Pros & cons of easyMarkets

easyMarkets Fact sheet

Safety starts with proper licensing, and when evaluating a broker this becomes one of the most important things to look at. Since more regulators mean more oversight and tighter controls, the more regulators are regulating the broker, the better for traders. 

easyMarkets is regulated by four independent authorities:

• Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission “CySEC” (Cyprus) - license 079/07
• Australia Securities and Investments Commission “ASIC” (Australia) - license 246566
• Financial Services Authority of Seychelles “FSA” (Seychelles) - license SD056
• Financial Services Commission “FSC” (British Virgin Islands) - license number SIBA/L/20/1135

After seeing how many authorities there are overseeing this broker it is easy to deduce that easyMarkets is not a fly-by-night affair.

Policies at easyMarkets

Policies define how the broker serves its customers and what it focuses on. easyMarkets is part of the Compensation Fund, meaning that there is some insurance protecting traders. Additionally, they save all clients' funds on segregated accounts, which is critical as it limits the broker's access to client funds and guarantees that even if the company goes out of business, traders get their funds back.

There is another crucial thing to look for when selecting a broker and that is negative balance protection. Because leveraged trading is a risky business that can amplify profits and losses hundreds of times, traders face the possibility of losing more money than they had in their accounts to start with. In order to protect traders from this, negative balance protection is employed, and easyMarkets has this in place.

The number of trading instruments offered by easyMarkets is moderate. Despite this, there are still various instruments available for trading spanning different asset classes. Forex, cryptos, and share CFDs are all present and will enable traders to find something worthwhile. There are 63 Forex pairs, which is a good amount when looking at currency trading platforms. From the table above, it is clear that the broker mainly focuses on Forex and despite having some CFDs available, they are limited.

Forex trading on easyMarkets

Forex is one of the biggest international financial markets and there are trillions of dollars traded daily. easyMarkets has 63 currency pairs available, and although some other brokers have more pairs for trading, this is not a small number when it comes to currency pairs. It includes many minor and exotic pairs along with all the majors. The leverage offered on FX trading is 1:500 and as a micro account is available with easyMarkets, it will enable traders to easily trade any of these currencies with a small amount of starting capital. 

Share CFDs trading on easyMarkets

There are 64 shares as CFDs available on the easyMarkets platforms. Contracts for difference or CFDs offer unique speculative abilities to traders by allowing them to short-sell any share and make a profit even if the market is in a downtrend. There are shares as CFDs from major exchanges such as the USA and Europe, and easyMarkets offer their clients negative balance protection when trading CFDs together with competitive spreads and fast execution, making them really attractive for experienced traders. 

Cryptocurrency trading on easyMarkets

Although there are only 20 cryptocurrencies available, this is actually a decent amount for this kind of broker. Other popular cryptos offered by the broker include 

• Ethereum
• Litecoin
• Ripple
• Litecoin
• Stellar
• Bitcoin Cash

No slippage, tight fixed spreads, advanced stop-loss technology, and instant execution are advantages when trading cryptos on easyMarkets platforms. 

Indices on easyMarkets

Indices are great to measure the overall market's direction and can also be a nice instrument for trading. There are 15 indices offered by easyMarkets, with the lowest spread starting from 0.005 for USX/USD. Traders can trade EU, UK, US, AU, and Asian Indices and can use the deal cancellation feature to limit losses. Below, is the list of indices offered by the broker

• US 500SPI
• US 30DOW
• US TechNDQ
• UK 100FTS
• Germany 40DAX
• EU Stocks 50ESX
• Swiss 20SWI
• AustraliaASX
• Japan 225NKI
• Hong Kong 50HSX
• China 50CNX
• India 50IND
• USD IndexUSX
• France40cCAC
• Italy40cMIB

Fixed spreads with deal canceling abilities can assist traders to limit losses and increases profitability. 

Commodities trading reviewed on easyMarkets

Copper, crude, natural gas, and agricultural commodities together with metals are among the commodities offered by easyMarkets. Gold and other precious metals along with things like coffee, and other commodities are great instruments for trading in when looking for safe-haven assets during an economic crisis and as a way of hedging your capital against inflation. easyMarkets offers 31 different commodities to their clients. Noteworthy features of easyMarkets commodity trading are deal cancellation, award-winning support, and instant execution. Spreads are very competitive for commodities and start from 1 pip, making it cheap to trade favorite commodities.

Every trader needs a different type of account according to their trading style, capital, and other requirements. 

