Eightcap Review

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Eightcap is a regulated broker providing you with online trading on a reasonable choice of over 200 CFD instruments including forex, stocks, cryptos and commodities. The broker lets you trade on the ever popular, powerful and user-friendly MetaTrader (MT4/MT5) trading platforms. You can choose from the desktop platform, web trader and mobile app. They also integrate the excellent TradingView charting platform and social trading platform. I found the trading conditions to be very good, including low fees and tight spreads along with excellent customer support. If you are a beginner, you will find a generous range of educational content and can even open a free demo account to practice your trading strategy. There are professional managed accounts solutions for investors and money managers alike. I was impressed with the market analysis they provide to assist with making informed trade decisions. The minimum deposit of $100 isn’t the lowest, but you can choose to make deposits and withdrawals with a variety of convenient funding options. To top it all off, there is flexible account leverage of up to 1:500 available.

Summary

Established in Melbourne, Australia in 2009, Eightcap was launched with a mission to provide exceptional financial services to a global clientele. The broker gives you access for the online trading of forex currency pairs, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies. You can access the markers via web, desktop and mobile apps, using the MetaTrader & TradingView platforms in a modern and secure trading environment. I like that the brokers website is available in multiple languages, showing that they support an international clientele.

Trading Conditions

The broker has its trading servers located at Equinix data centres which are very popular, evident by the fact that many leading financial institutions host their servers in these facilities. Pricing is aggregated from top-tier liquidity providers. This means that they are able to offer you raw spreads starting from as low as 0.0 pips and there is no dealing desk. This helps to ensure your trades get sent directly through to the markets with rapid trade execution speeds at the best available prices. I would always prefer to use a non-dealing desk broker as it avoids any conflict of interest. On the contrary, when you trade with a market maker, they take the opposite side of your position. IC Markets are a comparable broker in terms of liquidity, execution and spreads.

It is great that they welcome all traders, regardless of your trading style. Unlike some other brokers, there are no restrictions placed on your strategies. They allow scalping, hedging and the use of expert advisors (EAs) which automates forex/CFD trading. Thus, I feel they can be a great choice for those of you who are scalping or running robots and need tight spreads with reliable execution speeds.

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Regulation

I really like the fact that they are regulated. I would always prefer to use a regulated broker as there will be some protection in place should something go wrong. It also gives me the confidence that they will operate in an honest and transparent manner. This is great as it means that I can focus on my trading without worrying about the safety of my funds. I appreciate that unregulated brokers are able to offer additional products and services such as higher leverage, however peace of mind is of paramount importance for me. If you are the same, Plus500 is one of the most well-regulated brokerages I have ever come across.

Eightcap is the trading brand of Eightcap Pty Ltd which is registered in Australia with the number: ABN 73 139 495 944. Eightcap is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and holds an Australian Financial Services License number 391441. Eightcap Global Ltd (Vanuatu) regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) with company registration no. 40377.

Funds

Your funds are held in the top-rated banks and carefully segregated from the broker’s own funds. These funds are kept in the ‘National Australia Bank’ which is an AA rated bank with more than 30 years of operations, over 1,590 branches and a client base of about 12.7 million. To ensure compliance, all records are audited by external auditors. You can even verify these yourself which is good for doing your own due diligence.

The broker has also purchased an insurance cover in order to further protect itself and its clients from the risks associated with the brokerage business. I really appreciate this and believe that it is another feature that helps them stand-out from the competition. Admirals also have some insurance in place for eligible clients.

Security

The broker’s websites and servers are protected by a 128-bit Secured Socket Layer (SSL). This technology encrypts all of your information before it is transmitted over the internet. This gives further protection to clients as it provides extra security and reliability to the network.

Countries

Currently, Eightcap does not process applications from clients resident in the following countries: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Canada (British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario), Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Gaza Strip, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, the Central African Republic, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Venezuela, the United States of America, West Bank, Yemen and Zimbabwe. If your country is not accepted, please take a look at our broker reviews for alternative options.

Platforms

MetaTrader

Eightcap provides the industry standard MetaTrader platforms for you to get convenient access to the range of available markets. All the versions of the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platforms are available, which are the desktop, web and mobile trading apps. Both MetaTrader platforms were developed by ‘MetaQuotes Software Corporation’ which is a trading software company based in Cyprus. MT4 was released in 2005 while MT5 was released in 2010. Today, MetaTrader has remained amongst the best trading platforms used all over the world by many online brokers, traders and investors.

