Skilling

Skilling is a Scandinavian-owned broker founded in 2015 that has been offering services across Europe since 2018 and worldwide since April 2020.

Skilling is currently regulated by CySEC in Europe and the Seychelles FSA across the rest of the globe.

Global clients will be trading under the subsidiary, Skilling (Seychelles) Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Seychelles. 

The FSA’s rules are not as strict as those of the FCA or CySEC, but it does allow Skilling to provide its clients with higher leverage.  

Additionally, in accordance with FSA regulation, Skilling holds all client funds in segregated accounts at major European banks.  It also provides negative balance protection, which means that clients can never lose more than is in their trading accounts.  

Along with regulation from CySEC and the FSA, Skilling also recently obtained an FCA branch authorisation in early 2020 and has opened a representative office in London.

While Skilling does not put itself in the running to receive awards from the wider industry, we can confirm that it is a safe broker. CySEC regulation, FCA authorisation, and FSA regulation ensure a fair and safe environment for traders around the world, this is further supported by negative balance protection being provided for all traders.

The account-opening and verification process at Skilling is seamless, fully digital and accounts are ready for trading immediately. 

In order to open an account at Skilling, traders must meet the following minimum deposit requirements:

• Standard Account: 100 EUR
• Premium Account: 5000 EUR
• MT4 Account: 100 EUR
• MT4 Premium Account: 5000 EUR.

1. From the Skilling homepage, you will have to click on the ‘Sign Up’ tab where you will be directed to register an account with a name, telephone number, email address, and password.  You will also be able to choose your trading account currency.  
2. Next traders will have to complete a profile with their name, telephone number, country of residence, physical address, and date of birth.
3. Traders will then have to confirm their physical address.
4. The next step requires completing one’s financial information, including employment status, industry, annual income and savings, and source of funds.
5. Traders will then have to complete a form detailing their trading experience.  
6. Skilling requires the following documents to accept clients as individual traders:

   1. Proof of Identification – Skilling 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 account holder within the last 6 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority.

7. Traders can then deposit funds into their account and begin trading.  

Overall, Skilling’s account-opening process is fully digital and hassle-free and accounts are ready for trading immediately.

Skilling’s range of financial instruments for CFD trading, including Forex, share CFDs, indices, futures, cryptocurrencies, and commodities.

Skilling’s trading fees are average compared to other similar brokers.

Skilling offers two commission-free accounts with trading costs included in the spreads and two accounts with tighter spreads and a commission per lot.  The commission-free accounts have lower minimum deposits than the commission-based accounts, but the trading accounts share similar features, such as leverage, number of assets to trade, scalping, and negative balance protection. 

Skilling’s accounts were assessed to compare the costs to those of other brokers. When making this calculation, we use one lot of EUR/USD as a benchmark as it is the most commonly traded currency pair and it usually has the tightest spread. In a welcome show of transparency, Skilling publishes its average spreads alongside each financial instrument for all of its account types.

The trading costs on the Premium accounts are lower than those on the Standard and MT4 accounts.   However, traders should be aware that these trading costs are based on the minimum spreads available at Skilling.  Trading costs average at around 9 USD on the Premium accounts, which is around the industry average, and 10 USD on the Standard accounts, which is slightly higher than average. 

Swap Fees

The final trading cost to consider at Skilling is the swap rate charged on positions held overnight. Skilling is completely transparent regarding its overnight financing rates and these can be found on the website for every instrument.

For Forex pairs, the cost or income is calculated as the interest rate differential between Tomorrow Next Deposit Rates (TNDR) of the 2 currencies in question, plus the markup charged by Skilling on which the position is held and depending on the type of position (Long / Short).  Additionally, swap fees vary depending on the account.  

We opened and tested Skilling’s accounts:

Standard Account: The Standard Account requires a minimum deposit of 100 EUR, offers maximum leverage of 30:1, and is available through the Skilling Trader platform or cTrader. Spreads here start at 0.70 pips on the EUR/USD. No commission is charged.

