Fortrade Review: What Are the Pros & Cons of Trading With This UK Broker?

Risk Warning: Your Capital is at Risk.

Fortrade Overview

Fortrade is a UK-based derivatives brokerage firm that offers customers two trading platforms for trading forex and Contracts-for-Difference (CFDs).

Fortrade traders have a choice between the broker’s proprietary Fortrader platform and the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform.

Fortrade’s strengths include a scalable platform and regulation of the top international regulatory bodies.

This Fortrade review will cover key facts about the broker for clients in so that you can make an informed opinion about its products and services.

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Quick Summary

Who is Fortrade Best For?

Fortrade is regulated by several organizations, including the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

You can see the full list of regulators in our list of facts about Fortrade.

Traders who previously used MetaTrader 4 or 5 may prefer the software over the Fortrader platform.

Fast Facts About Fortrade

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Where Does Fortrade Operate?

Fortrade serves clients in over 110 countries. To see if Fortrade operates in , toggle the lists below.

What Languages Does Fortrade Support?

Fortrade supports 15 languages on its platform:

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Fortrade Trading Products

Fortrade offers customers CFD trading in over 300 instruments grouped into nine categories: forex, stock CFDs, index CFDs, precious metals, energy products, agricultural products, US treasuries, and ETFs.

Forex Pairs

Fortrade offers seven major forex currency pairs, as well as minors and exotics.

The major currency pairs are:

• AUD/USD
• EUR/USD
• GBP/USD
• NZD/USD
• USD/CAD
• USD/CHF
• USD/JPY

Index CFDs

Fortrade offers CFD trading on 19 major indices.

CFDs On Shares

Fortrade customers can trade CFDs on some of the most popular shares from companies in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Western Asia, the United States, and other European countries.

Precious Metal CFDs

• Copper
• Gold (EUR, GBP, AUD)
• Gold Gram / Turkish Lira (GAU / TRY)
• Gold Gram (GAU) to Turkish Lira (TRY) exchange rate
• GOLDTRY (Troy Ounce)
• Gram GOLD (GAUUSD)
• Palladium
• Platinum
• Silver
• Silver AUD

Energy Product CFDs

• Brent Oil
• Crude Oil
• Gasoline
• Heating Oil
• Natural Gas

Agricultural Product CFDs

• Soybeans
• Sugar
• Wheat

US Treasury CFDs

• US 10Y Note
• US 30Y Bond
• US 5Y Note

CFDs On ETFs

• SQQQ – ProShares UltraPro QQQ Short ETF CFD)
• TQQQ – ProShares UltraPro QQQ Long ETF CFD)
• United States Oil Fund LP (USO)

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Account Types & Requirements

Fortrade keeps things simple and offers only three types of accounts:

• Standard trading accounts
• Islamic accounts
• Demo accounts

Standard Trading Accounts

Fortrade requires a minimum initial deposit of £100 depending on the base currency of your account.

However, the broker recommends that traders make an initial minimum deposit of at least £500.

Islamic Accounts

Fortrade also offers an option to open an Islamic forex account. These accounts are swap-free, with no rollover interest on overnight positions in accordance with Islamic law.

Islamic accounts require a minimum balance of $2,000.

Demo Accounts

Unlike with some brokers, you don’t need a standard trading account to open a demo account.

Demo accounts have all the same features that a standard account offers, including real-time charts and quotes for hundreds of financial assets.

There is no time limit to the practice account. Fortrade deposits an initial notional sum of 100,000 demo credits into your trading account to practice online trading in a real trading environment.

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Account Requirements

When starting out with Fortrade, traders need to provide the following information during the sign up process:

1. Name
2. Email address
3. Physical address
4. Mobile phone number
5. Country of origin
6. Base currency (US dollars, Euros, or British pound sterling)
7. Date of birth

You’ll also be asked a few questions about your financial status, employment status, and trading goals.

