EasyMarkets Review: Complete Broker Overview

1. Many brokers try to claim that their platforms are designed to be easy to use. Easymarkets even has it in their name.

This large and regulated broker has been around since 2001 and has expanded greatly over the past 19-odd years. They have not only grown in numbers but also expanded their product offering greatly.

However, given all the competition, is it still really worth it?

In this easyMarkets review, we will give you what you need to know about the broker. I will also give you some top trading tips you need to consider.

Easy Markets Overview

As mentioned, easyMarkets was established in 2001. They have offices in Cyprus (Easy Forex Trading Ltd), Sydney (Easy Markets Pty Ltd) and the Marshall Islands (EF Worldwide Limited). The latter services international clients.

It is regulated by two agencies (CySec and ASIC) and is a CFD, FX and option broker. Traders at easyMarkets can trade hundreds of assets on three different platforms with leverage up to 400:1.

Since launching in 2001, the broker has racked up some pretty impressive stats. For example, they have completed over $2.92 trillion in USD volume, have executed over 56.3 million order and have served over 145,000 traders.

Given how long this broker has been operating, they have been through some pretty tough market conditions such as the Swiss Franc in 2015 and the Brexit referendum. The former even sank other brokers such as Alpari.

They have translated their website into 6 different languages in order to target the numerous different regions for potential traders. Although they do have large client coverage, there are a number of regions where they cannot accept clients from. You can see the full list on their site but perhaps the most prominent is the United States.

Is EasyMarkets Safe?

This is perhaps one of the most important questions that anyone can ask about a broker. There are a number of things that we look for in order to determine this. Saftey of funds and risk management procedures are essential.

Much of this is covered by a solid regulation of the broker. So, let's take a look into that shall we?

Regulation

Thankfully easyMarkets holds two regulatory licences. One of these is a CySec licence (Number 079/07) and the other is an ASIC licence (license No. 246566). There are a number of benefits that come with this not least of which is that they can operate in these regions.

Note 📝: Through the MiFiD directive, Easymarkets is allowed to "passport" in their regulations from Cyprus to any other country in the European Union

Having a licence is also a great signalling metric as it shows that the broker has had to pass some pretty strict minimum requirements. These include some of the following:

• Minimum Capital Requirement: In order to have an ASIC licence you need to hold at least A$1m and in order to get the CySec type you needed a minimum of a €750k in order to open a brokerage there.
• Segregated Accounts: The brokers are required to keep their client funds in a segregated bank account. This ensures that if there is anything that were to happen to the broker, it's business funds are separate from the client accounts.
• Segregated Accounts: Before a broker is granted any sort of licence they will first have to complete rigorous background checks. Both at the company level and at the director level.
• Renewal Requirements: Its not just about getting the licence and operating into perpetuity. These have to renewed every year and the same checks are done on the broker's operation.

Apart from knowing that the broker has had to pass these requirements, you also have the comfort of someone to turn to should you have complaints. Both ASIC and CySEC have dispute processes that you can make use of.

Banking & Capital Adequacy

When it comes to those segregated client funds, you want to be sure that they are kept in the hands of some pretty strong banks. Easymarkets makes use of top tier banks that have high credit scores and easy access to their accounts.

Easy Markets also maintains strong capital ratios over and above those that are required by the regulators. This is essential given the extreme volatility that results from unforeseen market events.

It is perhaps this reason that other brokers which met the regulatory requirements still suffered massive losses in episodes such as the Swiss Franc depegging.

Communication Security

Easy Markets has full 256 bit SSL encryption which means that your connection with them is completely secure. This includes sensitive information such as passwords, credit card info as well as personal identification documents.

This is also a great defense against Man-in-the-Middle and other phishing attacks. And while we are on this point, you also need to make sure that whenever you are accessing the easyMarkets website that you see the SSL lock.

If you do not see this then it is likely that you are on a hacker’s website and could mean that they are trying to harvest your information. So be careful!

Risk Management Tools

There are several important risk management tools that easyMarkets provides for their clients. For example, they have their Guaranteed stop losses and their negative balance protection.

