Spreadex Broker Review

Spreadex Overall Rating

Spreadex is a unique blend of sports betting and CFD trading, making it an attractive choice for traders looking for a low-cost platform with a wide array of financial assets. It offers tight spreads starting at 0.60 pips with no commission. Despite its limited platform tools and lack of demo account, its diverse asset offerings makes it a good choice for those looking for a low-cost trading environment. FxScouts rates Spreadex 4.26 out of 5.

Is Spreadex Safe?

Yes, Spreadex is a safe broker for South African traders to trade with. It has good regulatory oversight, segregates client funds, and provides traders with negative balance protection.

Founded in 1999, Spreadex is regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). FCA regulation ensures that Spreadex segregates its client funds from company funds and provides all traders with negative balance protection. It is also insured by the Investor Compensation Fund up to a maximum of 85,000 EUR per trader should the company be liquidated. On this basis, we consider Spreadex a safe broker for South African clients to trade with. Click here for more details on Spreadex’s regulatory oversight.

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Spreadex’s Trading Fees

Spreadex’s trading fees are lower than other similar brokers.

There is no CFD account choice at Spreadex, which is unusual as most of its serious competitors have several account types with tighter spreads linked to higher deposit requirements. However, Spreadex’s UK-based traders may open a tax-free spread betting account. Spreadex also offers a sports betting service (which will not be the focus of this review). Click here for more details on Spreadex’s account.

Spreadex has a simple account structure with lower than average trading costs. Spreadex states that its revenue is derived from the spread, but it is not transparent about how the spreads are derived, and it does not publish the average spreads on its site.     

Spreadex’s account was assessed to compare the costs to those of other brokers. The costs were evaluated based on the trading fees on one lot (100 000 USD) on the EUR/USD, including the spread and commission.

When making this calculation, we used one lot of EUR/USD as a benchmark as it is the most commonly traded currency pair and it usually has the tightest spread. Unfortunately, Spreadex does not publish the average spreads associated with each account, so these calculations are based on the minimum spreads.

Spread x Trade Size + Commission = Total Trading Cost (USD):

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As you can see from the table, the trading costs are built into the spread, which is variable and gets wider or tighter depending on trade volume and market volatility. 

The cost of trading one lot of EUR/USD is 6 USD, which is significantly tighter than other similar market makers. There are also no minimum deposit requirements, putting it within the reach of all traders.

Spreads on Major Forex Pairs

Spreadex also offers trading on other major pairs, including the GBP/USD and USD/JPY. Like with the EUR/USD, the costs in the table below are based on the trading fees of one lot (100 000 USD), including the spread and commission:

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Compared to other similar brokers, trading costs on all the above pairs are considerably lower than average, except on the USD/CHF, but its costs are still around the industry average. Most other good market maker brokers have an average trading cost of 9 USD on the EUR/USD, 14 USD on the GBP/USD, 10 USD on the USD/JPY, 11 USD on the AUD/USD, and 14 USD on the USD/CHF.

Swap Fees

If you hold a position overnight with Spreadex, a swap fee will also be charged, which is the interest paid on a leveraged position. A leveraged position is the money borrowed from the broker to trade. Interest is paid (or received) when a position is held overnight. Unfortunately, Spreadex does not publish the swap fees on its website, but they are available to view inside the MT4 trading terminal.  In order to access the swap rates, traders should right-click on any instrument in the ‘Market Watch’ section, then left-click on the ‘Specification’ option.  A window will appear that shows the long and short swap rates for each pair.

Overall, compared to other brokers, Spreadex’s trading fees are lower than average across the most popular Forex pairs and there are no minimum deposit requirements, making its accounts accessible to all traders.

Spreadex’s Non-trading Fees

Spreadex’s non-trading fees are lower than other similar brokers.

Some of the most overlooked trading costs are the non-trading fees that are charged by brokers.  These fees can significantly affect your profitability and so should be carefully scrutinised.

Unlike other brokers that charge fees for deposits, and on inactive accounts, Spreadex does not generally charge any non-trading fees. However, a fee is charged to expedite withdrawal requests. For example, CHAPS same-day transfers are available at a charge of 25 EUR.

