Amana Capital Review

Amana Capital in short

Amana Capital, part of 180 Capital, provides clients from more than 80 countries with direct access to global financial markets. There are several companies under the Amana Capital brand, some of which are regulated by leading bodies such as the FCA and CySEC. Customers can trade over 360 financial instruments distributed into currency pairs, indices, commodities, shares, and cryptocurrencies through the world’s most popular trading terminals – MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). They have access to plenty of technical analysis tools and educational resources to help improve trading. Opening a real account requires a minimum deposit of USD50.

Regulation

When choosing a brokerage company for online trading, the regulation shows how reliable it is. The group of companies in Amana Capital is licensed by global regulatory bodies. Amana Financial Services UK Ltd is authorized and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under reference number 605070; Amana Financial Services (Dubai) Limited is authorized and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority – DFSA (License number F003269); Amana Capital LTD is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license number 155/11; Amana Capital SAL is authorized and regulated by the Lebanese Capital Markets Authority (CMA) as a Financial Intermediary Institution (Authorization number 26); AFS Global is regulated and authorized by LFSA – Malaysia under registration number MB/18/0025; ACG International is regulated and authorized by the Financial Services Commission – Mauritius (FSC) under registration number C118023192.

The group of companies is audited by famous international auditing firms, including PWC and Grant Thornton, it claims. All funds of retail customers from the UK and Cyprus are kept in segregated bank accounts. In the event of default, these funds are covered by the Financial Services compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK and the ICF in Cyprus. In addition, Amana Capital offers its LFSA & FSC clients an insurance protection plan, covering up to USD1 million.

Account Types

There are five types of live trading accounts available, which differ mainly in the required initial amount of the deposit and the offered spreads, and you can choose the one that suits your trading strategy.

The classic account is called “Trade Forex & CFDs”. It requires a minimum deposit of USD50 or equivalent and the spread for the EUR/USD starts at 1.4 pips. The stop out level is 20%. The maximum leverage could reach 1:500 (if you are a client of non-EU companies of the group) and the forex trading is commission free. However, CFD contracts on futures are charged at a commission of USD10/lot and the CFD contracts on shares are charged at a commission of USD0.02/share, a minimum of USD15.

You must invest at least USD25,000 and trade at least USD100 million as a volume to open an “Active Traders” account. In return, you get “ultra-low competitive” spreads, which bring you an average saving of 60% on trading costs, the company claims.

There is a dedicated account if you intend to trade shares called “Shares Account” and there are more than 280 US shares available for trading with the 1:10 leverage. The stop out level is 20% and the commission is USD0.02/share, a minimum of USD15.

The “Elite Services” account requires at least USD250,000 to open. In return, you receive elite spreads, pricing and charges, the company claims. You also get a personal account manager and access to a dedicated trading desk team of experienced traders.

If you choose someone more experienced to trade instead of you, the “Copy Trading” account is for you. You will have direct access to a wide network of signal providers, and you can choose some of them to follow and copy their trades automatically to your trading account. You must register in the ZuluTrade network.

What Type of Broker the Company Is

The “Order Execution Policy” document shows that The company is always the counterparty to every trade and acts as principal and not as agent on the client’s behalf; though the company may transmit client’s orders for execution to third party liquidity providers, contractually the company is the sole counterparty to the client’s trades and any execution of orders is done in the company’s name, therefore the company is the sole execution venue for the execution of the client’s orders. This means that the company is a market maker. Being a market maker involves a conflict of interest because when the company executes orders, it usually keeps the risk to itself. Every loss for customers is a profit for the company.

In the “Order Type Execution” section it is explained that slippage is the situation when at the time that an order is presented for execution, the specific price is not available; therefore, the market order will be executed close to or several pips away from the client’s requested price – at the first available market price. Slippage is the difference between the expected price in the client’s order and the price the order is fulfilled at. Once the market reaches the ‘stop loss price’ the order is triggered and treated as a ‘market order‘. Market orders are subject to slippage, which means that stop loss orders are not guaranteed and will be filled at the first available market price.

