Pros & cons of Equiti broker

Equiti Fact sheet

Choosing a safe and reliable broker is the first step to successful trading. There are various factors to consider when making a decision, but the safest brokers are well-regulated ones. 

Equiti is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA) and follows its guidance on fair treatment along with other policies.

The broker offers negative balance protection to its retail clients and prevents them from going into a minus balance in the case of abusing their super high leverage of 1:2000. Equiti is part of an investor compensation fund in case of insolvency and provides segregated bank accounts where they store client funds. Segregated accounts ensure the broker can not touch user funds for its own use. 

*CFD stands for Contract for Difference and such instruments enable traders to speculate on underlying asset prices without owning them. 

Equiti offers a wide range of tradable instruments, including CFDs, CFDs on stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, energies, Forex, futures, indices, and metals. 

Forex trading on Equiti

The average spreads for popular currency pairs are

• EUR/USD from 0.2 pips
• EUR/GBP from 0.3 pips
• GBP/USD from 0.1 pips
• USD/JPY from 0.4 pips

There are trading commissions applied to trading of 70 USD per 1 million units traded. This is the same as 3.5 USD per side per lot and is pretty much the industry standard. Because of the nature of low spreads and average commissions the Equiti trading account is suitable for scalpers who rely on many small profits throughout the day. The number of Forex pairs is 39, a lower number than crypto CFDs.

Stock CFD trading on Equiti

$0 commission and leverage up to 1:20 are applied to all stock CFDs on the Equiti MT5 platform. There are stock CFDs from the UK, US, and EU markets. There are no real stocks, only stock CFDs. Some of the stock CFDs have a 0.08% trading commission. Stock CFDs with 0.08 trading commission include Airbus, Astra Zeneca, Adidas, Allianz, AO, and several others. 

Cryptocurrency trading on Equiti 

Equiti offers various crypto assets as CFDs meaning it is possible to immediately speculate and short-sell them if necessary. The maximum leverage is also high when compared to other crypto CFDs providers. Maximum leverage is set to 1:10. The spreads are less than 1% of the crypto prices. Trading on cryptos is open 7 days a week 24 hours a day and the spread for BTC starts from $5. The number of digital currency CFDs offered by Equiti is 63 which is way more than what other popular brokers have to offer. With this many cryptos, it is possible to trade almost any of your favorite cryptos with low spreads. There are several free tools offered by Equiti and we will discuss them in the education and research section. The main difference between cryptos and crypto CFDs is the ability to use CFDs to trade cryptos with instant execution without the waiting times for blockchain transaction approval. CFDs also allow for instant speculation on price changes no matter the market direction. 

Commodities and indices trading on Equiti 

Indices are great indicators for certain market sectors as they give traders the ability to measure the average performance of stocks in these sectors. The S&P 500 represents the average price of the 500 top companies in the US and it is also used for trading and investing. Since all indices are CFDs, it is possible to speculate on the prices of underlying indices in both directions. Spreads are tight and commissions are an industry average of 3.5 USD per side per lot. The leverage for indices is set to 1:2000 which is super high and makes it possible to control buying power of 2000 times the trading account size. Equiti also offers dividends for some indices, the list can be seen on their website under the products>indices section. 

The leverage and commission are the same with commodities and there are precious metals, agricultural, and energy commodities CFDs offered. CFDs offer the ability to trade underlying assets without directly owning them and it is possible to short-sell the asset that the trader does not own. 

ETFs CFDs trading on Equiti

ETFs stand for Exchange-Traded Funds. CFDs are a type of contract that allows traders to speculate at a lesser cost on the rise, or fall, in value of a group of companies chosen by industry, such as biotech or robotics. Unlike index funds, which are valued at the end of each day, ETFs can be bought and sold during the day. This means that investors can trade these funds in the same way that they trade stock CFDs. There is a total of 8 ETF CFDs offered by Equiti with a 35% margin. There are trading commissions for ETFs. ETF CFDs grant traders greater flexibility not only to speculate on the price but to immediately short the underlying asset without owning it. This feature of CFDs makes them great instruments for speculation and is the number one go-to asset class for traders. The eight ETF CFDs are ARKAutoTech, ARKFintech, ARKGenomRev, ARKInnovative, ARKInternet, ARKSpace, iSHARECEETF, and SaudiETF. 

