Vinson Financials is a foreign exchange broker founded in 2004 and situated in Hong Kong however, they also have offices in the UK and Cyprus. They do not give a huge amount of information about themselves away, however, their objectives and goals are to operate responsibly, executing with excellence and capture new opportunities for growth. They are always looking to improve and so throughout this review, we will be looking into what is on offer to see if they live up to the expectations.
Account Types
There are two main account categories with Vinson Financials, within each category are two different account types, we will briefly overview the 4 total accounts.
Classic Accounts
Pearl Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of $200, it can be leveraged up to 1:500 and has forex and metals available to trade. The account can use both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 as its trading platforms and has spread starting from a fixed 2 pips. Swap fees are present and expert advisors are not allowed. Trading sizes start at 0.1 lots and go up to 20 lots maximum. Support is available 24/5 and the margin level is set at 30% with the stop out level at 5%.
VIP Account: The minimum deposit raises up to $5,000 for this account type, it can be leveraged up to 1:500 and has forex and metals available to trade. The account can use both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 as its trading platforms and has spread starting from a fixed 1 pip. Swap fees are present and expert advisors are not allowed. Trading sizes start at 0.1 lots and go up to 30 lots maximum. Support is available 24/5 and the margin level is set at 30% with the stop out level at 5%.
Advance Accounts
Diamond Account: This account type has a minimum deposit requirement of $200, it can be leveraged up to 1:200 and uses market execution. It has forex, metals, and indices available to trade and can be used with both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. It has a floating spread starting at 1.6 pips and trading starts at 0.1 lots and goes up to a maximum of 50 lots. Support is available 24/5 and both expert advisors and trading signals are allowed, the account also has a margin level set at 30% and stop out level set at 5 %.
VIP Account: The minimum deposit for this VIP account raises up to $5,000 as a minimum, it can be leveraged up to 1:200 and uses market execution. It has forex, metals, and indices available to trade and can be used with both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. It has a floating spread starting at 1 pip and trading starts at 0.1 lots and goes up to a maximum of 50 lots. Support is available 24/5 and both expert advisors and trading signals are allowed, the account also has a margin level set at 30% and stop out level set at 5 %.
Platforms
There are two trading platforms available to use, both from MetaQuotes, so let’s look at what they are and what features they offer.
MT4: The MetaTrader 4 trading platform is a fully-equipped trading system that enables you to trade various financial instruments, including forex, CFDs, metals, and futures. The MetaTrader 4 trading platform offers you many advantages such as placing different order types, the ability to analyze the market with more than 50 built-in indicators, trade on a variety of mobile devices, use Expert Advisors (EAs) for automated trading, develop your own EAs, custom indicators and scripts and, it uses 128-bit encryption ensuring the security of trade transactions. The platform is accessible via a desktop download, web trader and application for your mobile devices.
MT5: The MetaTrader 5 platform offers a complete selection of trading functions, including many impressive analytical features. Moreover, the platform contains a full spectrum of trading tools to ensure flexible and full-fledged trading activities. Useful tools, such as alerts on trade positions, automated trading programs, technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and trading signals, are available directly on the platform. Some other features it has included trading with a variety of order types, the ability to analyze the market with 30+ built-in technical indicators, open up to 100 charts simultaneously, use Expert Advisors for automated trading, create your own technical indicators and the use of 128-bit encryption ensuring the security of trade transactions. The platform is accessible via a desktop download, web trader and application for your mobile devices.
Leverage
The maximum leverage available depends on the account you are using. If you are using a Classic account then your maximum leverage will be 1500, if you are using one of the Advance accounts then you will have a maximum leverage of 1:200. The leverage can be selected when opening up the account and once it is open, you can contact the customer service team should you wish to change it.
Trade Sizes
Trade sizes for all accounts start at 0.1 lots, however, the maximum trade size for each one is different and is 20 lots for the Classic Pearl, 30 lots for the Classic VIP, 50 lots for the Advanced Diamond and, 100 lots for the Advanced VIP.
We would recommend not trading over 50 lots in a single trade due to it being harder to execute quickly, and we are not sure about the maximum number of open trades allowed at any one time.
Trading Costs
The accounts do not have any added commissions, instead, they all use a spread based system that we will look at later in this review. The accounts do have swap charges, these are interest fees charged for holding trades overnight and can be both positive or negative, they can be viewed within the trading platform you are using.
Assets
The assets have been broken down into a number of categories which we will now outline for you.
