FXOpen Review – one of the oldest brokers

FXOpen is a 16-year-old Forex broker with more than a million active clients from over 96 countries globally. The broker is constantly developing within various financial markets and currently provides more than 100 financial trading instruments to its traders. FXOpen Forex broker employs over five hundred professionals worldwide. The company offers four different live trading accounts, four trading platforms with various modifications and simplifications, and a number of trading tools. In addition to the competitive trading conditions of the broker, FXOpen clients can participate in different trading contests or enjoy the Forex cashback and other promotional campaigns that the broker runs.

Furthermore, FXOpen supports over 20 different payment methods both for deposits and withdrawals. According to the account types, clients can choose from multiple currencies available to set as their base account currency. The commission fees at FXOpen are relatively low and some of the promotions also offer discounts to the fees. The trading conditions such as spreads leverages, and margin levels are very flexible for traders. However, the tightest spreads come with commissionable accounts. Additionally, the broker holds licenses from the recognized regulatory authorities. The regulations include recognition from Australian and British regulatory bodies. Our review on FXOpen Forex broker will focus on the major features of the brokerage firm.

History of FXOpen

FXOpen initially started as an educational center for technical analysis in 2003. The first home of the broker was in Egypt. Later in 2015 FXOpen launched the brokerage service company which nowadays operates in various regions with numerous branches. The broker was actually the first on the market to offer Micro and swap-free Sharia-compliant accounts in 2006. Furthermore, the broker was one of the first brokerage firms to provide high-quality competitions. In 2011, the company launched Forex traders’ competitions at ForexCup. In cooperation with ForexCup, FXOpen organized regional championships in Forex trading: Asia Championship, Russia Championship, and China Championship.

Is FXOpen reliable?

After four years of successful operations, the Forex broker receives awards as the Best Forex Broker 2009 and the Best Middle East and Asia Broker 2009. In the same period, the FXOpen launched PAMM technology and ECN MetaTrader 4 trading platform. Over the next few years, the broker accumulated various awards and entered the Top 100 Companies listed by the World Finance Magazine. Nonetheless, FXOpen is a three-time award winner of IB Times Trading Awards as the Best Islamic Forex Broker of 2011, Best South-East Asia Forex Broker, and the Best ECN Forex Broker.

Is FXOpen legit?

FXOpen Group of Companies claimed its first official regulation in 2012. FXOpen AU Pty Ltd, a branch of the company based in Perth got a license from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The license number is AFSL 412871. Later, the company acquired another recognition within the British jurisdiction. The London-based company FXOpen UK received the license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2013. The license can be looked up within the registry by FCA no. 579202. Furthermore, the two other branches are registered in Auckland, New Zealand, and Nevis. The registration number in Auckland is 5598865 and in Nevis C42235. 

What can you trade with FXOpen?

The brokerage firm portfolio of the financial trading assets includes over a hundred trading products within the range of financial markets. The Forex currency pairs or stock trading is not a surprise for anyone now. However, cryptocurrencies within the Forex industry are indeed an innovative approach. The traders with FXOpen can exchange Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero, EOS, NEO, and Bitcoin Cash in the Forex market.

Apart from more than fifty currency pairs available for Forex traders, the brokerage company further offers a diversification of the trading portfolio. Traders can access Contracts for Differences on multiple financial assets including shares, stock indices, commodities, metals, and cryptocurrencies. For the maximum flexibility of the trading conditions, the clients should choose from specially designated accounts. These accounts support various trading styles and are preferable for specific trading asset choices. For instance, for trading with cryptocurrencies there is a special Crypto account and an ECN account offers access to all sorts of assets to its users.

FXOpen accounts

Micro Account

The micro account is the most budget-friendly account for traders. Hence, we recommend Micro account for beginner traders, low-risk traders, or professional traders who are testing new trading styles or strategies. The initial minimum deposit for the Micro account is 1 USD which is the lowest deposit requirement on the market. The micro account offers 28 currency pairs along with gold and silver within its trading instruments portfolio. The leverage on these products can go maximum up to 1:500. Furthermore, the spreads are floating and margin call / stop out are 20% and 10% respectively. Also, Micro Account holders are allowed to use any trading strategy including scalping, hedging, and Expert Advisors, except for news trading. The account also qualifies for promotions and bonuses. There are no commission fees applicable.

STP Account

STP Account is a great option for low-cost trading along with the wide selection of tradable financial instruments. There is no commission fee since it is included in the spread for the account. STP stands for “Straight Through Processing” execution and each order is executed on the real market. The leverage for the STP account can go up to 1:500. However, this leverage does not apply to accounts over 25,000 USD. In addition to these benefits, traders are free to choose any trading strategy without further limitations. The minimum deposit requirement in order to set up an STP Account starts at 10 USD. Moreover, traders can access 50 currency pairs plus gold and silver within the trading assets portfolio. The margin call and stop out are 50% and 30% respectively.