We will cover these in more detail in the leverage section but the main idea behind these are:

• Negative Balance: This means that the broker has processes in place to prevent client accounts going into negative equity.
• Stop Loss: Which is a free and standard feature on easyMarkets Proprietary Platform & App
• Guaranteed Stop Loss: If the market moves below your stop - it will be executed 100%

Apart from these client side protection tools, easyMarkets regularly conducts thorough audits on their own risk management procedures.

EasyMarkets Fees

Another really important consideration for any trader has to be the fees and spreads. These are, after all, the factors which can directly impact on your trading returns over the long term. Easy Markets has fixed spreads.

Fixed Spreads 💹: This means that irrespective of the volatility in the market, they will remain the same and give you the same fairness when trading.

When it comes to easyMarket's spreads, they differ quite a bit and will depend on a few factors. This includes things such as your account, the platform used and the asset / instrument traded.

However, to give you a relatively good idea of some of the spreads, here is a select group of FX, Metals, Commodities and indices.

Most of these spreads seems to be quite tight when compared to the competition. However, it is important to note that these spreads are for the VIP account and you may have wider for the standard etc. We will cover the account types in due course.

As mentioned, easyMarkets also has options on forex. I won't go into all of them here but to give you an indication, here are some of them:

• EUR / USD: 0.0005
• GBP / USD: 0.0006
• USD / CAD: 0.0006
• AUD / NZD: 0.001

There are also cryptocurrency assets at easyMarkets. Here are the spreads on the three cryptos that you can trade on the Web App / MT4 respectively:

• BTC: 40 / 35 USD on 1 Bitcoin
• XRP: 0.004 / 0.0035 USD on 1,000 XRP
• ETH: 2.5 / 2 on 1 Ethereum

Now, we did notice that these crypto spreads were a bit higher than on crypto derivative exchanges such as ByBit and PrimeXBT. However, the instruments on these crypto exchange are futures instruments that charge a commission (where easyMarkets charges none).

There are also single stock assets available to trade at easyMarkets. These spreads are also quite reasonable, and we won't go into them here. You can see more info on the easyMarkets website.

You will also be pleased to know that there are no deposit or withdrawal fees on the platform. This is irrespective of the type of method that you decide to use. Of course, your own bank may charge for incoming wires. We cover all the deposit & withdrawal options below.

Trading Instruments & Assets

As you may have already noticed above, there is quite a large array of assets and instruments that you can trade at easyMarkets (over 200 of them). When it comes to the asset coverage, here is a quick run-down:

• Most Forex pairs including Majors & Minors
• Metals like Gold, Silver, Copper & Palladium
• Commodities such as Oil, Gas, Soy etc.
• Indices from most of the global stock markets
• Three cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum
• Shares on over 20 large cap stocks

This is indeed quite a comprehensive selection which covers most of the assets that you would like to trade. The only thing that appears to be quite limited is the crypto coverage. If you wanted to trade a larger array of physical crytpocurrency you could use the likes of Binance.

Options

For those of you who like to trade slightly more exotic instruments, easyMarkets has their own entire vanilla option offering. This is currently available for up to 30 major forex pairs.

For those who don't know, options are instruments that give the holder the right but not the obligation to buy or sell some asset in the future. We have previously done a post that goes into the mechanics of options a bit more in-depth. 

Note ✍️: Before you can traded options you must sign a form and complete a questionnaire to confirm your experience with financial markets

The main benefit of options is that they allow for asymmetric payoffs. This means that you can take a leveraged "bet" on the price of some asset in the future but also limit your downside risk. You can also structure your own unique payoff strategies like spreads and flys.

Given the unique nature of these instruments, easyMarkets has developed their own unique trading platform to manage them. We will cover this in below.

Forwards

Easy Markets also gives you the opportunity to trade some of the FX assets forward. This means that you are not buying the spot rate but rather a forward rate on that currency.

Forwards are some of the most popular financial instruments used by large institutions in order to hedge out the risk of future currency deals. They are also used by speculators to bet on the price of a currency in the future.

