RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
General Company Information
Established in 2003 under the trade name of “easy-forex”, easyMarkets is now a broker with global reach. It provides its services in over 160 countries worldwide, offering trading in 175 products ranging from currencies, CFDs, commodities and metals, to options on both its proprietary platform and the ever popular MetaTrader 4.
Headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, the brokerage also has offices in Warsaw, London, Sydney, and Shanghai. It has won numerous awards over the years:
Regulation & Security
Easy Forex Trading Ltd, doing business as easyMarkets, is licensed and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and its Australian subsidiary – Easy Markets PTY Ltd. – is authorized and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).
Cyprus is one of the most popular EU forex trading jurisdictions and Australia also has a good overall reputation among retail traders and the industry as a whole. Both ASIC and CySEC require a physical office location within the jurisdiction along with resident employees. Reasonable, but detailed daily, monthly and annual reporting is also required.
Besides, regulation of financial services providers usually involves a minimum capital requirement, which should be satisfied on an ongoing basis. Australian brokers are obliged to hold a minimum of $1,000,000 and Cyprus-based ones – at least €730 000 in order to prove their good financial standing.
Furthermore, the Cypriot financial watchdog applies a compensation scheme as additional guarantee to clients’ funds. All licensed brokerages are members of the Investor Compensation Fund, and any of them becomes insolvent or ceases trading, the fund is able to pay compensation to its covered clients, amounting to a maximum of 20,000 EUR. Unlike many other EU-based brokers, Australian ones are not covered by any compensation scheme.
Negative Balance Protection
Many brokers claim to offer negative balance protection just to reassure newcomers that they are a trustworthy service provider. Others do it to lure traders because “guaranteed margin call” is a new industry buzzword. easyMarkets, however, provides guaranteed Negative Balance Protection. In order to ensure that their clients do not lose more money than they have deposited, the broker brings each trader’s account to a zero balance if it goes into negative as a result of the fast-pacing volatile market.
Trading Accounts
Account type | Minimum deposit | Minimum trade size | Maximum leverage | Min. Spreads |
Standard | $25 | 5k | 1:400 (MT4), 1:200 (web) | 3 pips |
Premium | $2000 | 50k | 1:400 (MT4), 1:200 (web) | 2,5 pips |
VIP | $20000 | 100k | 1:400 (MT4), 1:200 (web) | 1.8 pips |
easyMarkets offers several account types, depending on the amount of the initial deposit: Standard, Premium and VIP. The standard account is suitable for newbies and clients who don’t wish to trade in high volumes; the premium one is targeted at regular and more experienced traders, while the VIP account is designed for professional large volume traders.
There are a number of features available solely on the VIP and Premium accounts, such as Personal Market Analyst support 24/5, Loyalty Rebates, Free Breaking news, SMS Alerts, etc.
Islamic (swap-free) accounts compliant with the Sharia law are also available to clients who don’t want to earn interest for religious reasons.
Trading Conditions
Despite the fact that it provides fixed spreads only which are a bit high, overall trading conditions offered by easyMarkets are quite attractive, including some unique features such as early deal cancellation. Here are the highlights of this broker’s trading conditions:
- Low minimum initial deposit – with easyMarkets, you can open an account with as little as $ 25;
- Commission-free trading – like most fixed-spread brokers, easyMarkets does not charge any commissions per traded lot;
- High leverage levels – up to 1:400;
- Fixed spreads, which allows traders to predetermine their costs and which do not widen during news releases;
- Deal cancellation option available – allows traders to cancel a losing deal within an hour after opening it.
Trading Platforms
Clients of easyMarkets may choose from the broker’s proprietary platform and the popular Metatrader 4 (MT4).
The easyMarkets in-house platform is available as desktop, web and mobile versions. Here are some of its main features:
- dealCancellation – cancel any deal within 1 hour and recover your losses;
- Free Guaranteed stop loss – can be combined with dealCancellation;
- One-click trading from the Market Explorer;
- Advanced charts, news, technical analysis and sentiment all in one screen.
In addition, easyMarkets also supports MetaTrader 4 (MT4). Popular around the world, the MT4 platform from MetaQuotes provides a stable, familiar and trusted trading environment. it offers a number of useful built-in technical indicators, advanced charting package, and extensive back-testing environment. Besides, it allows traders to fully automate their operations by choosing from a wide range of Expert Advisors (EAs).
Bonuses & Promotions
easyMarkets is a generous broker. By the time of writing this review, there are two promotions offered:
– First deposit bonus on initial deposit ranging from 30% to 50% (up to $2 000), depending on the deposited amount;
Keep in mind that bonuses are for trading purposes only; they cannot be withdrawn, they are non-transferable and non-refundable.
Methods of Payment
Easy-forex offers a variety of payment methods, including credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Visa electron), bank transfer and e-wallet systems, such as, Skrill, Neteller, iDeal, WebMoney, SoFort, giroPay and China UnionPay.
Conclusion
Easy-forex is a reputable and well-regulated broker that offers trading in various products worldwide through both its proprietary platforms and the industry’s standard MT4. To sum up the above, here are the advantages and drawbacks with regards to this broker:
Pros | Cons |
Well-regulated & reputable broker | Comparatively high fixed spreads |
Variety of trading platforms offered, MT4 available | MM broker |
Deal cancellation option | |
Comparatively high leverage levels | |
Bonuses available |
A Good Forex Broker | |
Regulation & Safety 8 | |
Cost of trading (spreads & commission) 6.5 | |
Minimum initial deposit 8.5 | |
Leverage 8 | |
Overall 7.7 | |
Summary Easy-forex is a reputable and well-regulated broker that offers trading in various products worldwide through both its proprietary platforms and the industry’s standard MT4. | easyMarkets (Easy-Forex) |
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4.6 (1 votes) | :