Capital.com Review 2023
Capital.com is a multi-national brokerage firm founded in 2016. The company provides retail and institutional trading services across multiple financial markets. Besides holding various regulations worldwide, the company fully complies with AML directives. While advanced research facilities and rich educational resources make it an attractive choice for newbies, the company’s limited range of offerings might limit the trading potential of advanced traders. This piece discusses the broker in detail.
If you’re already convinced by the mouthwatering pros, head to the official website to register for your trading account.
Regulation and Security
Capital.com is subject to various regulations worldwide. While the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recognized the broker as meeting all the regulatory requirements in the UK, other authorities that oversee the corporation include:
Australia – The company complies with the regulations the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) set forth under permit number AFSL 513393.
Seychelles – The Financial Services Authority (FSA) granted the investment firm the proper authorization to conduct business and issued the SD101 licence number.
Cyprus – The broker operates as Capital.com SV Investments in Cyprus, bearing registration number HE 354252. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is in charge of regulating the company.
Belarus – The National Bank of the Republic of Belarus (NBRB) oversees the broker in Belarus. The company is located at the following address: 220030, Minsk, Internatsionalnaya street, 36/1, office 823.
Negative Balance Protection
With margin trading, there is always a risk of losing more funds than you have invested in the company, especially during a fast-moving market. As a safety net, Capital.com’s negative balance protection is available.
Funds Segregation
Capital.com keeps clients’ money in segregated bank accounts, preferably with investment grade AAA banks. That means the company doesn’t use clients’ funds for personal investments in any case.
Is Capital.com available worldwide?
Capital.com is available in most jurisdictions around the world. The company accepts clients from 180+ countries across the globe. However, the broker services are unavailable for residents of Japan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya, North Korea, North America, the United States, and a few more.
BANNER: WITH ITS SERVICES IN OVER 180 COUNTRIES, CAPITAL.COM IS GIVING YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO ENJOY UNPARALLELED RETURNS WITH MINIMAL RISK. SIGN UP TODAY!
Supported Platforms
Capital.com does not have its own proprietary desktop trading app. Instead, it offers the industry’s most renowned trading platform – the MetaTrader4. Moreover, the broker allows clients to use the third-party platform ‘TradingView’ via integration with its web terminal. On-the-go clients can use the company’s mobile trading app to access markets anytime. Let’s quickly go through features offered by the company for each of its trading channels.
Online trading: The company’s web-based platform looks suitable for traders looking for a friendly trading environment. The web terminal has 75+ technical indicators, multiple charting options and extensive drawing tools, making it a powerful platform for in-depth technical analysis. With its smart-risk management features, such as stop loss, and trailing stops, clients can limit their risk exposure. The web platform makes it easy to switch between different tabs while keeping an eye on the market.
Desktop trading: Those who wish to explore markets from the comfort of their desktops may use the MT4 trading platform at capital.com. Besides being highly customizable, It allows clients to receive price alert notifications. However, it does not have a two-step authentication feature. Furthermore, the design seems to be a little outdated. Although changing the size of the tabs and repositioning them is simple, some other features still appear difficult. For instance, it takes considerable time and effort to find out how to put an asset on the watchlist before you can do so.
While the search facility is satisfactory, the grouped categorization of tradable assets can be confusing. You can right-click and select the show-all option to see all majors, minor, exotic forex pairs and other tradable assets. However, a filter would have been an excellent placement. Information on fees, such as the commissions and profit/loss balance, is easily accessible via the reports option under the “Account History” tab.
Mobile trading: Capital.com allows clients to access three mobile trading apps: proprietary trading, MT4, and Investmate. Clients can download the respective versions of apps from the Google Play Store or App Store for their iOS and Android-based mobile phones and tablets. We’ll discuss the MT4 trading app for illustration.
The MT4 mobile trading app has a user-friendly interface and a wide range of functions. Although the MT4 mobile trading platform simplifies analysis and managing positions, it doesn’t support algorithmic trading. Using multiple indicators and drawing tools while annotating through charts is simple, while one-click trading makes it even more convenient to open, close or modify your positions.
Account Types
The firm’s previous account options were Standard, Plus, and Premier accounts. However, following the European Securities and Markets Authority’s new rules and guidelines, the corporation appears to have restricted its account offering to retail and professional accounts.
