trade terminal is showing associated trading costs for each trade, swaps, and commission.

We were surprised to see a very good execution time of 95ms on average but sometimes with bigger deviations extending a trade execution up to 1 second. This environment is very good for scalping and similar EAs. Yet we have noticed some inconsistencies with the broker statements and what users reported. Scalping is considered as trades that are left open for less than 4 minutes per Cappro Fx. In one user report, the broker denied the trades because they are left open for less than 5 minutes. Therefore, this FX broker may not support scalpers. We have not noticed any liquidity problems even on the exotics.

Leverage

According to the Cappro comparison table, all accounts feature 1:1000 leverage. We will check If this is true in the MT4 platform directly. The leverage we observed is not 1:1000 but 1:100 for forex currency pairs, including the exotics. For Precious metals, there is no leverage, 1:1, against the USD. Bitcoin versus the USD has a leverage of 1:100 but for the BTC against the EUR, it is 1:20. Ethereum Classic is even more interesting where the leverage is negative, for one coin you would need twice the margin. This may be some kind of error since we have never experienced negative leverage. For indexes, it is variable from 1:20 to 1:66.

Trade Sizes

Trade sizes have a small difference. The Pro Trader Account utilizes micro-lots minimum trading volume size or 0.01 lots. Additional steps are also in micro-lots while the ECN Trader Account the minimum trade size is the same but the additional step volume is 0.1 lots. In the MT4 Forex currency pairs, all have 0.01 lot minimum trade size and 0.01 lot volume steps but we cannot confirm what the trade sizes will be like this since the platform and the feed is from the Hermes Market broker. The maximum trade size is set to 1000 lots.

Precious metals, XAU/USD follow the same sizing policy as Forex. The only asset category that does not follow micro lot sizes is the cryptocurrency where the minimum trade size is set to 1 lot as well as additional steps. This is true even for Bitcoin meaning trading high values coins may be out of risk management limits for some traders. Stops levels are not applied on any instrument offered, giving complete freedom where traders put their pending orders.

Trading Costs

Cappro FX does not charge any commissions and the platform confirms no costs. Still, we have noticed the FAQ page where the broker state $7 commission per lot traded for the ECN Account. Swaps are displayed and are calculated in points for all instruments, tripled on Fridays. The swaps rates are not always negative on both trade sides but positive ones are not as common as with other brokers. Still, the EUR/USD swap is -9.5 points on the long side and a positive 3.39 points on the long, GBP/USD has -6.8 on the long and 0.289 on the short, USD/JPY 1.9 points long and -8.01 points on the short, USD/CHF 3.6 points on the long and -9.04 points short swap.

So, most of the major pairs have one positive but as we go to minors and crosses they are mostly negative on both sides. AUD/NZD has -2.5 points on the long and -1.5 on the short, GBP/JPY -0.874 on the long and -6.22 on the short, NZD/CAD has -2.98 points long swap and a 0 on the short side, and NZD/USD -2.26 points on the long and -0.86 on the short. Exotic pairs have a dramatically increased swap so USD/MXN has -33.4 points on the long side swap and 24.249 points on the short, USD/RUB has -12.6 on the long and 2.6 on the short side, and the largest swaps is for the USD/TRY with -227.4 points on the long and a positive 49.4 points on the short trade position.

Spot Gold against the USD swap is -8.192 points on the long and 0.555 points on the short. Cryptocurrency swaps are also calculated in points and tripled on Fridays. Bitcoin against the USD swap is -511.69 on both sides, ETH/USD is -103 points and XRP/USD -1.375 points.

The broker states that they do not charge any inactivity fees.

Assets

Cappro FX offers Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Indexes, and Stocks. This is shared with the Hermes Market brand as the platform receives feedback from its servers. From the Forex range, we have counted a total of 45 currency pairs, not counting the micro contract counterparts. All the majors are present with a good selection of other combinations. From the exotics, we have found Scandinavian currencies combined with the USD, USD/RUB, EUR/HUF, USD/HUF, USD/TRY, EUR/TRY, EUR/PLN, EUR/CZK, USD/INR, USD/PLN, USD/MXN, USD/ZAR, and USD/HKD.

