ActivTrades Review

ActivTrades at a Glance

About ActivTrades

ActivTrades has been trading for around 25 years, through at least one full market cycle. Longevity guarantees nothing on its own, but a firm that came through 2008 and 2015 has been tested in a way a recent entrant has not.

The contracting entity is ActivTrades PLC. This is the company you would actually have a relationship with, and it is worth checking that it is the same one named on the licence you are relying on: large brokers commonly operate several, and they are not equally protected.

Part of ActivTrades Group Limited. A parent adds resources, but the protections that apply to you are the ones attached to the entity that holds your account, not to the group.

Regulation and Safety

ActivTrades holds a tier-one authorisation from FCA. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

It also operates an offshore entity (FSC). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

An FSC licence (Mauritius or Belize, depending on the entity) is an offshore authorisation with lighter reporting duties than a tier-one regulator.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own money, at Regulated banking institutions. That separation is what makes your balance recoverable if the company fails, rather than part of the pool its creditors divide up.

Negative balance protection applies, so a losing position cannot take the account below zero and leave you owing the broker money.

Covered by FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; additional private funds insurance up to $1,000,000, which pays eligible clients up to its limit if the firm fails owing client money.

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), United Kingdom: tier 1
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore: tier 1

Trading Costs

Spreads from 0.5 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

ActivTrades lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Spreads and Commissions

Compare the round-trip cost at your size with the profit and loss calculator. The lesson on spreads, commissions and financing explains how to add them up.

Account Types

ActivTrades runs 5 account types. More choice is not automatically better: the tightest headline spread almost always sits on the account that also charges a commission, so the comparison that matters is the two added together.

Base currencies: EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, SEK. Holding the account in the currency you fund it with avoids a conversion charge on every deposit and withdrawal - a cost that never shows up in a spread comparison.

The smallest position is 0.01 lots. For anyone starting carefully this matters more than the minimum deposit, because it sets the least you can put at risk on a single trade.

A demo account is available. Worth using for the platform rather than the results: fills are simulated, so it tells you how the software behaves but very little about execution.

Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit at ActivTrades is $0. The sensible starting deposit is the one that lets you size positions at one percent risk with a realistic stop, which the position size calculator works out.

Trading Platforms

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

• MetaTrader 4: The most widely offered forex platform, with a vast library of indicators and expert advisors written in MQL4.
• MetaTrader 5: MetaQuotes' current platform: more timeframes and order types than MT4, depth of market, a built-in economic calendar, a multi-threaded strategy tester and support for exchange-traded markets..
• TradingView: The most used charting platform in retail trading, with a free plan, paid tiers, Pine Script for custom indicators and strategies, and broker integration that lets you trade from the chart at supporting brokers..

Markets

Leverage is capped at 1:30 retail, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

ActivTrades covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, bonds, etfs, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: bank transfer, visa/mastercard, skrill, neteller, cryptocurrency. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Forex Pairs

ActivTrades offers 50+ currency pairs. Other markets on offer: forex, shares, indices, commodities, bonds, etfs, cryptocurrencies.

Leverage

Maximum leverage is 1:30 retail. Retail leverage is capped at 1:30 on major pairs under FCA, ESMA and ASIC rules and higher leverage is available only from entities outside those regulators. The lesson on leverage explains why the number you can use is rarely the number you should.

Execution

Deposits and Withdrawals

Withdrawals are stated at Typically same working day processing, against Cards/e-wallets/crypto typically within 30 minutes; bank transfer same working day after receipt for deposits. A gap between the two is normal and not in itself a warning sign - identity checks are a legal obligation, not obstruction. What is worth noticing is a withdrawal that keeps meeting new conditions after those checks are done.

Withdrawal routes: bank transfer, cards, skrill, neteller, cryptocurrency. Money is usually returned by the route it arrived on, so the deposit method you pick is in effect the withdrawal method you are picking too.

The minimum withdrawal is No general minimum - relevant if you intend to fund the account lightly, since it sets the smallest amount you can take out at a time.

Customer Support

Support runs 24/7. Round-the-clock cover matters more than it sounds: a position held over a weekend or through an unexpected halt is exactly when you need somebody to answer.

Reachable by live chat, whatsapp, phone/callback, online message. A published telephone number is the one channel that is hard to fake and hard to ignore, so whether there is one says more than the number of channels does.

Languages: 14 languages. Being able to raise a complaint in your own language is worth more than it appears, because complaints are where precision matters most.

Education: extensive: webinars, seminars, educational articles, platform tutorials, videos and trading guides. Treat broker-published material as an introduction rather than as advice - it is produced by a firm whose revenue rises when you trade more.

Education and Research

ActivTrades offers Extensive: webinars, seminars, educational articles, platform tutorials, videos and trading guides. Research: Extensive: market analysis, technical/fundamental analysis, trading tools, market news and research. Whatever a broker provides, the courses on this site cover the fundamentals independently of any broker.

Demo Account

ActivTrades offers a free demo account. Use it to test the platform, the spreads at your trading hours and the order types you rely on before depositing; the lesson on demo and live accounts explains what a demo can and cannot tell you.

Key Strengths

• Regulated by a tier-one authority, with the protections that brings for the entity concerned.
• Spreads from 0.5 pips, competitive for active trading.
• A minimum deposit of $0, accessible for a first account.
• A free demo account to test before depositing.
• A choice of platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView.

Important Considerations

• Entity matters: the protections described here apply only to the licensed company named in your client agreement.

Who Is ActivTrades Suitable For?

ActivTrades suits traders who want tier-one regulatory protection, and beginners with small starting deposits. The considerations section below lists what to check first.

Similar Brokers

IC Markets 9.5/10

Tier-one regulated ASIC, CySEC, Seychelles FSA, Bahamas SCB, Kenya CMA

ReviewVisit IC Markets (opens in a new tab)

FxPro 9.1/10

Tier-one regulated FCA, CySEC, FSCA, SCB Bahamas, Seychelles FSA

ReviewVisit FxPro (opens in a new tab)

Admirals 8.9/10

Tier-one regulated FCA, CySEC, ASIC, FSCA, Seychelles FSA, JSC Jordan, CMA Kenya, EFSA

ReviewVisit Admirals (opens in a new tab)

Plus500 8.9/10

Tier-one regulated FCA, ASIC, CySEC, FMA, FSCA, MAS, Seychelles FSA, DFSA, EFSA, SCB Bahamas, CIRO, ISA, JFSA, SCA, CFTC/NFA

ReviewVisit Plus500 (opens in a new tab)

Frequently Asked Questions

Trading forex and CFDs carries a high risk of losing money. Figures are the broker's published terms at the last check and can change. We may earn a commission when you open an account through a link. Affiliate disclosure.