XTB vs FXCM Comparison [Which Should You Choose?]

XTB Review

XTB is one of the leading international forex brokers in online trading. It is unique in having 5 financial regulators and keeping user funds in segregated accounts.

XTB was founded in 2002, its brand acronym stands for X-Trade Brokers. The company is registered and headquartered in Belize. Brokerage services are provided through the official web portal www.xtb.com. The main feature is the availability of certificates from five regulatory bodies, including FCA, IFSC, CNMV, CMB and KNF.

The firm has opened subsidiaries in Spain, Poland, Germany, France, the UK and other countries. The company´s activities are mainly focused on working with European investors.

Pros and Cons

As with all online trading platforms, there are some very good things and some not so good things. It is therefore also very important that users are fully aware of the positives and negatives of XTB.

Advantages

You can invest in Forex, cryptocurrency CFDs and other assets, which have significant advantages for users.
Regulated broker with strict regulations, which derive a broker to invest safely. Competitive spreads.
Choice of trading platforms.
Large portfolio of financial instruments.
Useful educational material to help beginners as well as advanced levels STP environment available.
It has the regulation and endorsement of security bodies.
It is a company of high international prestige.
Allows trading from a demo account.
No minimum deposit is required to start trading.

Disadvantages

Withdrawal commission.
Low maximum leverage.
No Islamic accounts.

Is XTB a scam or a safe broker? Regulations

Nowadays, there are many brokers in the trading world, so it is quite normal that the question arises whether XTB is related to online trading scams. The answer to this question is that XTB is the leading forex broker in Central and Eastern Europe.

It offers online trading of more than 1,500 instruments, including currencies, stocks, indices, exchange-traded funds, ETFs on 2 trading platforms and commodities.

XTB has a solid reputation and extremely strict regulatory guidelines, offering secure trading with a high level of protection.

Here the security of funds is paramount so that all client money is kept in segregated accounts at all times. With all of the above, it is very difficult for a broker with these features and controls to be linked to fraud or scams.

XTB is authorised and regulated by the FCA, the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom, and for Latin America, it operates through XTB International Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the IFSC, which stands for International Financial Services Commission of Belize, with licence number IFSC/60/413/TS/17.

Commissions and Fees

Since we know that the broker is not a scam at all, what needs to be analysed are the commissions or fees, as this aspect is very important for traders. Generally speaking, XTB does not charge any commissions for trading, but rather the main expense for the p3erson investing, known as the investor, is through spreads.

XTB has recently launched its commission-free spot share offer. XTB does not charge commissions for buying or selling shares as long as your volume does not exceed 100.000€ per month. If you exceed this amount, the rest of the invested capital will be charged a commission of 0.02% with a minimum of 10€.

However, there is a commission of 0.12% of the amount of each of the transactions made in CFDs on shares and indices.

As we can see, these commissions are not high, so we are going to make special mention of the spreads, which is where the investor can lose the most money. These spreads depend on the type of account you have.

TABLE OF XTB´S COMMISSIONS AND FEES

(February 14th 2022)

Title

Standard, Professional

Opening and closing of an Account

Free of charge

Monthly Fee for maintaining an Account

Free of charge or up to 10€

Commission for withdrawal of funds from the Cash Account in the amount lower than 100 EUR

10€

Fee for preparation and sending of a daily report of operations conducted on the Client´s Account, in a paper form

25€

Fee for preparation and sending of other reports, in particular monthly reports from the Client´s Account, or sending a paper version of the Regulations in case of its change.

75€

Penalty interest

Statutory penalty interest

Fee for transfer on Cash Accounts made via credit or debit card

EUR-Free

HUF-Free

USD-Free

Fee for each case of preparation and sending daily reports/confirmations on the execution of orders in paper form

50€ daily + 0,3€ for each page + a fee in the amount of courier delivery costs for each case of preparation and sending daily report on the execution of orders

Fee for repeated, each case of preparation and sending key information documents about XTB Financial instruments in a paper form

50€ daily + 0,3€ for each page + a fee in the amount of courier delivery costs for each case of preparation and sending key information documents about

Fee for each preparation and sending of a statement of stored Financial Instruments and cash or information about costs and fees paid in paper form