Premium Account: The Premium Account is a commission-based, raw spreads account, with spreads starting at 0.1 pips, but a 30 USD/10 lot trading commission charged. Leverage is also 30:1 but the minimum deposit is 5000 EUR, so this is probably not an account for beginner traders.  Trading is also offered on the Skilling Trader platform and cTrader.

MT4 Account: The MT4 Account requires a minimum deposit of 100 EUR, offers maximum leverage of 30:1, and as the name suggests, is only available on the MT4 platform.  Spreads start at 0.70 pips on the EUR/USD and no commissions are charged. 

MT4 Premium Account: This account is similar to the Premium account outlined above, but trading is only offered on the MT4 platform.  Leverage is up to 30:1, and spreads start at 0.1 pips with a commission of 30 USD/10 lots traded.  The minimum deposit on this account is also 5000 EUR.

Demo Account: Skilling offers a demo account that allows you to trade instruments without risking real money.  It comes loaded with 10,000 USD in virtual funds and is available on the Skilling, cTrader, and MT4 trading platforms.  Demo accounts do not expire and can be topped up on request. 

Skilling’s mobile trading platforms are excellent when compared to other similar brokers

All of Skilling’s trading platforms are available on both Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets. As with the web trading platform, traders can choose from multiple languages. Although there is slightly limited functionality compared to the desktop version of the platform, with reduced timeframes and fewer charting options, traders will still have access to analytics with technical indicators, graphical objects, and a full set of trading orders.  

MetaTrader Mobile Trading

The MT4 app allows traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. Functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading further assists traders while on the move. 

cTrader Mobile Trading

The cTrader mobile app carries over most of the best parts from the desktop version, including the complete range of order types, price alerts, trade analysis, and symbol watchlists. Chart types have been reduced to 4, however.

Skilling Mobile Trading

Available on iOS and Android, Skilling’s mobile app offers all the same functionality as the web-based platform and is similarly user-friendly and uncomplicated.  It allows traders to open and close positions and has the same indicators and charts.

Overall, Skilling’s mobile trading support is good when compared to other brokers.

Skilling offers a wide variety of trading platforms tailored to traders of all levels.

Skilling Trader

Skilling Trader is Skilling’s proprietary trading platform. Designed to be intuitive and simple, but with a full suite of technical indicators and drawing tools, Skilling Trader is built to appeal to traders of all experience levels. With full integration with Skilling’s cTrader platform, web and mobile support and a trade assistant for beginners, the Skilling Trader platform is flexible enough to satisfy most traders.

Skilling cTrader

cTrader is an advanced trading platform designed specifically to work with market execution accounts. As mentioned previously, Skilling is unique in that it has teamed up with Spotware, cTrader’s creators, to seamlessly integrate cTrader with Skilling’s own trading platform.

cTrader is a modern, intuitive, and powerful trading platform with advanced trading capabilities, such as fast entry and coding customisation, as well as a variety of indicators to help you make better trading decisions. It includes a complete charting package and Spotware hosts a library of indicators and robots, traders can also design their own algorithms using the Automate Editor.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

The MT4 trading platform is the most widely used Forex trading platform and can also be used to trade other instruments like commodities, cryptocurrency, stock index, and stock CFDs. Though it is now showing its age, MT4 is still popular for its auto trading features that enable algorithmic trading and strategy backtesting with expert advisors (trading robots). 

Other features of MT4 include:

• Four types of order execution, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop orders.
• Superior charting tools in nine timeframes
• 30 technical indicators
• 23 analytical objects
• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
• Backtesting capabilities
• Dedicated customer support

Overall, MT4, and cTrader are considered some of the best trading platforms in the industry. For beginners, MT4 can be tricky to set up, but there are numerous guides in both text and video format to guide you through this process. cTrader is more beginner-friendly and needs fewer tweaks to optimise it for Forex trading, but there is less guidance freely available on the internet.  Additionally, Skilling provides its own proprietary platform that integrates seamlessly with the cTrader platform that is intuitive and easy to use.  

