VantageMarkets

Safety starts with regulations. When traders try to find an honest broker, they will first check if it is regulated and by which authorities. The more regulatory bodies regulate the broker, the safer it is to use their services On the regulations side, VantageMarkets seems fine as it is regulated by a few bodies, namely: 

• Australia Securities and Investments Commission – ASIC
• Cayman Islands Monetary Authority – CIMA
• Vanuatu Financial Services Commission – VFSC
• Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa – FSCA

Having these regulators makes it safer for clients. The room for any fraudulent activity is greatly reduced when there are multiple regulators overseeing the conduct of the broker. 

Policies 

VantageMarkets is a part of the Investors Compensation Fund and clients’ funds are kept in segregated accounts. This is really important, as segregated accounts make sure the broker can not touch user funds, and if for any reason the broker becomes insolvent, your funds remain safe. When trading with high leverage it is possible to lose more than what’s on the account balance, this is prevented if negative balance protection is in place. Since VantageMarkets offers this negative balance protection, traders won’t lose more than what they have on their accounts.

Another important aspect is that the broker clearly describes all fees related to the withdrawals and not misleading their clients. VantageMarkets states that they don’t charge fees for withdrawals, when in fact, all the withdrawals are charged starting from a 1% fee for Skrill. Security is not much about withdrawals, but the fact that the broker tries to conceal real costs and processing times for withdrawals should be looked at with suspicion. Another thing is the processing times could be as long as 3-5 business days for bank cards and profits can not be withdrawn via Visa/Mastercard and are sent to the nominated bank account instead. With all this in mind, extra caution is advised when using VantageMarkets.

As we have mentioned in the intro, VantageMarkets is a CFD broker with more than 10 years of experience, providing over 835 trading instruments in multiple asset classes including Forex, stock CFDs, indices, and commodities for trading. This is not a small number and will include almost any trader’s preferred assets. CFDs or contracts for difference are derivatives that enable traders to trade the underlying assets without owning them. Because of this, CFDs are only useful for short-term trading activities. One more advantage of CFDs is that traders can make money no matter what the market is doing. They can short-sell the CFDs right away when markets are falling. Despite these aspects, CFDs are risky instruments and more than 76% of CFDs traders lose their money. 

Forex trading 

Foreign exchange is the biggest currency market in the world. Trillions of dollars are traded each day, which dwarfs other financial markets. VantageMarkets offers 48 currency pairs in total on their trading platforms of MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). The spreads are very competitive, starting from 0.0 pip for certain account types. We will discuss account types and trading platforms in more detail later in this review. 

Stock CFDs trading 

Stocks are among the most popular trading instruments, and CFDs enable traders to speculate on stock price movements. CFDs or contracts for difference are derivatives created solely for speculative purposes. Traders can trade underlying assets using CFDs without owning the asset itself. CFDs enable traders to short-sell the asset when markets are falling, making it possible to earn money no matter what the market is doing. 

VantageMarkets provides access to over 750 stock CFDs, enabling traders to trade with the majority of stocks freely. The commissions are often zero, making it possible for traders to profit greatly from market movements. But, there is one problem with CFDs in general, they are super risky and many CFDs traders are losing money, therefor extra caution is recommended when dealing with these instruments.

Indices trading 

Indices are great instruments to track the performance of the group of assets. VantageMarkets has around 15 indices. These indices are CFDs that enable traders to gain exposure to an entire market of certain industries. The FTSE100, for example, will track the performance of blue-chip companies. You can short or long all the most popular blue chips by just trading this one CFD. Indices could also be used to analyze the overall performance of a certain industry by looking at its chart. The S&P 500 tracks the performance of the 500 top companies’ stocks in the US and can be a good indicator of economic stability. 

Commodities trading 

Commodities like metals, wheat, oil, and corn are great instruments to gain exposure to the raw materials market. The main factor affecting the prices of commodities the most is supply and demand. The main commodity that is a safe haven during an economic crisis is gold, and many investors try to maintain their health by buying gold. As gold is going to appreciate when there is an economic crisis, it is a good asset for hedging against inflation and other crises. VantageMarkets offer 22 commodities including both soft and hard commodities. This number may seem small, but actually, it is enough to trade most of the popular instruments of commodities in the commodities market.