A result of months of testing and observation, this review aims at giving a thorough and pointed assessment of easyMarkets’ overall capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.
What this entailed from the review teams’s end is the first hand evaluation of the broker’s accounts, trial trading, and full usage of all functions of easyMarkets’ live site. The evaluation of these facets contribute either to the recommendation for or against the brokerage firm.
On the Get-Go:
The review team’s initial findings strongly suggest that while easyMarkets is convenient and intuitive to use, trading through it is pricey and bears a number of limitations. But of course, the broker has other offerings that might prove enticing to the average trader and investor.
easyMarkets: An Overview
Established back in 2001, easyMarkets is one of the first brokerage firms to specialize in retail Foreign Exchange trading.
To operate legally, the broker went under the wing of the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission (ASIC) in 2005. Two years after, easyMarkets furthered its badge of legitimacy by accomplishing all the requirements to be regulated under the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) through the legal moniker, Easy Forex Trading Ltd.
easyMarkets does not operate a bank and is not publicly-traded. Given the broker’s regulators, the review team considers it to be average-risk. With this type of regulatory-based assessment, it is safe to say that easyMarkets is a legal and legitimate firm that traders can opt to place their business on.
Trading Accounts
Three trading accounts are available through easyMarkets. These are as follows:
1. The Standard Account (Minimum deposit: 100 USD)
2. The Premium Account (Minimum deposit: 2,000 USD)
3. The VIP Account (Minimum deposit: 10,000 USD)
Despite the apparent differences in access, available Spreads, and minimum lot size, all accounts offer the same Maximum Leverage at 1:200 (Web/App trading platform)and 1:400 (MetaTrater 4), the lack of Commissions, Account, and Deposit and Withdrawal fees, Customer Support by phone, and Live Chat trading 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.
What the review team had questioned is mainly this glaring similarity in the services offered. If we are to take it by face value, if one is to avail of either the Premium or the VIP account, it follows that he or she should be given more than what the Standard account can offer. With easyMarkets, this does not seem to be the case. And while non-discrimination is much appreciated with the treatment of clients, genuine fairness would only be seen by giving clients what their money is worth.
Apart from the actual accounts, easyMarkets also offers Virtual Trading, a demo account of sorts for the more safe-playing traders who would want to see possible trading scenarios and conditions without having to invest money into the brokerage firm.
Notable Features
Perhaps what is notable about easyMarkets’ accounts is the efficiency of the trading platforms that these offer.
The dealCancellation Function
The first one is the easyMarkets web trading platform that has its flagship offer, the dealCancellation function. As the name suggests, should the user make a mistake in the deal that he or she had made, it could be undone within a 60-minute grace period for a small fee.
Freeze Rate
Another feature that review team had found helpful is the Freeze Rate function. This allows the client to pause a rate found in the market despite its constant movement. Pausing it means that the favorable price that the client had found can still be transacted upon even if the market had already moved.
These two features are enough to invite the average trader to sign up with easyMarkets. These are indeed helpful in the cause of building a strong and noteworthy trading portfolio.
Trading Instruments
The financial instruments that easyMarkets had made available are 62 Currency Pairs, 199 CFDs, and Cryptocurrencies traded as CFDs. The firm also allows for Spot Trading and Social Trading/Copy Trading.
By industry standards, these are already decent and allows for a wide range of trading endeavors.
Conclusion and Recommendation
As already mentioned in the introduction, the glaring fact with having to sign up for easyMarkets is its apparent high costs for the more professional accounts. What had turned the review team off is that despite these costs, the services and offers of the Premium and VIP accounts are not much different from the Standard account that only require 100 USD to be opened.
Apart from this, easyMarkets actually stands as a competent choice among the many brokerage firms in the trading industry. It actually furthers its viability through its standout features, the dealCancellation and the Freeze Rate function.
What we, the review team, recommend is that the reader does research as well; check out other reviews and client testimonies that are public in the web. In this way, the reader’s choice in brokerage firm would bear consensus and be informed.