Go Markets

ASIC Regulation: Founded in 2006, GO Markets’ Australian clients will be onboarded through the Asutralian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), known as one of the world’s best regulators. 

Safety Features: GO Markets clients in Australia will have a leverage limit of 30:1 for Forex trading and will be provided negative balance protection, meaning that traders can never lose more money than they have in their trading accounts. ASIC regulations ensure that GO Markets keeps its operational funds segregated from client accounts, but also prevent GO Markets from offering promotions or bonuses. 

The account opening process at GO Markets is as per the industry standard – the process is fully digital, and accounts are ready for trading within one business day.

Australians are eligible to open an account at GO Markets if they meet the minimum deposit requirement of 200 AUD.

GO Markets offers both corporate and individual accounts, but we will outline the process for opening an individual account:

1. Click on “Open Live Account” at the top right-hand corner of the page.  You will be directed to register an account with your name, email address, date of birth, and telephone number.  You will also be asked to select your trading platform.
2. The next step requires filling in your residential address and selecting your preferred base currency, trading account, employment status, and financial status.
3. GO Market requires at least two documents to accept you as an individual client:

1. 1. Proof of Identification – GO Markets accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID.
      
      
   2. Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the GO Markets’ account holder within the last 6 months. It must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority.

4. To be accepted as an individual client, GO Markets requires traders to agree to the following documents: 

• GO Markets Disclosure Statement
• GO Markets Terms and Conditions
• GO Markets Privacy Policy

5. Lastly, to enable GO Markets to verify your identity, it may disclose personal information such as your name, date of birth, and address to a credit reporting agency (CRA) to assess whether that personal information matches information held by the CRA. 

Once the above information is verified, traders can log in to their trading accounts and begin trading.

Australian traders can choose from all the shares listed on the ASX – over 2400 instruments – an excellent range compared to other brokers. GO Markets aslo provides a specialized share trading platform for share trading.

GO Markets accounts have minimum deposit requirements of 200 AUD, making them accessible to most traders. Spreads on its commission-free Standard Account start at 1 pip (EUR/USD) which is average for the industry, and 0 pips (EUR/USD) on its GO-Plus+ Account in exchange for a commission of 3 AUD/2 USD per side, which is low. 

We opened and tested Go Markets’ trading accounts:

Standard Account

The Standard Account is the dealing desk, commission-free account option, created with the beginner in mind. Spreads start at 0.00 pips on this account, and it requires a minimum deposit of 200 AUD.  

GO Plus+ Account

The GO Plus+ account is designed for the professional trader, but also requires a minimum deposit of 200 AUD. A commission of 6 AUD/4 USD round turn per lot is charged, and spreads are tight, starting at 0.0 pips (EUR/USD).

With support for MT4, MT5, and the GO Markets Share Trading platforms, GO Markets’ platform support is excellent compared to other similar brokers. 

MT4, MT5  and the GO Markets Share trading platform is available for both Android and iOS. These platforms integrate with the broker in the same way as the desktop versions of the software, so all trading activity is synced. 

GO Markets Share Trading Platform

The share trading platform provides traders with all the tools to manage their accounts and trade shares online. The simple, secure system lets users buy or sell stocks easily with just one click. We liked the fact that traders can also view up-to-date market data from within the app, including upcoming floats and dividends. It has great watchlist features that allow investors to track certain sectors over time, Heat Maps which show how specific stocks are performing, and offers a number of trading tools.

MT4 and MT5 

Traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop trading platforms, including reduced time frames and fewer charting options, but traders can close and modify existing orders, calculate profit and loss, and trade on the charts.

Like its mobile trading platforms, traders can use MT4, MT5, and the share trading platform.

GO Markets Share Trading Platform

The Share Trading Platform is available on a browser. It has the same features as the mobile version, and you can trade over 2400 shares. 

Metatrader 4 (MT4)

We found that like most brokers, the GO Markets MT4 platform is the standard version with 24 graphical objects and 30 built-in indicators. MT4 is popular for its algorithmic trading abilities and is fully customisable. 

MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 is a powerful trading platform with Market Depth and a separate system for accounting orders and trades. The platform supports all types of trade orders, including market, pending, and stop orders, as well as trailing stops.  It allows you to open up to 100 charts in 21 time frames and access over 80 technical indicators and analytic tools.  

Overall, although GO Markets’ only offers the Metatrader suite of platforms for trading CFDs, which are not as beginner-friendly as the proprietary platforms offered at other brokers, MT4 and MT5 are considered some of the best third-party platforms in the industry.

In line with Anti-Money Laundering policies, funds can only be returned to a bank account in the same name as your GO Markets account.  

Trading Account Currencies: Accounts can be denominated in the following base currencies: AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, NZD, SGD, CAD, CHF, HKD, AED, ZAR, THB, MYR, IDR, CNY, BHD, and PLN. This is a much wider range than other similar brokers.  While most Australian traders will want to have their trading accounts denominated in AUD, some traders may want to have multiple accounts with different base currencies so as not to pay conversion fees when trading. The wide range of base currencies available at GO Markets allows for traders to do this and is welcomed.

