Eightcap

Founded in Melbourne in 2009, Eightcap offers multi-asset trading from 5 offices across the globe. Eightcap is the brand name of Eightcap Pty Ltd and Eightcap Global Ltd (Vanuatu).

Deutsche will be trading under the subsidiary, Eightcap Global Limited, regulated by the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB).

In February 2021, the SCB tightened its restrictions on CFD trading to better protect traders. As a result, brokers regulated by the SCB will need to ensure that all client money is segregated from its operating capital, that a retail client account’s net equity does not fall below 50 percent, and mandates that all traders are afforded automatic negative balance protection. Additionally, under SCB regulations, brokers are not allowed to offer traders bonuses or promotions.

The SCB also implemented leverage restrictions (with a default leverage of up to 100:1), but allows traders to manually change to higher leverage. Clients should be aware that although trading with leverage can increase profits, it can also dramatically increase one’s losses.

Eightcap complies with all the regulatory requirements set out by the SCB, and it segregates client funds in top-tier banks, does not offer bonuses or promotions, and sets Stop Out levels at 50%. Eightcap also provides all clients negative balance protection, so that traders cannot lose more than is in their trading account. Additionally, default leverage is set to 100:1, but clients can opt to change their leverage to a maximum of 500:1.

Overall, because of its strong international regulation, segregation of client money, and provision of negative balance protection, we consider Eightcap a safe broker to trade with.

The account-opening and verification process at Eightcap is seamless, fully digital and accounts are ready within 24 hours, which is about the industry average. 

All Deutsche residents are eligible to open an account at Eightcap, as long as they meet the minimum deposit requirements of 100 USD (or currency equivalent). 

Eightcap offers corporate, joint, trust, and individual accounts. For the purposes of this review, we will outline the process for opening an individual account:

1. From the Eightcap homepage, you will have to click on the ‘Create Account’ tab where you will be directed to register an account with a name, email address, telephone number, and password.
2. Eightcap’s registration form requires traders to fill in their physical address, date of birth, and tax number. 
3. Next, traders are required to choose their trading platform (MT4 or MT5), account type, preferred base currency, and level of leverage.
4. Traders will then have to agree to the Risk Disclosure Policy and Client Agreement
5. Verification usually takes less than 24 hours and Eightcap will need:
   • Proof of Identification – Eightcap accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. 
   • Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the account holder within the last 6 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority. 

Overall, Eightcap’s account-opening process is fully digital and hassle-free and accounts are ready for trading within 24 hours.

Eightcap’s range of financial instruments for CFD trading, includes Forex, share CFDs, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies.

Unlike other brokers that offer a range of accounts with higher minimum deposits linked to tighter spreads, Eightcap offers two live accounts both with a minimum deposit of 100 AUD (or currency equivalent). The Standard account has trading costs included in its variable spreads, while the Raw Spread account offers raw spread pricing in exchange for a commission per lot.

We opened and tested Eightcap’s trading accounts:

Standard Account

The Standard Account is a commission-free trading account with variable spreads and a 100 AUD minimum deposit. The average spread on major pairs is 1.0 pips, which is slightly wider than other similar brokers but can fall to 0.5 pips at times.

Raw Account

The Raw Account is a commission-based account with tight spreads but otherwise similar to the Standard Account. The minimum deposit is 100 AUD and spreads can be as low as 1.00 pips on major currency pairs. Traders are charged a commission of 0.0 USD per lot traded. 

Demo Account

Both the Raw Account and the Standard Account are available as demo accounts. Without intervention, the demo account will expire after 30 days but can be converted to an unlimited demo account by contacting Eightcap customer service.

MT4, MT5 and the TradingView platforms are available as mobile and tablet downloads on Android and iOS – allowing traders to keep track of their open positions while on the move. 

MT4 and MT5

The advantage of using the MetaTrader platform is the cross-device and multi-broker functionality, making it easier to change brokers or use multiple brokers.

Eightcap’s MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. The functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading further empowers traders while on the move.

TradingView

TradingView is a charting platform and social network used by 50 million traders and investors worldwide to spot opportunities across global markets. TradingView also works with select brokers, allowing traders to trade directly from TradingView’s charting platform. 

The TradingView platform offers a fully customisable experience, with 12 chart types, custom time intervals, 100,000+ community-built indicators, integrated financial analysis, and its own programming language, PineScript, allowing traders to share their automated trading strategies.

Eightcap’s platform support is average compared to other brokers.

MetaTrader 4 

Having established itself as the industry-leading platform, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is the most reliable and popular platform in existence. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly environment provide essential tools and resources for successful online trading. It is also widely recognised for its fast execution speeds, range of charting tools, algorithmic trading, and customisability. MetaTrader 4 is available in over 31 languages.

Other features of MT4 include:

• Supports the creation, modification, and utilisation of automated trading strategies.
• Supports MQL4 programming language.
• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
• Allows traders to develop their own custom indicators
• Superior charting tools in nine timeframes
• 31 graphical objects
• 30 built-in indicators
• 9 timeframes
• Three order execution types
• Four types of pending orders

While MetaTrader 4 has great customizability, the platform feels outdated, and some of the features may be hard to find. In addition, only the basic orders are available, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop.

