Saxo Markets Review

Saxo Capital Markets Review – Saxo Capital Markets 2021 | Trading Dominance

Saxo Capital Markets is an online brokerage and investment firm operating under the brand name of Saxo Bank. Founded in 1992, the company offers trading services in forex, options, commodities, futures, stocks, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and ETFs. While operating through its subsidiaries’ regional offices across the globe, the bank is headquartered in Denmark. Saxo Capital Markets holds multiple regulations worldwide. Having 180,000 trades executed in a single day, the company undergoes a daily trading volume of more than 12 Billion U.S. Dollars. Besides keeping clients’ investments in segregated bank accounts, the broker also offers funds insurance plans under registration with the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Saxo Capital Markets services and features include but are not limited to proprietary trading platforms, flexible account types, a wide range of tradable assets, multiple payment options, and round-the-clock customer support. In this Saxo Capital Markets Review, we cover the broker in detail.

Saxo Capital Markets Regulations:

Saxo Capital Markets holds multiple regulations in different regions of the world. Given below is the list of concerned regulatory bodies;

1. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – United Kingdom
2. Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – Singapore
3. Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)- Hong Kong
4. Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) – Australia

The company also holds registration with Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Under this scheme, clients can claim their losses up to a certain limit in case the firm goes into liquidation.

Opening Saxo Capital Markets Trading Account

While the company holds strict regulatory requirements, the process to open an account with Saxo Capital Markets can be a little lengthy. As soon as you start your application, the broker asks you to fill up a registration form and provide your complete details. Given below are a few steps to help traders know how they can open an account with the Saxo Capital Markets conveniently.

Step1: Click open an account button available on the top right corner of the broker’s webpage. Enter your basic details on the signup page and press next to continue.

Step2: Provide your contact details, including home address, mobile phone number, country of residence, and email ID.

Step3: Enter your confidential details, including date of birth, and National ID Card Number.

Step4: Provide your employment details, such as occupation, role, and employer’s name.

Step5: Provide your financial details, including annual salary after tax, the primary source of wealth, planned capital investment with the company, expected number of trades per month, and the base currency of your account.

Step6: Provide information about your trading exposure and previous experience

Step7: Enter your tax details, such as country of residence for tax purposes and national taxation number. The company also asks for confirmation if you hold dual nationality or a resident of the United States. You also need to confirm if you are politically exposed.

Step8: Read the terms and conditions and check the dialogue box to confirm your agreement to the terms and conditions that apply.

Step9: Set a password for your account, and enter the verification code received on your registered mobile phone number.

Step10: Complete the KYC process. The company needs you to upload supporting documents to confirm your identification. You can submit a photo of your National ID Card, Passport, or Driving license. The firm also asks you to provide proof of your residence. You can use a utility bill or bank statement for the same. Lastly, traders have to upload or take a selfie.

Step11: Login to your account using credentials received on your registered email id.

Step12: Access your dashboard, navigate to the payment page, select your preferred payment method from the list of available options, enter your payment details, indicate the amount you wish to deposit and authenticate the transaction. Once, you have successfully deposited funds in your account, you can start placing trades.

Depending upon your country of residence, Saxo Capital Markets offers different types of accounts. Given below are the three types of accounts available across all jurisdictions.

1) Classic 

2) Platinum

3) VIP 

Let’s have quick look at the services and features offered in each account.

Classic: With tight entry prices, and round-the-clock customer support, the classic account is well suited for small to medium scale investors. The minimum amount needed to open the classic account is $2000. The company doesn’t specify more information for the classic account holders, such as available leverage, spreads, commissions, etc.

Platinum: Focusing on professional clients, the company offers a platinum account with a minimum initial funding of $200,000. Along with tight spreads and commission, platinum account holders are offered reduced trading costs and personalized customer support.

VIP: Saxo Capital Markets offers a VIP account to high-volume traders. Having premium services not available in any other account, the VIP account is more suitable for institutional clients. The minimum deposit to sign up for a VIP account starts from $1,000,000. VIP traders can have direct access to the company’s trading experts round the clock.

Note: Saxo Capital Markets do not offer Islamic Accounts.

Saxo Capital Markets Deposit & Withdraw & Fees

Unlike most brokers, Saxo Capital Markets offer limited payment options. Clients can either use debit/credit cards or bank transfers to deposit funds in their accounts. The same methods are available for funds withdrawals. Given below is the list of available payment options at Saxo Capital Markets.

1) Debit Card

2) Credit Card

3) VISA

4) MasterCard

5) Maestro

6) Union Pay

7) Bank transfers

8) Wire transfers

The company does not charge any fees on deposits and withdrawal. However, debit/credit card transaction charges may apply at the source bank. Also, clients who remain inactive for 180 days may need to pay $100 as an inactivity fee on dormant accounts. The broker is quick to process deposits and withdrawals. On average, it takes 24 hours for deposits to reflect in a trader’s account. Deposits made via wire transfers might take between 2-3 business days. Similarly, funds withdrawals via wire transfers can take up to 3 working days to reach your bank account.

