easyMarkets

We found the website of easyMarkets to be slightly confusing when it came to choose what account type we need. easyMarkets offers two account types:

• Standard account:  this type of account is accessible to all brokers. It has a minimum deposit balance of $100. No commission is charged when trading with the standard account but instead the broker integrates its trading costs in the spread – the spreads are fixed. In addition to this micro lots are available only to Standard accounts.
• VIP account: this account type offers different account benefits such as more competitive spreads, access to analytical tools and a personal VIP marker analyst. The spreads are fixed and start from 1 pip. The minimum deposit fee when opening a premium account is $2500. There are no special requirements in opening a premium account and users with standard accounts can upgrade at any point.

easyMarkets executes its trades through a dealing desk. easyMarkets does not charge any commission, but all of its trading fees are integrated into the spreads. This means that the broker earns money by taking the fee that is between the buy and sell price of a financial instrument. We noticed that the spreads of easyMarkets are quite high therefore they do not have the most lucrative trading costs.

On the other hand, the non-trading costs of easyMarkets are very favorable. The broker does not charge withdrawal fees or inactivity fees. We found that depositing and withdrawing funds with easyMarkets was quite easy and straightforward.  The broker offers many funding methods such credit/debit cards, bank transfer, online banking like SOFORT, giropay, iDEAL, etc and e-wallets like Neteller, Skrill and Fasapay.

There are 2 platforms that easyMarkets offers:

• The popular MT4 (MetaTrader 4) as well as. An award-winning favorite among many brokers, the MT4 platform was created by the fintech company ‘MetaQuotes’ and is highly customizable. Th platform offers extensive features like s a favorite among traders and offers a vast range of features and tools. MT4 also offers many tools like technical, Expert advisors (EAs) for automated trading, indicators, signals, and other great tools that can improve the trading experience for many users. The platform is available on mobile, on iOS and Android. We were disappointed that easyMarkets does not offer MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
• Proprietary platform (easyMarkets Web Platform): easyMarkets developed this platform in-house and introduced it in 2001. We found it to be refreshingly easy to use in comparison to many other brokers’ proprietary platforms. It offers plenty of tools like dealCancellation which allows users to protect their trades from errors then ‘undo’ them, Freeze Rate that allows users to pause a rate and Inside Viewer that is a form of social trading tool that allows users to view the trades of others.

In addition to this, easyMarkets also has a feature called easyTrade which allows users to trade with zero spreads and no margin. A lot of traders interested in hedging find this tool highly useful.

We were not very impressed with the research tools that easymarkets offers.  The broker’s website features a Market Analysis section where traders can find market news that regularly updated, real time trading charts that shows the changes in prices, a Financial Calendar that includes various geopolitics events that may influence financial markets and a blog. What we found a bit disappointing was about this section was the information wasn’t sufficiently detailed.

Trader’s education at easyMarkets was satisfactory. Under the section ‘LEARN’ traders can find various e-books, articles and videos that cover different topics like trading psychology, risk management, etc.

We particularly impressed with the ‘Get Started’ and the ‘Discover Series’ that is something like crash course in trading which teaches brokers forex terminology, key concepts and history behind popular financial instruments. The broker also offers a demo account for traders to practice trading or to try the platform out.  The easyMarkets Learn Center has several sections that teach users about trading:

• Getting Started: this section talks about the fundamentals of trading. This is particularly helpful to new traders who are trying to learn about trading. This section will help users to set up their account and navigate them through the platform.
• Discover Series: This section talks about the various financial instruments that easyMarkets offers, such as currency pairs, commodities, cryptocurrencies etc. Traders will learn terminology, key concepts and the history behind different instruments.
• Free eBooks: this section contains 10 e-books on different topics that discuss trading. Those vary from Trading psychology to platform guides.
• Knowledge Base: this section contains economic indicators which is a list of different movement across markets that may influence the economy; a trading glossary which is a section that contains various trading terms and their meaning; and finally an extensive FAQs that contains common questions that traders ask Customer Support about.

easyMarkets offers good, reliable customer support to be quite good. Customer support is available on a 24-hour, 5 day a week basis in many languages like French, Chinese German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Hebrew and of course English. There are also many methods in reaching the customer support team of easyMarkets such as by phone, live chat, email, as well as through WhatsApp and Viber.

easyMarkets offers its customers something that many other brokers do not – simplicity. The broker’s proprietary platform is very user-friendly and does not scare of new users. In general, we believe that easyMarkets is worth considering as your broker.