MT4 & MT5

The platform is user-friendly enough for beginner traders whilst having enough advanced functionality to satisfy the needs of the most demanding traders. I think it can provide a suitable solution for retail and institutional traders. I have used MT4 myself for many years and have never had any problems with it. I like that it is excellent for automated trading, allowing me to code, test and run my expert advisors (EAs). I also like that it is widely available as I can try many brokers without needing to learn a new platform each and every time.

The broker provides the following MetaTrader platform versions:

• MT4 Desktop application for Windows
• MT4 for MAC OS
• MT4 Mobile Android app
• MT4 Mobile iOS app
• MT5 WebTrader
• MT5 Desktop Application for Windows
• MT5 for MAC OS
• MT5 Mobile Android app
• MT5 Mobile iOS app

WebTrader

The WebTrader runs directly in your web browser and can be accessed from the brokers website. It can be used in most modern web browsers across multiple devices and operating systems, without needing to download or install any additional software. This platform is great if you need to access your account from different devices. It is always up to date and has a modern interface making it a breeze to perform all of your day trading activities. There are some limitations, such as it does not support automated trading. If you want to run EA’s, you will need the desktop version of the platform.

MetaTrader Web Platform

Trading App

The mobile versions of both MT4 and MT5 look very similar with intuitive interfaces making them user-friendly. You can use either of them to monitor the markets, place and modify trades and to conduct in-depth technical analysis across all markets. They are freely downloadable from the relevant app stores for iOS and Android devices. The mobile trading apps are useful for those of you who need to access your account and trade the markets whilst on the go. I often find myself checking the app to see how my trades are performing and to follow the latest market news.

MetaTrader App

Desktop Platform

The desktop versions of MT4 and MT5 also look very much alike. The major difference is that the MT5 platform was designed to improve on the existing features of MT4. Both platforms will show you the live instruments’ quotes, support ultra-swift trade executions, detailed charting and analysis. Both support the use of expert advisors (EAs) to automate trading and also give access to the MetaTrader markets.

MetaTrader Desktop Platform

MT4 vs MT5

I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these platforms if you want a clean interface and for analysing the markets, placing and managing trades. I still prefer MT4, probably because it was the first platform that I mastered and I haven’t really felt the need to switch over to MT5. I have also developed and use many automated systems for MT4, which are not cross compatible with MT5. This is because MT4 uses the MQL4 coding language whereas MT5 uses the MQL5 language. I think MT4 would be sufficient if you are mainly planning to trade forex. If you want to trade stocks, then you might edge towards MT5 due to its increased functionality and support for stock trading.

Here are some of the key differences you will find between the platforms:

• MT4 has 4 pending order types while the MT5 has 6.
• MT4 comes preloaded with 30 technical indicators but the MT5 comes with 38.
• The analytical tools built into MT4 are 24 whilst MT5 has 44.
• In MT4, charts can be displayed in 9 timeframes whilst MT5 has 21 timeframes.
• MT5 has an embedded economic calendar which is absent in MT4.

TradingView

The broker implements the excellent TradingView platform and social network for traders and investors, allowing you to trade directly from TradingView’s charts into you Eightcap trading account. I think that this integration provides you with a wide range of trading tools to make better-informed trading decisions and helps to show that they are constantly working on building the ideal place for traders. That being said, there are some other brokers who also provide the TradingView platform, including City Index.

TradingView attracts over 30 million monthly users globally and has even been rated as the number one website for investing. The platform makes it quick and easy for you to identify and analyse trading patterns using fully customisable charts and price alerts. You can discover hundreds of potential trade ideas daily from TradingView’s community of global traders. As someone who uses automated systems, I like how this integration enables me to test and automate my trading strategies with TradingView’s very own Pine Script programming language.

You are able to access a good choice of 12 chart types, including Renko and Point and Figure, rewind the markets and watch the price action unfold and create custom formulas and timeframes. Furthermore, the TradingView platform comes with over 100 pre-built indicators, over 100,000 community-built indicators, 50 drawing tools, and more.

TradingView

Tools

There are a few additional tools provided to help you with your trading. That being said, the provided platforms are packed with an abundance of built-in tools that should be more than enough for most of you. Not to mention, you can get thousands of add-ons to further improve the platform capabilities. I do think the broker could benefit from adding Autochartist or Trading Central. Both of these are excellent tools for conducting automated market analysis. If you think they could benefit your trading, you will find both available with GO Markets.

MAM

Eightcap provides a multi account management (MAM) software that is robust and scalable to meet the needs of all clients. The software works with the MT4 or MT5 trading platforms. It is fully customizable to meet the need of all types of managers. The MAM software solution is fast and runs on the server. The account managers can trade multiple accounts at the same time with just one click. They can also use several trading strategies including the deployment of expert advisors (EAs). Each individual client account can be customised according to commission, leverage, performance fees, account currency, etc. I think this is an excellent MAM solution, something similar to what another top broker in Axi provide.

