ActivTrades review

Regulated by

FCA (434413); Mauritius FSC (GB24203277); Securities Commission of The Bahamas

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 434413

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Regulated banking institutions

Negative balance protection

Yes

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; additional private funds insurance up to $1,000,000

Audited by

Independent external auditors

Not available to

United States, Canada, Japan, Brazil and other jurisdictions where services would contravene local laws or regulations

The licence is what decides where your money sits and who is obliged to do something about it.

ActivTrades holds a tier-one authorisation from FCA. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

It also operates an offshore entity (FSC). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

An FSC licence (Mauritius or Belize, depending on the entity) is an offshore authorisation with lighter reporting duties than a tier-one regulator.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, the Mauritius FSC register of licensees.

Legal entity

ActivTrades PLC

Company number

05367727

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

2001

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

ActivTrades Group Limited

Employees

200+

Also trades as

ActivTrades

Spread from

0.5 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 0.5 pips

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 0.8 pips

Commission

$0

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.5 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight swaps may be charged or credited

Inactivity fee

£10/month after 1 year inactivity

Withdrawal fee

None internally; bank/intermediary charges may apply

Currency conversion

0.5% for deposits/withdrawals in a currency different from account base currency

Cost is the last thing to weigh here, and never the thing that should decide it.

Spreads from 0.5 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

ActivTrades lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Platforms

ActivTrader, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, TradingView

Own platform

Yes, ActivTrader

Mobile app

Both proprietary and third-party

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes; MT4/MT5 Expert Advisors and automated trading

Copy trading

No

Indicators

50+ native/MetaTrader indicators; 100+ through TradingView

Third-party tools

TradingView, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Smart Tools

API access

Yes, institutional/API connectivity

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Markets

Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, ETFs, Cryptocurrencies

Currency pairs

50+

Total instruments

1,000+

Crypto CFDs

Yes

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market execution / no dealing desk

Execution speed

Under 4ms

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-limit, trailing stop, progressive trailing stop, pullback entry

Servers

London and global financial data-centre infrastructure

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

ActivTrades covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, bonds, etfs, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: bank transfer, visa/mastercard, skrill, neteller, cryptocurrency. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

Individual, Professional, Corporate, Islamic/Swap-Free, Demo

Account currencies

EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, SEK

Islamic account

Yes

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

0.01 lots

Time to open

Typically within 1 business day

Deposit methods

Bank transfer, Visa/Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, cryptocurrency

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, cards, Skrill, Neteller, cryptocurrency

Deposit time

Cards/e-wallets/crypto typically within 30 minutes; bank transfer same working day after receipt

Withdrawal time

Typically same working day processing

Minimum withdrawal

No general minimum

Local payment methods

Bank transfer and jurisdiction-specific payment methods

Support hours

24/7

Contact channels

Live chat, WhatsApp, phone/callback, online message

Languages

14 languages

Telephone

+44 20 6500 5670

Email

englishdesk@activtrades.com

Live chat response

Typically under 1 minute

Education

Extensive: webinars, seminars, educational articles, platform tutorials, videos and trading guides

Research

Extensive: market analysis, technical/fundamental analysis, trading tools, market news and research