Saxo Bank Review

For those of you looking to trade with a real bank, this could be the broker. Saxo Bank is known around the world and has operated as both a broker and a market maker. However, there is somewhat of a high bar to entry.

Saxo Broker Regulation and Company Information

Trading accounts

Essentially, there are two different account options. There is the all-inclusive price plan, which offer spreads of 2.0 pips on EUR/USD in a fixed spread environment. There is also the volume price plan, which offers an average of 0.5 pips as a spread, plus a commission anywhere from two dollars to six dollars per side.

The company

Saxo Bank established its trading brokerage in Copenhagen during 1992. It serves both retail and institutional clients, offering trading in more than 30,000 instruments including currency, binary options, contract for difference, stocks, futures, and bonds through its in-house SaxoTrader platform. Beyond offering trading, is a fully licensed bank in Denmark and several other countries. It has offices in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, South America, and South Africa.

It is regulated in a multitude of countries including the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, UAE, Switzerland, France, Australia, Singapore, and several others. Because of this, safety of funds isn’t even a thought.

Trading conditions

Initial deposit

This is where Saxo will lose some people. In order to open up an account with Saxo Bank, you need to deposit at least $10,000, or £6500 UK residents. That’s a very high minimum to overcome, as some brokers will allow you to open an account with no deposit. However, your gaining access to a monstrous amount of trading vehicles and have probably what is the most secure market condition a retail trader can find.

Spreads and commissions

Saxo Bank offers both fixed and variable spreads. It’s fixed spread is relatively average, amounting to two pips on EUR/USD, while the variable spread is very tight, being around 0.5 pips in the same pair. However, keep in mind that volume comes into play so the more you trade, the less the commission will be that’s added to variable spreads. Trading conditions can vary greatly, so keep this in mind. If you are a low volume trader, variable spreads will do you any good as it will end up being $12 per round-trip per lot, which is a bit excessive. However, if you are trading over $600 worth of commissions a month, it drops to half of that.

Maximum leverage

Saxo Bank offers maximum leverage of 1:100, which is slightly under the average for most of the EU and UK markets. However though, higher leverage can bring higher problems, so keep that in mind. There are some brokers out there offering as much as 1:1000 in the form of leverage, but that is an invitation to blow up your account.

Trading platforms

In May 2015, SaxoTrader was launched, and Saxo Bank stopped supporting MetaTrader 4 afterwards. Because of this, if you are used to MT4, you will need to learn another platform to trade at Saxo. The platform does allow you to trade from desktop, web, and mobile versions of the platform, and Saxo Bank is very quick to update its software. It has great charting, trading directly from the chart, a wealth of technical indicators, live news, technical analysis tools and indicators, as well as algorithmic trading.

Methods of deposit

Saxo Bank offers its clients the ability to deposit via bank transfer, stock transfer, and credit or debit card payments.

Extras

Saxo offers a wealth of courses, webinars, and tons of market research. There is a morning call, quarterly outlook, and a whole wealth of other ideas. In fact, most of the analysis is freely distributed without the need to even open up an account.