Precious metals are limited to spot Gold and Silver quoted in the USD. Other commodity metals may be of use for metal traders. Commodities offer is very good with good variety. From the energies, we have noticed both Oil types, Brent and WTI, and Natural Gas. From the metals, there is Zinc, Copper, and Aluminium and from the rest of the commodities Coffee, Sugar, Corn, Cotton, Soybean, Cocoa and Wheat. The Indexes range is great with a total of 23, mixing with the non-equity ones. Notable Indexes are Nifty 50, VIX, Germany 30, Spain 35, US 2000, KOSPI 200, Hang Seng and Hang Seng China Futures, IBrX 50, RTS 50, IPC futures, Swiss 20, WIG 20, Italia 40 and US Dollar Index.

The stocks offer is very limited considering the fact that only US major listed companies are offered, a total of 24. These are the most popular ones like Ferrari, Amazon, Alibaba, Tesla, Pepsi and so on. As for cryptocurrencies, the broker has a very good selection out of 15 crypto instruments. Majors are extended with more rare coins such as Dash, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Zcash and Bitcoin Cash. Some of these are combined with BTC as a quote currency.

Spreads

The spreads are a floating type and are very competitive, in line with the ECN environment with direct market access. EUR/USD has only 1 point spread, like the rest of the majors, GBP/USD being an exception with 5 points spread. USD/CHF has 3 points, USD/CAD has 1 point, EUR/JPY 1, and none of the minors do not go over 1 pip. There are a few exceptions involving the GBP and the NZD, like GBP/NZD with 21 points, GBP/AUD with 17 points, EUR/NZD with 15, and GBP/CAD with 12 points.

Exotics spreads are very competitive, for example, USD/MXN has just 8 points, USD/RUB 57 points, USD/TRY 64, USD/PLN 4 points, USD/CZK also a low 5 points, USD/ZAR 23 points, and the widest spread is for the USD/INR with 490 points. Spot Gold against the USD has a very good spread of 11 pips and Siver with 5 pips. WTI and Brent are also low with 3 points and for Indexes, they are mostly under 20 points except for some rare ones. The Bitcoin spread is around $17.

Minimum Deposit

Cappro FX has a minimum deposit requirement of $10 for the Pro Trader account and $500 for the ECN Trader Account. We are not sure if these accounts matter when registering as the conditions form the Hermes Market broker.

Deposit Methods & Costs

We will directly describe what we see from the Login Area and disregard any Cappro Fx website claims. There are 7 deposit channels. Wire Transfer does not seem to work as no information is displayed about the broker’s bank receiving account, meaning there are no bank card options too. Therefore, you will not be in position for a chargeback as the rest of the methods involve, Bitcoin, Skrill, Neteller, GPay, Paytm, and Razorpay. Note that the broker has given several “tips” for each method.

According to the website table under the Payment System page, the broker charges only 0.9% for the bank transfer method that is unavailable, and for the GPay and Paytm both with a 3% fee. All of the deposit methods have almost no waiting time as stated.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

As for the withdrawals, there is only the form with several inputs for the bank account info, MT4 account number and so on. There are also options to withdraw to Skrill, Paypal and Neteller account. Bank transfer fees are 2.5% and $1000 minimum withdrawal amount. MasterCard and VISA are also stated but these are not available. BTC withdrawals do not have any fees but the minimum amount is 0.03 BTC. Skrill and Neteller have a $3 fee and $50 minimum amount while GPay and Paytm seems like to be restricted only to INR with 3500 INR minimum withdrawal amount and no fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawals received before 03:00 GMT (14:00 AEST) are processed on the day the form is received. According to the table, the Wire transfer will need 24h to 72 h to complete. Other e-wallet methods are instant once the processing is complete. Note that the BTC will take some time for confirmation. $5000 is the maximum bonus amount that can be received on one trading account. The bonus can be realized to real funds once a certain trading volume is reached.

Bonuses & Promotions

Cappro FX offers a few promotions but we are uncertain if they are still ongoing since the reward is an old iPhone 6. Anyways Trade & Get iPhone is a bonus based on the initial deposit and trading volume accordingly.