How To Verify Your Identity At Fortrade

To verify your identity with Fortrade, you will need one document for proof of identity and one for proof of address. You can fax, email or upload these documents to Fortrade.

Deposit & Withdrawal Guide

Fortrade requires a minimum deposit of £100, but the broker suggests customers deposit at least £500.

Traders can deposit and withdraw funds with Fortrade using one of several different methods:

Funding Method	Timing & Fees
Credit card	Instant, no fees
Neteller	Instant, no fees
Skrill	Instant, no fees
Wire Transfer	Minimum transfer of $250, fee up to $40*, can take up to 7 days to be credited to an account

Margin Requirements

To ensure you can cover any losses you might incur on your positions, Fortrade requires sufficient collateral or margin. The margin available in your account will limit the size of the positions you can open.

Fortrade requires a specific margin to be available in your account for each trade that you execute.

You can see Fortrade’s margin rates list under the “Trading Product Details” section of their website.

Traders who fall below the Fortrade margin requirements risk receiving a margin call and having their position closed prematurely.

How To Withdraw Funds From Fortrade

Fortrade has a strict policy that funds can only be returned to the source in which the deposit was made. Sums in excess of the original deposit may be withdrawn by providing an alternative withdrawal method — for example bank wire transfer, Skrill, or Neteller.

To wire money to your bank account, Fortrade needs your past three months of bank statements. The statements must clearly show:

• Full Name
• Full Address
• Full Bank details (Bank/Sort code and Account Number)

Transfer Timing

Fortrade processes withdrawal requests within two business days after they are submitted.

• Wire Transfers – Usually take up to 5 business days to reach your account.
• Debit/credit cards – Can take up to 15 business days to reach your account.

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Fortrade Spreads and Fees

Fortrade receives its compensation in the form of the market bid/ask spreads on each instrument.

Forex Currency Pair Spreads

The most liquid forex currency pairs such as EUR/USD and GBP/USD and USD/JPY have recently had average spreads of 2 pips.

Spreads for pairs like USD/CAD, USD/CHF and EUR/CHF have recently had average spreads of 4 pips, depending on the time of day.

Indices Spreads

Recent sample average spreads includes:

• 5 pips on AUD 200 (Australia 200)
• 2.5 pips on GER30 (Germany 30)
• 0.11 pips on USDX (DOLLAR_INDX)

Spreads On Stocks

Fortrade offers trading on a wide range of stock CFDs. Traders can consult the Fortrade website for details about spreads on stock CFDs.

Average spreads on European stocks presently range from 0.02 pips to 8.5 pips. On US stocks, average spreads are between 0.04 pips and 2 pips.

Spreads On Commodities

Recent sample average spreads include:

• 0.75 for Wheat and Soybeans
• 0.07 for Brent Oil
• 0.008 for Natural Gas
• $0.04 on Crude Oil
• $0.45 for Gold
• $0.04 for Silver

Spreads On ETFs

Recent average spreads for SQQQ and TQQQ have been 0.14 pips.

Withdrawal Fees and Other Fees

• Withdrawal Fees: Any International Telegraphic Transfer (TT) Fees incurred by Fortrade are passed on to the customer. Most International TTs are approximately $40.
• Overnight Funding Fees: This overnight Fortrade fee (or credit) is either added to or subtracted from a trader’s account when a position remains open past a certain period of time. Traders can obtain information on overnight funding rates on the website.
• Dormancy Fee: If for any consecutive period of 180 days, you do not trade on your Client Account, then Fortrade considers the Client Account to be inactive or dormant. Fortrade charges a monthly administrative fee on dormant accounts of USD $10.00 (or a similar amount in such other currency). Fortrade stops charging this fee if the balance in the client’s account reaches $0.

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Fortrader Mobile App Review

One way traders can access the Fortrade platform is through he Fortrader app. What stands out is traders have access to customer support on the Fortrader mobile app via live chat, email, or phone.

Since more and more traders are looking for ways to trade on the go, here’s a factual review of the Fortrader Mobile App.

