BDSwiss Broker Review

BDSwiss was founded in 2012 and is regulated by the Mauritius Financial Securities Commission (FSC) and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Seychelles.

Ugandan clients will be trading under the BDS Ltd subsidiary, authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Seychelles. The level of protection offered by the FSA is low compared to regulators of the EU and Australia, and CFD brokers registered with the FSA are not required to segregate client money from company operational capital, nor offer negative balance protection, and have no leverage restrictions.  

However, at BDSwiss all client funds are placed in segregated tier one bank accounts and are offered negative balance protection.  If a client falls into a negative trading balance, BDSwiss will adjust the total negative amount so that the client does not suffer any loss.  It also offers its clients account statements that are regularly audited by external audit firms.  

The account opening process at BDSwiss is fast and hassle-free compared to other brokers. 

All Ugandan traders are eligible to open an account at BDSwiss, as long as they meet the minimum deposit requirements of each account.

Creating an account is straightforward, the process is fully digital, and accounts are usually ready within one day. BDSwiss notes the online application process takes less than 49 seconds to complete. BDSwiss offers joint and individual accounts, but we will focus on opening an individual account:

1. New traders will have to click on the “Sign Up” button at the top of the page where they will be directed to register an account.
2. BDSwiss’ intake form requires clients to fill in their personal details (including name, country of residence, email address, and birth date). 
3. BDSwiss needs at least two documents to accept you as an individual client:
   • Proof of Identification – BDSwiss accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. The document must be valid and must contain a trader’s full name, date of birth, a clear photograph, issue date, and if it has to have an expiry date, that should be visible as well. A passport is the preferred proof of identity, as it is the document that will be the quickest for the BDSwiss Back Office team to process. If the document has two sides, then scans of the front and back sides must be uploaded.
   • Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the BDSwiss account holder within the last 3 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority. BDSwiss accepts any bills that are issued by a financial institution, a utility company, a government agency, or a judicial authority.
4. Once this step is complete, traders are asked to complete two questionnaires that will help BDSwiss assess the state of their finances and trading knowledge. While most brokers don’t include this step in the account-opening process, it is a responsible move in an industry that is often accused of an irresponsible approach to consumer protection.
5. After the application is approved, traders can login and fund their accounts
6. We advise you to read BDSwiss’ risk disclosure, customer agreement, and terms of business before you start trading. 

Overall, BDSwiss account-opening process is quick, efficient, and accounts are generally ready for trading within one business day. 

BDSwiss offers a limited range of tradable instruments, but it offers a wider range of crypto pairs than is usually available at other brokers.

The average cost for trading one lot of EUR/USD among similar brokers is about 9 USD per lot. This is only achievable on the Raw Account, which is prohibitively expensive for beginners, with a minimum deposit requirement of 5,000 USD. Additionally, traders should note that spreads are variable at BDSwiss, meaning that they will get wider or tighter depending on trade volume and market volatility. 

We opened and tested BDSwiss’ accounts:

Cent Account

A trading account aimed at beginners, the BDSwiss Cent Account only requires a minimum deposit of 10 USD and the trading balance is measured in cents rather than dollars. Variable spreads are wide, starting at 1.30 pips on the EUR/USD.

Classic Account

The minimum deposit on the commission-free Classic Account is 150 USD, with variable spreads starting at 1.30 pips on the EUR/USD (which is wider than the industry average). Traders have access to Autochartist and the BD Swiss trading academy.

VIP Account

The minimum deposit on the VIP Account is 500 USD, and spreads are average at best, starting at 1.1 pips on the EUR/USD. In addition to the tighter spreads, the VIP Account has access to several trading and educational tools, including AutoChartist, a personal account manager, and VIP access to built-in trend analysis tools. 

Raw Account

The Raw Account is a professional account offering raw spreads in exchange for a minimum deposit of 500 USD. Spreads are down to 0 pips on major pairs at times, though they average at 0.3 pips on the EUR/USD. A reasonable commission of 5 USD/lot round turn is charged on Forex pairs. Because of the nature of this account, an Islamic (swap-free) option is not available.

In line with Anti-Money Laundering policies, deposits and withdrawals at BDSwiss cannot be made to/from third-party accounts.  BDSwiss does not charge for making deposits to a live trading account, and it charges fees for withdrawals under certain conditions.

For international bank transfers, the minimum withdrawal amount is 50 EUR (or equivalent) after the deduction of fees. For amounts that remain below the required 50 EUR, an alternative withdrawal method must be used.  For all other withdrawals amounting to 20 EUR or less, BDSwiss reserves the right to charge a fixed withdrawal fee of 10 EUR (or equivalent).

Overall, BDSwiss provides a range of payment methods, and although deposits are free, BDSwiss charges high withdrawal fees for low withdrawal amounts, which is not common in the industry.  

At BDSwiss, traders can choose among 4 base currencies: USD, GBP, ZAR and EUR.

This is limited compared to most other international brokers, and is disappointing for Ugandans who will likely have bank accounts denominated in UGX and will have to pay conversion fees on all deposits and withdrawals. Conversion fees can make trading expensive, and are usually not presented on the fee report, but affect profitability.

However, it should be noted that for traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month), it is better to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with an UGX account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

BDSwiss’ mobile trading platforms are good when compared to other brokers. BDSwiss offers mobile versions of MT4 and MT5 in addition to its proprietary mobile trading app.

MT4/MT5 Mobile Trading App

BDSwiss offers support for MT4 and MT5 mobile trading apps for Android and iOS. Traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop trading platforms, including reduced time frames and fewer charting options, but traders can close and modify existing orders, calculate profit and loss, and trade on the charts.

