Trading 212 review

Regulated by

FCA 609146; BaFin 10109603; CySEC 398/21; ASIC AFSL 541122; Bulgarian FSC RG-03-0237

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 609146

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Multiple regulated banks/custodians

Negative balance protection

Yes for eligible retail CFD clients

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK claims; jurisdiction-specific schemes elsewhere

Audited by

Independent statutory auditors

Not available to

Jurisdiction-dependent; services unavailable where Trading 212 is not authorised to operate

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

Trading 212 holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA, CySEC and BaFin. 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.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

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

CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, the CySEC register of investment firms, ASIC Connect.

Legal entity

Trading 212 UK Ltd

Company number

08590005

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

2004

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

Trading 212 Group

Employees

500+

Also trades as

Trading 212

Spread from

1.0 pips

EUR/USD spread

Dynamic; current average available in instrument details

GBP/USD spread

Dynamic; current average available in instrument details

Commission

$0

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Dynamic spread

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight interest can be positive or negative

Deposit fee

Free up to applicable threshold; 0.7% thereafter on certain methods

Withdrawal fee

Generally none internally

Currency conversion

0.5% on CFD results requiring conversion

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

Spreads from 1.0 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.

Trading 212 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

Trading 212 Web, Trading 212 Mobile

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Proprietary

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

No conventional MT4/MT5 EA support

Copy trading

Pies can be shared/copied; no conventional leveraged copy-trading platform

Indicators

Extensive integrated charting

Third-party tools

Integrated market/charting tools

API access

Yes, Invest API

Trading 212 offers Trading 212 Web, Trading 212 Mobile. A proprietary platform can be excellent, but it means your setup does not transfer if you later change broker.

Markets

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

Currency pairs

150+

Total instruments

10,000+ investing and CFD instruments

Crypto CFDs

Yes in eligible jurisdictions; unavailable under certain entities

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

OTC/principal for CFDs; execution venue access for Invest products

Execution speed

Not publicly disclosed as a single meaningful average

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit and platform-specific orders

Servers

European/global 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.

Trading 212 covers forex, shares, etfs, indices, commodities, bonds, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: bank transfer, debit/credit card, apple pay, google pay and regional payment methods. 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

Invest, CFD, Stocks ISA, Cash ISA, SIPP, Crypto, Demo

Account currencies

Multiple, Invest supports 12 global currencies

Islamic account

No

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes, where eligible

Minimum trade size

Instrument-dependent

Time to open

Typically minutes, subject to verification

Deposit methods

Bank transfer, debit/credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and regional payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, cards and supported original payment methods

Deposit time

Many electronic methods instant; bank transfers take longer

Withdrawal time

Method-dependent

Minimum withdrawal

Account/method dependent

Local payment methods

iDEAL; Przelewy24; Klarna; BLIK and other regional methods

Support hours

24/7

Contact channels

Live chat, Help Centre, in-app support, email

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

N/A

Email

N/A

Live chat response

29-second average response time advertised

Education

Extensive: Learn centre, investing and CFD education, guides and tutorials

Research

Market data, company information, charting, financial data and analytical tools