When you open the Fortrader app, you’ll see the home screen with instruments you’ve chosen as favorites at the top of the list.

How To Find Trading Instruments

To find new instruments, just tap the magnifying glass.

Once you find an instrument you wish to trade, tapping on the item will bring up market information on the chosen instrument. For this example, we’ll pick Crude Oil.

You can make customizations to the chart and:

• Move between candlestick or a line chart
• Change the timeframe on the x-axis (minute, 30-minutes, hourly, daily, or weekly).

Tap on the ‘Info’ or ‘More’ tabs at the bottom of the screen to see additional information about the instrument you’ve chosen.

How To Open A Trade

Opening a trade from the ticket screen is takes one tap. From the ticket screen, you can:

• Change the trade amount (from 10 units to 100,000 units)
• Add a stop-loss (S/L) and/or take-profit (T/P) limits to automatically close your trade.

It’s worth noting that Stop-losses are NOT guaranteed by Fortrade.

How To Manage Positions

Once you’ve placed an order, or at any time from the home screen, you can tap on the lower right “Open P&L” link to see all of your open positions.

On an existing trade, you can edit your trade’s S/L or T/P, duplicate the entire trade, or close it.

Viewing Account Information

Tapping the ‘Equity’ link at the bottom of any screen will take you to your account information where you can see your balance, open profit/loss amount, equity, margin details, and deposit funds into your account.

How To Transfer Funds On Mobile

It’s easy to deposit or withdraw funds from your Fortrader mobile app. Traders can access the ‘Deposit’ or ‘Withdraw Funds’ options by tapping the menu on the upper left-hand side of the Fortrader app.

How To Switch To Your Practice Account

When the upper left menu icon is visible, you can tap it to switch between your practice account and your real account.

Here’s a detailed look at what you can do with Fortrader Mobile.

Cross-Platform Continuity

The Fortrader mobile app doesn’t lose out on many features in comparison to the browser-based version of the app (reviewed below). The mobile app contains all functionalities of the desktop platform.

You can also move between platforms seamlessly.

You can open a position on your smartphone, check on it while using your laptop, and close the position on your iPad — all while using the same interface on each device.

Fortrader Mobile App’s Weaknesses

The simple interface of the Fortrader Mobile falls short when it comes to charting features. Fortrader does offer some of the bare-bones technical analysis tools, though some traders may find the selection too scarce.

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Fortrader Browser App Review

The most significant difference between the browser & web apps is that there’s more screen area at your disposal, and the selection of analytics tools.

Starting Up Fortrader

When you begin using Fortrader, the system defaults to “practice mode” and takes you through a tutorial to get you started.

These are practical touches since many other platforms place you directly in “live mode” with no instructions on how to trade using their software.

Fortrader’s main screen is designed simply. Traders can find the instruments categorized on the left side of the screen with the corresponding chart on the right.

The trading ticket is similarly designed to what you see on the mobile app and offers the exact same functonalities of setting the:

• Trade amount
• Stop/Loss limits
• Take Profit limits

Charting Features On Fortrade

Fortrader has fewer drawing tools and technical indicators than some may expect.

However, Fortrader offers “hand-holding” tools overlooked by some bigger firms. For example, you’ll see a link to Fortrade’s “Trading Central,” which provides actionable real-time trading advice.

Below you can see that the charting section is a basic position management section with open and closed trades.

Fortrade Customer Support

Fortrade provides customer support via phone or live chat 12 hours-a-day between 9 am and 9 pm GMT Monday through Friday. After hours, traders can send an email or leave their number to get a callback.

Traders can view the Fortrade website in:

• Albanian
• Arabic
• Croatian
• Dutch
• English
• French
• German
• Italian
• Macedonian
• Polish
• Russian
• Slovene
• Spanish
• Swedish

Fortrade’s website states that customer support via phone is also available in multiple languages. Aside from English, those other languages are not specified.