Despite their inherent advantages, the CFDs are known for their high risk of losing money due to leveraged trading and more than 75% of CFD traders lose money. Beginners should be very cautious when trading CFDs as they are great assets for experienced traders but risky for beginners.

There is only one single account type called Equiti Account that offers low spreads from 0 pips and low trading commissions for Forex and other asset classes. This account type is more focused on scalpers as it has low spreads and offers the ability to trade intraday with small profits. Equiti has no dealing desk (NDD broker) and offers ECN technology to provide low spreads and high execution speeds on all CFDs. Trading can be done from all devices as MT5 offers multi-platform support. 

Pros & cons of Equiti account types

Getting started on Equiti – Main steps

In this section we’ll show you how to open a live trading account with Equiti. The registration process and account activation are digital, and the broker’s web page is very intuitive and user-friendly. In addition, customer support agents are available 24/6 in 6 languages in case you have any questions. 

Step 1: Open an account

Opening a trading account is simple and requires a few minutes on the Equiti website. Just click on the “START TRADING” button and fill in the fields. After this step, it is required to get verified for withdrawals. 

Step 2: Time to verify your account

It will be necessary to upload proof of identity and proof of residence document photos to get verified at Equiti. The proof of identity can be a government-issued ID card or passport and the documents need to be valid. For proof of residence, a photo of a utility bill or bank statement will be sufficient. On proof of residence documents, it is necessary that the user’s address and name are visible. 

Step 3: Make your deposit and start trading

After verification there are multiple options for funding your account. Funding is mostly instant and the broker has its own prepaid card for instant withdrawals with zero fees. The MT5 trading platform is offered for all devices to trade with advanced tools at traders’ disposal. 

Comparing Equiti fees with other brokers

Equiti fees compared to Interactive Brokers fees

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

Equiti fees compared to CM Trading fees

Equiti fees compared to plus500 fees

Equiti fees compared to XM fees

Equiti fees compared to AvaTrade fees

Equiti fees compared to Capital.com fees

Equiti offers MetaTrader 5 (MT5) to its traders with some advanced features added. MT5 comes with some minor changes and design over its predecessor, with updates that introduce more built-in social capabilities and news and markets. Equiti offers some of its custom tools and features that come with MT5. Equiti’s MT5 comes with Market Watch data and table reports with enhanced market depth and a multi-threaded strategy tester.

The economic calendar is inbuilt into MT5, including earnings reports, as well as 88 built-in EAs (Expert Advisors or trading robots). There is a possibility for partial order filling, four order execution types, and six pending orders. As we can see Equiti’s MT5 comes with plenty of advanced functionality and several different time frames and inbuilt technical analysis tools to fully analyze the price charts that can be detached and customized. This customization feature is very useful to adjust the platform to user needs and make it more convenient for different kinds of trading activities during the day. Equiti provides traders with access to MT5 from all devices including Android, iOS, and desktop PCs. 

There are no education resources offered by Equiti, but the broker provides a number of useful trading tools. The economic calendar provides detailed information about all upcoming news events and even earnings reports. This calendar is inbuilt into MT5 and enables traders to monitor important macroeconomic news directly from the trading platforms. Up to 60 Expert Advisors are also inbuilt and help traders automate the trading process. 

Customer support is available 24/6 in 6 different languages and there are several options to contact the broker’s representatives directly. Live chat is the most convenient way for resolving any issues or getting answers to any questions that may arise during the trading process. 

Equiti is a regulated broker that provides secure and reliable trading services to traders worldwide. The broker's STP model eliminates any conflicts of interest and ensures that the broker does not take bets against its traders. Equiti offers a wide range of tradable instruments, including CFDs on Forex, stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, energies, futures, indices, and metals. Spreads are competitive and commissions are industry average making it possible to execute scalping strategies from the advanced trading platform MT5. Numerous inbuilt tools enable traders to control fundamental news directly from MT5 and to automate trading processes with inbuilt trading robots.