Invest.com Review by professional Forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team, Finding out everything you need to know about the broker is in this Invest.com Review.
Invest.com Review
Invest.com is a forex and CFD broker, which also offers an interesting portfolio management solution. Islamic (swap-free) accounts are also available upon request.
The Company. Security of Funds
Invest.com is owned and operated by GS Sharestocks Ltd. The company is registered in Cyprus, but more importantly is overseen by the local Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). This generally brings a lot of credibility to them, especially when compared to unregulated or off-shore brokers.
While you may associate Cyprus with sunny beaches or the political tensions of the past, the country’s retail forex industry is thriving. This is due to multiple factors, one of which is the European Union’s MIFID, which allows brokers who are licensed in one country to operate in the entire single market. That being said the Cypriot regulatory body has to enforce a lot of strict rules. While the reporting standards and €730,000 capital requirement are often the biggest concerns for the brokers themselves, clients should care a lot about the next two rules:
First and foremost, all of the traders’ capital is held in the so called “segregated accounts”. This implies the broker can’t freely access your funds – transfers are done only after following specific rules. On top of that, all CySEC regulated brokers must participate in the local investor compensation scheme. This is a mechanism, which ensures protection, in the off-chance the broker becomes insolvent. The scheme in Cyprus covers investments up to €20,000, per account.
Invest.com also offers managed accounts.
That being said, they are licensed for this activity and it is done in an interesting way. The company provides “automated investment strategies”(which by the looks of things are very different from the Expert Advisors, you may be familiar with). You can either pick among them, or follow the portfolio-creation questionaly.
The latter options features a series of questions about your, age, net worth, the amount of time you would wish to invest for and a way of determining your risk tolerance.
After filling the form, you will be given a recommended portfolio of strategies.
Trading with such a portfolio does comes with its separate fees. They vary on the size of your investment (in relation to €10,000). Here is a breakdown:
Account size Annual Management fee Performance fee
Under €10,000 1.5% (0.124% monthly) 15% (charged quarterly)
Over €10,000 0.99% (0.082% monthly) 15% (charged quarterly)
In case you are not familiar, this is the same model used by most hedge funds. The management fee is collected as a portion of your account balance. The fact Invest.com does that on a monthly basis may be disturbing to some clients, but in reality shouldn’t be, as no lock-up clause is in place (you can withdraw your funds at any time).
The performance fee is only charged on the net profits. The high-water mark rule obviously applies. That being said, we are left with negative feelings about a broker offering any form of managed accounts, as there is a lot of room for conflicts of interest. As an example, the strategies utilized by Invest.com may trade too frequently, in order to generate more revenue in commissions for the company.
Minimum Initial Deposit
The minimum deposit at Invest.com varies by payment method, from $100 for e-wallets, to $250 for Credit Cards to $500 for Bank Transfers. This is an interesting policy, which is probably associated with the costs of processing the different payment methods. While the levels are not too crazy, some traders may be willing to start out with even less. Luckily there are brokers, who offer even lower entry barriers, like FXCM, where you can start with $50.
Average spreads & Commissions
Spreads at Invest.com are not fully disclosed upfront. While they provide two trading platforms (which we will cover in greater details below), the “simple” trading has some of the characteristics of option trading, while the “pro” offers a classic trading environment. The conditions we found in the latter are much worse than the current industry standards. The EUR/USD spread, as depicted in one of our later screenshots is the astronomical 5.2 pips. There isn’t much ground for comparison to the rest of the industry, where 1.5 pips is often viewed as a high level. For a more detailed view of the industry, check out our real-time spread-tracking platform.
Leverage
The maximum leverage at Invest.com is 1:200, although the initial one is 1:50, as per CySEC regulations. Both of these levels are what one would consider normal for the current environment, especially since some borkers offer 1:500 (and occasionally even more).
For those of you who are newer to trading, we must mention the fact tradig with high leverage ratios is risky. The reason why CySEC forced all CFD brokers to initially set the leverage at 1:50 is to protect clients from their own greed (or lack of trading knowledge).
Trading Platforms
As briefly mentioned above, there are two trading platforms available at Invest.com. Both are web-based solutions, with mobile apps also supported for the iOS and Android app-marketplaces.
When placing an order, one is faced with a panel, which allows him to set-up the parameters of the deal.
This looks like a mix between a binary option and spot trading. As we have mentioned in other reviews, this method of applying risk management is very counter-intuitive. Experienced traders usually pick a level on the chart, which will deem their trading idea invalid and then determine their position size, based on the distance to their entry point and account balance.
On the other hand, the “Pro” trading app is what most brokerages will call a standard one.
The charting package is provided by TradingView, which is one of the best (a noteworthy competitor to the one in MetaTrader4). Other than that, the platform feels stable, although lacking some of the functionality of more sophisticated solutions.
Methods of Payment
The methods of of payment at Invest.com include Bank Transfer, Credit/Debit Cards, iDEAL, Sofort, Skrill and Neteller. Basically only the Bitcoin crowd is left out.
Invest.com is a CySEC-regulated broker, offering an interesting service. The trading conditions which were available, during our testing of their platform were terrible. Other than that, the managed accounts functionality is more sophisticated than what the majority of the competition have to offer. Tinkering with the portfolio creation tool seems fun and interactive – you can actually see it change, based on different input parameters.
Instead of the forex broker you can use Plus500, XM, eToro, Fxpro or AvaTrade forex brokers.
Invest.com Review Conclusion
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