The account types offered at easyMarkets are VIP, Premium, and Standard. The different types of accounts have different terms and spreads, with a different minimum deposit size required for each account as well. The minimum deposit for a VIP account is $10,000, for Premium accounts, it drops to $2,000, and just $25 is needed to open a Standard account. All the spreads are fixed except for MetaTrader 5, where spreads are dynamic. The VIP account offers the lowest spreads for all trading platforms, from 0.3 pips for MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and it seems like the best option for low spreads is to use MT5 when trading. The leverage is also highest for MT5 with the 1:500 option. Another difference between account types is that live support is not available for easyMarkets web traders and TradingView platforms, and is only for VIPs. For TM4 and MT5 accounts, all support is accessible without interruption. . 

Pros & cons of easyMarkets account types

EasyMarkets Demo account

When starting to learn how to trade or when developing a new trading strategy, it is essential to be able to trade as if you are trading in a real market. A demo account does exactly that and offers virtual funds to trade with on a simulation of the real markets. Everything is real, except there is no actual money involved. This does a few things; enables beginners to learn trading skills without losing money, offers the ability to check how well the strategy behaves in real markets and offers a glance at the fees and spreads of the broker. 

EasyMarkets has a Demo account, and its registration is similar to that of a live account. Only a few things are required, like email and phone number, and you are free to start testing any trading in a simulated real-time market environment. 

EasyMarkets VIP Account

VIP accounts can be opened with a minimum deposit of $10,000 and offer the best overall terms for traders. Spreads are minimum and start from 0.7 pips for MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and from 0.8 pips for the web trader and TradingView, the spread is lowest for MT5 starting from 0.3 pips. So, in order to receive maximum value, it is better to trade on the MT5 platform. Since TradingView is popular among many traders, it is possible to analyze charts on TradingView and then open an actual trade on the MT5 platform for lower spreads. If the strategy that you want to use is a scalping one, this becomes a bit challenging, but still possible with the right approach. Trading oil-related pairs is the cheapest on easyMarkets’ VIP accounts, with spreads starting from 0.04 USD. Maximum leverage accessible is 1:200 for MT4 and TradingView, 1:400 for MT4 platforms, and 1:500 for MT5 platforms.

EasyMarkets Premium Account

Following the VIP account, the Premium account requires a minimum deposit of $2,000 to get started. It offers medium spreads, fees, and overall features. Minimum spreads start from 1.5 on web trader and TradingView and 1.2 for MT4, it is dynamic and starts from 0.3 pips on MT5. 

EasyMarkets Standard Account

The Standard account is the cheapest to start trading as it requires only $25 to open an account. There are no commissions related to account opening, activating, or depositing, making it easier for beginners to start learning trading skills. The spreads are high though with 1.8 and 1.7 pips for easyMarkets web trader, TradingView, and MT4. These spreads are fixed and offer stability during trading. For MT5, the spreads start from 0.3 pips and are dynamic. This could be misleading as it is not clearly indicated if the minimum spread on MT5 includes all three accounts or only VIPs. When starting with low capital, MT5 seems a bit better on easyMarkets as it is offering the lowest spreads and highest leverage of 1:500. The leverage for the web trader and TradingView for Standard accounts is 1:200 and for MT4 it's 1:400, wish is similar to the other account types. 

Getting started on easyMarkets - the first steps to take

For traders who want to open a trading account with easyMarkets we will provide all the necessary steps here. Their webpage is very intuitive, and all details are provided in a well-ordered and easy-to-find manner. 

Step one: Opening an account

After clicking on the signup button, easyMarkets will require some basic info about yourself.

After providing all the required information the next thing will be choosing the account type and trading platforms.

Step two: Account verification and time required for approval

The account verification process is similar to what might be found with most brokers, with one addition. The main two documents that are required are proof of identity and proof of residence. There is another document also required, the card statement by which the deposit will be made. The full description of documents required to upload on the easyMarkets website includes:

• Front and back of the ID/passport - these documents must be government issued and active
• Proof of residence - documents of a utility bill or bank statement showing the full name of the trader
• Debit/credit card statement - for every card used to make a deposit to your trading account 

This means, the easyMarkets verification process is complicated and requires additional documents for the cards that were used, which is something that is not generally required by other brokers. This statement thing makes the whole process slightly inconvenient, but it is required for the withdrawal process and is very important. It is recommended that you verify the account before starting trading. All documents are processed within a day. 

Step three: Choose an account type and trading platform

This step is easier than the previous one as you simply have to select the account type (make sure you check the account types above for clarity) that you would like to use and choose a trading platform. MetaTrader 5 seems to offer the best terms and spreads, but spreads are not fixed so make sure to check the spread before opening the trade. After this step, there are only two more things to do.