The Margin Bonus is an on-deposit bonus in values of 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% on every deposit from 500 USD and more, or 10% or 25% on every deposit from 100 USD to 500 USD. According to the trading volume formula, the bonus is released. The ‘Virtual to Real’ Demo Contest is Cappro Fx kind of a weekly promotional tournament called Lucky Friday where the prizes are given for the best performance. 1 place reward is $1000 2nd – $500 and 3rd – $250.

According to the broker, there is a free EA promotion and free VPS service (for those who deposit $1,000 or more). This promotion involves a customized EA Builder to new and existing clients who deposited the amount of $2000. There is no information about this builder nor what indicators are included. Free VPS service is available for the “Standard and ECN” live trading account with a deposit of $1000.

Educational & Trading Tools

Educational and tools are mixed in the Tools section of the Cappro FX website. An Economic Calendar is available and it is from fxstreet.com. This calendar is basic, without any filtering or sorting options, search field or graphs. It shows the impact level, forecasts and previous levels and the link to the fxstreet.com website about the event. The calculator is also under the tools but it is not working as intended on our browser. It is intended for calculating the pip value, margin, Profit/Loss, and contract size.

The rest of the content is written with topics on how to choose a broker, such as Experts and Forex ratings: What are the advantages of CapproFX?, Forex Strategies, How Much a Trader Can Gain, and so on. There are a total of 9 such articles. Much of this content is not deep enough and does not give anything substantial. It is also mixed with the Cappro FX promotional content. A short Forex Glossary is included. Under the Forex tips and forecast section, we have expected to see some daily analysis or similar service but this is just another educational article with very low value.

Customer Service

Cappro support is reachable by email, chat, and phone. We have tested the chat service as it is the easiest, and cost-free way of communication without the need to wait too long on the response. The chat service has a good response time, we did not have to wait for more than 5 minutes. We have noticed that the support staff is not answering the questions fully and they are geared towards promotional phrases. When we asked about the FCSC fund and the FCA, the representative that we were speaking with stopped responding. This is obviously not a good sign.

Demo Account

Demo Account opening from the website seems impossible. The email with the details was never received but works for live account registration. This is common for brokers that do not have honest intentions and just want your deposit as fast as possible. Still, the demo can be opened within the MetaTrader 4 platform, with the selection for leverage and virtual funds amount. The leverage was not 1:1000 as promoted on the Cappro FX website.

Countries Accepted

Since the broker accepts Bitcoin as a deposit accepted countries list is probably very long. Yet since the broker has several red flags, there are very few obstacles for deposits.

Conclusion

This section of Cappro FX review will contain some information that is paramount for the deposit decision making and also concludes on the above testing and opinion. Starting with the address registered, the broker is using an address in London that is shared among many companies. This virtual address is enough to register a company, and the firm proudly promotes it as a regulation, which is manipulative. The website hides many out of date data, empty promotional content and fake forms that pose another sign of a sloppy broker without honest intention.

Aside from the fact that the broker is using another brokers platform, meaning this may as well be a network of off-shore unregulated (and dubious) brokers hunting for completely unaware victims. The deposit options “tips”, or Cappro Fx comments below them, contain instruction not to add any other words such as “deposit”, “forex”, “capprofx”, etc. in the transfer description. This is likely done to obscure their identity and high-risk business to the payment processor. Bank cards or accounts involve chargeback protection and therefore are not available, while Bitcoin transactions are irreversible. All this points to a high-risk broker.

First Capital is an offshore, Bulgaria based broker led by Israeli infamous group. It is not known when this brand went online and not much is known about it. What is certain is that at first check, Frist Capital is failing to provide a legit location, background, information, and any legit trading service. First Capital website is full of the usual promotional, ambiguous, pretentious and meaningless content such as being the market leader, having superior technology, experience and similar.

By looking at the structure and design one can feel and see unprofessionalism, bad taste, and gimmick animations. Even though the website contains some forms and a functional login dashboard, it is clear we are dealing with a grey area broker with an extreme number of red flags in every aspect. This First Capital review will reveal what is hiding behind every section of a brokerage service and what makes it a likely element of a fraud system.

Account Types

First Capital Accounts page contains a bad presenting slider with 4 pages for each account type. The most affordable account is the Bronze Account with features that has less to do with the trading conditions but more about the benefits, some of which should be essential for trading in the first place. Traders of this Account has access to the trading platforms, Daily market Briefing, Video tutorials, eBooks, 24h trading assistance, Webinars, Account Manager, tools, fast withdrawals and payments, a trading course with an account executive, real-time remote assistance, and leverage of 1:500.

