Between 54-87% of retail CFD accounts lose money. Based on 69 brokers who display this data.
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BrokerDNA™
The BROKERDNA™ score tells you, overall, how reputable, suitable, and affordable a broker is compared to other brokers. This score is algorithmically-generated based on 31 factors. Neither our team, nor the brokers featured on our site, are able to change this without changing their service offering. Learn more here. |
Swissquote
8.8
/10
VISIT SWISSQUOTE
The BROKERDNA™ score tells you, overall, how reputable, suitable, and affordable a broker is compared to other brokers. This score is algorithmically-generated based on 31 factors. Neither our team, nor the brokers featured on our site, are able to change this without changing their service offering. Learn more here. |
ActivTrades
7.6
/10
VISIT ACTIVTRADES
The BROKERDNA™ score tells you, overall, how reputable, suitable, and affordable a broker is compared to other brokers. This score is algorithmically-generated based on 31 factors. Neither our team, nor the brokers featured on our site, are able to change this without changing their service offering. Learn more here. |
XTB
10
/10
VISIT XTB
The BROKERDNA™ score tells you, overall, how reputable, suitable, and affordable a broker is compared to other brokers. This score is algorithmically-generated based on 31 factors. Neither our team, nor the brokers featured on our site, are able to change this without changing their service offering. Learn more here. |
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About |
Swissquote is regulated by FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority). Swissquote have provided Forex, Commodities, Indices, Stocks, Bonds trading services since 1999. |
ActivTrades is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. ActivTrades have provided Forex, Indices, Shares and Commodities trading services since 2001. |
XTB is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. XTB have provided Forex, CFD, and social trading services since 2002. |
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Why choose them? |
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Headquarters | Chemin de la Cretaux 33, 1196 Gland, Switzerland | 1 Thomas More Square London E1W 1YN UK | Level 34, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, E14 5AA, London, UK | |
TRADING SERVICES OFFERED |
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Spot Forex | ||||
Forex (CFD) | ||||
CFD | ||||
Spread Betting | ||||
Social Trading | ||||
MARKETS & INSTRUMENTS | ||||
Forex (currency pairs) | 138 | 47 | 48 | |
Commodities Offered | 7 | 12 | 21 | |
Stocks Offered | 0 | 532 | 1606 | |
Bitcoin | ||||
Majors | ||||
Indices | ||||
US Stocks | ||||
Penny stocks | ||||
Energies | ||||
Metals | ||||
Agriculturals | ||||
FTSE | ||||
Dow Jones | ||||
Dax | ||||
Nikkei | ||||
ETFs | ||||
IPO | ||||
See all instruments
Losses can exceed deposits |
See all instruments
71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
See all instruments
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. |
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PLATFORM & FEATURES |
See the platforms and features offered by each broker |
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Screenshot |
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MT4 | ||||
MT5 | ||||
MT4 Mac | ||||
WebTrader | ||||
Mirror Trader | ||||
ZuluTrade | ||||
Sirix | ||||
cTrader | ||||
PAMM | ||||
Custom Platforms | eTrading | Activ Trader | Xstation5 | |
APPS |
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iOS |
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Android |
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Windows |
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Available Languages |
English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese |
English, Spanish, Czech, Chinese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovenian, Turkish, Arabic, and Russian. |
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See platform & features
Losses can exceed deposits |
See platform & features
71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
See platform & features
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. |
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ACCOUNT INFORMATION |
From micro accounts to ECN accounts, compare the accounts offered by Swissquote and ActivTrades |
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Demo account | ||||
Mini account | ||||
Micro account | ||||
Standard account | ||||
ECN Account | ||||
Islamic account | ||||
Zero spread account | ||||
VIP account | ||||
Fixed spreads | ||||
Variable spreads | ||||
See account options
Losses can exceed deposits |
See account options
71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
See account options
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. |
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TRADING CONDITIONS |
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Scalping | ||||
Hedging | ||||
Expert advisors (EAs) | ||||
Virtual private server | ||||
Direct market access | ||||
STP broker | ||||