Overall, this is a welcome development in an industry where additional fees are charged on almost every transaction.

Opening An Account at Spreadex

The account opening process at Spreadex is hassle-free and fully digital and accounts are ready for trading within 48 hours.

All South African residents are eligible to open a trading account at Spreadex.

Creating an account is straightforward, the process is fully digital, and accounts are usually ready within 48 hours. 

How to open an account at Spreadex:

1. Click on “Create an Account.”
2. Spreadex’s intake form requires clients to fill in their personal details, including name, email address, and country of residence. They will also have to create a password and choose a username.
3. Clients will then be required to confirm their physical address. 
4. Thereafter, clients will have to detail their previous trading experience and financial status.
5. Spreadex requires individuals to submit a copy of their National ID or Passport with the signature page, as well as a copy of a recent utility bill or bank statement. Documents can be scanned or sent through as a high-quality digital camera picture.
6. Your documents will be checked by the verifications department within 48 hours. Any deposits will be credited to the account only after your documents have been approved.
7. We advise you to read Spreadex’s risk disclosure, customer agreement, and t&cs before you start trading.

Overall, Spreadex’s account opening process is fully digital and accounts are ready for opening within 48 hours.

Spreadex Account

Spreadex offers only one CFD account type, whereas most brokers will provide at least two or three, but its account is suited to both beginners and more experienced traders.

Spreadex’s account is suited to both beginners and more experienced traders. We define beginner traders as inexperienced traders who have never traded before or have been trading for less than a year. Beginners often do not want to risk trading large sums of money, and will generally not be able to trade full-time during the workweek. Spreadex’s account has no minimum deposit requirement, putting it within the reach of beginner traders.

While experienced traders often prefer higher minimum deposits and tighter spreads, in exchange for a commission per lot, Spreadex offers a low-cost trading environment and a wide choice of tradable assets (click here for more on Spreadex’s available assets), making it appealing to more experienced traders.

Spreadex allows hedging and scalping but does not offer copy-trading.  SpreadEx also allows clients to execute a minimum trading volume of 0.01 lots. Under FCA regulation, the maximum leverage is up to 30:1 on major currency pairs. UK-based traders may additionally use a tax-free spread betting account. 

Note that Spreadex does not offer Islamic swap-free accounts.

See below for Spreadex’s account details:

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Retail Account

A market maker, Spreadex’s retail account is commission-free and has spreads that start at 0.60 pips on the EUR/USD, which is lower than other similar market maker brokers.  There are no minimum deposit requirements to open account, but trading is only offered on the Spreadex proprietary platform, which is limited compared to most other brokers. Traders can choose between a wide range of tradable assets, including over 60 Forex pairs, share CFDs, interest rates, bonds, ETFs, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. 

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Broker

Trading Conditions

Base Currencies

EURUSD (Standard)

Trading Cost (Standard)

EURUSD (Best)

GBPUSD (Best)

USDJPY (Best)

Commission

Spreadex

5/ 5

USD, EUR, GBP

0.60 pips

USD 6

0.60 pips

0.90 pips

0.70 pips

USD 0

IC Markets

4/ 5

AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, SGD, NZD, JPY, CHF, HKD

0.10 pips

USD 8

0.02 pips

0.23 pips

0.14 pips

USD 7

Exness

5/ 5

USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, ZAR, CHF, JPY, NZD, SGD+40

0.70 pips

USD 7

0 pips

0.10 pips

0 pips

USD 0

Deposits and Withdrawals

Spreadex offers fewer funding methods than other large brokers and its processing times are longer than average.

A well-regulated broker, Spreadex ensures that all anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed, and as such, all withdrawals are returned to the deposit source. 

Spreadex’s funding methods are limited to bank transfers and debit cards or credit cards. The absence of third-party processors including e-wallets such as Moneybookers, Neteller, Paypal, is disappointing and a serious downfall of this broker. 

Withdrawals are only cleared with a minimum of 50 GBP, and CHAPS same-day transfers are available at a fee of 25 GBP.  Deposits are free, but Spreadex reserves the right to charge 1 GBP on debit card deposits under 50 GBP. 

