Trade Nation

Traders will be trading with the Australian subsidiary of Trade Nation, which is licenced and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). 

In early 2021, ASIC tightened its restrictions on CFD trading to better protect traders. As a result, Trade Nation 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. In addition, ASIC regulations ensure that Trade Nation keeps its operational funds segregated from client accounts, but also prevent Trade Nation from offering promotions or bonuses. 

While the additional protection offered by ASIC regulation is welcome, some traders may find the low leverage levels and lack of bonuses at Trade Nation restrictive. The only way around these restrictions is to trade with a broker which does not have ASIC regulation, which of course then means less protection.

All traders are eligible to open an account at Trade Nation but will have to follow the fully digital application process. 

Creating an account is straightforward, the process is fully digital, and accounts are usually ready within one day. Trade Nation offers joint and individual accounts, but we will focus on opening an individual account:

How to open an account at Trade Nation:

1. New traders will have to click on the “Join Us” button at the top of the page where they will be directed to fill in their name, email address, and register a password. 

2. Next, traders will have to confirm their country of residence and select their level of trading experience.

3. Traders can then choose to open a live account or a demo account.

4. Traders will have to fill in their date of birth and detail their level of trading experience and financial status.

5. Trade Nation’s intake form requires clients to fill in their personal details, including physical address, mobile number, identity number, and choose their preferred trading account currency. 

6. Prospective traders are then required to review the account application details.

7. Traders will then have to accept that they have read the Client agreement, Risk Disclosure Notice, and that they understand the risks involved in leveraged trading. 

8. Once this step is complete, Trade Nation will verify all documents and notify traders via email should they require more information.

9. Trade Nation needs at least two documents to accept you as an individual client:

   1. Proof of Identification – current (not expired) coloured scanned copy (in PDF or JPG format) of your passport. If no valid passport is available, a similar identification document bearing your photo such as an ID card or driving licence will work.

   2. Proof of Address – a Bank Statement or Utility Bill. Please ensure, however, that the documents provided are not older than 6 months and that your name and physical address are clearly displayed.

10. Once the application is approved, traders can log in and fund their accounts.  

Trade Nation offers a limited range of tradable instruments on MT4, but it offers a wider range of share CFDs than is typically available at other brokers. 

Trade Nation’s Forex trading fees are significantly lower than other similar CFD brokers.  

There is no account choice at Trade Nation, which is unusual as most of its serious competitors have several account types with tighter spreads linked to higher deposit requirements

Unlike other brokers that offer variable spreads which tighten or widen depending on trading volume and market volatility, Trade Nation offers fixed spread accounts.  

Trade Nation’s account was assessed to compare the costs to those of other forex brokers. The costs were evaluated based on the trading fees on one lot (100 000 USD) on the EUR/USD, including the spreads and commission.

At a trading cost of 6 USD per lot of EUR/USD traded, Trade Nation’s fees are significantly lower than other brokers.  Most other brokers have a trading cost of 9 USD per lot traded. 

Swap Fees

Another important cost to consider is the swap rate charged on positions held overnight.   In most cases, interest is paid (or received) for each night a position is held.  Trade Nation does not charge a swap fee on its proprietary CloudTrade platform.  It does, however, charge the LIBOR rate plus an additional interest rate of 2.5%. The London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a benchmark interest rate at which major global banks lend to one another in the international interbank market for short-term loans.  

A market maker, Trade Nation offers one live account on its proprietary Cloudtrade platform and MT4 (although we couldn’t find details regarding the trading conditions on MT4). Trading is offered on multiple assets, including Forex, indices, energies, metals, futures, bonds, and equities. 

Trade Nation’s account has no minimum deposit requirement and offers smaller trade sizes (0.1 lots), making it suitable for beginner traders. 

Retail Account

A market maker, Trade Nation’s retail account is commission-free and has spreads that are fixed at 0.60 pips on the EUR/USD, which is highly competitive.  However, traders should note that between 22:00 and 23:00 (GMT+1), spreads rise to 1.4 pips on the EUR/USD. There are no minimum deposit requirements to open an account.

Demo Accounts

Trade Nation offers a free demo account called the practice platform, where customers can test out trading strategies with 10,000 USD in virtual funds. Practice accounts last for 500 trades.  The broker also offers a one-to-one walkthrough with the demo account, which can be requested via a callback service on the website.

The Trade Nation platform and MT4 are both available on both Android and iOS.

Trade Nation Platform

Trade Nation’s mobile trading platform has all the same features as the desktop version, but it is only available in English and traders cannot set mobile alerts.  

MT4 

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. 

Trade Nation offers support for its proprietary Trade Nation platform and MT4, available on PC and web browser.

Trade Nation Platform

Trade Nation prides itself on its bespoke trading platform. According to the broker, it features everything traders need and nothing they do not.  The platform looks fantastic, is very easy to use, and has a solid reputation in the trading community. Exceptionally, it is available in over 13 languages.

The bespoke platform is intuitive and provides flexible charting functionality through a sleek user interface.  12 interactive graph types are available such as histograms and candle charts, and it’s also easy to overlay information on graphs, with a good selection of drawing tools available. The optional deal button in the chart view means trades can be executed quickly. The chart supports scores of technical indicators and time frames. An impressive number of drawing tools are also available. Launching trades is possible directly from the charts.

However, unlike platforms such as MT4 and MT5, the platform is not customisable, and traders who are used to setting up their own charts over a bespoke workspace will be disappointed.  In addition, the platform does not offer the execution speeds of the Metatrader platforms, nor does it offer algorithmic trading. 

Metatrader 4

While not the most beginner-friendly software, MT4 has been the industry-standard platform for trading Forex and CFDs since 2005. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly environment provide essential tools and resources for successful online trading.    Features of the MT4 include:

• A built-in library of more than 50 indicators and tools to streamline the analysis process.

• An impressive array of analytical tools, available in nine timeframes for each financial instrument.

• Live price streaming on live accounts and demo accounts 128-bits encryption for secure trading

• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 

• Customisable alerts

• Access to MetaTrader market and MQL4 community

A well-regulated broker, Trade Nation ensures that all anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed, and as such all withdrawals are returned to the deposit source.

Accepted Account Currencies:  Trade Nation offers a reasonable range of base currencies, including USD, AUD, GBP, NOK, SEK, DKK, ZAR, and EUR, which is good for Australians who will likely have AUD bank accounts. Australian traders will therefore be able to avoid paying conversion fees, unless trading on instruments with other base currencies, such as the EUR/USD.

In this case, it is better for traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month) to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with an AUD account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

Funding Options:Trade Nation offers a limited number of funding and withdrawal methods, and while no commissions are charged, withdrawal times are slow.

Unlike other similar brokers, Trade Nation does not offer any additional sentiment indicators or automated analytics services such as Autochartist or Trading Central.

Trade Nation’s market analysis materials are average compared to other large international brokers.

Trade Nation offers an up-to-date section in addition to expert advice on trading strategies. It offers real trading stories from members of its community, which is helpful for beginner traders.  The broker also offers a Smart News section, which provides insights acquired from alternative, independent sources, including social media.

Trade Nation’s trading academy offers a limited selection of beginner guides covering basic and advanced trading concepts, as well as news. It also offers helpful video tutorials on using the various trading platforms.  

Customer support is responsive and available 24/5 via telephone, email, and a call-back service. The customer support team is also available for one-to-one platform walkthroughs.

For the purposes of this review, we found the live chat service mostly unresponsive, however, our questions were eventually followed up on email. Additionally, the agents were unable to answer some of our questions. For example, they could not give us information on the MT4 spreads, nor why there is no information published about the MT4 platform.