Trade.com Broker Review

Established in 2013, Trade.com is headquartered in Cyprus. Trade.com is a trading name operated by Trade Capital Markets (TCM) Ltd. It is authorised and regulated in Cyprus by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (license number 227/14) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa. See below for more details:

• Trade Capital Markets (TCM) Ltd is authorized and regulated in Cyprus by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (license number 227/14).
• Trade Capital Markets (TCM) Ltd is authorized and regulated in South Africa by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa, FSP number 47857. 

Ugandan traders will be trading under the subsidiary, Trade Capital Markets (TCM), authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). CySEC is considered a top-tier regulator and mandates that Trade.com segregates client funds from its operating capital in various banking institutions. It also provides its clients negative balance protection, so that they cannot lose more than is in their trading accounts. 

In line with regulatory requirements, Trade.com insures all client money through the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF). The objective of the ICF is to secure any claims of covered clients against members of the ICF by paying its clients compensation in the event that the company is liquidated.

Additionally, although Trade.com is a market maker, it has processes in place to ensure that traders receive the best execution and has published a conflict of interest policy.

Overall, with its long history of responsible behaviour and strong international regulation, we consider Trade.com a safe broker to trade with.

Trade.com’s account opening process is fully digital and fast.

All traders from Uganda are eligible to open a Trade.com account.

The account-opening process is as follows:

1. Traders can sign up for an account by clicking on the “Open Account” button.
2. Clients will be directed to register an account with a password and username. Traders will also have to select their preferred base currency.
3. Trade.com’s intake form requires clients to fill in their email address, name, telephone number, country of residence, and date of birth.
4. Trade.com then requires prospective traders to answer questions regarding their financial knowledge and level of trading experience, and are required to complete a compliance quiz.
5. In order to verify their identity, individuals are required to submit a copy of their National ID or Passport with the signature page, and a copy of a recent utility bill or bank statement displaying the client’s name and address that is not older than three months. In order to upload these documents, navigate to the My account section at the top right corner. Go to Upload documents and select the document from your computer. 
6. Once the documents have been uploaded, traders can deposit funds and begin trading.

We suggest you read Trade.com’s risk disclosure, customer agreement, and terms of business before you start trading. 

Overall, Trade.com’s account-opening process is quick, efficient, and accounts are generally ready for trading within a matter of hours.

Trade.com offers trading on Forex, indices, shares, commodities, cryptocurrencies, bonds, and ETFs.

High Trading Costs: Trading conditions at Trade.com are generally poor, with higher minimum deposit requirements and higher trading costs than other brokers. Spreads average 2.0 pips (EUR/USD) on its entry-level account, which requires a minimum deposit of 100 USD. Most brokers offer an average spread of 1 pip (EUR/USD) on their entry-level accounts. Trade.com’s other accounts request very high minimum deposits and don’t deliver the lower ongoing trading costs that more experienced traders would seek.

Account Benefits: With higher minimum deposits, traders receive more account benefits. These benefits include a dedicated account manager, premium daily analysis, premium customer support, and access to Trading Central – a third-party analytics service. Full support is offered for the MT4 and MT5 platforms, and Trade.com allows hedging, scalping, and copy trading but does not provide Islamic swap-free accounts. 

We opened and tested several of Trade.com’s accounts:

Silver Account

The Silver Account requires a minimum deposit of 100 USD and spreads are reduced to a minimum of 1.9 pips on the EUR/USD. In addition, clients with this account will have access to daily analysis and a dedicated account manager.

Gold Account

The Gold Account requires a minimum deposit of 10,000 USD but comes with premium daily analysis and access to Trading Central. Spreads on EUR/USD are down to 1.4 pips.

Platinum Account

The Platinum Account has the same features as the Gold Account, but with premium customer support, spreads of 1.0 pips on the EUR/USD, and a higher minimum deposit of 50,000 USD.

Exclusive Account

This has all the same features as the Platinum Account but spreads are down to 0.8 pips on the EUR/USD – though the minimum deposit is 100,000 USD, making it inaccessible to most traders.

Demo Account

Like most brokers, Trade.com offers a free demo account so new traders can get a feel for the trading platforms and an understanding of the assets to trade. Unfortunately, unlike most other brokers, opening a demo account at Trade.com does require registering for a live account first. Once signed up, you’ll receive your login credentials the same day.

In line with Anti-Money Laundering rules, Trade.com does not process payments to third-party accounts. All withdrawal requests from a trading account will be funded to a bank account or source in the trader’s name.

Trade.com offers a range of account funding and deposit methods, including bank transfer, debit cards/credit cards, and various eWallets (Skrill and Neteller). Deposits are free on all funding methods and are processed immediately, or within 12 hours.

