ActivTrades Review 2024

Key Takeaways

• ActivTrades is an online broker founded in 2001 and now headquartered in the UK.
• The broker is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). It is also regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) in Luxembourg. Additionally, the broker enjoys oversight  by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB).
• ActivTrades clients are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to £85,000.
• The broker works with a No Dealer Desk (NDD) trading model.
• The broker provides Contract for Differences (CFD) access to over 1,000 market instruments such as FOREX, indices, commodities, shares, financials and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF). 
• ActivTrades offers a single integrated account type known as the Individual Account.
• The broker provides clients with trading platforms, such as its proprietary ActivTrader, as well as MetaTrader4 (MT4) and MetaTrader5 (MT5).
• ActivTrades offers competitive spreads and commissions across its account types, although its account funding fees are not universally competitive.
• The broker puts a lot of emphasis on trade execution speed. It claims to have average execution speeds of less than 0.004 seconds.

Overall Summary

Originally founded in Switzerland in 2001, ActivTrades moved its headquarters to London in 2005, where it remains today. The company has a history in the financial services industry spanning over 20 years. In 2008, it added CFD trading on indices and commodities, alongside its established FOREX services.

After a strong surge of continuous growth, the company was ranked as the 6th fastest growing company in the UK, 3rd in London and 4th overall in the financial sector by Investec Hot 100 UK’s fastest-growing private companies in 2013. Today, the broker boasts customers from over 140 countries.

With an emphasis on investor fund safety, the company became the first broker in the UK to establish excess FSCS insurance, with a view to providing investors an extra layer of protection. The broker is regulated by the tier-1 FCA in the UK, providing its customers peace of mind regarding the safety of their investments. Other regulations include the CSSF and the SCB. The broker has offices in the UK, Luxembourg, Bahamas, Italy and Bulgaria.

The company has been rewarded for its stellar growth record and is the recipient of awards for excellence in markets like the UK, Germany, Italy and Russia. Selected awards include the Best Tools Award issued by Shares magazine in 2019. The broker was also awarded the Best Non-Dealing Desk Broker in the Online Personal Wealth Awards in 2017.

Over time, the broker has developed a comprehensive range of products. Clients now have access to more than 1,000 CFDs or spread-betting instruments across FOREX, indices, shares, commodities, financials and ETFs. Unfortunately, the firm does not offer cryptocurrency trading. The broker provides its services to a range of client types, including retail, professional and institutional traders.

ActivTrades offers its clients the world’s most popular trading platform, MetaTrader, that has been enhanced with internally developed Smart Tools for a superior trading experience. The broker also offers traders its proprietary ActivTrader, feature-rich platform that caters to all levels of traders and is available for desktop, smartphone and tablet.

As a company interested in providing excellent service, the broker seeks to hold true to its differentiators, which are fast execution, peerless customer support, innovation, education and safety. The broker works with its team of engineers to produce a trading experience featuring low latency and lightning quick execution speed. The company proudly touts average execution speeds of less than 0.004 seconds, a requested price order fulfillment rate of 93.6%, and over 100,000 trades per second.

Who Is ActivTrades Good For?

• Hedge funds.
• Asset managers.
• Banks.
• Other brokers.
• Private investment vehicles.
• Professional traders.
• Fintechs.

Is ActivTrades Safe?

Offering of Investments

ActivTrades has a powerful collection of products that gives traders of all levels comprehensive market access. With over 1,000 CFD or spread-betting instruments covering Indices, FOREX, shares, financials, commodities and ETFs, traders are well accommodated.

Contract For Differences: Traders can enjoy several benefits from this type of transaction, such as flexible margins as well as mini and micro lot trading. There are no hidden fees, commissions or swaps on Futures CFDs. Clients can trade CFDs in FOREX, gold, silver and several prestigious share exchanges.

FOREX Trading: The broker offers low spreads from 0.5 pips. Clients can trade over 50 currency pairs on a commission-free basis. Mini and micro lot trading is supported. All this is done with swift execution and no requotes.

Indices and Financial Trading: Clients can enjoy transparent pricing, attractive spreads and access to extensive global markets at low margins. 

Commodities Trading: The broker offers CFD trading access to commodities, such as metals, energies, grains and gas. Based on futures contracts, clients can trade mini or micro lots to access major markets with managed exposure.

Shares Trading: Clients have extensive access to over 1,000 leading company shares. Traders can go short or long while they trade shares on a CFD basis. Unleveraged trading is commission-free, and clients can access worldwide exchanges in financial centers, like New York, London and Frankfurt.

Account Types

ActivTrades has a simple and unfussy account set up. Here are the main account types:

Individual Account

This highly functional and flexible account allows you to work with the proprietary ActivTrader, as well as MT4 and MT5. A multi-currency account, clients can trade in the currency of their choice and access to low spreads from 0.5 pips. You can trade in mini and micro lots with consistently swift execution. Supported currencies include the EUR, USD, GBP and CHF. As a NDD broker, there is no human intervention in your trades.

The account comes with access to the broker’s bespoke Smart Tools, like SmartForecast and SmartTemplate, to mention only two. Traders also have access to a powerful educational platform within this account, where they can attend online workshops and individualized training sessions with a view to improving their trading skills.

Islamic Account

ActivTrades has an Islamic Account designed to cater to the needs of traders in the Arab and the Islamic world. Its Shariah-compliant Islamic Account does not levy interest on contracts lasting longer than 24 hours. In addition, there are no extra rollover commissions. Clients can still trade in mini lots and micro lots, and traders can get access to the multi-currency benefits of trading on MT4 and MT5. 

