SimpleFX Review 2023
The Forex market’s highly competitive landscape has produced a variety of different brokers that compete in different niches and offer different benefits to traders. One example of a broker that’s specialized in a specific category is SimpleFX, a broker that provides an excellent mobile trading service and is beginner-friendly.
SimpleFX is a completely unregulated international broker that has a high-security platform with a dedicated mobile trading app and great customer service. That being said, this broker can be a little expensive sometimes, and it doesn’t offer great educational resources. We’ve reviewed SimpleFX for you below so that you can decide whether this is a good broker for you.
Regulation and Security
SimpleFX is officially registered in the Caribbean island country of St Vincent and the Grenadines. It’s not incorporated by the Register of International Business Companies, so It’s not a regulated broker. Instead, SimpleFX is registered as an international business company (IBC) on the island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It also has a legal entity identified (LEI) with the Registrar of the IBC.
The fact that it’s not officially regulated by key regulatory authorities like the FCA in the UK, the CySEC in Cyprus, or ASIC in Australia, means SimpleFX doesn’t offer the same protection as regulated brokers. Many brokers outright refuse to trade at all with brokers without proper regulatory credentials. So, SimpleFX is a bad choice for you if you value regulatory oversight.
As for security measures, SimpleFX uses two-factor authentication, which is more reliable than single-factor authentication. The inclusion of two-factor authentication is especially appreciable since many large brokers only use single-factor authentication. It also has strict controls over traders.
For example, it uses a strong encryption system to ensure your deposit’s safety. Your personal information is held in secured offline servers. Overall, SimpleFX has generally good internal security, but the lack of official regulation is probably still a deal breaker for many traders.
Negative Balance Protection
Negative balance protection (NBP) prevents your account from losing money even after it’s been emptied. Basically, negative balance protection prevents you from spending money you haven’t deposited in your account. It’s a common industry practice that safeguards traders from debt.
SimpleFX offers negative balance protection. It also secures your funds in segregated bank accounts, which ensures your funds are secured.
Is SimpleFX available worldwide?
Yes, SimpleFX accepts traders from most countries, excluding countries like the United States where it can’t legally operate because of its lack of regulation. You can use SimpleFX in countries like Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, South Africa, Italy, Norway, Germany, and Qatar among other countries.
SimpleFX isn’t available in your country if your government has legal regulation requirements for Forex brokers. So, it’s not the most internationally available forex broker, but it’s still available in most countries in the world.
Supported platforms
SimpleFX has it’s own proprietary platform while they also offer trading through third party mobile and web application in the form of MetaTrader.
Mobile App
SimpleFX has it’s own mobile app along with MetaTrader 4 (MT4), an industry leading platform. You can download the SimpleFX phone app on both Android and IOS devices, but iOS users have to “trust” SimpleFX to use it after downloading it.
The SimpleFX app has a good variety of charting tools, multiple timeframes, and access to a newsfeed and community chat. So it has generally useful mobile trading features that provide education and help build a community.
The SimpleFX app also has convenient swipe, pinch, and zoom actions. So, it’s a mobile-friendly application that offers convenience and adjustability. You can even download it by scanning a QR code on SimpleFX’s website.
If you want, you can also access SimpleFX through the MT4 iOS or Android apps. The MT4 app is also highly rated, and it includes mobile push notifications.
Web Platform
SimpleFX has its own web trader app that conveniently allows traders to trade over the internet. The SimpleFX web trader app has numerous features and charts with 8 different timeframes, ranging from one-week to one-minute intervals.
The SimpleFX web trader app has a great selection of charting tools, including a Fibonacci retracement tool, with multiple other indicators, including moving averages, Bollinger bands, RSI, and the stochastic oscillator.
SimpleFX’s terminal layout also has additional features, including a news tab that provides news articles, which include opinions and analysis and recent events and developments. Another interesting feature is the TV tab, which streams Bloomberg TV to provide further news, commentary, and analysis.
The trade terminal also displays open trades and lets you see the open price, profit levels, and stop losses at a glance. Other information like profit and total equity are also viewable at the bottom of the screen.
You can also find a diverse market from the symbols catalog, where you have 60 currency pairs, major indices, commodities, and precious metals.
MT4
SimpleFX is also available on the popular industry-leading MetaTrader4 (MT4) platform, which is used by millions of traders globally. MT4 has a very intuitive user interface and comes with many useful trading tools that help you trade.
Some of MT4’s most important features include:
- A fast, stable, and reliable trading platform
- The ability to see real-time price quotes
- A rich array of analytical tools
- 23 analytical objects for drawing formations on charts
- 30 inbuilt technical indicators
- Copy trading and trading signals
- Expert Advisors (EAs) that provide automated trades
- Free code base
- Multiple order types
Email and SMS alerts and notifications
Account types
SimpleFX only offers one live account type that has access to all financial instruments for traders. If you’re a newbie, you could get a demo account before obtaining a live account.
