Trading.com Review 2023

Trading.com is two related companies operating under the same name. One takes only US clients, the other takes only UK clients. 

The US company trades only in FX, while the UK company offers both FX and CFDs on stocks, stock market indices, and commodities (including precious metals, oil, and agricultural commodities). 

The company has two Unique Selling Points. One is that it’s committed to the Metatrader 5 platform, which has not yet gained universal acceptance. (The UK side only offers MT5 while the US operation also has its own proprietary platform as well.) 

Secondly, it stresses simplicity. It tries to be as transparent as possible about price and trading conditions. Both units only charge spreads, no commissions and no fees. As part of its “simplicity” mantra, the range of trading instruments (outside of FX) is less than what some other brokers offer (although still more than adequate) and the UK side as yet has no research. It’s pared down the trading experience to the essentials, or as they say, “We are here to simplify the trading process. To offer traders quick, direct and straightforward access to the financial markets.”

Is Trading.com a good broker?

Trading.com is good broker for traders looking for a simple, easy-to-understand proposition that offers low costs (only spreads, no commissions), flexible trading conditions, quick execution, and a fast trading platform that can accommodate algorithmic trading.

It’s not the best place to go if you’re looking for whizz-bang charts, esoteric indicators, cryptocurrencies, long-term investment options, passive investments, or a lot of education and information. 

In short, it’s great for people who simply want to trade forex, stock markets, and some commodities, including gold and silver. It’s especially attractive for those who want to trade a number of different markets and those who want to use Expert Advisors (aka robots) as the MT5 platform will accommodate trading in stocks and futures as well as FX and has plenty of room for robots. 

What is Trading.com?

Trading.com is two distinct companies run by the same management: one in the US and one in the UK. The US operation, which started up in 2019, deals solely with FX while the UK side, which began a year earlier, also offers CFDS on stocks, stock indices, and commodities (precious metals, oil, and agricultural commodities). 

Both sides of the operation are market makers. That is, they are acting as the principal to all their clients’ orders, so when you buy you are buying from them, and when you sell, you are selling to them. This is always the case for CFD brokers. 

The company says it works with several liquidity providers in order to keep its spreads as tight as possible, but it doesn’t disclose who those liquidity providers are.

There are only six regulated retail FX brokers in the US. As the newest one on the block, Trading.com is far and away the smallest. In Q1 this year it averaged around $967,000 in client assets, vs $25.98mn for #5 (Interactive Brokers) and $193.3mn for the US market leader, Gain Capital (aka FOREX.com). 

Broker pros and cons

Is Trading.com safe?

The company hasn’t been in business long enough to be 100% sure, but everything so far says “yes.” It’s regulated by two of the strictest regulators on the globe, plus it’s part of a larger group that’s been around for some time and hasn’t had any major problems. 

Is Trading.com regulated?

Yes, the two sides are both regulated by strict regulators: the US side by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association, and the UK side by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

Is Trading.com legal in USA?

There are two versions of Trading.com: one, formally called Trading.com Markets Inc., is a US company that only accepts US clients. The other, formally called Trading Point of Financial Instruments UK Ltd, is a UK company that only accepts UK clients. It used to accept other European clients but had to stop after Brexit. 

The two units don’t accept clients from any other countries.

Where is Trading.com based

The two sides of the company have different headquarters: New York, NY and London, UK. 

Who owns Trading.com

Trading.com is a relatively new brand operated by Trading Point Group, This is also the parent company of online brokerage XMand Trading Point Asset Management.

The formal names of the companies are Trading.com Markets Inc operating as Trading.com in the US, Trading Point of Financial Instruments (UK) Ltd, operating as Trading.com in the UK, and Trading Point Holdings Ltd operating as XM in the UK, EU, and other countries around the world.

Trading Point Group was founded in 2009. Trading.com was first registered in 2015 although it seems it didn’t start trading until 2018.

I couldn’t find out anything about the ownership of the group, I’m afraid. None of the current executives have a significant stake in it. 

Can Trading.com be trusted?