While Spreadex does not charge a fee for payments using UK cards, international bank transfers, and bank transfers in currencies other than GBP will be subject to additional currency conversion charges.

Direct withdrawal times range from two business days for bank transfers to up to five days for debit cards.

See below for more details:

Overall, Spreadex offers a limited number of payment methods compared to other brokers, and while no fees are charged for deposits or withdrawals, its processing times are long and its minimum deposit and withdrawal amounts are high.

Base Currencies

Spreadex offers a limited range of base currencies compared to other similar brokers.  

Spreadex clients can choose between three base currencies, including EUR, USD, and GBP.  

However, for traders with bank accounts denominated in other currencies, a currency conversion fee will be charged for deposits and withdrawals. 

For traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month), it is better to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

Overall, Spreadex offers fewer trading account currencies than most other large international brokers.  

Spreadex Trading Platforms

Unlike most brokers, Spreadex only offers support for its own trading platform, which cannot be customised and does not allow for algorithmic trading. 

The Spreadex web trader is web-based and offers a streamlined trading experience, appealing to traders who want to avoid the complexity of third-party platforms.  The platform is intuitive and easy to use.

Spreadex’s trading platform is a fully-customizable, fast and reliable proprietary platform under constant development to ensure it stays up-to-date with modern tools and advanced trading capabilities.  Spreadex traders get access to spread bets and CFDs with advanced charting tools, award-winning execution, price alerts, and watch lists from a single account. It also offers a comprehensive suite of technical indicators and drawing tools, in addition to historical prices.  Note that the Spreadex platform is not available for desktop use.

Regrettably, the MT4 trading platform is not supported, as Spreadex focuses on sports spread betting, which is unsuitable for MT4.

Spreadex does not offer demo accounts.  This is a real shame, as practice accounts are a fantastic way to get a feel for the broker and the platform.

Overall, Spreadex’s platform is a good choice for beginner traders because of its simple and intuitive interface, but compared to third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5, it lacks the execution speeds and doesn’t allow for automated trading via expert advisors or other trading algorithms.

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Broker

Platform Choice

Copy Trading

Platforms

Spreadex

4/ 5

No

Spreadex

TradingView

IC Markets

5/ 5

Yes

MT4

MT5

cTrader

TradingView

Exness

4.5/ 5

Yes

MT4

MT5

Exness Terminal

Mobile Apps

Spreadex offers fewer mobile trading platforms than other large international brokers.

Spreadex has a well-designed and user-friendly mobile trading platform for trading on the move that users can download and access on Android and IOS tablets and mobile phones, including a native iPad and iPhone app. It allows traders to open and close positions and has the same indicators and charts. 

Trading Tools

Spreadex offers virtually no trading tools. This is extremely limited compared to other brokers – most other brokers offer technical and fundamental analysis tools such as Autochartist, Trading Central, or TradingView. They also sometimes offer free VPS services and various copy trading services.

Overall, Spreadex would do well to add more trading tools to its arsenal to help traders make better trading decisions.

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Broker

Economic Calendar

Autochartist

Trading Central

Trading View

Free VPS

Spreadex

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

IC Markets

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Exness

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Financial Instruments

Spreadex’s range of financial instruments to trade is wider than most other brokers, with a large number of share CFDs that are hard to find at similar brokers. 

Alongside Forex pairs, Spreadex offers cryptocurrencies, equities, commodities, indices, ETFs, and metals. Due to FCA regulations, maximum leverage on all assets is relatively low, see below for details: 

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Spreadex generally offers a similar range of instruments as other brokers but offers a wider range of equities, ETFs, and Forex pairs.

Forex: Spreadex offers over 60 currency pairs for trading, including majors, minors, and exotics, a much wider range of currency pairs than other similar brokers.

Share CFDs: Spreadex offers trading on over 3,000+ share CFDs, which is a similar number to other brokers. The selection available includes shares from over 15 countries, including the US, UK, Europe, and Australia.  

Commodities: Spreadex offers 31 commodities, whereas most brokers only offer trading on between 5 – 10 commodities.  These include Gold, Silver, Brent, Natural Gas and Light Crude Oil, and softs such as cocoa , coffee, corn, and sugar. 

