This is an offshore broker founded in 2017 with a focus on the southeast Asia market offering CFDs on several asset categories. According to the SSFX limited website, they are regulated by the Financial Services Authority of St Vincent & The Grenadines with license number 24046. Although, on further investigation, SVGFSA does not have this brand name in its directories, meaning investors will face high risk. Whatsmore, the broker is very ambiguous about its history, staff, location, business practice, and trading conditions. SSFX Limited website feels outdated and holds mostly redundant, promotional material without any argumental data.
Typical phrases such as being the industry leader, having vast experience, top-tier banks, and funds safety are not argumented, the only tangible relation is the MetaTrader 4 platform offer. Generally, the whole website is lacking much of the elementary information about trading, assets, costs, and fees. Visitors with just basic knowledge about trading will recognize the unprofessional approach to the client with almost no usable content. User ratings are missing as the broker is focused on the market where English language webpages are not frequently visited or censored. For this reason, SSFX is a complete unknown, this review will try to identify their quality of service and the key arguments for an investment decision.
Account Types
SSFX Limited has a page dedicated to the account types comparison which points out differences in several trading conditions. There are 4 accounts, Nano STP, Standard, ECN, and Pro. The most affordable Nano STP requires a very small minimum deposit and is limited to a maximum balance of $3000. This account is considered to be a type of Cent account where traders can experience live trading conditions with very small deposits. Assets availability for these accounts is Forex and Metals, with a higher than average leverage level. Spreads are the widest but there are no commissions charged and no swaps. Managed Nano STP account is not available. Bonuses for this account are optional under certain terms and conditions.
The Standard Account is also affordable without commission, same leverage as Nano STP, and somewhat tighter spreads. The rest of the conditions are the same, including bonus availability. This account is swap-free by default.
ECN Account should provide ECN model but SSFX does not have different executions, all of the accounts are using the same STP, ECN model except this account has a commission and much tighter spreads. The leverage level for ECN Account is lowered, includes swaps, and has increased minimum trade sizing policy. No bonuses are available for ECN Account and no option to have a Managed portfolio. Even though the minimum deposit requirement is increased for this account, it is still affordable for most traders.
The final, Pro Account requires a much higher deposit few will be willing to spill knowing the risks. According to the table, the asset range is extended with other CFD instruments for this account, but it is not disclosed exactly. The spreads are the same as with the ECN Account and include commission. It is not mentioned if the commissions are lower but the same leverage is applied. No bonuses are available and this account has the option to be managed using the same, increased trade sizing as the ECN Account. Swaps are applied. All of the accounts have the same Stop Out and Margin Call levels at 50% and 90%. The Terms and Conditions link displayed when opening an account will lead to an empty page.
Platforms
SSFX Limited offers only the MetaTrader 4 platform in a downloadable installer package for Windows and iOS operating systems. The web-accessible version is not included, so traders will have to register for an account to see the trading conditions. The MT4 is updated to the latest version, registered to SSFX Ltd. It presented us with two SSFX servers to select, real and demo, with about 114ms ping rate. Everything is by default platform settings, the 4 charts with major currency pairs are set to a 4H timeframe with the default indicators. There are no additional templates or indicators included in the package. The Symbols are neatly organized in 7 asset categories matching their description. Traders will have no hassle finding the right instruments.
One-click trading buttons are not displayed but they can be enabled within the context menu. We see that the specification window is filled with enough trading information but without any mention of the commission costs. Execution times are under 0.2 sec, 180ms on average with small deviations of 10ms, meaning this trading environment is good for fast trading strategies or EAs. During our testing, we have noticed one connection drop with the MT4 platform but this single occurrence does not confirm the SSFX Limited servers are unreliable. All of the trading instruments are liquid without any off-quotes warnings. The trading terminal window shows commission and swap charges.
Leverage
According to the table published on the SSFX website, Nano STP and the Standard Account feature 1:500 leverage, while the Pro and ECN have 1:100 maximum. There is no additional information if this leverage is applied to all assets so we have opened a demo to check the leverage within the platform. To our surprise, for all Forex currency pairs, the leverage is actually 1:1000, for precious metals also 1:1000 while for Indexes it is 1:200. We are unsure if this leverage is maintained for live accounts.