50€ daily + 0,3€ for each page + a fee in the amount of courier delivery costs for each preparation and sending of a statement of stored Financial Instruments and cash or information about costs and fees paid

Value of interests on Clients´ funds due to XTB in accordance with point 4.20 of the GTC

Average annual interests rate is between 0% and 2%

Commission for a transaction on PROFESSIONAL Account - for opening and closing

3,5 EUR for 1 lot

Excluding Stock CFD, ETF CFD, and crypto-currencies

Reporting Service governed by the Terms and conditions of the service of delegating XTB Limited by a Client being a Financial Counterparty or a Non-financial Counterparty plus

Free of charge

Commission for aq transaction on PROFESSIONAL Account - for opening and closing

Commission for transaction on CFDs based on crypto-currencies for the volume of

Instrument	Commission	Volume
BITCOIN	3,5 EUR	1
ETHEREUM	3,5 EUR	10
RIPPLE	3,5 EUR	10000
LITECOIN	3,5 EUR	100
BITCOINCASH	3,5 EUR	10

Commission deducted from the turnover on the following instruments: ITA.40, ITA.40., ITA.40., ITA.40+ and ITA40. cash

Fixed fee related to notional transaction value, according to the below table:

Transaction value	Fee
0-2,500 EUR	0,25 EUR
2,500-5,000 EUR	0,5 EUR
5,000 - 10,000 EUR	1 EUR
10,000 - 50,000 EUR	5 EUR
50,000 - 100,000 EUR	10 EUR
100,000 - 500,000 EUR	50 EUR
500,000 - 1,000,000 EUR	100 EUR
Over 1,000,000 EUR	200 EUR

Source: www.xtb.com

Account types

Account Type	Standard	Pro
Trading terminal	MetaTrader4, xStation	MetaTrader4, xStation
Min. Deposit	250$	1000$
Spread	Fixed (from 0.35 pips)	market -based (от 0,28 pips)
Max. leverage	Up to 1:200	Up to 1:200
Financial assets	Forex, Indices, Cryptocurrency, Metals, Stocks, ETFs	Forex, Indices, Cryptocurrency, Metals, Stocks, ETFs
Min. lot	0,01	0,01
Order execution type	Market Execution	Market Execution
Quoting	4 digits after the decimal point	4 digits after the decimal point
Margin Call Level	30%	30%
Stop Out Level	30%	30%

Trading platforms

XTB offers two trading platforms: xStation 5 and more traditional MT4, from which you can trade forex, indices, commodities, equity CFDs, ETFs and cryptocurrencies.

FXCM Review

As for FXCM, it has been very popular since 1999. It occupies quite a leading position in the world and is also popular in all countries of the world. The offices are located in countries such as England, Japan, the USA, France and some countries in Europe. The company is quite reliable and attracts customers and partners with great efficiency.

In January 2015, Leucadia Investments became the majority partner of FCM. Making it the first online broker to enter the stock market.

Registration with FXCM

There is nothing particularly complicated about registration. The main thing is to fill in the form correctly and accurately. Correctness of personal data will help clients or partners to insure against malefactors. After registration, you will have to go through authorization.

Pros and Cons

Disadvantages

Even a broker as illustrious as this one has some drawbacks. These include the fact that it is no longer regulated in the US, as well as its narrow selection of assets compared to many of the major brokers.

It is also common that many traders have experienced problems with withdrawals as their account has not been verified. It is therefore important that you check your account verification before withdrawing funds.

Advantages

On the positive side, the safeguards in place, negative balance protection and the use of segregated accounts are excellent for a very transparent and trustworthy.

The FXCMs low deposit of 50$ also ensures access to trading for everyone, and finally, the fact that it is an STP broker means you get high liquidity, which should translate into excellent prices and really fast execution.

The regulation of FXCM

FXCM and its various subsidiaries located in various countries around the world are regulated and regulated by the following entities:

FXCM´s subsidiaries and international regulatory bodies.