Amana Capital Ltd offers all retail clients Negative Balance Protection. This means that retail clients will not lose more than the amounts they invested with the company. This policy takes effect when the stop out level is reached, and the account balance becomes negative. The company then credits customer accounts to a zero-balance limit.

Fees

Be aware of the company fees, stated in the legal section of the website. There is a deposit fee, and it is 1.5% if you deposit by credit/debit card or 3.9% if you deposit by Neteller or Skrill. The withdrawal fees are within 1-2%. In addition, there is an inactivity fee and if there is no activity in your account for more than one calendar year, the company reserves the right to charge an account maintenance fee as determined by the company in its discretion depending on the currency of the account to maintain the client account open. Of course, there are common fees such as spread, swap and rollover.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Customers can use several deposit methods such as bank transfers, credit/debit cards, Neteller and Skrill. The minimum first deposit depends on the account you have and starts at USD50 to USD250,000. The minimum amount of every next deposit is USD10. There is no minimum amount for withdrawals. In addition, there are withdrawal fees depending on the transaction method. The client may withdraw funds by logging into his members area and entering the amount he wishes to withdraw. Once the internal transfer request is approved, the client will then submit a request to withdraw these funds from his landing account(s) onto his bank account.

Trading Platforms

Customers can trade through two of the most powerful terminals in the industry – MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). MT4 is flexible enough to adapt to your level and trading strategy. It is the preferred terminal of many traders and unites an intuitive user interface with a customizable environment. MT4 allows traders to use expert advisors (EAs), which expand their trading strategies. One-click trading directly from the charts is also available. The terminal is available as a version for Windows PCs and Macs as well as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.

MT5 is the updated version of the MetaTrader 4 terminal. It is another powerful and reliable trading platform that adds new advanced trading features. MT5 has an intuitive and simple interface but also provides great analytical capabilities and a wide range of technical and fundamental analysis tools. There are over 80 built-in indicators, 12 new timeframes and a built-in economic calendar.

The company represents the main differences between MT4 and MT5 in a table.

Assets

Amana Capital offers over 360 of the most traded financial assets.

Forex – More than 50 popular major, minor, and exotic currency pairs can be traded through the instant execution model (requotes instead of slippage). The spread for the majors depends on the account type and can be as low as 1.3 pips.

Indices – 27 of the most popular major and minor indices globally are available. 20 of them can be traded as cash indices and 7 – as futures. The minimum spread for the US30 cash index is 3 points and for the futures – 3.5 points. You will be charged a commission if you trade indices as futures.

Commodities – They are divided into Precious metals (4 spot metals and 2 futures on metals), Energies (WTI Oil, Brent Oil, and Natural Gas as contracts on futures and WTI Oil and Brent Oil as spot prices), Commodities (7 agricultural commodities as contracts on futures). You will be charged a commission if you trade any of them as futures. The spread of the spot Gold starts at USD0.35 and the one of the spot WTI Oil starts at USD0.03

Shares – You can trade over 280 shares of US companies. You will be charged a commission of USD0.02/share.

Cryptocurrencies – 4 of the most traded cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and Ripple are available as CFDs. The spread for Bitcoin starts at USD74.1.

Education

There is a dedicated educational section on the web page, which contains some articles about currency pairs, CFD trading, crypto currencies, and webinars (it was an empty section). In the Tools section you will find some trading signals, an economic calendar (taken from the MetaTrader platform), live charts and financial calculators.

Summary

The Amana Capital brand is a group of six companies with different regulations, which covers potential clients globally. The CySEC-regulated company is a market maker, so there is a major conflict of interest. It provides a wide range of trading instruments through the most popular trading terminals MT4 and MT5. There are 5 different types of accounts, and the minimum initial deposit is USD50 (Trade Forex & CFDs account). Pay attention to the fees applied when you deposit or withdraw funds.