Trade Sizes
SSFX seems to be restrictive with the trade sizes for the ECN and Pro Account providing traders with a minimum trade size volume of 0.1 lots while the Standard and Nano STP accounts have 0.01 lots minimum. In the MT4 platform representing the Standard Account, the maximum trade size is set to 100 lots, some to 1000, and additional steps to 0.01 lots retaining the standard contract sizes. This trading size scheme is applied to all precious metals, commodities, and Index CFD instruments. Stops level is defined to 0 points, thus giving traders complete freedom at what price level pending orders can be placed. All of the assets in the MT4 platform have 0 Stop levels.
Trading Costs
SSFX Limited does not disclose any information about the commissions charged for the ECN and Pro Account, they are just called “standard commission”. For Standard and Nano STP there are no commissions. There are no legal documents where we could find any more information. As for the swaps, they are calculated in points, tripled on Wednesdays. Positive swaps are common and are under normal levels. EUR/USD has -10.48 points swap on the long side and 4.73 points on the short, GBP/USD -6.14 points on long and 1.45 on short, USD/JPY 3.62 points on long and -8.41 short, AUD/USD -2.97 on long and 0.14 on short, and USD/CAD -1.87 long and -1.02 points on short side. Some of the exotics have a surprisingly low swap such as for the USD/THB with -2.05 on long and 0.75 points on short or USD/ILS with -7.5 on long and -33.9 on short. This data implies that the broker is using Asia-Pacific banks as liquidity providers.
Not all of the exotics have such swaps, EUR/TRY, for example, has a very high -1080.2 points swap on the long side and just 35 points positive on the short but USD/MXN has -398.82 on the long and 187.6 positive swaps on the short side. It seems that the TRY pairs only have unbalanced swaps. Spot Gold against the USD has a normal swap of -11.66 points on the long and 5.1 positive on the short while Platinum has -10 on long and 1.49 on short. Oil assets have all negative swaps but below 1.3 points, tripled on Fridays. Interestingly, Natural Gas does not have any swaps. We could not confirm that SSFX Limited does not charge any inactivity or other fees related to trading.
Assets
SSFX does not have a lot to show when it comes to the asset range but some categories are very well developed. Forex range has a total of 61 currency pairs with a good amount of exotics. Notable rare pairs are USD/THB, USD/RUB, USD/MXN, USD/TRY, USD/ZAR, USD/ILS, USD/CZK, USD/PLN, USD/HUF, USD/CNH, GBP/TRY, GBP/HKD, EUR/ZAR, EUR/TRY, EUR/MXN, EUR/PLN, EUR/HKD, EUR/HUF, EUR/CZK and Scandinavian currencies quotes with several majors.
Precious metals range is very good counting Gold, Platinum, Silver, Palladium, and Copper as a commodity metal. Spot Gold is available also against the EUR too. This category offers more than other brokers on average. Indexes range holds 11 total instruments. This is like the default in the industry, offering all the major Indexes with a few Tier 2 like the Hang Seng Index, DAX, CAC 40, Euro STOXX 50, and IBEX 35. Commodities are limited to the two Oil assets, Brent and WTI with the addition of Natural Gas. This is all that is offered in the MT4 platform with the demo representing the Standard Account.
Spreads
SSFX has floating-type spreads for all accounts in the offer. The Standard and Nano STP accounts have a mark up instead of the commission which is applied to the Pro and ECN accounts. According to the table comparison, Nano STP has spread from 1.6 pips and Standard from 1.2 pips. MT4 platform showed us a lower value, for example, the EUR/USD has 8 points spread, USD/JPY – 11 points, GBP/USD – 12, USD/CHF – 11, AUD/USD – 11, NZD/USD just 9 points, and USD/CAD – 13 points. So all majors have spreads below 1.5 pips. Minor currency pairs do not go over 2 pips except for the EUR/CAD – 26 points, GBP/JPY – 21 points, GBP/CHF – 28 points, and EUR/NZD – 32 points, and GBP/NZD 42 points.