Deposits and Withdrawals: GO Markets does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fees, but withdrawals to non- Australian banking institutions may be subject to bank fees from any intermediary bank involved in the transaction.  Deposits are processed instantly and withdrawal forms received before 1 pm AEST will be processed on the same day.  

GO Markets offers a wide range of trading tools, including Metatrader Genesis, Autochartist, Myfxbook, a_Quant, a VPS hosting service, and Trading Central.

Autochartist

Autochartist is one of the most widely used MT4 charting tools among the GO client base. Autochartist removes the complex and time-consuming process of analysing charts for patterns by scanning and monitoring the markets on your behalf.  It sends audio and visual alerts when emerging and completed patterns are identified.  Traders gain access to this chart pattern recognition software when opening and funding a live trading account with 500 USD or more.

Trading Central

Trading Central is a collection of programs that offer actionable investment support with 24-hour multi-asset coverage, technical and fundamental analysis, and back-tested trading strategies.  Actionable market news can be delivered to you through WebTV or email, and trading strategies can be built from within the platform.   Trading Central is available for free for all GO Markets’ clients.  

VPS

VPS services ensure that trades are never disrupted by technological or connectivity issues, such as load-shedding or internet service failure, which is a benefit to algorithmic traders who need to be connected to a server 24/7 to maximise uptime. With a GO Markets VPS, you can optimise the MT4 & MT5 trading platforms’ features and capabilities.  A service fee of 30 USD will be charged for the service, but the fee will be waived should the client trade a minimum of 5 lots per calendar month.

MetaTrader Genesis

MT4 & 5 Genesis is a comprehensive suite of MetaTrader trading tools to enhance the power of the standard MetaTrader platform.  Benefits of using the MetaTrader Genesis tool include:

• Access to a professional suite of MetaTrader add-ons.
• Use of the sophisticated order management system.
• Access to trading alerts.

Myfxbook

Myfxbook is a cross-broker copy trading tool for traders of all experience levels and is used by 90,000 traders worldwide. It is similar to using EAs, but instead of following an algorithmic pattern, traders can mirror the trades of other Forex traders.  By connecting a GO Markets Standard Trading Account to Myfxbook, traders can take advantage of this system. Myfxbook also provides its users with a broad range of statistics and analytics.

a-Quant

a-Quant aggregates millions of data points and uses machine learning algorithms for regime detection, sentiment analysis, clustering, co-integration, and Hidden Markov Models development. a-Quant essentially produces high probability trading signals of certain risk/reward characteristics on various trading instruments.  

Daily Strategies is a signal service created for FX Traders. It produces large numbers of signals for high-frequency trading of major FX currency pairs. a-Quant generates 9-12 signals per day on average, for the 10 most popular FX currency pairs. These can be delivered straight to your inbox.

GO Markets regularly publishes news and analysis on its website.  These include a daily review at the close of the US markets, a weekly look at major talking points in the week ahead, frequent blog posts on important financial topics, tips for trading improvement, an interactive economic calendar, and a regular podcast featuring experts in the Forex market.

All of the analysis and news is available for free, even if you are not a registered customer of GO Markets.

GO Markets provides a reasonable selection of education materials but better educational materials can be found at other ASIC-regulated ECN brokers.  GO Markets also provides a good selection of market analysis materials produced by a team of in-house market analysts. 

GO Markets offers downloadable handbooks, a structured Forex course, educational videos, and technical instructional videos to assist with the MetaTrader software.

• Handbooks: GO Markets provides two downloadable hand books covering Forex trading – one for beginners and another for more advanced traders. The beginner book covers basic terminology, chart reading, and trader psychology. The advanced eBook requires registration and covers technical analysis and trading strategies.
• Videos:  The hand books complement the videos, and while a few of the videos are available for public consumption, traders will need to register an account to view its extensive video library.   
• Courses: A two-part structured Forex course in the form of a webinar is open to the public and only requires that you register your name and email. One of the courses covers the Forex market and trade entries and exits. The second course covers technical analysis, how to read charts, using technical indicators to understand data, developing a profitable trading plan, and advanced order types.
• MT4/MT5 Tutorials: There are also 18 technical MT4/MT5 videos to assist traders with everything from setting up charts and layout on the platform, to placing the first trade on the market.
• Demo Account: GO Markets offers a free demo account that allows traders to practice trading on all its CFD instruments, with real-time spreads on the MT4 and MT5 platforms.  Traders receive 50,000 USD in virtual funds that can be topped up on request.  Demo accounts are a great way for beginners to practice trading risk-free before opening a live account.  Unfortunately, demo accounts for non-live account users only last 30 days. 

GO Markets also has a Quick Support tool that allows their technical support team to remotely access your desktop and fix any issues with your platform/software.

For the purposes of this review, we found the customer service responsive, knowledgeable, and able to answer most of our questions.