Multi-Account Manager

Furthermore, the company offers traders the chance to run a master account with multiple linked accounts using a Multi-Account Manager. This feature is available in MT4 and MT5 to both retail and professional traders. 

Account Opening

Opening an account with this broker is fast and convenient. Users simply access the broker’s Website and click “Open account.” After reading and accepting all the terms and conditions, traders can move on to choose their account type, show their trading experience, and provide the standard documentation required to get approval. Naturally, the process is somewhat different for institutional clients, who will have to present extensive documentation related to their trading entity. 
Demo Account

ActivTrades offers a free 30-day Demo Account. Clients can use any of the three platforms – MT4, MT5 and ActivTrader, to practice their strategies. The Demo Account comes with $10,000 in virtual funds, which should be enough for traders to get acclimated to the broker’s trading ecosystem.
Bonuses and Promotions

At the time of this review, the broker had two promotions in operation. Refer a Friend allows traders to earn up to $1,000 per client for each person successfully introduced to ActivTrades. Meanwhile, the Cashback Program gives clients the chance to earn a bonus for every trade they place. All clients need to do is trade a notional value of $50 million per month. They can earn cash back on each trade they place. For each lot traded, clients receive a reduction equivalent to 20% reduction on spreads, 20% on swaps and 20% on shares commission.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits

• Bank transfer.
• Debit/credit cards.
• Neteller.
• Skrill.
• Sofort.
• Paypal.

Withdrawals

• Bank transfers.
• Debit/credit cards.
• Neteller.
• Skrill.
• Paypal.

Customer Service

Commissions and Fees

ActivTrades’s FOREX fees are well placed in the market. Currency pairs are commission-free, and a popular pair, like the EUR/USD, can carry an average 0.72 pips, which is an acceptable rate compared to similar rivals. ActivTrades also features comparatively low CFD trading fees. Its equity CFDs carry the following minimum commissions:

• US equity CFDs – $1 or $0.02 per share. 

• UK CFDs – £1 or 0.1%.

• European shares – €1 or 0.01%. 

The company charges swap fees on leveraged overnight positions. As is fairly standard, the broker does not charge any commission on FOREX trading. With fully automated trading on a no-human-intervention NDD basis, there are no midway costs to account for between placing the trade and execution. This is how the broker strives to keep its FOREX rates competitive. 

As a sign of its pricing confidence, ActivTrades is keen to compare itself against competitor brokers and will happily list its fees against those of its closest rivals on its Website.  

The broker’s non-trading fees are also well placed in the market. It levies third-party charges for deposits and withdrawals as mentioned, but these are not onerous. The company does charge an inactivity fee of £10 per month on accounts that have been dormant for over 1 year, which is common practice in the industry.

Leverage

Maximum leverage is mandated by the regulators in each region, but traders can control their leverage levels within those parameters. Trading on the margin can increase earnings dramatically, but it can also magnify losses. However, with negative balance protection, traders cannot lose more than the funds in their accounts.  

The broker has the room to decide margin rates and maximum leverage for professional traders. As normal, professional traders do not get investor fund protection. ActivTrades offers high leverage with currency trading. Each customer’s permitted leverage depends on the equity in their account. Here are the guidelines based on account equity:

• Less than €25,000 – 1:400.

• €25,001 to €50,000 – 1:200. 

• €50,001 and above – 1:100.

Platforms and Tools

ActivTrader

• Progressive trailing stop risk mitigator.
• Trailing stop risk mitigator.
• Hedging strategy assistant.
• Market sentiment monitor.
• Real-time clickable charts.

MT4

• Strategy-testing capability.
• Price alerts and trailing stops.
• 21 language options.
• Historic data and multiple timeframes.
• 50 pre-installed technical indicators.
• Nine timeframes.

MT5

• Breaking news headlines.
• Easy one-click trading.
• 21 timeframes and eight order types.
• Integrated trading statements.
• Historic data center and advanced strategy testing.

Mobile Trading

Research and Development

Education

Final Thoughts

Conclusion

ActivTrades in Brief

Review Methodology

The team at Arincen collected over 120 pieces of data covering in excess of 100 licensed FOREX companies. Data collection was done in three ways:
Companies’ Websites.

1. Other Websites that have ranked FOREX companies.

2. A survey questionnaire (referred to here as Survey “1”) we had sent to the companies invited to participate in the exercise. 

We have identified 12 criteria for our assessment, each containing several aspects and carrying its own relative weight. These include licensing, deposits and withdrawals, number of assets etc.  

Afterward we validated the data by:

1. Registering with FOREX companies as a secret shopper and/or as Arincen.

2. Survey number “2,” in which we asked these companies’ customers for important feedback and past experience. 

The next step saw us evaluate and rank each company, relying on the hard work of 15 Arincen employees. We were very careful in ensuring the most accurate assessment possible, including taking into account different languages, as well as the various mobile-app operating systems, e.g., Apple, Samsung etc.

To add credibility to our research project, we sent a final and third survey (referred to here as Survey “3”) to enable participating FOREX companies evaluate our own research and whether it accurately reflects the realities on the ground. We were fortunate enough to receive a mark of 9.9 out of 10! We have kept to a minimum the margin of error, which stood at a measly 1%. To learn more on how we came up with the evaluation, please click here.