Exotics have a higher spread compared to other pairs. For example, pairs with the widest nominal spreads are EUR/CZK – 1390 points, USD/RUB – 4000 points, and GBP/TRY with 602 points. Other exotics have competitive spreads, EUR/MXN – 283 points, USD/ILS 194 – points, EUR/ZAR – 503 points, USD/THB – 54 points, and USD/TRY – 194 points. Spot Gold against the USD has a very good spread of 28 pips, Silver at 24, Platinum at 219, and Palladium against the USD has an extreme 1407 pips or $14.07 spread.
Pro and ECN accounts have spread from 0.4 pips but we are unable to test this statement and we are not sure the website presents valid information at all.
Minimum Deposit
According to the table account comparison, the minimum deposit for the most affordable Nano STP account is $10. This is also considered a cent account with the maximum possible balance of $3000. The next tier is the Standard Account most of the clients will be interested in with the minimum deposit requirement of $100. ECN Account is obscured with the unknown commission data, still, it requires at least $200 which is what most can afford. Pro Account is not following this trend and requires at least a $10,000 deposit.
Deposit Methods & Costs
SSFX Limited is focused on the Sout-eAst Asian market and presents local deposit methods for Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Related banks for these deposit methods via bank transfer are Bangkok Bank, Ambank, Maybank, BCA, and Standard Chartered. The client can also add their bank account from the Login area and conduct a transfer to their landing Account. Landing Account is a transfers-only function account that is allegedly segregated from the broker while the Trading Account is used for trading.
Note that SSFX Limited has its fees for the conversions if the deposit and account currencies do not match. Deposits for Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, and Vietnamese clients are free of charge but the conversion is applied according to the broker rates. For IDR, the current rate is 14,000 for 1 USD. Some maximum amounts are mentioned but they are big enough not to pose an issue. There are no disclosed fees for international clients. Bank transfers seem to be the only option for deposits. SSFX Limited uses the paytrust888.com payment provider.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
SSFX Limited has a withdrawal fee for all clients. Also, the broker has another currency rate for withdrawals. So, for Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia the fee is 1.5% plus the conversion. For international clients, the fee may vary. We do not have any info about other withdrawal methods available except bank transfers.
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
SSFX Limited does not state any time frames but bank transfers usually take up to 7 business days to complete.
Bonuses & Promotions
SSFX Limited mentioned bonuses available for the Mini STP and Standard accounts with the links to the Terms and Conditions page for them. The link connects to a blank page. There is no other information available. At the current state, the broker does not seem to offer any kind of bonuses.
Educational & Trading Tools
SSFX Limited does not have any worthy educational content. 4 pages may be related as educational, What are DFDs, Why Trade CFDs, What is Forex, and Why trade FX are pages with some explanations mostly mixed in with clumsy marketing, promoting the market’s most dominant advantages. There are no Economic Calendars or tools offered on the SSFX’s website or on the side.
Customer Service
The broker is reachable only by email and the contact form. Even though the support is advertised as 24/7, we have not received a reply from the staff.
Demo Account
The demo account is available and can be opened by registering on the SSFX Limited website or directly within the MT4 platform. The demo does not show the commissions or the CFD assets allegedly additionally available for the Pro Account.
Countries Accepted
SSFX Limited is focused on the South-East Asia region but international clients can also apply for an account. There is no information if there are any restricted countries.
Conclusion
This section will conclude SSFX Limited review with additional information and a summary. Even with the obscured information available on the internet about this broker, according to what is seen on the website and the platform it is clear there are many inconsistencies and red flags. Firstly, the transparency is very low and it is compensated by the effort to fill in the already undeveloped website pages with redundant, promotional content serious traders simply do not appreciate. What is presented is also not what is seen in the MT4 platform. Visitors will not have a clear image of what this broker is or what kind of accounts, service, and security they offer. As for the regulation, sometimes it is better not to mention if there is none than to present false information such as in the case of SSFX Limited. At the current state, this broker should be avoided, solid trading conditions are secondary if there are extreme broker-related risks to your funds.