Trading forwards is done on the easy markets web platform and it allows you to select a forward date up to thirty days ahead. The forward option is currently available on 39 different forex pairs.

Easy Trade

Keeping true to the "easy" mantra, the easyTrade feature is perhaps one of the simplest ways for a new trader to start using the broker. From a technical perspective, this is very much the same as a vanilla option. It has a limited risk and unlimited upside reward.

When you trade with easyMarkets, the user interface is much the same as a binary option. You have the option to place a trade that is either long "up" or short "down" with a max potential loss as your premium.

The really cool thing about easyTrade is that unlike Binary options, it is fully ESMA compliant. This means that it is within the regulatory framework set out by the European agencies.

Unlike with the options, the easyTrade is done through the standard web platform and mobile app. The standard trade parameters are the direction of the trade as well as the amount at risk and the expiry time.

Account Types

EasyMarkets has also got quite a few options when it comes to the types of accounts that traders can use. This is unlike many other brokers these days that offer a standard account irrespective of amount traded.

The minimum that you can deposit for any of the accounts is $100. This is for the standard or "entry level" account. Then you also have a premium account that requires a deposit of $2,000 and a VIP account which requires $10,000.

One of the most noticeable differences between these accounts is the spreads that you will get when trading. When you are on the VIP tier then you will also get some other perks that reflect your client value.

Apart from the above, the accounts don't seem to differ that much at all. All have no account fees, no commissions as well as free deposits and withdrawals. This is unlike other brokers with regular ongoing maintenance fees. For example, Plus500 has a "no activity" fee that they sneakily activate on some user accounts.

All these accounts also have a live telephone support option as well as an account manager. We cover the customer support more in-depth below.

You may also be wondering what perks came with the VIP package? So, let's take a look at that shall we?

VIP Account

The first thing to note about the VIP status is that it can attained with a relatively low initial deposit. Compared to many other brokers which require $20,000 plus, easyMarkets has a pretty strong selling point at $2,500.

When you have this account level, you will get your own personal account manager. You can reach out to them at anytime on account related queries. This is really quite refreshing as it gives you that delicate "human touch".

Note ✍️: If you want to sign up as a VIP you will also have to complete registration forms as well as sign some legal disclaimers.

Also, when you have the VIP account you have the lowest spreads on offer at easyMarkets. These start at only 1 pip on some of the forex majors. You will also have access to real time market updates sent through SMS.

Leverage

At easyMarkets, you only need to place a certain initial margin that is only a fraction of the trade size that you will be taking on. This means that you will be trading with leverage and can magnify your gains / losses.

At easyMarkets, the leverage you will get will depend on the asset, platform and region. For example, the maximum leverage that you can get on the web platform is 200:1 whereas if you trade on the MT4 you can get up to 400:1 (on major forex pairs).

It is also important to note that the new ESMA regulations in Europe limit the maximum leverage that retail traders can get at 30:1. Therefore, if you reside in Europe and are trading through Easy Forex Trading Ltd then you can only trade with 30:1 leverage.

Easy Markets does not have a leverage table but if you want to know exactly how much leverage a particular asset provides, you can calculate it on the trading platform. For example, with a Bitcoin trade, we noticed that the for 1 Bitcoin exposure at a price of $8,300 we would need to put down $166.

 Margin = $166 = 2.0% of Position Leverage = 1/2.0% = 50x 

You can run the same calculations on the other assets that are available to trade on the web platform. Of course, those assets that are more volatile will have a lower leverage limit.

Of course, leverage is a double-edged sword and you want to make sure that you have implemented the correct risk management procedures to limit potential downside potential.

Guaranteed Stop Loss

One of the best ways to manage your risk when trading with high leverage is through the use of stop losses. At easyMarkets, you have the benefit of a free Guaranteed stop losses.

What does this mean?

Well, it means that irrespective if the market moves below your stop loss, it will be executed. This gives you an extra piece of mind as you know that irrespective of how volatile the markets, you will be stopped out and your loss limited.

