Vantage FX review

Vantage offers competitive trading fees and spreads, making it an attractive option for traders, particularly those focused on forex and CFDs. The broker’s fee structure is designed to cater to both beginners and advanced traders, with different account types offering varying fee levels.

Forex Fees and Spreads

Vantage’s forex fees are generally considered low. For forex trading, the broker offers the following:

Raw ECN Account:

• Commission: $3.00 per lot per trade
• Spreads: Variable, with average costs during peak trading hours:
  • EUR/USD: 0.1 pips
  • GBP/USD: 0.3 pips

These tight spreads, especially on major pairs like EUR/USD, make Vantage particularly attractive for forex traders.

CFD Fees and Spreads

Vantage’s CFD fees are average compared to other brokers. The fees for CFDs are typically built into the spread. Here are some examples:

• S&P 500 CFD: Average spread of 0.36 points during peak trading hours
• Europe 50 CFD: Average spread of 1.45 points during peak trading hours
• Stock CFDs: Commissions vary, e.g., $6 per trade for Apple CFDs, £10 per trade for Vodafone CFDs

It’s worth noting that while index CFD fees are generally low, stock CFD fees are comparatively higher.

Account Types and Fee Structures

Vantage offers different account types with varying fee structures:

1. Standard Account: Wider spreads but commission-free
2. Raw ECN Account: Tighter spreads with a commission fee
3. Pro ECN Account: Similar to Raw ECN but with potentially better conditions for high-volume traders

Non-Trading Fees

Vantage stands out for its favorable non-trading fees:

• Deposit Fee: $0
• Withdrawal Fee: $0 (for most methods, though international bank withdrawals may incur charges after the first free withdrawal per month)
• Account Fee: None
• Inactivity Fee: None

Overall Fee Assessment

When compared to its competitors, Vantage offers competitive fees, especially in forex trading. Its CFD fees are average, with some products being more cost-effective than others. The absence of most non-trading fees is a significant advantage for traders who prioritize cost efficiency.

Remember that while fees are an important consideration, they should be evaluated alongside other factors such as regulation, platform quality, and customer service when choosing a broker.

Vantage FX is licensed by top-tier financial regulators across three continents. These include the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA), and the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC).

Here are the multiple entities or subsidiaries under which Vantage FX operates depending on location:

• Vantage Global Prime LLP, a financial services company regulated and licensed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) UK.
• Vantage Global Prime Pty Ltd, a financial services company licensed and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
• Vantage International Group Limited, a financial services company regulated and overseen by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA).

Is your money safe at Vantage FX?

The funds that traders deposit into their trading accounts at Vantage FX are safe and secure. This is because of the preparations that the broker has made to ensure that the funds of traders are protected. These arrangements include the holding of clients’ funds in accounts that are separated from the broker’s own funds.

The broker is regulated by at least two key tier-1 authorities such as FCA, ASIC, VFSC, and CIMA, who place a lot of emphasis on the insurance of clients’ funds. Then, its banks with top, AAA-rated banks including National Australia Bank (NAB) and Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

However, note that most of the broker’s regulators do not require insurance for the funds of the clients.

• FCA – €85,000 (UK)
• ASIC – No protection (Australia)
• CIMA – No protection (Cayman Islands)
• VFSC – No protection (Vanuatu)

Also, Vantage FX does not offer clients negative balance protection which implies that traders can easily lose more money than the balance they have in their trading accounts whenever they have losing trades. Instead, the broker immediately closes losing trades if it appears that they will lead to the trader losing not only all the funds in their account, but even end up owing the broker.

However, sometimes, depending on the situation, if contacted, Vantage FX can help a client restore their account to a neutral balance after which the client can redeposit funds and resume their trading. More importantly, to prevent the rare cases of accounts entering negative balance, the broker has put in place features such as margin and stop out.

Vantage FX makes it possible for traders to deposit and withdraw through a variety of channels. These channels include:

• Credit and Debit Cards processors: Including MasterCard, Visa, UnionPay, JCB,
• Bank and wire transfer both domestic and international.
• Electronic Wallets including Neteller, Skrill, AstroPay, and FasaPay.
• Other channels such as POLi, BPay, transfer from one broker to another and others.

Vantage FX itself does not charge you any funds for deposits and withdrawals. However, any of the payment channels above may levy charges for making the transactions happen.