Trading.com is a relatively new broker – the UK side started up in 2018, the US side in 2019. Hence it doesn’t have that long of a track record. Nonetheless the parent company has been a major participant in the online FX trading business since 2009 with no problems that I know of. Both sides of trading.com are regulated by the strictest regulators in the business. So I would say yes, all the evidence is that it’s a trustworthy firm. 

Leverage

Leverage in both cases is limited by the national regulators, not by the company itself. That means in the US it can go as high as 50:1 on major pairs like EUR/USD and 33:1 for minor pairs, and 30:1 in the UK. You can adjust your leverage.

Accounts

In the US, the company only offers one option: what it calls a T1 account. It’s a spread-only account, no commissions. Only one base currency: USD.

In the UK, it offers two types of accounts: Ultra-Low Standard and Ultra-Low Micro. As you might have guessed from the name, the main difference is in the size of the contracts that you can trade: the standard account trades standard lots, which are 100,000 units of the base currency, while the micro account trades micro-lots, which is only 1,000 units of the base currency. Since not all assets are available in micro lots, the micro account offers only a limited array of trading instruments (FX and precious metals). 

You aren’t required to trade those volumes though. For the standard account, the minimum trade volume is 0.01 lot (maximum 50 lots), while for the micro account, the minimum is 0.1 lot (maximum 100 lots) for forex, while for CFDs the minimum here is 1 lot. 

UK clients can open accounts with the following base currencies as well as GBP: EUR, USD, CHF,‎ AUD, PLN, and HUF. This is probably a remanent from when the UK regulation allowed them to take clients from the EU as well. 

As in the US, these are both spread only, no commissions.

Demo accounts are valid for 90 days. 

Fees

Trading.com is competing to a large extent on price. It has no commissions and strives to offer the tightest spreads in the US (we can neither confirm nor deny this claim). They don’t have any other day-to-day fees, such as deposit or withdrawal fees. On the contrary, it says it will compensate traders for the cost of deposits over $200 and any withdrawals, even by wire transfer. 

There is however an inactivity fee. On the US side, it kicks in after 12 months of no trading and is $10 a month. In the UK side it starts after 90 days and is $5 a month. 

Spreads

Trading.com has relatively tight spreads, starting from 0.6 pip. This is tighter than some but not as tight as others, which in some cases have no spread at all! But those firms probably have a commission. Trading.com has no commissions at all, only the spread.

The company says it has minimal slippage and no requotes, which would make sense as it’s the market-maker.

Trading Instruments

US: In the US, Trading.com is a forex broker, plain and simple. They offer trading in 71 FX pairs composed of the usual G10 currencies + Scandis and a number of exotics: CNH, CZK, HKD, HUF, MXN, PLN, SGD, THB, TRY, and ZAR.

UK:

FX: The range of currencies offered is somewhat smaller (55 pairs) than in the US. The only currencies they offer in the US but not the UK are CZK and THB, otherwise it’s just fewer combinations of the remaining ones (and frankly, does anyone really trade EUR/DKK?)

Stocks: They offer CFDs on some 1,337 stocks from 18 countries (US, UK, 13 European countries, Australia, Brazil, and Canada.) I don’t think there are any ETFs included in this range. This is fewer than some of the market leaders but still more than anyone needs. 

Equity indices: 21 different equity indices, including the major US indices, UK, many European markets, Japan, China, India, South Africa, and Singapore, among others. No FX indices or market baskets.

Commodities: The firm offers CFDs on metals (gold vs USD and EUR, silver, and copper); energy (Brent, WTI, and natural gas); and seven agricultural commodities, such as cocoa, coffee, and wheat.

No cryptos, as crypto CFDs aren’t allowed in the UK. 

Account Opening and Minimum Deposits

In line with its emphasis on simplicity, trading.com boasts of its quick sign-up process. In the UK they say,

Say goodbye to bureaucracy and overly long registration processes. With Trading.com you can sign-up in under 4.5 minutes, we’ve tested it! Say goodbye to complex terms and conditions or hidden fees.

Similarly for the US, as long as you’re a US resident over the age of eighteen and you can provide the (usual) necessary information, the process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. 