Silver Accounts offer all that the Bronze Account does with the addition of SMS and news signals, daily research and analysis, fixed spreads, tools (again), live coverage of the market, direct access to the brokers trading room and research and panel of experts. The Gold Account offers a few more benefits, including premium personal customer care and 1-on-1 market strategy sessions. The VIP Account is a tailor-made solution that has Gold Account benefits adapted for an Advanced Trader along with premium tools and benefits.

One can easily notice the benefits descriptions without any tangible argument. Brokers which have something good to promote will be precise and explain their product or service. Unethical brokers will hide behind expressions that sound good and professional but leave you without any idea what is delivered to the table. The ‘Accounts’ page is also filled with what appears to be fake testimonials.

Platforms

First Capital offers a “multi-interface” platform, along with WebTrader. In practice, the MT4 web-accessible version that is connected to when registering is linked to another broker with several risky connection warnings. You will have a choice to set to one server only called ECNPool Real. The symbols list has several groups that are repeating and feels like they are organized in a hurry. The specification window shows most of the trading conditions. The central trading chart window will show only the EUR/USD set on the Daily timeframe with the ADX indicator attached. The Trade terminal has the commission column disabled.

Leverage

The Leverage is stated to be up to 1:500. Based on the MT4 platform instrument specification, For the cryptocurrency is set to 1:10, Forex has 1:500, Indices have 1:100, the same as precious metals.

Trade Sizes

If we take the instrument specification form the MT4 web seriously, First Capital uses micro-lot minimum trade volume or 0.01 lots. The maximum is set to 30 lots. Additional step volume is also set to 0.01 lots. The same is for other assets with a bit different maximum, including the crypto. Stops level for Forex goes from 20 to 50 points. For Gold future against the USD Stops levels is 50 but other precious metals have a very low level of just 4 points. There is no set Stops level for crypto assets. For those not introduced to the Stops level, this trading parameter defined the range in points from the current price where traders cannot put their Stop Loss or Take Profit orders. Margin Call and Stop Out levels are not disclosed.

Trading Costs

First Capital states no commissions are charged. There are no other fees are mentioned meaning negative swaps are the only other, non-spread trading costs. Forex swaps are tripled on Wednesdays and calculated in points. They do not show any extreme figures and have positive values on certain trade sides. For the EUR/USD the swap is -11.44 points for long position and 0.73 on the short, USD/JPY has 0.55 on the long and -12.14 on the short, GBP/USD -8.36 long and 0.43 short, AUD/USD 0.43 long and -2.72 on short and NZD/USD with 0.72 points long and -4.92 points on the short side.

Exotics swaps are mostly triple-digit, USD/RUB has -218.1 points on the long but a very small 0.78 positive on the short, similarly with the USD/MXN -482 points on the long and just 2.11 points for the short side overnight swap credit. The biggest swap is attributed to the USD/TRY with -1611 points on the long and just 75.8 points on the short side. Gold and Silver are only traded as futures CFD with percentage-based swaps. On both sides, the swap is negative with -3% per annum, tripled on Wednesdays. Bitcoin and other crypto instruments have all negative percentage-based swap of -18% per annum and tripled on Wednesdays.

Assets

Based on what we see in the MT4 platform, there are 5 tradeable instrument categories. From the Forex range, the most interesting are USD/TRY, USD/RUB, Eur/PLN, EUR/ZAR, USD/CNH, USD/HKD, EUR/HUF, USD/MZN, and Scandinavian currencies. Precious metals range is very good except that Gold and Silver are futures CFDs with mentioned unfavorable swap rates. Aside from these two metals, traders will find Palladium and Platinum against the USD on spot. Commodities are mostly futures except for the Crude Oil which is on spot CFD. Both Oil types can be found with the addition of Natural Gas futures CFD.

