easyMarkets Review

Category: Reviews | Author: Trading Brokers | Date: November 17, 2022

Since 2001, easyMarkets has been offering traders around the world innovative features, versatile trading platforms and over 200+ global markets. They are an award winning and established broker that is under strict regulation from multiple regulators. This means that you can trade in a secure environment and get access to very competitive trading conditions. The broker is primarily focused on providing you with fixed spread trading without any commission fees. They one of the few brokers that have fixed spread accounts. I think they have a reasonable range of trading instruments and you will also find some innovative trading tools to assist with your market analysis. Beginners can browse through a decent selection of educational content, including guides and videos. You can choose from 2 account types and convenient funding options. The minimum deposit of $100 is not the lowest I have come across but free demo accounts are available if you want to test the broker out before making a commitment.

Pros & Cons

  • Intuitive MetaTrader 4 platforms
  • Modern and versatile easyMarkets App
  • Good range of account funding options
  • Innovative and powerful trading tools
  • Fixed spread accounts
  • Commission free accounts
  • Free demo accounts
  • Clients from some countries are not accepted
  • Could add more non-FX instruments
  • No variable spread accounts
  • Restrictions on trading strategies
  • No managed accounts
  • Market maker
  • Inactivity fees

Summary

easyMarkets is a regulated online trading broker offering traders of all levels access to trade over 200+ trading instruments in global markets including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies, Options, Bonds, CFDs and ETFs. They are one of the longest serving and largest brokers with many years of expertise and hundreds of thousands of clients in 160+ countries worldwide.

Since they were founded in 2001 and rebranded in 2016 from easy-forex to easyMarkets, their philosophy has been to provide easy, transparent, accessible and friendly trading services to all traders. They were amongst the first to offer online trading and have a powerful user-friendly web and mobile platform that is easy enough to use for novice traders yet powerful enough for the more experienced traders amongst you.

Trading Conditions

The broker gives you full access to a range of innovative products, tools and services. These unique tools include free guaranteed stop loss, insideViewer, Freeze Rate and dealCancellation. I haven’t seen these tools provided by other brokers which helps them to stand out from the crowd. However, AvaTrade do have some similar tools available for trade management and balance protection.

easyMarkets are proud to be a market maker because it enables them to keep offering fixed spreads whatever the market volatility is. They claim to not disable trading and conditions always remain the same, unfortunately this wasn’t my experience as you will see below. Costs can be calculated prior to taking a trade due to the fixed spreads and no slippage on their web platform.

Whilst they are one of a limited choice of fixed spread brokers, I did notice that they have strict terms and conditions that you need to follow. I feel this could restrict some trading strategies and does mean that you might not always get access to the fixed spreads on offer. For example, if you are scalping forex during hours of low volatility (such as when the USA trading session closes and Asian session opens), the fixed spread would generally be lower than the actual market spread. What this means is that the broker could be making a loss if you are successfully scalping with artificially low fixed spreads.

I tried to use a scalping system on a demo account and everything worked as expected. When the system went well, I decided to try it on a live account. Again, it went well but after a few days trading was deactivated on my account for apparently being in breach of the terms. They mentioned that I could not take advantage of scalping fixed spreads at certain hours. Therefore, I would suggest carefully reading them through before starting. If your strategy does require the lowest spread and commission fees at all time, IC Markets would be one of my top choices as they have ECN execution and raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips.

AvaTrade Logo

Our #1 Broker 2023

AvaTrade is an award-winning and multi-regulated broker offering a great selection of trading instruments including Forex, Cryptos, Stocks and Commodities. You can trade on all of your devices via user-friendly platforms with excellent trading conditions and no commission fees.

Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Regulation

easyMarkets are regulated in Europe by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and in the Asian Pacific Region by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). They were amongst the first firms to be registered and licensed by these authorities. The broker later acquired an FSA Seychelles and British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (BVIFSC) license to cover global clients.

They are also fully compliant with all European Securities and Markets Authority regulations (ESMA). ESMA is an independent EU Authority that contributes to safeguarding the stability of the European Union’s financial system by enhancing the protection of investors and promoting stable and orderly financial markets.