MetaTrader 5

The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time, it has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has a larger number of pending order types than MetaTrader 4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MetaTrader 5 has more advanced charting tools than MetaTrader 4.

Features include:

• 38+ preinstalled technical indicators
• 44 analytical charting tools
• 3 chart types
• 21 timeframes
• Additional pending order types
• Detachable charts
• Trailing stop
• Depth of Market
• An integrated Economic Calendar.

Eightcap operates a “return to source” policy, meaning that withdrawals must be made via the same method and the same account as the original deposit.

Eightcap offers a range of deposit and withdrawal methods, including bank wire transfer, local bank transfer, credit cards, and debit cards, Skrill, Neteller, BPay, Poli, and Unionpay transfers. However, these are not all available for Deutsche clients.

Eightcap offers charges no fees for any deposits or withdrawals, however, bank transfers from outside of Australia will attract fees from intermediary banks and Eightcap will pass these costs on to the customer. Additionally, a fee of 1% is charged for withdrawing by Skrill.

Eightcap offers a wider range of base currencies compared to other similar brokers.

Eightcap clients can choose between 7 base currencies, including AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, NZD, SGD and USD.

However, Eightcap does not offer PHP trading accounts, which is a disadvantage forDeutsche who will likely have bank accounts denominated in PHP and who will have to pay currency conversion fees on deposits and withdrawals.

For traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month), it is better to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

Eightcap offers two trading tools – Capitalise.ai and BlueFXLabs

Capitalise.ai

Capitalise.ai is essentially a means of creating automated trading strategies without having to understand coding. Capitalise.ai allows traders to choose the time frames and conditions to build and maintain a trading model, with automated enter and exit positions. It also provides an array of easy-to-understand tech indicators. 

FX Blue Labs

FX Blue Labs has a set of premium trading tools that are integrated into MT4 and MT5. 

Free to all Eighcap clients FX Blue Lab gives traders access to institutional quality technology, including advanced trading tools, user-configurable news and information, and trade analysis. It also includes an array of sophisticated alarms and messaging systems, and live sentiment and correlation tracking. The list of tools in the package includes:

• Trade Terminal: A feature-rich professional trade execution and analysis tool, providing several trading features and order controls that are not included in MT4 or MT5.
• Connect: A customisable news feed aggregator and interactive economic calendar
• Correlation Matrix and Correlation Trader: These tools work together to show correlations between pairs of trading symbols. It functions with any symbols available in the trading platform, allowing a calculation of the correlation between multiple asset classes against Forex. The Correlation Trader will then allow for detailed inspection of the correlation between any two instruments.
• Market Manager: Using the Market Manager, you get a bird’s eye view over the fundamental elements to be on top of markets. In addition to the watch list that facilitates price and position monitoring, you also get access to headline information on several fronts. Open tickets and full editing capabilities get unlocked as well, alongside a summary of recent price activity on a symbol. 
• Mini Terminal: The mini-terminal facilitates trade management by making commonly-used trading features more accessible than in the native version of the software. A mini-chart feature also lets traders see multiple time frames and chart types in a single chart.
• Sentiment Trader: As straightforward as it sounds/your biggest sentiment – with direct percentages on current and historic positions in a symbol placed by other traders. These are the long and short sentiments you get. 
• SessionMap: The Session Map shows your current local time in relation to “sessions” during the trading day, i.e. the core trading hours when institutional dealers are most active in Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York.
• Tick Chart Trader: Tick Chart Trader allows clients to trade tick charts fast and accurately. An additional Indicator Package with the latest indicator technology delivers more chart information and trading signals within the trading tool.
• Stealth Orders: Stealth orders ensure that a trader’s entry and exit points are hidden from the market.

Eightcap’s market analysis materials are of a high quality, but are not frequently updated. 

Eightcap’s Analysis section is presented in a similar fashion to the Trading Education section. Blogposts are arranged chronologically, and three main categories are presented: CFD News, Forex News, and Market Updates. While analysis is not provided daily, there is always a detailed outlook for the week ahead and another analysis is published throughout the week on a range of markets. The analysis is provided by an in-house team and will be useful for new traders looking for a better understanding of the markets and new trading opportunities.

Eightcap’s Trading Education section is well-presented and accessible. Three main categories are presented to the reader: MetaTrader Guides, Fundamentals, and Trading Strategies. Further investigation reveals that all the material is written as blog posts but is of a high standard and useful for beginners. The MetaTrader Guides and Trading Strategies section will particularly be helpful for new traders. Unfortunately, no video material or webinars are available at this time, and the addition of a structured course for beginners would be welcome.

Support is available in English, Chinese, Thai, Korean, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Vietnamese, and Portuguese. 

For the purposes of this review, we found Customer Support at Eightcap to be responsive, polite, and resourceful.