Indices: Spreadex offers trading on 17 indices, which is average compared to other similar brokers, and includes the likes of the NASDAQ, TSX, SPX, and the Dow Jones.

Cryptocurrencies: Traders can take a position on the price of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether, ripple, litecoin, and ripple. However, under FCA regulation, crypto trading is only available for professional clients.

ETFs: Exchange Traded Funds have rapidly gained in popularity in recent years, and Roboforex offers trading on over 200 ETFs, a much broader range than is typically found at other brokers. 

Overall, traders will find an extensive asset selection, consisting of thousands of equity CFDs across fifteen countries, complemented by over 200 ETFs, which should satisfy most professional traders. 

Spreadex for Beginners

Spreadex does not offer much in the way of educational content and offers no demo account, which is highly unusual.  It does, however, offer a selection of market analysis materials and helpful customer support to get new traders started. 

Educational Materials

Spreadex’s educational content is severely limited compared to other similar brokers.

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Broker

Beginner Course

Advanced Course

Well Structured Education

Education Quality

Webinars

Spreadex

Yes

Yes

Yes

Medium

No

IC Markets

Yes

Yes

Yes

High

Yes

Exness

Yes

Yes

Yes

Medium

Yes

Spreadex lacks educational content for beginner traders.  One will find a video training center, but this material mainly delves into the specifics of how to set up a Spreadex trading account.  Spreadex also only offers a few written materials on chart analysis and chart patterns.  

Market Analysis Materials

Like the education section, Spreadex’s market analysis materials are lacking

Spreadex’s research is curated by third-party analysts. While Spreadex publishes a weekly trading update, a financial trading blog, an economic calendar, and a financial markets news section, it doesn’t make up for the lack of trading ideas, limited fundamental data, and a poor selection of analytic tools. 

The trading platform has a candlestick pattern recognition program, which may assist in identifying trading opportunities, but overall, compared to other large international brokers, the absence of proper research is dominant. 

Customer Service

Spreadex’s customer service is average compared to other similar brokers. 

Customer support is available during business hours, seven days a week in English, via telephone, email, and live chat.  For the purposes of this review, we found the customer support responsive, polite, and helpful.

Safety and Regulation

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in London, Spreadex has continuously expanded in the sports betting and spread betting sectors. Spreadex is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).  Additionally, every deposit is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme in the UK in accordance with regulatory provisions of up to 85,000 EUR per trader. See below for details on the Spreadex registered company:

• SpreadexLimited is authorised, regulated, and registered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), registration number 190941. The Financial Conduct Authority is based at 12 Endeavour Square, London E20 1JN.

The FCA is widely held to be one of the strictest and most careful regulators in the world. As a result, Spreadex can only offer a maximum leverage of up to 30:1 on Forex pairs and is banned from offering trading on crypto CFDs. Spreadex is also required to be a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), covering customer losses up to 85,000 GBP in the event of broker bankruptcy. All South African client funds are held in segregated accounts with top-tier banks and Spreadex is subject to frequent audits of its finances and client operations. In addition, all South African clients have negative balance protection, meaning they can never lose more money than is held in their trading account.

The longer the track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises, and Spreadex has been in operation for more than two decades. It also has a large international customer base and boasts protection from top-tier regulator, the FCA, making it a safe and reliable choice of broker.

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Evaluation Method

We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process that includes a detailed breakdown of how we review Spreadex’s product offering. Central to that process is the evaluation of the broker’s reliability, the platform offering of the broker, and the trading conditions offered to clients, which are summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.

Risk Warning

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. Spreadex would like you to know that:  Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 64% of retail investors lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. For professional clients, spread betting and CFD trading can also result in losses larger than your initial stake or deposit.

Overview

Spreadex is a large, well-regulated CFD, forex, and sports betting brokerage offering multi-asset trading.  It boasts decent trading conditions with low spreads, reasonable leverage, and no minimum deposit, but accounts are only denominated in EUR, GBP, and USD.

A major drawback for traders considering Spreadex is its lack of educational and market analysis materials, high withdrawal fees on some payment methods, and the fact that it has no demo account.  Furthermore, Spreadex only offers trading on its proprietary platform and offers virtually no trading tools.