Forex Capital Markets Limited is registered in England and Wales under company house number 04072877 and regulated by:

● Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK

● The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) in Germany

● The National Securities Market Commission (Comision Nacional del Mercado de Valores) in Spain

FXCM Australia Pty. Limited it is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) in Australia

FXCM South Africa Ltd. is a licensed Financial Services Provider and is regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa.

FXCM France is a branch of Forex Capital Markets Limited registered with the Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés de Paris en Francia

Account Types on FXCM (Commissions)

FXCM offers several types of trading accounts for both experienced traders and those new to the Forex market. All clients can access the same online support and use any of the platforms offered by FXCM.

Clients can apply to open multiple accounts simultaneously, a joint account or a corporate account (the latter requires a monthly maintenance fee for investments under $50,000 USD).

The accounts have no custody or maintenance fees. There are fees if the currency transferred from FXCM and the base currency of the credit card are not the same. There are also rollover fees for holding a position open overnight and a 12-month inactivity fee, among others.

Mini Account (minimum deposit $50 USD or €50 EUR):

This is FXCM's basic account designed for less-experienced traders. It offers lower leverage: major currency pairs are set to 1:30 by default, non-major currency pairs, gold and major indices are set to 1:20 by default, and non-gold commodities and major equity indices are set to 10:1 by default.

Standard Account (minimum deposit $10,000 USD or €10,000 EUR):

This is FXCM's basic account designed for experienced traders. All new accounts have leverage of 400:1 on Forex and 200:1 on CFDs. If the amount invested exceeds $20,000 USD or €20,000 EUR the account will be automatically transferred to leverage of 1:100 on Forex and maintained at 1:200 on CFDs.

Accounts offer fixed and variable spreads that can be as low as 0.1 pip depending on market volatility. Averages for: EUR/USD: 1.3 pips, EUR/GBP: 2.2 pips, EUR/JPY: 2.0 pips, USD/JPY: 1.3 pips, AUD/USD: 1.8 pips. The minimum size that can be used per position is 0.01 standard lot or what is called a micro-lot which is equivalent to opening a micro-account.

Active Trader account (minimum deposit of $25,000 USD or €25,000 EUR):

This account is focused on professional traders who want to receive VIP benefits and services. It offers leverage of up to 1:100 for Forex trading and 1:200 for CFDs on other investment products.

The accounts offer fixed and variable spreads that can be as low as 0.1 pip depending on market volatility. However, when trading high volume on this account, traders can save up to 62.4% on spread costs. In this case, the average spreads are as follows: EUR/USD: 0.2 pips, EUR/GBP: 0.6 pips, EUR/JPY: 0.5 pips, USD/JPY: 0.3 pips, AUD/USD: 0.3 pips.

A committed team of experienced professionals provides dedicated first-class support for Active Trader accounts. From one-on-one consultations with an account manager to a dedicated Back-Office team, ensuring FXCM's resources are properly utilised, customer service is second to none.

Whether you are a programmer looking to develop a "black box" style solution or an order processing application, you can use the FIX API, ForexConnect and Java to create the custom solutions you need. With your Active Trader account, you get free access to multiple APIs.

Trading Platforms of FXCM

Trading Station

Trading Station is an innovative, award-winning trading software that FXCM designed, after 10 years of feedback from its traders, to create a robust platform that meets the demands of its clients, from beginners to experienced traders. It has a sophisticated control panel, complete with a set of intuitive management tools, and clear, detailed and real-time charts.

This platform allows you to explore multiple order types, view real-time prices, save time with dozens of preloaded trading and economic indicators, and stay on top of your trades with email alerts. With it, you can trade over 250 financial instruments including major currency pairs, commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies and more. In addition, the platform offers access to exclusive tools such as the unique Good Till Date order type, which allows you to automatically execute an order at specific times.

Trading Station offers charting and data analysis tools, which are available either from a website external to the trading platform or added to the platform by plug-ins, which need to be downloaded. In addition, this platform delivers live news and exclusive real volume indicators, which open FXCM's trading book to traders from all over the world.

Trading Station has options for trading automation and the development of new strategies, with backtesting and optimisation capabilities.

This trading platform is available via web or mobile download. There are also free apps with regulations in FXCM's App Store, such as Forex market news, different Forex trading utility services, indicators, and much more.