Skilling states that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed.  Deposits can only be made using a bank account or card registered in the trader’s name, and no third-party deposits are allowed.  Withdrawals must be made to the same account or method that the funds originated. 

Skilling offers a range of deposit and withdrawal methods and charges no fees for either type of transaction. Be aware that your bank or card issuer may charge you for international transfers.  Deposits are generally instant (except deposits via bank transfer and debit/credit cards), and withdrawals are processed within 24 – 48 hours.  Additionally, the minimum deposit amount is 100 USD and the minimum withdrawal amount is 50 USD.

Skilling offers an average number of base (trading account) currencies compared to other similar brokers.

Trading accounts can only be denominated in five base currencies – EUR, USD, NOK, SEK, and GBP, which is average compared to other brokers.   However, Skilling does not offer AUD trading accounts, which is a disadvantage for Australians who will likely have bank accounts denominated in AUD, and who will have to pay currency conversion fees on deposits and withdrawals.  As mentioned in the non-trading fees section, Skilling charges a currency conversion fee of 0.7% in addition to the fees that will be charged by your banking institution.

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.

Overall, Skilling offers an average number of trading account currencies compared to most other large international brokers and doesn’t offer accounts denominated in AUD. 

Skilling offers support for a social trading platform (Skilling Copy), TradingView, and PAMM/MAM accounts. 

Skilling Copy

Social trading is a service that allows investors to follow the trading strategy and copy trades of professionals, which are also known as signal providers. Available on the Skilling cTrader Copy platform, traders can choose from over 1000 different strategies and providers to follow and copy. The in-depth performance statistics available allow you to research Strategy Providers and their track record of investments as well as review their performance results and trading style to determine the strategy most suitable to you. 

Usually, the actions of experienced Forex traders are used as a guide for beginners. It reduces the time for market research and analytics before trading on Forex. Social trading is useful for traders who have no time for training or making independent investment decisions. 

PAMM/MAM Accounts

Skilling offers an account management service to its clients which allows account managers to trade on their behalf.  In order to perform this service, bespoke technology or software is required, also known as MAM/PAMM.  The MAM software communicates all allocation settings directly with the Skilling MetaTrader 4 server.    

MAM stands for Multi-Account Manager which permits a range of customisable ways to sub-allocate trades.  PAMM stands for Percentage Allocation Module Manager which means investors can be part of a set of sub-accounts that are traded together by a money manager or trader who has permission from clients to trade on their accounts.  Account Managers take a portion of the profits generated by the trades.  

Managed accounts are great for beginner traders who have limited experience with trading.

TradingView

Skilling recently added Trading View to its arsenal of trading tools.  TradingView is free of charge for traders who open a live account.  It is an excellent tool for researching, charting, and screening any instrument.  Additional features of Skilling’s TradingView tool include:

•  50+ intelligent charting tools
• Over 100,000 custom user-built indicators and scripts
• Synchronised layout for multiple charts

Skilling’s market analysis materials are limited compared to what is offered at other similar brokers.  

Skilling’s in-house team of analysts write weekly market analysis updates that are posted under its ‘Trading Articles’ tab.  While the content is of a high-quality, we would expect Skilling to provide more frequent analysis in various formats.   Additionally, no extra market analysis is provided by third-parties such as TradingView or Trading Central.

Education is limited to a short section titled What is CFD Trading? This covers the basics of how contracts for difference function, with brief explanations of leverage, margin, and CFD costs.

Skilling’s own trading platform, Skilling Trader, also features the Skilling Trade Assistant – which is designed to explain the trading basics and help you place your first trade.

Phone support is available from 08:00-17:00 CET, Monday to Friday and live chat is available from 08:00-22:00 CET, Monday to Friday.

For the purposes of this review, we found the live chat agents responsive and knowledgeable.