In the US you need $50 minimum to open an account, which is the lowest I’ve seen. But the UK side even beats that: you only need $5!

You can make the payment by bank wire or credit/debit card. In addition you can use the e-wallet company Skrill. 

Trading.com says it will compensate traders for the cost of transferring funds above $200. 

US accounts are available only in USD, while in the UK they are available in GBP, USD, EUR, CHF, AUD, PLN, and HUF, probably a remanent from when the UK regulation allowed them to accept clients from the Continent. You can’t change your base currency but you can open a new account with a different base currency. 

The website is still available in Czech, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish as well as English, in case you happen to be a Hungarian speaker living in the US or UK. 

Withdrawals

Trading.com processes withdrawal requests within 24 hours on business days.

As usual, the regulators require that deposits be withdrawn the same way that they came in. 

Wire transfer and withdrawal to a credit/debit card can take two to three business days, while Skrill is a lot faster – it’ll receive your money the same day.

Trading.com says it will compensate you for the cost of withdrawing funds, even by wire transfer. It’s the only company I know of that does this. 

Trading Platform

In the US, the firm offers its own proprietary trading platform, Webtrader, plus Metatrader 5. In the UK however they only offer Metatrader 5.

Webtrader offers detailed charting, advanced tools and a customizable interface. You can also transfer funds and access news and analysis. You can trade with one click. You can trade from charts, a watchlist or even a news article. You can have up to 12 charts open at a time and pin them to your layout. 

There’s also a mobile version that has more features than the web-based version, which is unusual. Normally the desktop version is the main one and the mobile version is a stripped-down version of that. 

While this is not the super-duper jazzed-up platform that some firms offer, it certainly offers enough for most people:

Trading Tools 

Add-ons are minimal. The US side offers a Members’ Area, News & Research Portal, Learning Center, and Advanced Trading Tool, 

A VPS for MetaTrader 5 is available for $28 a month, which is waived if you have $5,000 in your account and trade at least 5 lots a month.

Scalping and hedging are both allowed in the UK. In the US the law forbids hedging. 

Strict no re-quotes policy, which is normal for a market-maker. They’re their quotes, after all.

Social trading

Trading.com is for trading, not investing. They don’t have any facilities for copy trading, PAMM or MAM accounts, or anything like that. There is a copy trading function available through MT5 (the Trading Signals service) but they don’t provide the service.

Education and information

Education and information are not trading.com’s strong point.

The US side has an OK but not exhaustive educational offering: short written and video tutorials at the beginning (11), intermediate (13), and advanced (9) levels, from “What is trading?” to “Fundamental analysis indicators in forex trading”. These are all in the 2-5 minute range though so we’re not talking CFA-level analysis. There’s also a section giving instructions on how to use the platform. The firm also offers daily commentary, technical analysis, trade signals, and investor sentiment indicators derived from their own traders’ positions. 

By contrast, the UK side has an economic calendar and forex calculator. For “glossary” and “trading guide” it just says “soon.” 

Customer Support

Trading.com has a customer support team dedicated to delivering superior customer service 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Customer support can be contacted either by telephone or via email. Alternatively, traders can make use of the live/instant chat function present on the website should they need immediate assistance, given the timeframe in which support is available. The live chat in the UK is available in English, Spanish, and Italian. In the US it’s only English. 

Is Trading.com a good broker for beginners?

Yes and no. Yes in that their mantra is “simplicity.” They’re going for the “Goldilocks” solution: not too little, not too much. They have more than enough options to fulfill your needs without overwhelming you. You won’t get bogged down with a hundred different chart types, a thousand different indicators, and a million articles to read every day. You will however have access to every chart you want, every indicator you want, every currency pair you could want and, in the UK, far more assets than you could ever want as a beginner at competitive prices that are easy to understand. So that’s perfect for the beginner.

On the other hand, if you’re unsure even where to begin, if you need someone to hold your hand, if you’re looking for guidance and education, the options here are limited. On the UK side they’re non-existent (yet). 

One promising solution: register with trading.com to benefit from their simplicity and go to their sister site, XM, to use their extensive, excellent educational resources.