Note that Vantage FX does not permit any third-party transactions. Whenever you carry out any deposit or withdrawal transactions, the account you use must be owned by you and be registered in the same name you used to open your Vantage FX account. Otherwise, Vantage FX may stop the transactions from going through. The main purpose of this is to protect your funds.

In the case of bank payments, traders at Vantage FX can choose from around 8 currencies in which to carry out their transactions. This is slightly less than what you get at FP Markets, which offers up to 15 local currencies. However, it is much better than FXCM, which provides only 4 currency options.

The payment channels that will be available to you will depend on your location. You can check a list of these available options on your client portal. Then, there is generally a restriction on one-time deposits to a maximum of $10,000.

By regulation, every new client must go through some basic compliance checks to ensure that you understand the risks of trading and are admitted to trading. When you open an account, you will probably be asked for the following items, so it is good to have them handy: A scanned colour copy of your passport or national ID A utility bill or bank statement from the last six months with your address You will also need to answer a few basic compliance questions to confirm how much trading experience you have. It is therefore best to take at least 10 minutes to complete the account opening process. Although you can explore the demo account immediately, it is important to note that you cannot make any real trading transactions until you have passed compliance, which can take up to several days depending on your situation.

Vantage FX offers traders two major types of accounts aimed at providing for the services of different classes of traders. These types of accounts are the Standard STP, RAW ECN, and PRO ECN.

Standard STP

This account is aimed mainly at beginner traders and features zero commissions and low spreads. Its key features include:

• Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4 and 5.
• Minimum Deposit: $200
• Minimum Trade Size: 0.01 Lot
• Maximum Leverage: 500:1.
• Spreads: Starting from 1.0 pip.
• Commissions: None

RAW ECN

The RAW ECN account focuses more on more experienced traders who are in need of greater market liquidity and minimal commissions. The key features you get with this account are outlined below:

• Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4 and 5.
• Minimum Deposit: $500
• Minimum Trade Size: From 0.01 Lot
• Maximum Leverage: 500:1.
• Spreads: Starting from 0.0 pips.
• Commissions: Starting from $3.0 per lot, per side.

PRO ECN

The best users of this account category are institutional traders and professional fund managers who require ultra-fast speed of trade execution. The services to look out for are:

• Trading Platform: MetaTrader 4 and 5.
• Minimum Deposit: $20,000
• Minimum Trade Size: From 0.01 Lot
• Maximum Leverage: 500:1.
• Spreads: Starting from 0.0 pips.
• Commissions: Starting from $2.00 per lot, per side.

Across these account types, traders can get to trade over 300 CFDs instruments including forex pairs, shares, equity indices, and commodities.

Vantage FX Demo Account

Vantage FX offers traders a demo account that can give them access to the markets “in under 30 seconds.” To start using the virtual account, clients have to sign up with their personal information including full names, country of residency, and contact details. Alternatively, prospective users can sign up with their social media accounts, choosing one of Facebook, Google+, or LinkedIn.

The demo account from Vantage FX enables traders to trade with real-life conditions, even though they are trading with unreal funds.  Traders have permanent access to the account as there are no time limits for its use. Traders can execute trades in the market for 24 hours, 5 days a week.

Do you have any complaints? Or do you just want to get in touch with the broker? You can do so via a dedicated phone number, email, or live chat. Vantage FX provides quick, reachable, and helpful customer service. Traders can reach the customer support agents via a dedicated phone number, email, and live chat both on the website and mobile app. Most of these channels are available 24/7.

Vantage FX clients get to trade from a broad range of trading platforms. These include:

• The Vantage FX mobile application available on Android and iOS.
• MetaTrader 4 & 5
• ProTrader
• WebTrader
• ZuluTrade
• DupliTrade
• MyFxBook Autotrade

Across these platforms, Vantage FX provides quick market execution, quality charting and analysis tools, and the ability to enter limit and stop orders. While the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 have the same offers in terms of account type, range of markets, platform access, leverage, and minimum trade size, they, however, provide 9 and 21 timeframes respectively.

Through ZuluTrade, DupliTrade, and MyFxBook Autotrade, Vantage FX also offers social trading via which traders can profit by copying the positions of more experienced investors.

Available at Vantage FX is a suite of global markets and assets. Traders can speculate on a wide variety of Forex pairs, CFDs on shares and shares indices, and commodities. Those available instruments are

• Forex (+40 pairs)
• Indices (15)
• Energy
• Soft commodities (20)
• Precious metals (5), and
• US, UK, EU, and AU share CFDs (100 +)