Warning ⚠️: You should always trade with a stop loss as it removes the emotional component from the trader. You can also supplement this with a take profit order so that you can lock in any gains.

Not all brokers offer this and those that do may charge an additional fee when you place these. These guaranteed stop losses are standard on all stop positions that you place on the easyMarkets web platform.

Negative Balance Protection

As mentioned above, another benefit of easyMarkets is that they have negative balance protection. With negative balance protection, easyMarkets is able to ensure that a traders account will never go into negative equity.

How do they do this?

Well, given that they are market makers it means that the trades are executed internally and risk is managed on their books. This means that they have control over their clients risk and can ensure that their accounts don't enter negative balance territory.

With STP (Straight Through Processing) brokers, your orders are routed straight to the liquidity providers. This means that the broker does not manage the order and hence cannot protect you from any potential market moves that take you into negative equity.

Trading Platforms

It's time to move onto one of the most important things for any trader and that is the technology and platforms that they have at their disposal when using a particular broker.

Easy Markets has a range of platforms that you can use including their own proprietary technology as well as some well known third party applications.

Let's start off by diving into their web trading platforms.

Web Trading Platform

This is the standard trading plaform that you will access through your web browser. It was developed in-house by easyMarkets and has some pretty advanced features and functionality.

Taking a look at the standard UI, you have all of your key account metrics at the top of the platform. This includes things like your PnL, risk and Tradable balance.

Then, on the main user interface you have a pretty well laid out and intuitive platform. You have all of your markets on the left, the order forms on the right, charts on the right and the live, pending and past orders in the bottom panel.

You will also notice that on the order form you can switch between the different instruments. The default it the easyTrade but you can also switch to Day Trading as well as to trade the forward markets.

When it comes to the panel on the left, the default is a market chart but you can also switch between the Market news, Trading signals and Economic calendar. All of these could help supplement your trading analysis.

Then, when it comes to the charts themselves, they are third party trading software developed by Tradingview. For those seasoned traders among you, you will know that this is some of the most advanced charting software on the market - ideal for technical analysts.

Pro Tip 💯: You can expand the chart to full screen to make the most use of its features

You will also notice on the web platform that you have other options before you place your trade including whether you want to freeze the rate or cancel a deal. We will cover this in more detail in the trading tools section.

Option Platform

As mentioned, easyMarkets has their own trading platform where you can trade the vanilla options. In order to get there you will need to head on over to the main menu and hit "options".

Once you have filled out the form you will be directed to their proprietary options platform. Upon your first launch of the platform they will give you a handy step-by-step guide about how to place a trade as well as the tools at your disposal.

This is actually a really advanced platform and gives you a host of features that are essential to an option trader. For example you can plot out the option graphs and run pay-out scenarios based on the price.

You also can take a look at the option sensitivity analysis or the all important "greeks". These include the sensitivity of the option to the strike price, volatility, passage of time and other input variables.

Something else that we found quite intriguing was the optionality to select your own specific expiry date. Most other platforms that we have seen have a limited subset of option expiry dates (monthly, quarterly or yearly).

MT4

For those of you who have been trading for any length of time, you will no doubt have come across the MT4 platform. This is the trading program that has been developed by MetaQuotes and has some of the most advanced trading tools on the market.

Easy Markets gives their traders the option to use this platform. This is also the platform that you will use if you want to get that full 400:1 leverage on some of the equity pairs.

The MT4 platform has been in operation for over 10 years and is a technical analyst's dream. There are numerous charting indicators, technical tools and studies that you can use on the platform. You also have extensive order functionality and parameters.

Another great benefit of the MT4 platform is that it is exactly the same across all of the brokers across the world. So, if you learn to use it on easyMarkets and would like to move to another broker then it is really quite simple.

Pro Tip 💯: easyMarkets provides a free no obligations MT4 demo account. This means that you can test it out first. This can give you a great indication of whether you could get used to it.

Although the MT4 platform can be considered "advanced", there are a plethora of resources online that can get you going. If you would like more resources and guides about how to use the MT4 then drop us a contact here.