Since ESMA stipulates that traders must fulfil certain conditions before they can be considered professional clients, the organization first registers all customers under retail accounts. After that, it requests further documentation from the clients and evaluates their eligibility. A professional client must satisfy at least two of the listed conditions.
1. Your investment portfolio, including cash deposits, equals to or exceeds €50,000
2. You have a professional work experience of more than a year in the financial industry.
3. You have frequently been trading the financial markets over the last year with a minimum of 10 trades each quarter.
Moreover, clients from Europe and the UK are eligible for professional accounts. The company doesn’t offer professional accounts to other countries.
The company also offers a virtually funded demo account to help clients practice their trading skills without committing their actual funds.
Swap-free accounts are also available for shariah practising traders. If you’re new to trading and the complex details feel overwhelming, click here to find a simplistic overview.
Signing Up
Capital.com’s registration process is pretty straightforward. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to complete except for the verification part, which might take up to 2 or 3 days. Documents required for KYC completion include a copy of your National ID card, Passport, or Driving license. The company also needs you to verify your address. A utility bill or a bank statement works well for address confirmation. Clients may follow the listed steps to signup with the broker.
1) Fill up the registration form and enter your details, including email ID, password, mobile phone number and address.
2) Complete the KYC process and submit the supporting documents mentioned above.
3) Add funds to your accounts using available payment methods.
Once you are done with deposits, you may start placing trades immediately.
Trading Dashboard
Capital.com offers a user-friendly trading dashboard. It has dark and light themes and a handful of options to explore. While the upper panel displays a quick account summary, there are seven tabs on your left navigation panel: trade, discover, charts, portfolio, reports, deposits and settings. The trade button allows you to access available financial markets, while the “discover” tab displays market insights, such as top risers, fallers, and most traded financial instruments. The charting tab makes clients view the price performance of underlying assets in 9-time frames, whereas clients may use the portfolio button to view their trade positions and the number of orders. The account statement is accessible using the reports tab, while funding options are available under the deposit tab. The setting menu allows you to set up your account preferences.
On the dashboard’s top right corner is a drop menu that clients can use to manage login credentials, configure trades, and switch between live and demo accounts.
Deposit and Withdrawals
Capital.com doesn’t offer many account funding options compared to other brokerage firms in the industry. You can only add funds to your accounts using debit cards, credit cards, and wire transfers. Further, the company doesn’t allow third-party payments. Therefore, the source of funds should be only in your name.
The minimum deposit for each payment option is $20 or equivalent, excluding bank transfers. Clients must deposit at least $250 or equivalent via wire transfers. The company accepts deposits in five currencies, including GBP, USD, AUD, EUR, and PLN.
Concerning withdrawals, the broker releases funds via the same methods clients have used for deposits. No minimum amount is set for withdrawals, but it should not be less than $10 or equivalent. Also, clients with a balance of $50 in their accounts must withdraw the amount in total. The company doesn’t process withdrawal requests for lesser amounts for such clients. If you have specific queries regarding your account type, head to their FAQs section or customer service to find your answers.
While the broker process card transactions instantaneously, wire transfers can take between 3 to 5 working days to reflect in your account.
Instruments
Capital.com supports a relatively limited range of markets. Still, it offers a decent selection of tradable assets under various asset classes. For instance, almost 5,000 stocks, 138+ currencies, 25+ commodities, 12+ indices and 450+ cryptos are available to trade. The company also supports 8+ thematic investments under ETFs.
Please note that the broker’s range of offerings also varies from country to country. For example, the company doesn’t offer crypto CFDs to UK clients amid FCA restrictions on crypto derivatives. However, the spread betting facility is only available for UK-based clients.
Therefore, if you’re looking to trade a specific financial instrument, it is best to check its availability with the broker before signing up with it.
Commissions and Fees
Capital.com’s pricing structure seems pretty competitive. Besides employing low trading costs, the company doesn’t charge non-trading fees. For example, the company makes money through spreads only. It doesn’t charge clients any commission for trading stocks or other financial instruments.
Further, there are no deposit or withdrawal charges or account administration fees. Clients who have been dormant for ages also don’t have to pay any inactivity charges to resume trading at Capital.com. However, keeping your positions open overnight will carry swap charges. The broker charges -0.00060% on EURUSD long positions while short ones have a charge of -0.00031%.
