Safety first
Trade Nation review
Who regulates Trade Nation, under which licence, and what that means for your money.
Last checked
Trade Nation offers some protection if it fails and not all of it, which is the ordinary offshore trade-off: you gain leverage and lose the safety net. Regulated by FCA 525164; ASIC AFSL 422661; CMVM 601; FSCA 49846; SCB SIA-F216; Seychelles FSA SD150, offering TN Trader, MetaTrader 4.
Our rating
- Regulation8.7
- Costs8.3
- Platforms8.3
- Markets7.3
- Support5.7
- Education4.3
One rating, identical across our sites - only the way it is shown changes. It averages six assessments: regulation, trading costs, platforms, markets, support and education.
Regulation and safety
- Regulated by
- FCA 525164; ASIC AFSL 422661; CMVM 601; FSCA 49846; SCB SIA-F216; Seychelles FSA SD150
- Regulator tier
- Tier 1
- Register entry
- FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 525164
- Client money segregated
- Yes, entity-dependent regulatory requirements
- Held at
- Approved regulated financial institutions
- Negative balance protection
- Yes for protected retail clients in jurisdictions such as UK/Australia; entity-dependent
- Compensation scheme
- FSCS protection for eligible UK clients; protections differ by entity
- Audited by
- Independent external/statutory auditors
- Not available to
- United States and jurisdictions where distribution/use is contrary to local law
The licence is what decides where your money sits and who is obliged to do something about it.
Trade Nation holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC and 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 (SCB and FSA). 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.
The FSCA licenses derivative providers in South Africa without a fixed retail leverage cap, so headline leverage is often higher than an FCA or ASIC entity may offer.
Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the FSCA list of regulated entities, the Seychelles FSA list of regulated entities.
The company behind the brand
- Legal entity
- Trade Nation Financial Markets Ltd
- Company number
- 810589-1
- Headquarters
- Providence, Mahe, Seychelles
- Founded
- 2014
- Publicly listed
- No
- Parent company
- Trade Nation Group
- Employees
- Approx. 100-500
- Also trades as
- Trade Nation; formerly Core Spreads
What it costs to trade
- Spread from
- 0.0 pips
- EUR/USD spread
- Variable
- GBP/USD spread
- Variable
- Commission
- Generally $0 on spread-based pricing; account/platform dependent
- All-in cost, EUR/USD
- Variable
- Spread type
- Fixed and variable pricing depending on platform/product
- Overnight swap
- Both: overnight financing may be charged or credited
- Deposit fee
- Generally none internally
- Withdrawal fee
- Generally none internally; provider/bank fees may apply
- Currency conversion
- Applicable where currency conversion is required
Cost is the last thing to weigh here, and never the thing that should decide it.
A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.
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.
Trade Nation 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 and tools
- Platforms
- TN Trader, MetaTrader 4
- Own platform
- Yes
- Mobile app
- Proprietary and MetaTrader
- Browser trading
- Yes
- Automated trading
- Yes, MT4
- Copy trading
- Limited / not a core offering
- Indicators
- Advanced integrated charting plus MT4 indicators
- Third-party tools
- MetaTrader 4, TradingView-powered charting
- API access
- Not a standard retail feature
MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.
Markets and execution
- Markets
- Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities
- Currency pairs
- 30+
- Total instruments
- 1,000+
- Crypto CFDs
- Jurisdiction-dependent
- Maximum leverage
- 1:500
- Execution model
- Market maker / principal
- Execution speed
- Not publicly disclosed
- Order types
- Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, guaranteed stop and platform-specific orders
- Servers
- Global trading infrastructure
Leverage up to 1:500 is available on this entity. High leverage does not increase your expected return - it increases position size for the same deposit, and shortens the move needed to close you out.
Trade Nation covers forex, shares, indices, commodities. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.
Funding options: visa/mastercard, bank transfer and supported regional/electronic 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.
Accounts
- Minimum deposit
- $0
- Account types
- Retail, Professional/Pro, Demo, Spread Betting available in UK
- Account currencies
- USD, GBP, EUR, AUD and entity-dependent currencies
- Islamic account
- No standard swap-free account prominently offered
- Demo account
- Yes
- Professional account
- Yes
- Minimum trade size
- Instrument/platform dependent
- Time to open
- Typically a few minutes, subject to verification
Deposits and withdrawals
- Deposit methods
- Visa/Mastercard, bank transfer and supported regional/electronic payment methods
- Withdrawal methods
- Bank transfer, cards and supported payment methods
- Deposit time
- Cards/electronic methods generally fast; bank transfers longer
- Withdrawal time
- Method-dependent
- Minimum withdrawal
- Method-dependent
- Local payment methods
- Entity/country-dependent
Support and education
- Support hours
- Trading-week support
- Contact channels
- Live chat, email, phone, Support Centre
- Languages
- Multilingual
- Telephone
- +248 4671996 international; +44 (0)203 180 5952 UK
- N/A
- Live chat response
- Typically within minutes
- Education
- Extensive: KnowledgeBase, trading guides, platform education and educational articles
- Research
- Market news, analysis, trading insights and integrated platform tools
Information is regularly updated. Last compiled from Trade Nation's own website on 26 August 2026.
Questions people ask about Trade Nation
What happens to my money if Trade Nation goes bust?
Trade Nation sits behind FSCS protection for eligible UK clients; protections differ by entity. A scheme covers eligible clients of the entity that holds the licence, so the entity you were onboarded to decides whether it covers you.
Which bank actually holds client money at Trade Nation?
Trade Nation holds client money with Approved regulated financial institutions, in accounts kept separate from the firm's own. Almost no comparison site publishes this, and it is the thing that decides how quickly you would see your money again if the broker failed.
Can I lose more than I deposit with Trade Nation?
Trade Nation provides negative balance protection, recorded as yes for protected retail clients in jurisdictions such as UK/Australia; entity-dependent. So it exists and it does not reach every client, and which entity you were onboarded to decides whether it reaches you.