Spreads with Saxo Capital Markets

Saxo Capital Markets claims to have competitive trading cost in place. While spread on currency pairs starts from 0.6 pips, the company charges a minimum spread of 3 pips, and 0.4 pips on vanilla options and CFDs respectively. On the other hand commission on stocks and ETFs starts from $1 while clients need to pay a $1.25 commission on trading a single lot of futures and commodities.

Leverage with Saxo Capital Markets

Owing to strict regulatory restrictions, Saxo Capital Markets does not offer leverage of more than 1:30 on major FX pairs and 1:20 on minor currency pairs. On the other hand maximum leverage available for trading single stock CFDs is 1:5. While leverage is an effective tool to increase your market exposure with limited capital investment, it also magnifies the risk of loss. Therefore, it is always better to keep leverage as low as possible.

Saxo Capital Markets User Experience

Clients can have good experience with the Saxo Capital Markets as far as the trading conditions are concerned. However, the company seems to focus on medium to high-scale investors. There is a little incentive available for small traders. The first limitation comes around the minimum deposit requirement. Usually, brokers do not ask for an initial deposit of more than $200. Some brokers even keep this limit up to a maximum of $500. However, Saxo Capital Markets need you to start with $2000 at least, which is quite higher as compared to the average industry standard.

Moving on to the available payment options, the company doesn’t accept payments through electronic wallets, including PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, etc. Traders have to rely upon card payments or bank transfers. The company also lacks variety in terms of trading platforms. Except for offering proprietary trading platforms, such as SaxoTraderGo, and SaxoTraderPro, there are no other options available.

Although the custom-built trading platforms come with competitive trading tools and features, still traders might feel the absence of the industry’s most popular trading platforms, such as MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5. Not to mention, the broker does offer a mobile trading app to facilitate on-the-go users. Seamless API integration with third-party tools is yet a commendable service offered at Saxo Capital Markets. Please note that the company also offers negative balance protection. Therefore, your liabilities are limited.

The signing-up process with the broker can test your nerves. First of all, the company asks for too much information, which itself is a time-consuming activity. Secondly, you can’t even access your dashboard until your account is verified. Although the broker has to fulfil strict regulatory parameters amid KYC, still it can make it a little easier for clients to let them explore the trading platform first and then asking them to verify their account to keep continue.

While the trading cost is close to industry standards, the company’s inactivity fee of $100 on dormant accounts is quite high as compared to other brokers. The broker does not offer swap-free Islamic accounts which can be a point of concern for sharia practising traders. Not to mention, the company also offers interest payments to clients willing to lock their funds for a specific tenure.

Rich educational resources along with updated research tools and the availability of unlimited demo accounts are surely some commendable services available at Saxo Capital Markets. However, if you come across a specific issue, reaching customer support can be a tough call. The quickest method to contact the company is to reach them over the phone.

Who Saxo Capital Markets Is For?

Saxo Capital Markets is for all those clients who want to have trading go side by side along with other investment activities. Since the company itself is a part of an investment bank, it offers a wide array of investment products outside the scope of forex trading. It might not be wrong to say that Saxo Capital Markets is a one-stop-shop that has the potential to cater to the trading needs of all of its stakeholders. In simple words, high-volume traders and professional clients might find the company to be more productive than day traders.

Customer Support

Talking about customer facilitation, it is not quite impressive. You don’t have a live chat window to connect to customer support instantly. Traders may communicate with the company over the telephone or email. The firm can be reached during office hours five days a week. Clients can also access the company’s webpage in more than twenty languages.

Final Words

After a detailed Saxo Capital Markets review, we hold the opinion that the company can be a good option for advanced-level traders. While the firm offers discounted fee structure to VIP clients, the wide range of tradable assets is well suited for high volume traders. However, the company lacks competency in providing top-notch customer services. The broker’s trading cost is also not as competitive as it could be. In a nutshell, sub-standard customer support, lack of the industry’s most popular trading platforms (MT4/MT5), high account minimums, and confusing fee schedules make the company an average investment firm available around.

Countries that Saxo Capital Markets is NOT available in:

Listed below are the countries where Saxo Capital Markets does not offer its services:

1. United States
2. Canada
3. Iran
4. North Korea
5. Cuba
6. Syria
7. Sudan

Minimum Deposit:

The minimum deposit is $2000 at Saxo Capital Markets.

Maximum Leverage:

Saxo Capital Markets offers maximum leverage of up to 1:30

Platforms:

1. SaxoTraderGo
2. SaxoTraderPro
3. Investor App