Saxo Bank Review by professional Forex trading experts the “ForexSQ” FX trading team, Finding out everything you need to know about the broker is in this SaxoBank Review.
Saxo Bank Review
Saxo Bank Established in Copenhagen in 1992, Saxo Bank serves both retail and institutional clients, offering trading in more than 30 000 instruments, including currency pairs, binary options, contracts for difference (CFDs), stocks, futures, and bonds through its in-house SaxoTrader platforms. It is one of the biggest and most reputable forex brokerages, and one of the few major ones (except OANDA), that is privately held.
Apart from doing business as a brokerage firm (and a market maker), Saxo Bank is also a bank, duly licensed in Denmark and other jurisdictions.
The Saxo Bank group operates 25 offices and has subsidiary companies across Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Australia, South America, and South Africa.
Saxo Banks’s clients are probably one of the few traders who need not worry about the security of their funds. Apart from being a privately-owned company and bank regulated by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), Saxo bank is duly licensed and authorized to provide its services by one of the most reputable authorities in the world, including UK’s FCA, Australia’s ASIC, and Japan’s FSA.
Saxo Bank is also a member of the Danish Guarantee Fund for Depositors and Investors. In the event that a Danish bank (including Saxo Bank) should suspend its payments or go into bankruptcy, client deposits are guaranteed by the Fund up to EUR 100 000 for cash deposits.
Besides, as a EU-regulated bank and investment firm, Saxo Bank falls under the MiFID’s (the Market in Financial Instruments Directive) jurisdiction and has as such implemented all necessary legal requirements, and is entitled to offer its services in all EU countries.
Trading Conditions
Minimum Initial Deposit
In order to open an account with Saxo Bank, one has to deposit at least $10 000 (/£ 6,500 for UK residents), which is a comparatively high minimum initial deposit. In comparison, Swissquote (a Swiss brokerage that also operates as a bank), has set no minimum initial deposit and one may open an account with just $1.
Average spreads & Commissions
Saxo Bank offers both fixed and variable spreads. Its fixed spread is average, amounting to 2 pips on EUR/USD, while variable ones are tight, the typical ones being around 0.5 pips. However, variable spreads are offered within the Volume Price Plan, where a volume-based commission is applied. If a trader doesn’t want to be bound by a minimum trading volume, the commission is salty, amounting to $12 per lot round turn. This means that the trading costs are around 1.7 pips per traded lot, which is above the average for the market. If, however, one trades at least $600 per month, pricing is significantly better – a commission of $6 (per lot round turn) applies.
In comparison, Swissquote offers variable spreads, starting from to 1.8 pips on EUR/USD on its Standard accounts. For further information, you may look up real-time spreads of 15 leading brokers at Topforexbrokers.com.
Maximum Leverage
Saxo Bank offers traders maximum leverage of 1:100, which is considered a mediocre ratio for the EU market. As most of you probably know, higher leverage involves higher risk, not only the probability of multiplied profits earned on a relatively small deposit. That is why several EU regulators have recently proposed leverage caps.
In comparison, Swissquote has set the same minimum margin requirement, while many other brokerages offer leverage equal to or exceeding 1:500.
Trading Platforms
In May 2015 SaxoTrader was launched and Saxo Bank discontinued the support for the Metatrader 4 (MT4) platform. So, if you are used to the good old MT4, you will not find it with this broker.
Saxo Bank’s extensive product offering is tradable from the desktop, web and mobile version of the broker’s own trading platform. Being quite a tech savvy company, Saxo Bank constantly updates Saxo Trader in order to improve its performance. The platform supports all the general functions you would expect to see – great charting, trading straight from charts, technical indicators, live news, technical analysis tools and indicators, algorithmic trading, etc. Along with that there are also some fancy features you probably won’t see elsewhere, such as the comparative analysis tool that lets you overlap charts for as many currency pairs as you want, or the TradeMaker tool for suggesting trading ideas.
Methods of Payment
Saxo Bank offers its clients the following payment methods: bank transfer, stock transfer, and credit or debit card payments. The following cards are accepted:
– Debit card (Visa debit, Visa Electron, Visa Dankort);
– UK debit card (Switch / Maestro, Visa-Delta, Visa Electron);
– Credit card (Visa, MasterCard).
E-wallets such as Skrill, Neteller and FasaPay, used by the majority of forex brokersges, are not available with SaxoBank.
Heavily regulated and very reputable broker, as well as a bank, Saxo Bank is an excellent choice of every broker, who is willing to or capable of investing $10 000. Saxo has received numerous awards over the years and offers efficient, state-of-the-art customer service.
Instead of the forex broker you can use Plus500, XM, eToro, Fxpro or AvaTrade forex brokers.
SaxoBank Review Conclusion
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