Indexes are also futures CFDs with a total of 9. These are mostly major Indexes without any special indexes except for the Italy 40. Stocks are numerous but not as extended to hold unfamiliar companies. Most of these are US and EU magnates Such as Google, Nike, Boeing, Tesla, Facebook, Apple, etc. The cryptocurrency range is very good with a total of 25 tradeable instruments. Bitcoin is offered in several quoted currencies so you can find BTC against the EUR, JPY, RUB, GBP, CNH, and USD. Other notable coins are NEO, Dash, Emercoin, EOS, IOTA, milliBitcoin, OmiseGO, Namecoin, Peer Coin, and Monero.

Spreads

First Capital offers fixed spreads according to the accounts page except for the Bronze Account. We do not have any information on the values of these fixed spreads but form what we can see in the MT4 web platform, floating spreads are not high but not very competitive either. EUR/USD has 16 points spread, GBP/USD 18, USD/JPY 17 and AUD/USD 43 points. Actually, there are only 3 currency pairs below 2 pip spread. Minors have around 5 pip spreads and exotics spreads climb to about 450 points on average. Gold Future against the USD has 35 pips. Bitcoin against the USD has an enormous spread of $140 but against the EUR has a much lower €11. Spot Bitcoin against the USD has a fixed like spread to $25.

Minimum Deposit

According to the FAQ on the First Capital website, the minimum deposit amount for opening a Bronze account is 200 ($, € or £). Other account types do not have disclosed minimum deposit requirements. The packages or account types are presented just for the sense of having a product offering.

Deposit Methods & Costs

From the login Dashboard, we see the Credit Card method with VISA and MasterCard method. This method is not working as the VoguePay processor canceled First Capital membership due to fraudulent activity. The second option is using the Bitcoin or Ethereum. The processor company behind the BTC traffic is Nostro Technology Limited, a known company to have been connected with other gray area brokers.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

First Capital states there are no costs related to withdrawals, and the methods are unknown since the withdrawal is done by filling the form.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Withdrawal requests will generally be processed within two business days of receipt according to the broker.

Bonuses & Promotions

No bonuses or promotions are stated. Of course, this could change in the future, so check back if you’re interested in special offers.

Educational & Trading Tools

First Capital has an education section with 5 short videos about trading The videos are adequate to beginners and do not have any particular value. Topics covered are “What is Cryptocurrency”, “What are the top 5 stocks in the world”, “What is a CFD”, What are Indices”, and “What are Commodities”. Videos contain a lot of marketing, manipulation, and call to action phrases.

Tools page on the First Capital website mentions a Pip Calculator, Daily Market Reviews and the Economic Calendar. Everything except the Economic Calendar is just for the stage as these tools are not found. The Economic Calendar is a Travingview module with good design and functionality. You can use filtering to select a region or country or set to show only important events. Clicking on the event name will slide open the description and you can also see the past, actual and forecast data.

Customer Service

The broker only has an IP phone line with UK code but the broker can be located anywhere. Email is also available. No chat service is provided.

Demo Account

It is typical for unethical brokers not to allow any demo accounts. It is also possible that this broker does not even have his own servers and connects to another networked brand. More information about this in the Conclusion.

Countries Accepted

The United States and Japan are mentioned countries that are not accepted. Since First Capital accepts only Bitcoin and Ethereum as a deposit, all other countries may be at risk.

Conclusion

To conclude this First Capital review we will disclose all the data that raises numerous red flags about this broker. Starting with the interesting, but also fake website presentation about “The EPSFACE Arbitration Commission”. A link to this company is in the First Capital website footer and it is probably used for manipulation by the broker staff, or “Account Managers” to present a “regulatory body” supervising the broker. Of course, this website is full of fake content and claims, made by a group of con artists using a network of other fraudulent broker brands to hunt for deposits and credit cards.

First Capital does not accept bank cards through any payment processor but instead asks for your credit card details PCI (Payment Card Industry) has certain security protocols where middle card numbers are hidden on a transaction with every third party processor, showing just the first 4 and last 4 digits. First Capital explicitly asks you for the middle 8 digits on the card, thus making the whole 16 digit number visible. These brokers know to hide behind so-called consulting companies who refer clients to the broker as unrelated. This relation complicates legal action.

First Capital is stated to be owned by Sigma Consulting limited in Bulgaria, a well-known nest for former Israeli banned Binary options brokers. It is common to employ and train outsourced call centers in other countries with cheap labor force but solid English, German and other language skills. This way, legal prosecution is even more complicated.