Crypto Account

Crypto enthusiasts can go for the Crypto account of the FXOpen broker. This account allows trading Contracts for Differences or CFDs on multiple crypto assets. There are over 43 cryptocurrency instruments available within the product portfolio including 43 pairs with BTC, BCH, EOS, Ripple, Monero, LTC, and other popular choices. Nevertheless, the leverage on crypto products is highly competitive on the market – up to 1:3. However, the commission fees are applicable in the amount of 0.5% half-turn. The spreads are floating and again, there are no limitations to which trading strategy clients can implement. On the other hand, Crypto accounts do not qualify for the bonus programs. The minimum deposit requirement starts at 10 US dollars.

ECN Account

ECN account is the most popular choice of traders. The reason behind it is the multi-asset trading opportunity along with the unique trading platform TickTrader exclusively offered for ECN traders. This account has the seamless execution speed of the orders and provides the best prices thanks to the advanced price aggregating technology. The real market spreads for ECN accounts start from 0 pips. Furthermore, the account comes at an affordable deposit amount. The initial minimum deposit required to set up an ECN account is 100 US dollars. The commission fees are applicable starting from 1.5 US dollars per standard lot. Furthermore, there are two ECN account types on the TickTrader platform – Gross and Net which are further compatible with different trading strategies. ECN trading instruments portfolio includes more than 50 Forex Spot CFDs, more than 35 cryptocurrency CFDs, 600 plus Shares CFDs, Index CFDs, Spot Metals CFDs, and Commodities CFDs.

Trading Platforms and Tools

One of the advantages of FXOpen that we should necessarily mention in our FXOpen broker review is the multiplicity of options when it comes to choosing the trading platform. The broker provides both the traditional and innovative approaches to the trading terminals and software. Traders can find MetaTrader 4 and 5 which are the most common and most trusted platforms for trading any asset, as well as some industry-leading innovations such as TickTrader or automated trading tools.

Terminals and Software

MetaTraders are the most accepted and recognized platforms across the markets. Famously, MetaTrader 4 is recommended for Forex traders, whereas for any other financial market trading MetaTrader 5 is the platform of choice. Both of them require downloading and installation which might not be too comfortable for traders. This is why WebTrader is a solution that some of the best Forex brokers provide lately. The WebTraders are equipped with all the necessary features that the original software offers making it accessible simply from the browsers of any device.

TickTrader is a unique trading platform that is exclusively operating with the ECN account. TickTrader employs the ground-breaking technology that is compatible with almost every device out there. For instance, traders can either use TickTrader Dekstop Terminal, install the special type of TickTrader Mobile Terminal, which is available on both IOS and Andriod devices, or directly trade from the browser through TickTrader Web Terminal. The platform comes with a customizable and user-friendly interface and one-click trading mode. Furthermore, it provides advanced technical analysis tools and market depth with up to 2000 levels. Traders can also enjoy the trading alert system, detailed charting system, and a strategy back tester to evaluate the new strategies.

Automated Trading

Automated trading robots are becoming increasingly popular among the novices in the Forex industry, as well as the advanced traders who are testing new strategies or trading styles. These trading bots are also called algorithmic trading tools and follow simple logic. Traders specify the conditions and trading assets within the program or code the program themselves. They also set a price at which the program should start selling the asset. At this moment, most of the automated trading tools operate within Forex or cryptocurrency markets.

FXOpen supports two AutoTraders that are Myfxbook AutoTrade and ZuluTrade. Myfxbook provides the best performing strategies for the traders to choose from. The clients have an access to the top signal providers with their performance descriptions displayed in the detailed charts. However, not every customer of the broker can use Myfxbook. The eligibility criteria state that traders should have recorded 3 months of profitable performance on the live trading accounts or have deposited more than 1000 USD. ZuluTrade, on the other hand, is using signals from professional Forex traders and manages the trades of customers accordingly. The clients simply should choose the provider’s trading strategy and the trades will be opened and closed in their MetaTrader accounts automatically.

FXOpen Bonus Programs

FXOpen broker runs several promotional campaigns. These campaigns vary according to the terms and conditions, the structure of the reward system, and the benefits for the traders. Overall, there are three types of promotional programs of FXOpen which are bonuses, trading contests, and Forex cashback.

Bonuses

There are separate bonuses available for each real trading account type of FXOpen. Claiming the bonus is relatively easy for all traders. The clients should register an FXOpen eWallet and open a real trading account. Depending on the account type, traders are eligible to receive following bonus rewards:

• a 10 USD Deposit Bonus for ECN TT GROSS accounts – for ECN Gross TickTrader account
• 10 USD Deposit Bonus for ECN TT NET accounts – for ECN NET TickTrader account
• 10 USD No Deposit Bonus for STP accounts – for STP accounts
• 1 USD No Deposit Bonus for Micro accounts – for Micro accounts

Trading Contests

FXOpen supports one of the biggest series of trading contests ForexCup. ForexCup runs for 10 years now and has accomplished over 220 tournaments and trading contests. Currently, it offers demo account contests, regional championships, and contests for Virtuosos of Scalping, as well as forum competitions with real money prizes of up to 5,000 USD.  The competitions are held on a monthly and weekly basis. Furthermore, the bonuses awarded to the clients are fully withdrawable at any point.