Your account’s spread depends on what asset you’re trading, and it dynamically changes based on the currency pair traded for example. SimpleFX offers a minimum trade size of 0.01 lots(a micro lot) and increments by 0.01 lots.
SimpleFX also has a margin level of 80%, meaning if your account equity drops below 80% you will be margin called.
Demo Account
SimpleFX offers demo accounts for new traders to practice after registering on its website. Demo accounts are useful for new traders who want to test the platform and learn its features before committing money. The demo account comes with $4,000 in virtual funds that you can also top up. You’re also allowed to add more tester accounts, and your demo account is open for an unlimited time period.
Signing Up
You can sign up with SimpleFX by just clicking on the ‘sign-up’ button and providing your personal details. SimpleFX requires comparatively less personal data and documentation than most other brokers. For instance, you only need to verify your email address to open a Bitcoin account. For hard currency accounts, you only need to verify your email address, identity, and address using your ID, bank statement, or utility bill.
Deposit and withdrawals
SimpleFX traders can directly deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies along with being able to deposit using bank cards, and online payment services like Neteller and Fasapay. SimpleFX lets you deposit and withdraw as much as you want, but the withdrawal method has to be the same as the deposit one.
- Credit/Debit Card Withdrawal Fees: 0.5 USD
If you’ve made deposits using multiple payment methods, you’ll withdraw profits using the payment method that made the largest deposit. The time to process withdrawals depends on the payment: wire transfers take between 3 to 5 working days, electronic payment systems, cryptocurrencies, and credit/debit cards take only 24 hours, but transactions aren’t processed during weekends.
The Internal Transfer option also lets you transfer money between trading accounts–these transactions are instantly processed without any fee.
Commissions and fees
SimpleFX does not have any commissions, but it charges high fees for certain transactions. You can also experience high swap rates on overnight leveraged positions with SimpleFX. This broker also charges multiple non-trading fees, including a $0.5 withdrawal fee and a 3% or minimum 25$ inactivity fee.
Spreads
SimpleFX’s spreads start at 1.3 pips for major indices, including the FTSE. It also has spreads starting at 0.9 pips on EUR/USD and a 0.17 pips average for gold.
Available leverage
Leverage let’s traders get higher market exposure than their deposits. Leverage increases a trader’s potential profit and loss. SimpleFX has a maximum available leverage of 1:1000, which is considered high in the industry. The exact margin you receive also depends on the asset you’re trading.
Analysis and Education
Analytical and educational resources are one of the staples of a good forex broker, but unfortunately, SimpleFX does not provide much. Its website has a simple blog that contains some educational information and news updates, but it doesn’t provide extensive financial or trading information. It also has a YouTube channel that posts short tutorials for teaching new traders how to use the SimpleFX platform, but again the information is not extensive.
SimpleFX does provide two unique resources:
- A Bloomberg TV feed
- A Shoutbox
You can use these resources to get market updates and share information with the SimpleFX community, but these resources have limited usefulness.
Overall, SimpleFX lags poorly behind most other top brokers in terms of its educational resources, and it seems the broker does not prioritize this aspect of trading. As a result, SimpleFX is not a good broker for people who want or need extensive financial information or knowledge.
Customer service
SimpleFX has generally fast and helpful customer service available in three languages: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Its live chat feature lets you instantly talk to an agent without providing personal information beforehand. You can also contact them using its dedicated support email: support@simplefx.com
SimpleFX also has a FAQ section on its support page where it addresses traders’ most common concerns, including how to register an account and trade online. Overall, SimpleFX has a good customer service and support system that provides helpful information, and the broker is generally easy to contact, too.
Reputation amongst Traders
SimpleFX has a generally positive reputation with trader reviews averaging around 3.5/5. The biggest concern that traders have with this broker is that it’s unregulated and sometimes closes accounts altogether on minor disciplinary violations. Overall, SimpleFX is still a well-respected name in the industry and it has a fair reputation as a useful and efficient broker.
Can beginners trade with SimpleFX?
SimpleFX is fully designed to be beginner-friendly, and it provides demo accounts specifically to help new users understand how to use its platform. SimpleFX provides new users with charts and apps to gain a better understand trading.
But, SimpleFX’s lack of educational resources is a hindrance for traders, who’ll have to rely on third-party financial resources to better understand the forex market, which is disappointing. But overall, SimpleFX is a genuinely beginner-friendly broker that lets new users safely trade with the platform using demo accounts before committing money.
Summing Up
Putting everything together, SimpleFX is an above average broker that provides a good quality of service on multiple platforms, provides demo accounts to newbies, and it’s specifically designed its services to be beginner-friendly. On the downside, it lacks extensive educational resources, it’s completely unregulated, and it’s known for charging high fees on certain transactions. Overall, SimpleFX is a good broker for beginners who don’t mind the broker being unregulated and prefer mobile trading.