Upon further research, the link to upload the KYC documents in the email First Capital sent to us is pointing to the MRT Markets broker. This broker is a known scam gate belonging to the infamous Greymountain Management group who organized an industrial-scale fraud measured in millions of dollars. Multiple sources are writing about this company and the Israeli owners. It is also very possible that First Capital also is just one of the brands under this still active network.

Finally, an interesting detail can be read on the First Capital website footer, the last sentence states that the “products described on this (website?) are not offered.” All things considered, we strongly recommend that you proceed with caution should be thinking of trading Forex with First Capital.

Ainvesting is a Bulgarian Forex and CFD broker. This broker offers a wide variety of assets for traders to trade on their proprietary web-based platform. Their accounts have fixed spreads and leverage in line with EU and EEA standards. The biggest advantage of Ainvesting is that it is a properly regulated broker. Ainvesting is the trademark owned by Uptrend LTD, a company that is authorized and regulated by the Bulgarian Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC). The broker’s website is available in 2 languages, English and French.

Account Types

Ainvesting has available for its customers 4 types of account, denominated, Standard Account, Premium Account, Platinum Account, and VIP Account.

The initial minimum deposits for each of the accounts is as follows:

• Standard Account: 200 USD
• Premium Account: 1,000 USD
• Platinum Account: 5,000 USD
• VIP Account: 25,000 USD

The spreads are different in each of the accounts but we will detail the same in the Spreads section.

Platforms

Ainvesting does not provide the popular MT4 platform but offers its own web platform. We tested the Ainvesting platform with a demo account. In summary, we highlight the ease of use and it is quite well designed. One important thing is that this commercial platform has quite advanced graphics, and with a wide variety of technical analysis indicators. The Ainvesting platform is also available in a mobile app, which is available for both Android and iOS.

Although the Ainvesting platform is quite good, it lacks many of the advantages offered by the famous Metatrader 4 platform. MT4 has a greater potential for advanced graphics and more technical indicators that can be tested and purchased on the MQL market. Also in MT4 we find the famous automated trading systems (expert advisors).

Leverage

The leverage available in Forex is a maximum of 1:30. Leverage allows a trader to start a large trading position with a small margin deposit. When ESMA’s measures entered into force, this is no longer the case. For example, 30:1, this means that positions worth $30,000 can be made with a margin deposit of $1,000. Leverage allows the use of credit offered by the broker to trade larger amounts than his account balance. Remember, the higher the leverage, the greater the risk of losing your capital. Leverage can be a very powerful tool both in your favor and against you.

Trade Sizes

With Ainvesting you can trade lots as small as 0.01 lots (micro lots).

Trading Costs

Ainvesting does not charge commissions for trading with its assets, as this expense is included in the spread. The spread is the difference between the purchase price and the selling price. Ainvesting will charge your trading account a commission of $15 USD per month if your account is inactive. The broker considers that an account is inactive when there have been no trades in a period of 3 months. The broker will also apply an inactive account maintenance fee of USD $150 per month to accounts that remain inactive for one year or more. An inactive account shall be considered if there has been no activity in it for a period of one year.

Assets

Ainvesting customers have at their disposal a wide range of financial instruments with which they can trade. Its asset index includes many currency pairs, various CFDs, and also ETF and bonds. With this broker, you can also trade with cryptocurrencies, and we like the choices that the broker has on offer. The available cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic, NEO, Monero, Lisk, Iota, Golem, Steem, Omisego, Civic, Bitcoin Gold and Zcash.

Spreads

In our view, the biggest disadvantage of Ainvesting is high spreads, but on some level, these are to be expected when there is no commission charge. The reference spreads in EUR/USD are set on the broker’s platform at 5 pips. Most brokers using fixed spread offer their customers 2 pip spreads, on average, with some offering spreads even lower than this.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit amount is $200 USD. Ainvesting, however, might occasionally offer a special promotion for lower deposit levels. Check back regularly to see if this type of promotion is on offer.

Deposit Methods & Costs

The primary deposit methods accepted by Ainvesting are credit/debit cards and bank wire transfers. However, they offer a huge list of alternative and e-payment methods. Ainvesting does not charge any additional or hidden commissions on deposits or withdrawals. Banks or intermediaries may charge additional commissions, such as wire transfer fees. Below is just a partial list of the accepted funding methods.