Multi Account Management (MAM)

Market News & Analysis

This section of the brokers website looks at economic events, market news and updates as well as analysts’ comments and predictions. This is prepared by Eightcap’s analysts in three subsections which include market updates, forex news and CFD news. There is a good range of analysis that I found helpful to keep up to date with what is happening around the markets. This can be a useful addition to your fundamental and technical analysis.

Economic Calendar

This is another important tool used for fundamental analysis. The calendar shows you the dates and times of global economic events and their predicted impacts on currencies. The economic calendar is part of the tools that are implemented within the MT5 trading platform. I would have liked to have seen it included in MT4, but you can always install it as an add-on.

Capitalise

When you open a live trading account, you receive free access to Capitalise. This offers a way to automated your trading strategies without needing to do any complex coding. Instead, you can use plain English to give instructions on how you want Capitalise.ai to handle your daily trades using multiplex automated systems. You can get the best of both worlds with human-planned and machine-traded strategies. I think this is a great tool for those of you who want to trade automated systems but do not have any programming knowledge.

Capitalise AI

Some of the key Capitalise features include:

• Customised trading systems: Capitalise.ai scans the markets and executes trades based on data, tech indicators, and macroeconomics in real-time, all the time (24/7).
• More efficient buying power: Open all the strategies you can imagine – only the triggered ones will use your buying power.
• Back test: Use historical data to find out how good or bad your strategy might be.
• Simulate: Test your strategy risk free by employing real-time data.
• Performance Stats: Get to know what happens each time you trade as each trade is documented thoroughly.
• Rapid Responses: Edit your strategies based on performance and market conditions.
• Notifications: Get real-time notifications via email or the mobile app. Anytime, anywhere, you remain in control.
• Explore: Limitless examples of automated strategies, just for you. View their performance live, pick your favourite ones with a click.

Education

You will find several training articles available on the website. The articles were prepared by the brokers team of analysts. They incorporate diagrams, pictures and multiple examples to help you increase your knowledge and skills. I found them easy to understand and well explained. However, they are certainly geared towards beginners. Those of you with more experience probably won’t learn anything that you don’t know already.

The ‘Fundamentals’ section contains articles on the basics of forex trading. It introduces forex trading, stocks, spread, pips, swap rates, charts, etc.

The MetaTrader Guides contains articles on the MetaTrader platforms including ‘how to install EAs’, open and close trades, enable one-click trading, etc.

The ‘Trading Strategy’ section contains articles on how to use various indicators. Some of the indicators are Elliot waves, MACD indicator, Bollinger Bands, etc. It also looks at risk management, trading strategies and trading psychology.

Markets

There are over 200 CFDs available for trading with Eightcap. You can choose from around 40 major and minor Forex pairs, Commodities (Gold, Silver and Oil), some of the world’s largest Stocks and Indices along with popular Cryptocurrencies. I think there should be plenty of options to satisfy most of you, but for those who trade some more obscure instruments, you might feel limited. To put things into perspective, IG is an industry leader and they have more than 17,000 tradeable instruments.

One of the main advantages of CFD trading is that you can go long (buy) or short (sell) on financial instruments without needing to physically own the underlying asset. The difference between the price when you open and close the trade, is your profit or loss minus any brokerage fees.

Accounts

There are 2 trading accounts you can choose between, along with a demo account as you would expect from most brokers nowadays. For all trading accounts, the minimum opening balance is $100. These is reasonable but not as low as some brokers. Fusion Markets for example have a $1 minimum deposit requirement.

It is good that accounts are free to set up with no ongoing maintenance costs. Some brokers on the hand may charge you an inactivity fee. I found the spreads to be very low, starting from just 0.0 pips. This makes them suitable for scalping whilst there is a commission free account with higher spreads if that does not bother you. Both accounts allow automated trading with expert advisors (EAs), hedging and scalping strategies.

You can choose from the following account types:

Raw Account

This account features spreads from 0.0 pips but you are charged a small commission of $3.5 for every lot traded ($7 per lot round turn). The typical spread for the EURUSD is 0.00-1.0 pips. The account is created for professional and high volume traders. The account features raw interbank pricing with no spread mark-ups. The maximum leverage is 1:500. This account has the lowest spreads overall.