Funds

Client funds are held in segregated top tier global bank accounts away from the company funds so that they cannot be used for any other purpose. These funds are only accessible to clients and readily available as and when they need them. All trading accounts have negative balance protection that guarantees a client cannot lose more than their initial investment.

Company accounts are regularly audited. In addition to independent auditing, they also have risk managements in place to regularly identify, assess, monitor and control each type of risk associated with its operations.

As part of their continued commitment to clients, easyMarkets strives to remain a transparent, trusted and regulated online broker. They maintain sufficient liquid capital to cover all client deposits, any potential fluctuations in the company’s currency positions and other expenses. Having these regulations and policies in place, helps to ensure clients that funds and transactions are secured and protected.

Countries

easyMarkets do not provide services for residents of certain regions, such as the United States of America, Israel, Iran, North Korea, Iraq and some other countries. If your country is not accepted, you can find an alternative option on our broker ratings.

Platforms

easyMarkets provides you with multiple trading platforms to choose from, which are versatile and fully customisable to suit your individual needs and trading style. I found the platforms to be very user-friendly, with modern and simplistic interfaces that made it quick and easy to perform all my trading activity with minimal fuss.

easyMarkets Platforms

easyMarkets Platforms

easyMarkets App

The easyMarkets App puts the global markets at your fingertips with its intuitive design giving you access to all trading and information from the same user-friendly interface. You can access live real time prices and market news directly from within the app. Features include integrated tools for conducting analysis, dealCancellation, Freeze Rate and Free Guaranteed Stop Loss and Take Profit. Available on iOS or Android devices, it gives you all of the same features as the easyMarkets web platform with access to markets everywhere in the world that you have an internet connection. I am a huge fan of trading apps as they give me the freedom to manage my account and follow the markets from anywhere at any time.

easyMarkets Trading App

easyMarkets Trading App

The easyMarkets trading app offers a variety of different ways to trade according to your trading strategy and goals. I like that it can be customised in a way that works best for each user, rather than being limited to one specific layout.

easyTrade

easyTrade is an innovative product created by easyMarkets that allows you to easily place trades with zero spreads and no margin requirements, based on some pre-set parameters that you enter into the simple interface. You can set the maximum risk that you are comfortable with before trading, how long the trade will last with an expiry time (or close it manually before this) and what direction you with to trade.

easyTrade

easyTrade

Day Trading

You can choose from over 150+ markets with the simple day trading tickets. Features include the ability to cancel a losing trade within an hour for a small fee using dealCancellation. The FreezeRate feature allows you to freeze prices to place your trade at the price that you want.

Day Trading

Day Trading

Pending Order

The pending order trading gives you more flexibility and control with the ability to set the rate and date at which you would like your positions to be opened. Freeze Rate can also pause the market at the prices that you want.

Pending Orders

Pending Orders

Vanilla Options

You can trade Vanilla Options with easyMarkets. These are a popular financial product often used by institutional traders to hedge against volatility but can also be used for long term trading.

Vanilla Options

Vanilla Options

easyMarkets Web Platform

The easyMarkets web platform is accessible directly through your browser. This is advantageous as it requires no software to be installed and ensures you will always be running the latest version. You just need a web enabled device and internet connection. It is full of useful analytical trading tools and customisable features. I found it also has a very user-friendly interface that is simple to navigate and quick to learn. Over 200+ instruments are available on the web platform with features including dealCancellation, Freeze Rate, Free Guaranteed Stop Loss and Take Profit, no slippage, fixed spreads and no funding or withdrawal fees.

easyMarkets Web Platform

easyMarkets Web Platform

easyMarkets MT4

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is one of the most popular trading platforms in the world. MT4 is well known for its easy to use interface and quick learning curve. It was developed by trading software company MetaQuotes, is available in multiple languages and free to download.

MT4 has a wide range of built-in technical indicators for analysing charts on multiple timeframes. You can load pre-set trading strategy templates or create your own and save them for future use.

There is a built-in MetaEditor where you can programme your own custom indicators and automated trading systems known as expert advisors (EAs). There is also a large online MQL4 community where traders share ideas and trading tools.

MT4 supports multiple order types including market execution and pending orders. You can enable one-click trading for more efficiently entering positions at the prices that you want.

