ATFX Review

ATFX is a trade name of AT Global Markets (UK), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an FX & CFD broker under license number 760555. In accordance with the regulatory requirements of the FCA, all retail client’s funds must be held in segregated accounts. In addition, AT Global Markets (UK) is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which covers investments up to GBP85,000.

The company product portfolio consists of 42 currency pairs, 4 commodities (Gold, Silver, Brent Oil and WTI Oil), 11 global indices, and 4 cryptocurrencies. The spread for the major currency pairs starts from 1 pip and the spread for Bitcoin is as low as USD40, the company announces.

There are three types of trading accounts that differ mainly in the minimum required deposit and the offered spreads. The Standard account requires minimum investment of GBP500 and the spreads for major currency pairs start at 1 pip. You must invest at least GBP5,000 to open an Edge account, which offers spreads from 0.6 pips. The Premium account requires a minimum deposit of GBP10,000 and provides raw spreads (close to zero) at the expense of a commission of USD25 per million traded units. Customers can fund their account by bank transfer, credit/debit cards, Skrill, Neteller, SafeCharge and Trustly.

Clients can trade through the most popular trading terminal – MetaTrader 4 (MT4). MT4 is a user-friendly platform that offers all the necessary trading tools for all types of traders, including many technical indicators and expert advisors. The key features of MT4 allow traders to fully monitor the markets, so they can place entry and exit orders at the right time. MT4 is available as a desktop version and as a mobile app for iOS and Android smartphones. In addition, customers can trade through the MT4 WebTrader without having to download and install any software.

The Terms and Condition document shows that if the client is classified as a retail client by the company, it will place safeguards to prevent the client from incurring a negative balance when trading with the company in accordance with the Negative Balance Protection Policy. This means that all retail customers are covered by negative balance protection, as required by FCA rules.

There is also written that placing a stop-loss order will not necessarily limit your losses to the intended amounts, because market conditions may make it impossible to execute such an order at the stipulated price and your order may be executed at a worse price (slippage). So, all orders are subject to slippage and the stop loss orders are not guaranteed.

The Order Execution Policy document informs that ATFX may act as a market maker with respect to the client’s transactions and in this case will be the sole Execution Venue. Acting as a market maker leads to a conflict of interest. In addition, it is also written that the client’s order may be matched with an order from a party who is also a client of ATFX. This also confirms that not every order is transmitted to liquidity providers and the company’s risk department decides which order to transmit and when.

Overall, ATFX is a strictly regulated company that must comply with the FCA regulatory requirements. All retail clients are covered by negative balance protection, you can trade through the popular MT4 platform. However, trading conditions are less competitive (a relatively high initial deposit of GBP500 for a spread starting at 1 pips) and stocks are not among the available trading instruments.