Market maker | ||||
Min trade | Varies | 0.01 Lot | 0.01 Lot | |
Max trade | Varies | £100/point | 100 Lot | |
Min deposit | 1,000 | $100 | $1 | |
RISK MANAGEMENT |
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Stop losses | ||||
Limit orders | ||||
One-click trading | ||||
Trailing stops | ||||
Price alerts | ||||
Signal trading | ||||
FUNDING METHODS |
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Credit card | ||||
Bank transfer | ||||
Standard account | ||||
Paypal | ||||
Neteller | ||||
Skrill | ||||
Payment processing time | 1 business day | Varies | Same day if requested before 1PM | |
Withdrawal processing time | 1 business day | 1 business day | Same day if requested before 1PM | |
See all funding options
Losses can exceed deposits |
See all funding options
71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
See all funding options
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. |
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DETAILED INFO |
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Excluded countries | US | US | US,IN,PK,BD,IQ,IR,IL,AF,AU,CA | |
Contact email | Send Email | Send Email | Send Email | |
Phone number | 44 20 7186 2600 | +44 (0) 207 6500 567 | 44 2036953085 | |
Live Chat | ||||
Website | www.swissquote.eu | https://www.activtrades.com/en/ | www.xtb.com | |
Spreads: | ||||
EUR/USD (Average: 0.7 pips) | 1.0 pips | 0.5 pips + $0.00 | 0.1 pips | |
GBP/USD (Average: 1.1 pips) | 1.1 pips | 0.8 pips + $0.00 | 0.1 pips | |
USD/JPY (Average: 1.1 pips) | 1.3 pips | 0.5 pips + $0.00 | 0.1 pips | |
AUD/USD (Average: 0.8 pips) | 1.0 pips | 0.6 pips + $0.00 | 0.2 pips | |
USD/CHF (Average: 2.3 pips) | 1.7 pips | 1.0 pips + $0.00 | 0.2 pips | |
USD/CAD (Average: 2.9 pips) | 2.2 pips | 1.0 pips + $0.00 | 0.3 pips | |
NZD/USD (Average: 3.6 pips) | 1.5 pips | 1.0 pips + $0.00 | 0.3 pips | |
EUR/GBP (Average: 2.4 pips) | 1.3 pips | 0.8 pips + $0.00 | 0.1 pips | |
View all spreads
Losses can exceed deposits |
View all spreads
71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
View all spreads
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. |
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FEES |
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Inactivity Fee | No | No | ||
Commission | No | Yes | Yes | |
Deposit Fee | No | Varies | No | |
Withdrawal Fee | No | No | No | |
View All Fees
Losses can exceed deposits |
View All Fees
71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
View All Fees
82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. |
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Last update |
All information collected from www.swissquote.eu. Last updated on 01/01/2021. |
All information collected from https://www.activtrades.com/en/. Last updated on 01/01/2021. |
All information collected from www.xtb.com. Last updated on 01/01/2021. |
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Company |
Swiss based Swissquote is an online trading company that provide everything you need to manage your assets online. With Swissquote you are only one click away from trading in the worlds major stock markets in over 1 million products. They give you access to equities, options and futures, funds, derivatives and more. |
ActivTrades was found in 2001 as a small brokerage house in Switzerland, it has since grown to be a global award-winning broker for both retail and institutional traders. ActivTrades has seen rapid growth through with their focus on client satisfaction by providing the best trading technology including the latest MetaTrader 5, innovative trading tools like Autochartist and VPS hosting , outstanding customer service and competitive pricing with pips starting as low as 0.8 for EURUSD. |
XTB provides hyper fast execution and facilitates seminars with external professional traders, providing personalised education depending on your individual circumstances. |
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Popular comparisons |
Popular comparisons feat. Swissquote
Swissquote vs Dukascopy |
Popular comparisons feat. ActivTrades
ActivTrades vs IC Markets |
Popular comparisons feat. XTB
XTB vs IG |
If you’re a trader looking for a broker that has been established for a long time, Swissquote is likely a good choice. However, if you want a broker with a large range of instruments available to trade, ActivTrades may be more suitable.
You can determine a broker’s reliability & trustworthiness by looking at eight factors:
Based on these eight factors, we consider Swissquote and ActivTrades to be equally reliable. We’ve broken down why below:
Swissquote and ActivTrades are both regulated by Financial Conduct Authority
XTB are also regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
If a broker has been around for a long period of time, they’re likely to be more reliable (in comparison, most scam brokers only exist for several years before they disappear).
This also suggests that a broker has good risk management processes that have prevented them being caught out by major financial events, as was the case with Alpari UK going bust when they were there was a policy reversal of capping the Swiss Franc against the Euro.