The minimum withdrawal amount for all methods (excluding the wire transfer) is 20 USD. The minimum withdrawal amount request for wire transfer is 100 USD. Any withdrawal request for an amount below the two mentioned above, will incur handling and processing charges as follows: minimum 10 USD for all methods (excluding wire transfer) and minimum 50 USD for the wire transfer.

Apart from the above restrictions, you will not be charged any deposit/withdrawal fees, as they are all covered by Trade.com.

While the withdrawal fee is clear, this information is found hidden in the terms and conditions. In order to act in the best interest of the client, this information should be more prominently placed and with more emphasis on exact timelines for processing payments.

Trade.com offers a wider range of base currencies than other similar brokers.

At Trade.com, traders can choose from seven base currencies: USD, GBP, EUR, CHF, CZK, PLN, and ZAR. This is a broader range than other international brokers.

While most Ugandan residents will want to have their trading accounts denominated in UGX, some traders may want to have multiple accounts with different base currencies to avoid paying conversion fees when trading. Conversion fees can make trading expensive, and are usually not presented on the fee report, but affect profitability.

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.

Overall, Trade.com offers more trading account currencies than most other large international brokers, but it doesn’t offer accounts denominated in UGX.

The MT4, MT5, and WebTrader applications offer full Trade.com account functionality to seamlessly transition from the desktop application. They are available on both Android and iOS. However, traders should be aware that these apps may vary in the number of technical indicators and instruments available to trade and have different chart types and market analysis tools compared to the desktop versions.

Trade.com presents traders with the choice between the industry-standard MT4 and MT5 products and its own proprietary WebTrader platform.

Metatrader 4

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is still undoubtedly the world’s most popular trading platform for forex traders due to its ease of use, feature-rich environment, and automated trading ability.Features of Trade.com’s MT4 platform include:

• 30 technical indicators
• 31 graphing objects
• Three chart types
• Nine timeframes
• One-click trading.
• Traders can also add custom EAs and indicators.

While MT4 offers great customizability, the platform feels outdated, and some features may be hard to find. In addition, only the basic orders, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop, are available.

MetaTrader 5

The newer version of the MetaTrader platform suite, MT5, is being adopted by more traders every day. MT5 incorporates all of the key features of MT4 and an optimised environment for EA trading. 

Features of Trade.com’s MT5 include:

• 38+ preinstalled technical indicators
• 44 analytical charting tools
• 6 pending order types
• 4 order execution types
• Three chart types
• 21 timeframes
• Detachable charts
• Depth of Market
• An integrated Economic Calendar

The benefit of Trade.com offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can take their customised version of the platform with them should they choose to migrate to another broker. Additionally, thousands of plugins and tools are available for the MetaTrader platforms. 

Trade.com WebTrader

Trade.com offers its own proprietary WebTrader that allows traders to trade on all the financial instruments available at the broker and includes various charting tools and technical indicators. It has an intuitive interface and is easy to use and set up. One drawback is that automated trading solutions remain unavailable, which is why the broker offers both MT4 and MT5. Features of Trade.com’s Webtrader include:

•  Access to over 2,100 assets, including forex pairs, cryptocurrencies, global exchanges, and commodities
•  Multi-chart display windows with independent chart functions
•  Web-based with mobile compatibility.
•  Trending tools, Trading Central, Events & Trade.
•  Secure management tools for trading, accounts, and risk management.
•  Style and chart settings including colour, timing, and price action display
• Access to online assistance 24/5

Trade.com’s only trading tool is Trading Central. Other brokers offer technical tools such as Autochartist, VPS services, and various copy trading platforms.

Trading Central

Trading Central is only available on the Gold, Platinum, and Exclusive Accounts. A third-party tool, Trading Central’s professional analysts use the most advanced technical analysis tools in the industry to curate relevant information. This tool essentially supports traders without the technical know-how to make trading decisions. Trading Central is one of the most popular tools and provides excellent market analysis.

Trade.com’s analysis materials are severely limited compared to other similar brokers.

Trading Central is available for Gold, Platinum, and Exclusive Account levels, along with the premium market analysis. Lower deposit accounts will need to survive with a daily market analysis email and a news feed that is aggregated from other news sources.

Only traders with a minimum deposit of 10,000 USD can access Trading Central’s services. Trade.com clearly does not cater to beginner traders or those who want to test its services with a low initial deposit.

Support is available via live chat and email from Sunday at 22:00 GMT to Friday at 22:00 GMT—24/5. A dealing desk phone number is available for making trades when away from the computer, but this number does not offer technical support.