Step four: Make your first deposit with easyMarkets

Depositing methods are vast and include Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, AstroPay, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, FasaPay, STICPAY, WebMoney, Perfect Money, and Bit Wallet. Just make sure you use the card you have provided the details for during verification to avoid any complications. 

Step five: Start trading

After you are done signing up, verifying, and funding your account, there is only one main step remaining, trading. Make sure you spend some time learning how to use the platform you choose to use thoroughly and also make sure you go through all the T&Cs so that you won’t get caught with any extra costs, etc. Then all that remains to do is pick your favorite trading strategy and implement it. 

Comparing easyMarkets fees with other brokers

As we have seen, there are moderate spreads and almost no fees associated with easyMarkets. Let’s compare these fees with other popular brokers’ commissions to see how they differ and which ones provide the best value for traders. 

This will help us see how expensive it is to operate a trading account with easyMarkets. 

easyMarkets fees compared to Interactive Brokers fees

*Inactivity fee was eliminated by IB in 2021, it used to be $20/m

easyMarkets fees compared to eToro fees

easyMarkets fees compared to IG fees

easyMarkets fees compared to XM fees

The trading platforms available on easyMarkets are TradingView, MetaTrader 4, and MetaTrader 5, with MetaTrader 5 offering the overall best experience for Standard accounts.

TradingView is an advanced charting and trading platform offering built-in and community-built custom indicators to all users on all devices. The desktop version is the most feature-rich, but you can access all custom indicators on mobile devices too, which is its greatest advantage. It offers live trading by connecting your broker to your charts to trade directly with TradingView. This feature is limited on mobile devices as of now.

The broker provides traders with the full set of MetaTrader platforms. These are among the oldest and most popular trading platforms on the market today and are a go-to for many amateurs and professionals. They offer a lot of features, including custom indicators and trading robots called Expert Advisors or EAs. The functions on mobile MT4 and MT5 apps are extremely limited though, making it impossible to use custom indicators. There is no dark mode or feature to get rid of the grid on the charts. When trading from mobile devices it is best to use easyMarkets' own software as it is very intuitive and easy to use. There are many useful functions available with all assets being classified and sorted, and gives the feeling that they spent some time creating a well-thought-out and implemented solution. 

When it comes to mobile trading there are plenty of options available from the MT4 and MT5 platforms to easyMarkets’ own app. This makes it extremely easy to open and manage positions with a smartphone or any other mobile device. easyMarkets’ app seems very responsive and easy to navigate. The only downside is that it has a limited set of tools for analysis and will require installing TradingView or MetaTrader platforms. It is advised for almost any broker to use TradingView in conjunction with their app to analyze charts thoroughly. From our vast experience in researching brokers and trading platforms, there are no alternatives when it comes to TradingView’s advanced technical and custom tools on mobile devices. 

Education is key when it comes to trading successfully. easyMarkets offers a whole section dedicated to everything Forex education related.

There is the easyMarkets Academy for studying trading. It will provide you with basic terms and steps for starting trading, but it is focused on beginners and won’t have much value for those who already have some trading experience. easyMarkets offers good learning materials, though. There are free eBooks available together with more advanced courses about trading.

In addition to educational materials, easyMarkets also offers a market analysis section with market hours, important news, and other sources to analyze the macroeconomic and technical sides of the financial markets.

Customer support is excellent at easyMarkets and they were very responsive in answering any questions and providing all the necessary information while researching the broker, providing everything in under a minute. Live chat is available 24/5, and we found the support team to be very responsive, polite, and knowledgeable providing assistance for all questions and issues. 

If you want to get in touch with easyMarkets in other ways, they offer various support alternatives including live chat, messaging, a phone number, Facebook, and WhatsApp; giving traders ample options when it comes to communication. 

easyMarkets is a Forex and CFDs broker providing trading services since 2001 and is regulated by the CySEC, ASIC, FSA, and FSC. Spreads are very competitive and start from 0.3 pips when using the MT5 platform. The broker has a few good things to keep in mind like the fact that they recently started allowing MetaTrader Expert Advisors (EAs) and have solid customer support. One downside is the length of time it takes for withdrawals, as it can take 1-2 business days for the withdrawal to be processed. Required documents include bank card statements from where deposits will be made, which is an extra thing that is not found with many other brokers. Other than these issues the broker seems legit with responsive and knowledgeable support provided by live chat 24/5. Educational materials offered are rich and include free eBooks and seminars.