Something else that you will really benefit from while using the MT4 platform is the ability to code EAs. EasyMarkets has absolutely no restrictions on these EAs so its really only your scripts vs. the market.

What is an EA you ask?

EAs are Expert Advisors which are basically just trading bots that are developed for MT4s. They are coded in MQL which is the proprietary language on the MetaTrader platform. You can basically set these up on a VPS server and have them running 24 hours a day.

When it comes to OS support, MT4 is quite popular. It is available on Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Android and iOS. There is also a pretty comprehensive mobile application which will cover below.

Trading Tools

EasyMarkets has also developed some really helpful trading tools that give their users more choice. Many of these are patent pending and they are all within the rules that are defined by the regulators.

Let's take a look at some of these shall we?

Deal Cancellation

This is a feature that easyMarkets includes on their web platform that basically allows a trader to cancel a trade after it has been placed and executed. You can kind of think of it as an insurance policy on the trade.

If you turn dealCancellation on, you have a certain period of time in order to cancel the trade should it go against you. This is usually an hour after the initial trade has been executed.

The dealCancellation is a great tool for those time you want to trade important market moving events. These could include the likes of the Brexit referendum where there is usually a binary outcome on said event.

Note ✍️: dealCancellation has to be selected before you place a trade. Once you have executed a trade with it off, it remains in force.

Because dealCancellation can be considered an "insurance" you will have to pay for this protection. This price will depend on the asset as well as the volatility present in the markets at the time of the trade.

Freeze Rate

If you are a day trader who uses high leverage, you will know how quickly markets can move even in a matter of milliseconds. This is why easyMarkets has included their handy "Freeze Rate" function.

This is essentially a free tool that lets the trader freeze the current market rate for 2-3 seconds. Hence, if you observe an important trading level and would like to execute it you can quickly freeze the rate before pulling the trigger.

This tool could also be helpful around economic events that tend to drive up the volatility in the markets. This could include the likes of a central bank announcement or the Non-Farm Payrolls.

Mobile Apps

For those traders who are on the go, you will be happy to know that easyMarkets has got a pretty functional mobile app. This is available on iOS and Android devices and has a lot of the same functionality as their main web platform.

For example, you can do one touch easyTrades on the mobile app as well as Freezing the rate and Deal Cancellation. You also have some charting functionality although this is not nearly as effective as the web-based tradingview charts.

The App is available on the Google Play store. If we were to take a look into the ratings, they are both highly positive with 4.7 stars in the former and 4 stars in the latter.

Apart from the fact that the Apps are well rated by the community, the easyMarkets team seems to be quick to respond to those who have concerns. This is always a good sign as it shows that they are receptive to feedback from traders.

For those who trade on the MT4 platform, as mentioned it is available on both iOS and Android. The MT4 app is just as popular as the desktop application. Despite this though, it pales into comparison next to the MT4 desktop app.

Although mobile trading can be convenient, it is hard to replicate the same conditions as a PC. Charting is harder, connections are slower and order management is more cumbersome. However, if you are going to be away from your desk it is a handy tool to monitor your levels.

Deposits & Withdrawals

There is a wide array of payment methods that are supported for both deposits and withdrawals. There are well known global options such as cards and bank wire as well as more local solutions for specific countries.

Perhaps the quickest and most effective way to fund your account is through a credit card or an eWallet solution such as Neteller or Skrill. The full range of funding options are presented below:

Most of the same options are available on a withdrawal. Do note though that if you are funding in a credit card and you have then made a profit and would like to withdraw, your profit will be paid via another means such as wire or eWallet.

KYC 📄: Before you can withdraw you will need to complete KYC. easyMarkets requires full KYC as it is a regulatory requirement to fend off money laundering

When it comes to withdrawal processing time, easyMarkets says that they try to honour them in under two business days or 48 hours. The actual time that it takes to reach your account will depend on what method you chose and processing delays on your side.

You should also note that there are no minimum withdrawal requirements on Credit Card and eWallet although if you are using a bank wire there will be a $50 minimum requirement.