Swissquote has been around for 25 years, while ActivTrades have been around for 20 years. Our third alternative broker, XTB, have been around for 19 years.
You wouldn’t want your broker paying their staff out of the same bank account account that you’re depositing your trading funds into, would you?
Fortunately, all regulated brokers must use segregated bank accounts to hold client money. This is one of the reasons why we only feature regulated brokers here on BrokerNotes.
All three brokers above will hold your money in a separate bank account.
Most tier-1 banks like Barclays and HSBC have been around for over 100 years and manage trillions of dollars of assets, proving that they have stood the test of time.
Both Swissquote and ActivTrades use tier one banks, but we are not sure of which bank specifically.
If a broker has been penalised by a regulator in the past five years, it may mean that they were caught doing something they shouldn’t be doing - which may be of concern to you as an end client.
We’re not aware of any penalties or fines imposed by regulators on Swissquote or ActivTrades in the past five years.
While not always the case, the number of traders a broker has can be a good metric for understanding how reputable a brokers is.
Swissquote is more popular with over 330,000 traders.
Companies that are publicly listed on a stock exchange tend to be considered more reputable as they will be required to disclose their financials, and aspects of their operations, to the public.
Both Swissquote and ActivTrades are privately owned companies.
Most reputable brokers tend to be headquartered in a major capital city or a financial hub such as Cyprus.
Swissquote are based in Chemin de la Cretaux 33, 1196 Gland, Switzerland, while ActivTrades are based in 1 Thomas More Square London E1W 1YN UK .
Assuming the brokers you’re choosing between are reputable, the next point to consider is whether they offer all of the features you require to trade.
This can be broken down into three categories:
If you’re looking to trade currency pairs, both Swissquote and ActivTrades offer forex trading. Swissquote have a slightly larger variety of currency pairs with 138 pairs, compared to 47 offered by ActivTrades. Also, if you’re looking to trade cryptocurrencies, ActivTrades offers a handful of cryptocurrency CFDs to trade, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.
Both Swissquote and ActivTrades allow you to trade commodities like gold, silver and crude oil.
Swissquote and ActivTrades both offer social trading, which is a modern approach to trading that allows you to follow like-minded traders, copy their trading activity, and engage in discussion around trading strategies.
If you trade forex, there’s a good chance you might want a broker that offers the popular MT4 trading platform. If that’s the case, both Swissquote and ActivTrades offer this. Both brokers also offer the new & improved MT5 platformOur alternative broker, XTB, also offers MT4 and MT5.
In addition to the platform, you’ll also want to ensure that the broker you choose offers the account type best suited to your needs. XTB, for example, offer a mini account, standard account and VIP account.
If you have a certain trading style (e.g. scalping, hedging, or using EAs), you’ll want to double check that the broker you choose allows this, as not all of them do.
Swissquote does allow scalping and hedging. While ActivTrades also allows scalping and hedging. You can trade with EAs (expert advisors) on Swissquote but you can't trade EAs (expert advisors) with ActivTrades.
In terms of risk management tools, Swissquote doesn't offer negative balance protection, but ActivTrades does. Negative balance protection prevents you owing your broker more than you’ve deposited.
Swissquote also offer stop losses, limit orders, and price alerts to help you automate aspects of your trading strategy.
Swissquote accept Payoneer while ActivTrades accept Neteller.
Comparing the fee structures of different brokers can be a minefield at times. The important thing to consider is what the spreads & fees are on the specific instruments and account type that you will be using.
For trading EUR/USD, Swissquote charges 0.80 points, while ActivTrades charges 0.50 points. Therefore, ActivTrades is the more affordable for this instrument. If you want to compare their spreads across more instruments, You can jump back up to our comparison of their currency pair & indice spreads above.
Another consideration is whether or not your broker charges inactivity, deposit/withdrawal fees, or commissions on trades. If you’re a frequent trader, inactivity fees are unlikely to be an issue.
There’s no such thing as a perfect broker, but some are going to be a better fit for you than others.
Objectively, ActivTrades is more reliable based on our criteria above. ActivTrades has a wider range of instruments to trade. Swissquote offer lower spreads on popular forex instruments like EUR/USD and are used by more traders.
Both brokers offer demo accounts, allowing you to test their platforms to see which is suitable for you. You can test drive their demos using the links below:
Finally, if you’re really not sure you can always use our free tool (takes 15 seconds) that will help you find a suitable broker based on your precise requirements here.