Pros & cons of Headway

Headway Fact sheet

Choosing a safe broker is crucial to protect your funds and ensure a reliable trading experience. Headway is authorized and regulated by the FSCA in South Africa (Financial Sector Conduct Authority), license number 52108, and the brokerage is managed by JAROCEL PTY LTD. 

We can assume that it’s safe to open an account with this broker, however, it should be mentioned that the regulator is not top-tier, which enables the broker to offer unlimited leverage to its customers. High leverage is very dangerous for novice traders. It can easily amplify losses and lead to heavy losses. 

Headway offers a limited number of tradable instruments compared to the industry leaders. Most of the portfolio consists of CFDs (Contracts for Difference). CFDs are perfect for short to medium-term market price speculations, however, for investing long-term real assets are preferred. Here are some of the major benefits of trading CFDs: 

• Leverage: Headway offers unlimited leverage to its traders for trading CFDs, which means that traders can manage huge trading positions with a fraction of the money that they deposit. However, high leverage comes with risks. 
• Short trade: Traders can go long or short on CFD assets, this means that even in falling markets, traders can make money. 
• Liquidity: CFDs are more liquid than underlying assets. More traders trade CFDs than physical assets such as physical gold, real stocks, etc. As a result, traders of CFDs enjoy tight spreads. 

Forex trading on Headway

There are 46 available currency pairs for trading with Headway. Trading fees depend on the account type. Standard account holders pay no commissions and the spreads on EUR/USD start from 0.3 pips. The available currency pairs are:

• Australian Dollar vs Japanese Yen
• Australian Dollar vs New Zealand Dollar
• Euro vs Canadian Dollar
• Euro vs Japanese Yen
• Great Britain Pound vs US Dollar
• Norwegian Krone vs Danish Krone
• Singapore Dollar vs Japanese Yen
• South African Rand vs Japanese Yen
• US Dollar vs Singapore Dollar, etc.

CFDs on Stocks trading on Headway

Headway offers access to the 102 most liquid company stocks as CFDs to its clients and spreads start from 1 pip. It should be mentioned that stocks as CFDs are only available on Standard and Pro accounts and traders need to download MetaTrader 5 to be able to access them. Some of the most popular company shares offered by Headway include: 

• Apple Inc.
• Boeing Company (The)
• Alibaba Group Holding Limited
• Gilead Sciences, Inc.
• Coca-Cola Company (The)
• Mastercard Incorporated
• McDonald's Corporation
• Netflix, Inc.

Crypto CFD trading on Headway

Buying and selling crypto derivatives is more comfortable for market speculations than purchasing real digital coins. In addition to all the benefits that we have mentioned above when trading crypto CFDs, you don’t need to worry about crypto wallets and cashouts. Profits are added to your trading balance right away. There are 21 crypto derivatives available for trading with this broker and the fees start from 8.1 pips. Some of the most popular crypto pairs offered by Headway include:

• Cardano Token vs US Dollar
• Bitcoin vs Japanese Yen
• Bitcoin vs US Dollar
• Bitcoin vs Gold
• Bitcoin vs South African Rand
• Solana Token vs US Dollar, etc.

Commodity CFD trading on Headway

Commodities are raw materials that can be traded as CFDs. Headway offers 11 commodities for trading, including: 

• Crude Oil Brent
• Crude Oil
• Natural Gas vs US Dollar
• Silver vs Australian Dollar
• Silver vs Euro
• Silver vs Great Britain Pound
• Silver vs US Dollar
• Gold vs Australian Dollar
• Gold vs Euro
• Gold vs Great Britain Pound
• Gold vs US Dollar

Commodity prices are heavily impacted by global supply and demand. During high inflation, prices of commodities, such as precious metals, tend to rise. Gold is often viewed as a hedge against the US Dollar, as when the dollar goes down, investors start purchasing gold and increase prices. 

Indices trading on Headway

Indices follow the performance of certain baskets of publicly traded stocks. Indices are a great indicator of the health of certain markets and industries. In addition, they can be traded as CFDs. There are 9 indices available for trading with this broker. Trading fees start from 0.83 pips on US500, better known as S&P 500. The full list of available indices includes: 

• Australia S&P ASX 200 Index
• Germany 30 Index
• France 40 Index
• Hong Kong 50 Index
• EU Stocks 50 Index
• UK 100 Index
• US Wall Street 30 Index
• US SPX 500 Index
• US Tech 100 Index

Headway offers Cent, Standard, and Pro account types to attract different types of traders. There’s no VIP account available, however, trading fees are so low that almost every account feels VIP. All three account types have 0% Stop Out levels and 30% margin call levels. In addition, swap-free accounts, better known as Islamic accounts, and demo accounts are also available. 