Forex: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF, USDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, EURJPY, GBPJPY, EURCHF, EURGBP, EURCAD, EURAUD, EURNZD, GBPCHF, GBPNZD, GBPCAD, GBPAUD, CHEFJPY, CADCHF, CADJPY, AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY.
Metals: Gold and Silver.
Indices: Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq, DAX, FTSE, Nikkei, France 40, Swiss 30, Euro 50, Hong Kong 40, Spain 35, Italian 40.
Futures: Brent Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Light Sweet Crude Oil, Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, Coffee, Copper.
Spreads
The spreads on offer vary quite a lot, they are using two different types of spreads fixed and variable. Variable (or floating) spreads mean that they move with the market when there is added volatility the spreads often widen and are seen larger. Fixed spreads are the opposite, they do not change no matter what is happening in the markets, they always remain the same.
Here are the outlines of the starting spreads.
- Classic Pearl: Fixed from 2 pips
- Classic VIP: Fixed from 1 pip
- Advanced Diamond: Variable from 1.6 pips
- Advanced VIP: Variable from 1 pip
Minimum Deposit
The minimum deposit required to open up an account is $200, this will get you either the Classic Pearl or Advanced Diamond accounts, if you want a VIP account you will need to deposit at least $5,000.
Deposit Methods & Costs
There are only three ways to find your account, you can use Bank Wire Transfer, Credit / Debit Card (Visa and MasterCard) and Skrill. Looking through the FAQ on the site, they state that there are no added fees, however when depositing using Bank Wire Transfer you should check with your bank to see if there are any added fees.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
You must return funds to the account used to deposit, however, once the withdrawal equals the deposit, it seems like you can only use Bank Wire Transfer as a withdrawal method. Just like with deposits, there are no added fees but be sure to check with your bank to see if there are any transfer fees added by them.
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
Vinson Financials will aim to process withdrawals within 2 business days, however, on occasion, they could take longer. The amount of time in total that it takes depends on the method used and could take between 1 to 5 working days to fully process.
Bonuses & Promotions
It does not seem like there are any bonuses or promotions active at the time of writing this review if you are interested in bonuses you could always contact the customer service team to see if there are any upcoming promotions you can take part in.
Educational & Trading Tools
There are a few different aspects to the tools and educational side of the site, in relation to tools there is an economic calendar which details upcoming news events along with the markets they may affect, there is also a currency converter for working out the exchange of currencies. Finally, for tools, there are live charts of various pairs and assets to view on the site.
There are a few different sections centered around learning, the first are guides to different aspects such as forex trading, metals trading, CFD trading, commodities, futures, oil trading, and Expert Advisors. There is then a section for articles however this has not been updated since 2018 so it isn’t the most relevant, there is then market news, but this again is slightly out of date as the latest article is from November 2019. There is technical analysis, but again the last update was in 2018, finally, there are webinars that again have not been updated since November 2019.
Customer Service
If you are required to get in contact with the Vinson Financial support team you can do so 24 hours a day 5 days a week, they are closed only over the weekends and on bank holidays. You can get in contact using the online submission form to fill in your query or you can also use the online chat feature. If those don’t suit you then you can email them directly or use a phone number and finally, the postal address.
There are a few different offices, but we will detail the Cyprus office.
Address: 6 Voreiou Ipeirou Street, Limassol 3022, Cyprus
Email: (+357) 25 02 88 61–63
Phone: [email protected]
Demo Account
Demo accounts are available, the demo account allows you to test using the MetaTrader 4 platform, you can select between the classic or advanced accounts and choose leverage between 1:1 and 1:500. The account comes with a balance of $100,000, there is no expiration o the account so they will remain open indefinitely.
Demo accounts are a great way for new clients to test the servers and trading conditions while also allowing existing traders a way to test new strategies without risking any of their own capital.
Countries Accepted
Vinson Financials do not specify who can and who cannot use their service, so if you are not sure, get in contact with the customer service team to check prior to signing up.
Conclusion
The trading conditions offered by Vinson Financials can be seen as competitive, they are very slightly on the high side but still in line with what you would expect. There are no added commissions and so the spreads are expected to be high, starting at 1 pip for the VIP account is more than acceptable. There are quite a few assets to trade which is good to see, additions of crypto would help them out a lot. The main downside is the deposit and withdrawal methods, they are very limited. While there are no fees, if you use a different transfer method normally, you may be forced into using one you don’t normally use. Plenty of ways to contact the customer service team which is great and they are available 24/5. Not too many negatives from Vinson Financials from what is on the site, but whether they are right for you, is your decision.
