SimpleFX is a relatively new brand in forex and CFDs trading market. The brand has two main things that are new in the market. While that may not seem like much, in a sea of brokers that just keep using the same products and same platforms, it was refreshing to review a broker offering something new. Unfortunately, SimpleFX is not regulated, and it is owned by a company residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This even more calls for a review in order to determine if the broker delivers online trading experience up to our standards. The first thing that SimpleFX brings is the depositing in cryptocurrencies, which enables customers to actually trade annonymously. Second important feature is their own innovative platform which follows their credo “keep it simple”. In this simpleFX review we will present readers with both features and give our verdict. For those who are impatient, we will go out and say that we have found no issues dealing with the broker during our SimpleFX testing, however we recommend MT4 platform instead of the brokers own web-based solution. At this point we can recommend this broker, especially to cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but to other traders too.
Account Features
SimpleFX does not have many account types. It is very easy to start with the broker. Creation of an account can be initiated simply by using your facebook or Google profile and these can also later be used to log in fast. Its really simple! Depending on which kind of acocunt you want to trade – real or demo, SimpleFX interface will show “DEMO” or “LIVE”.
Two basic accounts are
1) Crypto Deposit Account which is totally anonymous for cryptocurrency depositors
2) Hard Currency Account, which are not available for: USA, Algeria, Cuba, Ecuador, Iran, Myanmar, Poland, North Korea.
SimpleFX Demo Account
In the top middle section of SimpleFX website, there is a dropdown menu where one can select the kind of account that is use. It has a big “DEMO” button and that is all that a trader needs to access the SimpleFX demo account. The demo account starts with $10,000 virtual money that one can use to place trades in SimpleFX system. It is possible to add more accounts if one wants, in the same aforementioned dropdown menu. There is also a cryptocurrency demo acount with SimpleFX which includes 2 bitcoins. We will write more about the platform and assets in the following section of the SimpleFX review. The demo account has a leverage of up to 1:300 on regular demo and 1:200 on the cryptocurrency BTC demo.
SimpleFX account trading conditions can be summarised:
- No minimum deposit requirement
- Around the clock trading – even weekends
- Several types of assets
- Possibility of the anonymus crypto account
- 1:500 leverage max
- Negative balance protection is On
- 15 base currencies
When we were using the platform, the EURUSD spread was around 0.9 pips, while on best liquidity conditions periods, it can start from 0.1 pips, according to the broker’s website.
Trading Software & Assets
Trading with SimpleFX platform can be really nice. The platform is basically their website and includes education and FAQ resources built in, as well as legal documents, personal account information and more. The platform itself follows the popular layout with large chart, assets to the left and history/open positions in the bottom. The carting tool has many kinds of indicators and oscillators one can use and its not lacking like some other proprietary platforms. In this respect, SimpleFX really did a nice job. All the assets are grouped on the side and if one wants to start analysing an asset in the chart, she has to drag it onto the chart to get the quotes. Charts for different assets are layered in tabs which are shown on the top, so the trader can easily switch between selected assets. One asset group to the left is the Favorites list where most used assets can be listed for fast use.
To become even faster, one can enable one click trading, where the trade is opened instantly following the click. This comes with certain warning, with the most obvious drawback being that the trade dialogue is is missing so the trade uses presets for position volume or leverage or stop loss. Also there is no time to change your mind once you clicked BUY or SELL order. Traders will be offered a warning about this so they can decide if they want to enable this feature or not. Other than one-click trade, one issue when placing trades, that is not a feature – but more of a bug is the platform stability. We have tried trading on SimpleFX on a Late-2015 13″ Macbook Pro on a decent broadband connection and have experienced slowdowns and freezes. Interesting thing is that the SimpleFX trading room performed best in Safari browser in our tests. Chrome immediately froze and could not load the website, while Mozilla took forever and eventually stopped responding. While mostly the platform worked, these kinds of hiccups can mess up trades since reliability of platform ensures the right price is quoted in the newly placed position. SimpleFX assured us the launch of the new web-trader by the beginning of 2018 will fix these issues.
In case the SimpleFX platform does not perform well on your system, MetaTrader4 can also be used and the broker will supply login data for it. All one needs to do is download the client, install it on the computer and login using the supplied data. SimpleFX claims they do not run a dealer desk, but it is hard for us to verify such claim. They do not charge commissions, and spreads are decent.
SimpleFX Assets
There are more than 60 assets and cryptocurrency CFDs and Forex currency pairs make the biggest chunk, along with indices and stocks.
Cryptocurrencies included are Litecoin, Bitcoin, BitcoinCash and Ether, against other currencies or cryptocurrencies, as below:
- LTCUSD
- ETHUSD
- BCHUSD
- BCHBTC
- BTCCNY
- BTCEUR
- BTCJPY
- ETCBTC
- ETCUSD
- ETHBTC
- LTCCNY
- LTCEUR
- LTCJPY
- XRPUSD
There are also
- 72 currency pairs
- 13 indices
- 6 commodities and metals
- 10 german stocks
- 6 Japanese stocks
- 24 US stocks
Support Information
We tried contacting the support with the embedded live chat feature in the platform. The chat will open in a separate window. The help desk staff was really quick to respond. Our question was about the sluggishness of the platform and this is where we got the recommendation to use MT4 instead. They provided us with the direct download link. The languages spoken by helpdesk are:
- English (24/5 support)
- Portuguese 8-16h (BRST=Brasilia Summer Time)
- Spanish 8-16h (BRST)
- Polish 8-16h (Poland local time)
Traders can also contact the broker using Skype name “simplefx.com”.
The website is available in 15 languages, and if you are using the MT4 even more languages are supported in that platform.
Banking & Company Information
SimpleFX is owned by SimpleFX Ltd, which is registered under number 21380042B8QJ87V4HA89 on address Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre Beachmont, Kingstown VC0100, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. However, from their website we learn that guaranteed segregated deposited funds are in fact from the Sparkasse Bank on Malta, EU, which may make many customers less wary of depositing with this broker since its not regulated. The minimum deposit with SimpleFX is zero, meaning that traders are free to deposit as much as they want. Naturally there are some limits to this claim – cryptocurrency deposits will be defined by the size of the lowest unit of respective cryptocurrency in USD, EUR or their preferred currency, while other official payment options have their own limits and, more importantly, fees that need to be takin into account.
Traders can deposit in following cryptocurrencies by using the wallet number or QR code provided on the deposit page of the broker: Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash.
Other payment options are:
- Credit cards: min $10 deposit, in JPY, CNY, EUR, GBP, RUB, USD
- Skrill: min deposit of $20, in EUR, USD, GBP, JPY, NOK, PLN, RUB, SEK,AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK
- Neteller: min deposit $20, in EUR, USD, GBP, JPY, NOK, PLN, RUB, SEK,AUD, CAD, CHF, DKK
- Bank wire: no minimum, bank fees, takes several days, in EUR, AUD, CAD, CHF, CZK, DKK, GBP, NOK, PLN, SEK
- Fasapay: $0.1 minimum, USd, IDR
- MegaTransfer: min $10, JPY, CNY, EUR, GBP, RUB, USD
Customers using conventional payment methods need to verify their identity by uploading scans or taking pictures of their ID documents. Those using cryptocurrencies can stay anonymus.