In addition to the many features MT4 already has, easyMarkets offer good trading conditions, fixed spreads for price transparency, negative balance protection, free guaranteed stop loss and take profit, trading central news and analysis. There are 80+ markets to choose from including forex currencies, precious metals, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies.

MT4 is available on desktop (Windows / Mac), web and mobile (iPhone / iPad / Android / Tablet).

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

This is my platform of choice as it was one of the first trading platforms that I mastered. I like that it is available through the majority of online brokers. On the contrary, if you learn how to use a proprietary platform, you would need to start from scratch if you were to change brokers. I use MT4 for both manual and automated trading with expert advisors. I have never felt the need to upgrade to MT5 as it can do everything that I need it to and more. I haven’t even touched the surface when you consider the huge range of trading tools you can add to the platform that have been developed by other traders. Therefore, I feel it should be more than an adequate platform for most retail traders.

Tools

dealCancellation

The dealCancellation feature gives you the ability to undo a trade within one hour for a small fee. This is useful if you have made a mistake and want to reclaim trade losses. This feature can be switched on or off.

dealCancellation

dealCancellation

Inside Viewer

The inside viewer is a sentiment tool that will show what percentage of other easyMarkets are buying or selling a particular trading instrument. Sentiment analysis is often used as part of a contrarian trading strategy.

Inside Viewer

Inside Viewer

Freeze Rate

The freeze rate feature lets you pause the market at a specific price rate and place your trade at this frozen rate.

Freeze Rate

Freeze Rate

Notifications

You can set your account and platform to send you up to date notifications to keep you informed about the latest market and account activity.

Notifications

Notifications

Market Explorer

You can monitor the rates, percentage change and high/lows of multiple markets. These can then be loaded into your trading ticket with just one click.

Market Explorer

Market Explorer

Live Rate Graphs

The charts display current and historical market movements. They can be used to spot potential trading opportunities by looking for price action patterns and using technical indicator analysis.

Live Graph Rates

Live Graph Rates

Financial Calendar

easyMarkets have an integrated financial calendar within the platform so that you can easily keep up to date with the latest financial releases.

Financial Calendar

Financial Calendar

Market News

You can get the latest market news releases directly into your platform to stay up to date with the latest happenings across different markets. News releases are often used as part of a fundamental analysis.

Education

You can increase your trading knowledge using the various articles, videos and eBooks that easyMarkets provide. They are free to anyone who opens an account and cover a range of topics suitable for beginner and experienced traders. Topics include trading strategies, trading psychology, technical analysis, risk management and an introduction to trading. There is also an FAQ and trading glossary. I found the educational content to be basic although the content related to the brokers unique tools was very helpful. If you are looking for more, then IronFX have plenty for you to get your teeth stuck into.

Education

Education

Markets

The broker gives you multiple ways to trade on multiple markets including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies, Options, Bonds, CFDs & ETFs. I found the range of financial instruments to be reasonable, especially in terms of currency pairs. It is great that they offer cryptos as these are becoming more and more popular for trading nowadays. However, with a total of just 200+ instruments, they are far off the likes of IG who have over 17,000 tradeable assets in comparison.

Forex

Forex trading is a massive global market with over $5.3 trillion in currency exchanged every day. The currency market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, with 3 main trading sessions around the world. These are the New York, London and Tokyo sessions. There is a great selection of over 95 major, minor and exotic currency pairs to choose from, including popular pairs such as the EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDCHF & USDJPY.

Indices

You can trade 14 CFD global indices such as the S&P 500, FTSE, NIKKEI, DAX, NASDAQ. Indices offer a mixed portfolio of top company stocks (Amazon, Nike, Honda, Sony, Olympus, BMW, Adidas, Airbus, etc) and are therefore considered a diversified product. They are separated into specific economies and can be impacted by interest rates, jobs data and strength of currencies.

Metals

They support CFD metal trading so you can trade precious metals such as gold and silver without actually needing to own the physical product. Precious metals are often considered safe heavens and used to hedge.

Commodities

The broker gives you access to trade both energy (hard/mined products) and agricultural (soft/grown products) CFD commodities. Commodities available to trade include oil, gas, wheat, coffee and sugar. Commodity trading is a popular way to diversify a portfolio and is primarily driven by supply and demand.

Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies are online digital currencies based on blockchain technology and complex mathematical algorithms for security. Cryptos are considered by many as the next evolution in currency. I found a good selection of cryptos to trade including Bitcoin and Ethereum. I like that we can trade cryptos with no exchange account or digital wallet necessary.

Accounts

There are 2 main account types, the VIP account for the easyMarkets web/app platforms or the VIP account for MT4. The account you opt for will most likely depend on what platform you wish to use. The main difference other than the platform used is that the VIP account for web/app has lower trading costs overall due to the tighter spreads and no slippage.

VIP Account Web/App

This account will allow you to use easyMarkets very own web and mobile app platforms which include extra unique features such as dealCancellation, Freeze Rate and Inside Viewer.

This account requires a minimum deposit of $100. The minimum position size on this account is 0.05 lots with fixed spreads on the EURUSD starting from just 1 pip, no commission charged and no slippage. Flexible leverage of up to 1:400 is available although EU clients have leverage capped at 1:30 due to MiFID regulations. There are no account fees or charges for deposits and withdrawals. These accounts have negative balance protection and guaranteed stop losses.

VIP Account MT4

This account will allow you to use the easyMarkets MT4 platform and requires a minimum deposit of $100. The minimum position size on this account is 0.01 lots with fixed spreads on the EURUSD starting from 1.8 pips and no commission charged. Flexible leverage of up to 1:400 is available although EU clients have leverage capped at 1:30 due to MiFID regulations. There are no account fees or charges for deposits and withdrawals. These accounts have negative balance protection and guaranteed stop losses.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are available if you wish to test the different trading platforms and conditions before opening a real account. I would always try a broker on demo at first to see what they have to offer. Just keep in mind that demo trading conditions can differ from a live trading account. I experienced this when I tried to switch my scalping strategy from the demo to live account. They didn’t have a problem with me trading the strategy on demo but prevented me from using the same strategy on a real account. If you are not scalping this might not be an issue but I probably wouldn’t have made the effort to open a live account had I known this would happen beforehand.

Account Signup

Signing up for an account is simple process. You just need to complete the form on the website and then verify your email. Following on from that you can choose your account type and submit documents to verify your identification (e.g. passport) and address (e.g. utility bill). Once approved by the easyMarkets account team you will be able to fund your account and start trading.

Support

The broker welcomes all queries and are happy to assist you in a prompt and efficient manner through their award-winning support team. They can be contacted at one of their local offices or headquarters via email and telephone. There are also online chat options including Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp. Supported languages include English, Chinese, Polish, Arabic. I appreciate how they provide online chat support as I find this is often the quickest way to get answers to my questions.

Funding

This is another area in which they really excel from my point of view. You can choose from a wide selection of deposit and withdrawal methods without any fees. The method you choose may depend on how long it takes to process. If you want something quick then you may consider an online payment processor such as Skrill or Neteller. I like the digital wallet options as this means I can get quick access to my funds which is important if I need to act quickly on a market move. Just be wary that some methods may only be available to specific countries.

There is an excellent range of base currencies accepted. Your accounts can be opened in USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, ILS, CNY, NZD, NOK, CHF, JPY, PLN, SGD, ZAR. The different currency options are beneficial as currency conversion fees do not apply when using an account in your own currency. Some fees may be charged when using certain payment methods. Bank transfers may take a few business days to clear whilst some methods such as card payments can be instant.

Conclusion

Overall, I am impressed with many aspects of easyMarkets. The standout features from my perspective are the user-friendly platforms, innovative trade management features, range of markets available to trade and account funding options. I like how they have been around for a long time and established themselves as an innovative broker with unique features not available elsewhere. The platforms and tools are very flexible to suit all styles of trader whilst there is a decent choice of trading instruments across multiple markets. They have won multiple awards and are under strict regulation which can help to give clients peace of mind they are using a broker that can be trusted. That being said, I wasn’t able to use my scalping strategy on a live account so I couldn’t take advantage of the fixed spreads that were being promoted.

easyMarkets Logo

$100

Since 2001, easyMarkets has been offering traders around the world innovative features, flexible trading platforms and over 200+ global markets. They are an award winning and established broker with competitive trading conditions for all traders.

Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.


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