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MetaTrader 4 App Review

Since the Fortrader software is fairly basic, traders with previous experience of MetaTrader 4 (MT4) may prefer it over the Fortrader web platform.

How To Access The Fortrader Demo Account

After you sign up for a Fortrade account, you’ll be directed to the practice or demo account. Traders receive €100,000 in play money and can practice as long as they wish.

The demo accounts look like the live accounts and traders get the same functionality.

To switch from practice-trading mode to real-trading mode, simply click on the ‘Switch to Real’ button located both in the top right corner of your screen and inside your account drop-down menu.

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Fortrade’s Educational Resources

Fortrade’s resources can be accessed under the Education tab on the website.

Fortrade Trading Academy

Here you can find e-books that explain forex and CFD terms, video courses, advanced trading courses, and other in-depth information about topics like capital management and trading psychology.

You can also learn about short-term trading strategies.

Webinars and Guardian Angel

Fortrade hosts free webinars about forex and other trading topics.

Fortrade also has a free chatbot called Guardian Angel that gives feedback real-time feedback about your trading strategy and how it affects your goals.

Guardian Angel can give you guidance like:

• Alerts on global finance trends
• Feedback on trading actions with referrals to educational content
• Notifications about changes in market sentiment
• Real-time regression analysis [Real Trading Mode only, not available on demo accounts]

News and Market Analysis

This resource contains a real-time fundamental and technical analysis of markets. There is also an economic calendar and a historical overview of markets.

Forex and CFD Trading Tools

You can also find helpful calculators that let you convert currencies, estimate pip values, swap rates, and determine margin percentages.

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Can I Trust Fortrade?

Fortrade is regulated by a leading international regulatory body, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The FCA regulates the firm in the United Kingdom (FCA registration number FRN 609970), while the Markets in Financial Directive (MiFID) allows the company to operate as a regulated entity throughout the European Union.

Fortrade clients are assured that the broker’s financial statements are audited by Fisher Sassoon and Marks – a specialist UK financial services and accounting firm.

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Fortrade As A Company

Fortrade is operated by Fortrade Limited. The privately held firm was incorporated in the United Kingdom in 2013, under the name Integrisafe Ltd. The firm changed its name to Fortrade and registered with the FCA in 2014.

Fortrade’s headquarters are located in London, United Kingdom.

Who Runs Fortrade?

The CEO of Fortrade Ltd., since April 2015, has been Nick Collison. Collinson has over 20 years of Senior Management experience within the financial services industry including proprietary trading, fully systematic algorithmic trading, along with forex and CFD matched principal broking.

Prior to and while joining Fortrade, Nick Collison served as a Director at Saxon Cambridge Algorithmic Research Ltd.

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FAQs

Is Fortrade legitimate?

Fortrade is a brokerage firm that is regulated by the FCA and authorized to provide services in the EU via MiFID. Fortrade’s UK customers are protected by the UK-based Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which pays compensation up to £50,000 to customers in the United Kingdom if Fortrade is unable to pay.

How do I trade with Fortrade?

Trading with Fortrade takes place on either its Fortrader platform or its MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform, based on traders’ preference. When you sign up for an account on Fortrade, a tutorial will walk you through the steps of executing your first trade. Fortrade also offers mobile apps on iOS and Android.

How do I withdraw money from Fortrade?

To withdraw money from Fortrade, choose Deposits/Withdrawal from the menu on the upper right corner of the platform’s main screen. Next, enter the amount you’d like to withdraw and choose a withdrawal method, including your deposit account information. Withdrawal requests are processed within two business days.

For more information on requirements, see our Deposits and Withdrawals sections above.

What does Fortrade mean?

Fortrade is a portmanteau of the English words “for” and “trade,” which together suggest that the firm facilitates trades. In this context, “trade” is a reference to buying and selling stocks and other derivatives. Fortrade specializes exclusively in trading Contracts for Difference (CFDs).

Credits: Original Fortrade review written by Lawrence Pines. Major updates and additions by Natalie Mootz with contributions from the Commodity.com editorial team.