BDSwiss’ Proprietary Mobile App

The award-winning mobile application from BDSwiss is more user friendly than the standard MT4 mobile application. Featuring an intuitive and user-friendly trading interface, it is designed to be compatible and sync with the desktop MT4 application.

The mobile app offers basic trading, research, and account management functionality. Traders can open/close/edit positions, add stops to open positions and delete working orders. Research and analysis are available on real-time charts, and automated alerts are used to identify trading opportunities.

BDSwiss trading platform arsenal includes both MT4 and MT5 and its own BDSwiss Webtrader platform, which provides beginner traders an excellent trading experience. 

The advantage of brokers offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can take their own customised versions with them should they decide to migrate to another broker. Additionally, there are thousands of plugins and tools available for the MetaTrader platforms. However, these platforms are not as beginner-friendly as the proprietary platform offered by BDSwiss. 

MetaTrader 4

Having established itself as the industry-leading platform, Metatrader 4 (MT4) is the most reliable and popular platform in existence. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly environment provide essential tools and resources for successful online trading. It is also widely recognised for its fast execution speeds, range of charting tools, algorithmic trading, and customisability. MT4 is available in over 31 languages. Features of MT4 include: 

• A built-in library of more than 50 indicators and tools to streamline the analysis process
• An impressive array of analytical tools, available in nine timeframes for each financial instrument.
• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
• Customisable alerts
• Access to MetaTrader market and MQL4 community. 

MetaTrader 5

The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time. It has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market, and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has a larger number of pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. The MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor, and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4. Additional features of BDSwiss’ MT5 include:

• Over 80 Technical Indicators and over 40 Analytical Objects
• Ability to display 100 charts simultaneously
• Depth of market display and technical indicators
• 6 pending stop order types, including Buy Stop Limit and Sell Stop Limit
• Improved strategy tester for algorithmic trading and expert advisors (EAs)

MT4 and MT5 are available on PC and MAC, in addition to Android and iOS. 

BDSwiss WebTrader

The BDSwiss WebTrader does not require downloading, is available on both Mac and PC, and is fully synchronised with the downloadable versions of MT4, allowing for live price monitoring via an advanced market watch. Translated in more than 24 languages, the BDSwiss WebTrader is designed to accommodate traders’ needs from around the globe.

The BDSwiss WebTrader is a user-friendly platform that delivers an array of tools, including unique indicators, and an intuitive order window that automatically calculates position size, leverage, and required margin. However, the platform lacks many of the features available on MT4 and MT5 such as automated trading and does not cater for third-party tools.

BDSwiss offers several useful trading tools.

Autochartist

Autochartist is an automated analysis tool offered for free to all BDSwiss registered users. Autochartist monitors 250+ CFDs 24 hours a day and automatically alerts traders on key trading opportunities and forming trends with the highest probability of hitting the forecast price. Some of Autochartist’s key features are:

• Chart pattern recognition
• Fibonacci pattern recognition
• Key level analysis
• Pattern quality indication

Autochartist is one of the best technical analysis tools on the market, and BDSwiss does well to offer this tool to its clients.

Trend Analysis

The Trend Analysis tools are exclusively available on BDSwiss’ web trader platform.

Developed in partnership with AutoChartist exclusively for BDSwiss traders, Trend Analysis is a unique tool that enables traders to spot some of the biggest trading opportunities directly on BDSwiss’ WebTrader. Traders can view emerging and recently completed trends for hundreds of assets, in addition to pattern overlays and projected price trends applied live on a chart.

BDSwiss provides an award-winning market research section that is curated by some of the best analysts in the world.

Research and analysis materials at BDSwiss are detailed and well-structured. Financial commentary is split into five sections: Market Preview, Technical Analysis, Daily Videos, Weekly Outlook, an Economic Calendar, and Special Reports. Webinars are also conducted on an almost daily basis in a range of languages.

BDSwiss’ market analysis is curated by a team of renowned markets analysts and professional traders that provide 24/5 market news coverage and actionable financial commentary. Recognised by the global industry community, its Research Team is frequently featured in world-leading publications and is viewed as a reliable, one-stop information hub of insightful market analyses.

BDSwiss’ Telegram channel, which consists of a Free basic version accessible by anyone, and the VIP version which is exclusive to premium account holders (VIP and Raw Account), provides real-time Trading Alerts, volatility alerts, and upcoming live-trading webinars. 

All analytical material, including webinars and forecasting reports, is available free of charge, and most of the video content is uploaded to YouTube. The analysis quality is world-class and will be of value to both technical and fundamental traders.

Lastly, the Daily Videos give traders insight into how to approach researching marketing opportunities and trader psychology. We particularly recommend the Daily Market Preview, conducted by BDSwiss’ Market Analyst, Frank Walbaum.

BDSwiss offers a comprehensive Trading Academy for those looking for structured courses. The Trading Academy is split into beginner, intermediate and advanced sections, though in truth, the advanced section is more suited to those with intermediate knowledge. Perhaps the better and more advanced educational material from BDSwiss comes in the form of weekly strategy webinars and frequent live seminars held at BDSwiss’ local offices around the world.

The Educational videos consist of five to six lessons with a quiz to summarize the content. It provides a great introduction to trading. Topics include CFD Trading, The Basics of Forex Trading, and Order Types, among others.

BDSwiss also provides a Forex Glossary in addition to a number of ebooks that are well-written and in-depth.

Webinars are free to non-clients and only require signup to participate. BDSwiss also offers Trading Talks is a 10-course recurring educational webinar that is held every two weeks. Once completed, webinars are added to the video library and combined with other educational videos about aspects of trading and market analysis.

Overall, we found the customer service responsive, polite, and able to answer all of our questions.