Standard Account

This account is designed for new and experienced traders. It features standard spreads which range from 0.5-1.8 pips for the EURUSD currency pair. The maximum leverage is 1:400. No commissions are charged as the trading fees are incorporated into the spread charges. This does mean the spreads are higher than the raw account.

Demo Account

Demo accounts are provided for all platforms. It comes preloaded with virtual money, allowing you to test the different trading platforms and practice your trading strategies risk free before opening a real live trading account. I would always test a broker on demo to begin with just to make sure I am happy with the conditions.

Account Signup

It is quick and easy to open a trading account with Eightcap. To register a new trading account, simply visit the website and click on ‘Create Account’ found on the top side on every page. The form below displays. You are required to fill the account type, personal details, state the funding source and your trading experience. Next is to accept the terms and conditions and finally upload verification documents.

Support

The excellent customer support team is available 24/5. They are prompt, polite and efficient in their responses. The support desk can be reached through email, phone and web chat. I like that online chat support is available as I find it to be the most convenient way to speak with someone. They are happy to answer all of your technical, general and account related questions. The support team speaks Thai, English and Chinese. The broker is on social media via the following platforms; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. They could improve by adding weekend support, such as FP Markets do.

Funding

This is another area in which I think the broker does very well. Reason being, you can choose from a good variety of payment methods for your deposits and withdrawals. I like the digital wallet options as I find this the quickest way to get access to my funds. If there is some market news that I want to act upon, I don’t want to be waiting days for a bank transfer to clear.

• Bank Wire Tansfers: This method is universally available. It takes 3-5 days to completely process a bank transfer. For withdrawals, Eightcap processes the request within 24 hours. There are no withdrawal fees for Australian banks but international withdrawals are charged a fee by the banks. This fee is approximately $20 and it is passed to the client.
• Credit/Debit Cards: Only Visa and MasterCard are accepted. The deposit limit is $10,000. Card verification is required before it can be used for deposits. For withdrawals, only the amount deposited from a card can be returned to the same card. Card deposits are free and instant while withdrawals take up to 3-20 days depending on the type of card and location of the client.
• Online Payments: The online payments accepted are POLi, BPAY, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal and China UnionPay. The transactions are processed instantly except for Skrill and BPAY which takes 1-2 working days to process. There are no transaction charges. For withdrawals, funds deposited via Skrill can be withdrawn to the same Skrill account. There may be fees from third party payment processors.

Some payment systems may have transaction limits, restrictions, and requirements which are indicated on their respective websites. You may need to verify your account to remove limits on particular methods in some countries. The broker does not accept third-party payments. All funds deposited into your trading account must be under the same name as your trading account. This is pretty standard and something most regulated brokers will need to do.

Accounts can be opened AUD, USD, GBP, NZD, SGD, CAD, EUR. The different currency options are beneficial as currency conversion fees do not apply when using an account in your own currency. This is a good choice of currencies as many brokers just support EUR, GBP and USD funding.

Conclusion

I found Eightcap to be an established broker that has been providing online trading services for over a decade. It is a regulated brand that desires the best for its customers. In addition to complying with the directives of the regulators, the broker has purchased an additional insurance policy in case of any eventuality.

You can trade with the tried and tested MetaTrader platforms and professional TradingView charting package. The MT4 and MT5 platforms are robust, scalable and loaded with multiple trading tools that can benefit all types and experience levels of traders. The broker also allows all trading strategies which will maximize the capabilities of the platforms.

There is a decent selection of over 200 CFD instruments to trade across various asset classes including forex, stocks, indices, commodities and cryptos. Spreads start from as low as 0.0 pips whereas the minimum deposit required is $100. Commission fees are low on the raw account whilst you can also trade with zero commission fees and a spread mark-up instead. The pricing is aggregated from top-tier liquidity providers which ensures rapid trade execution speeds at the best possible prices. You can fund your account with versatile payment options and leverage of up to 1:500 is available for those of you who qualify.

I like that Eightcap has a top-class customer support team who are on hand to answer all of your questions in a friendly manner. There are managed accounts for money managers and investors. In addition to this, the broker has a vast array of educational materials and trading tools to support traders and encourage informed trading.

Overall, I think that this is a solid and reputable broker that can be suitable for traders of all experience levels and trading styles. You get access to trade in a regulated environment with no hassle and all of the tools that you need at your disposal.

$100

Eightcap is a regulated broker offering over 200 CFD trading instruments on the user-friendly MetaTrader platforms including Forex, Stocks, Indices, Cryptos and Commodities. The broker has low commission fees, tight spreads, 1:500 leverage, rapid execution speeds, fast and free funding options, trading tools, educational materials, managed accounts and industry leading customer support.

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

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