Pros & cons of Headway account types

Headway Cent Account

The Cent account is best for testing trading strategies in a live trading environment with a low amount of capital at risk. There’s no initial deposit required to open this account. Account currencies are Euro and USD. Make sure to pick the currency that you use the most often to save on conversion fees. Spreads start from 0.3 pips on EUR/USD and are floating. There are a limited number of tradable instruments available on the Cent account compared to Standard and Pro accounts. Traders have access to around 110 instruments, including Forex, cryptocurrencies, metals, and energies. There are no commissions on this account and the available leverage is unlimited. 

Headway Standard Account

The Standard account is best suited for beginner traders, position traders, and swing traders, as there are no commissions, and traders are charged with spread markups. Spreads on EUR/USD start from 0.3 pips, which is very low compared to what competitors are offering. The account base currencies are USD, EUR, IDR, JPY, and THB. Traders have access to all asset types offered by this broker with unlimited leverage. In order to open this account type, a 10 USD minimum initial deposit is required. 

Headway Live Account

The Pro account is best suited for active traders who place orders frequently. The minimum initial deposit required to open the account is 100 USD. The available account currencies are USD, EUR, IDR, JPY, and THB. Leverage is unlimited and traders have access to the full spectrum of tradable instruments offered by Headway. There are no spread markups, and commissions are 1,5 USD per side per traded lot, which is super low. 

Getting started on Headway – Main steps

Opening a trading account and registration is fully digital. We’ll guide you through this process in detail.

Step 1: Open an account

To begin, you need to go to the broker’s main page and press “Get started” in yellow. You will be transferred to the registration page. Follow the instructions and provide the broker with your personal details and level of experience in trading. 

Step 2: Time to verify your account

After completing the registration process, verify your trading account. Verification is important because it enables you to freely withdraw funds from your trading account. In order to verify your account, you need to upload a digital copy or a scanned version of your identity and residency documents. For proof of identity, you can use an ID card (issued by your government), passport, or driving license. For proof of your residency, you can use a bank statement or utility bill. 

Step 3: Make your deposit and start trading

The final step is depositing funds and starting trading. Keep in mind that there are no minimum initial requirements for opening a Cent account and Standard accounts can be opened with 10 USD. As for the Pro account, you will need to deposit 100 USD. It should be noted that these are the first initial deposits, after which you’ll be able to make even smaller deposits. Headway accepts deposits via various methods, such as bank transfers, credit/debit cards, and e-wallets.

Trading fees and commissions with this broker are very low. In addition, there are no inactivity fees and fees on deposits. To get a clear picture of how low the trading fees actually are, let’s compare them with the fees of competitors. For the comparison, we picked Standard account fees. 

Comparing Headway fees with other brokers

Headway fees compared to Interactive Brokers fees

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

Headway fees compared to CM Trading fees

Headway fees compared to plus500 fees

Headway fees compared to XM fees

Headway fees compared to AvaTrade fees

Headway fees compared to Capital.com fees

Headway offers access to the most popular trading platforms. The full set of MetaTrader software, MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, is available to the customers of Headway. Both platforms are highly reliable and have a lot in common, however, they are also very different from each other.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) was designed for currency trading. On the other hand, MetaTrader 5 (MT5) supports a broader range of asset classes, including FX, stocks, bonds, futures, options, crypto, indices, and commodities. 

MT4 and MT5 use different coding languages. This means that if you’re planning to automate your trading using Expert Advisors (EAs), you will need to build or purchase a suitable trading robot for each platform. 

MT5 is more advanced in capabilities, it has more timeframes, charting, and indicator tools. In addition, MT5 displays Level 2 price creation, which enables traders to analyze bids and ask prices and make better market predictions. However, MT4 is much simpler and many traders that solely trade currency pairs, prefer MT4. 

Headway offers mobile applications that are available on the App Stores and Google Play. The apps are versions of the MetaTrader desktop software and enable traders to view live market charts, place various order types, and analyze their performance. Overall, the apps provided by the broker are great. 

Quality education is essential for traders. Headway provides guides for seasoned veterans and beginner traders under the “Learn” tab. Traders have access to the following educational material:

• Forex news
• Economic calendar
• Company news
• Forex for beginners/guides

It should be mentioned that webinars and seminars are lacking, in addition, there are no courses for beginners, intermediate, and advanced traders. Overall, education with this broker is average. 

Customer service with this broker is average. Existing and new customers can contact the broker via live chat, over the phone, or via email. The live chat option is available 24/7. The main page is available in English, Japanese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Arabic, French, and Portuguese.

To sum everything up, Headway is a global Forex and CFD broker that offers access to trading 189 instruments including CFDs on stocks, cryptocurrencies, energies, Forex, indices, and metals through the use of the MetaTrader platforms. The broker offers Cent, Standard, and Pro account types to meet the needs of different traders. What makes this broker stand out from its competitors is that it offers low trading fees. Spreads start from 0.3 pips on commission-free accounts, and there are 1.5 USD commissions per lot per round turn on spread-free accounts. On the downside, the number of available instruments is limited, and customer service and educational materials are average.