Spreads
The broker’s spreads are highly competitive for both retail and professional traders. On a currency pair like EUR/USD, the average spread stays around 0.6 pips, while indices like the UK100 are available for an average spread of 0.9 basis points.
FIND TYPICAL TRADING FEES AND SPREADS
Available Leverage
Leverage refers to margin-based trading. You borrow funds from your broker if you seek greater market exposure with limited funds available to invest. For example, a leverage of 1:30 allows you to open a position as big as 30 times your capital.
The company sets different leverage levels depending upon clients’ selected entity and type of instrument. For instance, a leverage of up to 1:30 is available for trading major currency pairs to clients residing in Europe and the UK. On the other hand, the company offers maximum leverage of up to 1:100 across Asian and African regions.
Similarly, EU and UK-based clients can trade shares and cryptocurrencies using a leverage of up to 1:5 and 1:2, respectively. However, the rest of the world can access shares and crypto CFDs for leverage up to 1:20.
Please note that leverage is like a two-edged sword. While it maximizes your profit earning potential, it also magnifies the risk of loss. Therefore, you must exercise extreme caution while selecting leverage for your trading account.
Analysis and Education
Capital.com’s research and analysis section also seems impressive. While the research section covers everything from technical analysis to comments on economic fundamentals, the company also features dedicated content on its Youtube channel. Market Outlooks videos are well-produced, covering the weekly forecast. Additionally, online pieces are well-written and feature references to charts and analysis and other outside sources, all of which are hallmarks of a quality newsroom.
The company also offers rich educational resources, including articles and video tutorials. You can learn risk and money management techniques via well-structured 05 courses comprising 28 lessons, with a final exam designed to measure your progress. The broker’s Investmate app’s gaming style enhances your learning experience even more. To sum it up, Capital.com’s excellent instructional resources are on par with those of the best brokers available in the market.
Customer Service
Capital.com pay special attention to customer facilitation. Besides providing a dedicated FAQs section to help clients find quick resolutions to their queries, the company offers multilingual customer support round the clock. The company assists clients in multiple languages via live chat, email and telephone. Clients can also reach the company on social media platforms, including Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, and Viber.
Although the broker quickly responds via other mediums, we believe telephonic assistance needs a slight improvement. For example, when we tried connecting with the broker via telephone, the company requested us to contact via email or live chat window since no customer support agent was available to entertain us over the phone. Let us mention the contact details you may use to get in touch with the business.
Global Office – United Kingdom
Tele: +44 20 8089 7893
Email: support@capital.com
Reputation amongst Traders
Capital.com holds an excellent reputation among investors. For instance, the company secured a rating of 4.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Maintaining such a high rating after 7K+ reviews is genuinely applaudable. Almost 69% of clients have cast their votes in favour of Capital.com. The majority appreciated the broker’s rich educational resources and quick customer support.
On the other hand, the company holds an average rating on the Forexpeacearmy. People seem to have mixed opinions concerning their experience with the broker. While some clients seemed satisfied with the broker’s trading conditions and pricing structure, others looked unhappy because of the company’s slow withdrawal process. After 53 reviews on the Forexpeacearmy, the company’s ratings stand around 2.94 out of 5. Overall, the company appears to be in the good books of customers.
Awards
The company has housed several awards for its excellence of services over the years.
- Most Transparent Brokerage Service Provider 2019 Awards by European’s Global Business.
- Most Innovative Broker 2019 Awards by European’s Global Business.
- Best Trading Company Awards 2019 by Shares Awards.
Can beginners trade with Capital.com?
Yes, Capital.com does not only offer user-friendly trading platforms but provides rich educational resources and access to unlimited demo accounts, making it an ideal choice for newbies. However, since CFD trading is relatively complex, beginners should first start with a demo account. Once they become confident to go live, switching from the demo version to a live trading account only takes seconds.
Summing Up
Capital.com is a competitive choice for both retail and institutional investors looking for a budgeted trading solution. While the company entices clients with its robust regulatory framework, user-friendly trading interface, and rich educational resources, its limited product offerings and the absence of a proprietary desktop trading platform may deter high-volume traders. Overall, the firm ranks high among the best CFD brokers available around.