Withdrawal Methods & Costs

Withdrawals are processed using the same method as with the deposit of funds. If you have deposited your funds with a credit card, the withdrawal amount will also be refunded to the same credit card. If you have chosen to make a bank transfer, the withdrawal amount will be transferred back to your bank account. Ainvesting does not charge additional or hidden commissions in deposits or withdrawals. As with deposits, banks or intermediaries may charge additional commissions, such as transfer fees.

Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time

Ainvesting reports on their website that withdrawals can take about 5 business days to process after the request. In these 5 days, there may be events that affect the processing speed and that are out of control of the Ainvesting team. Banks, credit card companies, intermediaries, can delay processing because of internal problems, and examples have been given that it can sometimes take up to three weeks to complete the withdrawal request.

Bonuses & Promotions

We are not aware that any bonuses or promotions are currently available. The broker does offer an IB system (Introducing Broker). In fact, on the website, there is access for a program where clients can access their private IB area using a username and password. The IB is partners who attract clients for the broker in exchange for a commission for their operations. Obviously, the particular conditions have to be dealt with the bróker directly. For affiliate information, email the IB team at [email protected]

Educational & Trading Tools

Ainvesting has a very large educational area, which we liked very much. In the Educatión Center, there are several video tutorials.

Examples include:

• Introduction to Forex trading
• The global economy and how it affects markets
• What is Social Trading?
• What the MetaTrader Platform is and how to use it
• Learn how to use the mobile application
• Trading strategies
• What are CFDs, Stocks, and Indices?
• Aspects of trading cryptocurrencies
• Trading tools
• Forex trading concepts

They also have several Ebooks, as follows:

• Cryptocurrencies eBook.
• The trading market
• Familiarization with the basics of Forex
• Beginners strategies
• Glossary eBook
• Global trading eBook
• Trading psychology
• Capital management
• Fundamental analysis
• Technical analysis
• Chart types and Dow’s theory
• Most common price patterns
• Trends types, support and resistance
• Advanced Technical Analysis
• Advanced Strategies

It also has a news section, an economic calendar with the most important events of the day, videos for Daily Analysis, etc.

Customer Service

To contact Ainvesting customer service, we have 3 ways of contact, telephone, fax, and email. We are missing a live chat to complete the contact methods.

• Phone +359(2)4928497
• Fax +359 281 55666
• General: [email protected]
• Support: [email protected]
• Financial and Billing: [email protected]
• Marketing: [email protected]
• Affiliates: [email protected]
• Compliance: [email protected]

Business Hours are Sunday 22:00 GMT (21:00 DST), Closing Friday 22:00 GMT (21:00 DST)

Demo Account

Demo accounts are only available for 7 days. After those 7 days have passed, the account must be financed. We dislike this restriction on the part of Ainvesting, as the desirable thing would be to have a demo account operating indefinitely so that the trader can make use of it for a longer time if needed.

Countries Accepted

According to the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) in the United States, the OSC (Ontario Securities Commission) and the BCSC (British Columbia Securities Commission) in Canadian law, Ainvesting cannot allow residents of the United States and Canada to open trading accounts on its platform.

Conclusion

Bulgaria is not the most famous destination for European forex brokers, which makes this broker interesting. The financial package for brokers is similar to that of Cyprus, which is excellent. The FSC maintains its own set of rules for trading companies. Rule examples include capital adequacy, segregation of client accounts, the existence of a clearing fund, requirements for members and managers of management and supervisory bodies, ALD procedures, and more.

The capital required to acquire a license from the Financial Supervisory Commission is BGN 250.000 (approximately EUR 125,000). If you want a full license, which allows traders to trade on their own account (as market makers), the capital requirement will be BGN 1.500.000 (approximately EUR 750,000). As Bulgaria is part of the European Union, the brokers authorized by the FSC can carry out their operations throughout the EU, thanks to Mifid’s rules.

Advantages:

• A regulated broker operating legally in Europe
• Wide variety of assets to trade
• Proprietary platform with good graphics
• Offers CFDs on cryptocurrencies

Disadvantages:

• No MT4
• High spreads