Customer Support

We have dealt with many brokers in the past and a lax customer support function can be incredibly frustrating. Hence, it is an important consideration for us when we are considering these brokers.

When it comes to easyMarkets, they seem to have quite an extensive range of methods through which to reach them. These include all of the following:

• Facebook Messanger
• WhatsApp
• Live Chat
• Viber
• Email

We wanted to get a sense of the response time so we reached out to them on live chat. Within 30 seconds we were helped by Nantia. She was able to answer our questions quickly and comprehensively. We also reached out to other agents at different times of the day and they were similarly helpful.

Something else that may surprise you is the fact that they still have phone calls. They are happy to call back their traders should there be any questions about their accounts. They are also one of the few brokers that we know that still do phone execution.

Pro Tip ✅: There is also extensive FAQ sections at easyMarkets. If your question is more generic in nature then these could help you.

The live support options through Live Chat, Whatsapp, Viber etc are available 24 hours a day 5 days a week. This should not really be a problem for most traders apart from those who are trading crypto on the weekends.

Education

It's always great when a broker provides additional educational resources to their traders. Indeed, we all know about the analogy of "teaching people how to fish".

Easy Markets has quite a selection of educational material that are positioned for traders of all skill levels. Let's take a look at some of these.

EasyMarkets Academy

This was really quite impressive. It is a complete collection of videos that take you through all aspects of online trading. They are well presented and easy to understand.

The academy is also presented on a separate portal where you can track your progress through the various lessons. You are presented awards for the different stages that you pass through the training portal.

You also have the option to join some chat groups with other traders. This can be great for those who prefer the more interpersonal method of learning with fellow traders. Finally, there is also an option to view all of the upcoming events.

Ebooks & Knoweldge Base

If you prefer to download offline content to read later then there is an extensive range of eBooks. These are completely free and you can even download them now from their website. They cover everything from beginning trading principles to how to use the trading platforms.

If that was not enough for you then they also have their knowledge base. This is relatively easy to navigate and they cover particular topics including the following:

• General Trading Disciplines
• More about easyMarkets
• Using the MT4
• Making Your First Trades
• Technical Analysis
• Self Discipline

Finally, if you are looking for some simple terms that you may not be familiar with then you can always take a look at their Trading Glossary.

Areas For Improvement

We found easyMarkets to be a breath of fresh air and there was no doubt quite a lot to like about it. However, there is still room for improvement at the broker.

The first thing that stuck out for us was their limited crypto coverage when compared to platforms like eToro or Uphold. They have such a large range of assets but only have three cryptocurrencies on offer. They are competing with established cryptocurrency exchanges with hundreds of assets and much higher leverage.

It would also have been great to have seen additional single stock assets to trade. Most of the stocks that you can trade on the platform are large multinationals in specific regions.

Finally, although easyMarkets is a global broker, there are still a number of countries and regions to where they do not supply their services. This is most likely due to local laws and regulations but easyMarkets could always apply for a new licence in one of these regions.

It could be a win-win for all as the traders can use a well-known broker and easyMarkets and the broker gets more clients in other lucrative geos.

Conclusion

Overall, we were greatly impressed by easyMarkets. It seems that they have spent their 19 years in operation honing a comprehensive yet simplistic trading experience for traders of all stripes.

Not only does it have time on its side but it is also well regulated by two well known agencies and have strong risk management processes in place (both trader side and internally). There are also a plethora of assets that you can trade on their platform with low spreads.

Not only can you trade standard FX instruments but you can also trade Forwards and options. These are traded on some pretty advanced trading platforms with unique trading tools and conditions.

Finally, that customer support was quite comprehensive and attentive. All of our questions were answered promptly and it really smoothed our review process.

Sure, there are some areas for improvement but these are relatively minor. It's also great to see that easyMarkets is receptive to feedback so perhaps our suggestions could be taken into account.

So, should you use easyMarkets?

Well, if you are looking for a regulated broker with low spreads, great trading tech and a well established reputation then it is definitely worth considering.

Warning ⚡️: Trading CFDs is very risky and you could lose your entire investment. Make sure that you practice adequate risk management

 Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.