OliveFX Review

“OliveFX” is a trading name of Olive Financial Markets Pty Ltd. (OFM). The company was founded in 2018 and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) under license number 390906. It is authorised to issue over-the-counter products, contracts, and derivatives.

There are over 85 trading assets distributed in more than 70 currency pairs (majors, minors, and exotics), 12 global indices, and commodities (Gold, Silver, Platinum, Brent Oil and WTI). The spread for the EUR/USD pair starts from 0.8 pips. However, there are live quotes in the homepage and the spread of the EUR/USD pair there is near 2 pips. The leverage can be up to 1:500.

Customers can trade through the industry leading trading platform MetaTrader 4 (MT4) directly from their PC, MAC, iOS, or Android devices. One additional feature the company offers is the possibility to automate your trades by following the trading strategies of “Trade Leaders” and Portfolio Managers – so called copy trading. You can choose from a list of traders to follow but what we found on the Social section was only two profitable traders and 4 losing ones. You should be careful who you choose to follow.

There is only one type of retail account no matter how much you would like to invest. There is no information about the minimum initial deposit. Olive FX offers a VPN hosting package at a monthly fee of USD30 or for free if you invest at least USD5,000 to open an account.

The Product Disclosure Statement document reveals that OliveFX (OFM) acts as a principal to you and does not act as your agent to find the best prices. There will be no commissions payable on trades executed in company’s products. All fees are built into the price of the contract when you seek to transact with the company. That means the company is a market maker. It is also written that: “Trading with us carries an automatic risk of actual conflicts of interest because OFM is acting as principal in the Products you acquire and OFM sets the price of each Contract and also because it might be transacting with other persons, at different prices or rates, or OFM might be dealing with market participants in relation to its exposure to you or to any aspect of all of its clients’ Accounts.” The same document shows that: “Stop Loss Orders are not guaranteed and the execution of such Orders will depend on market volatility and liquidity. A Stop Loss Order is triggered automatically when the stop loss price is reached. Once the stop loss price is reached, the Stop Loss Order becomes a Market Order to buy or sell (depending on your instructions). Due to market volatility and liquidity, if it is not possible to fill your Stop Loss Order at the price you requested OFM will fill the Stop Loss Order at the nearest available price.” There may be times where, due to an increase in volatility or volume or other market conditions, some price ‘slippage’ may occur. The paragraph about the risk informs that: “You may lose more than your initial investment. You may incur losses to the extent of your total exposure to us and any additional fees and charges that apply. These losses may be greater than the money that you have deposited into your Account or are required to deposit to satisfy the Total Margin Requirements.” This means you are not covered by negative balance protection and in the end, you may owe money to this company. There is an example in this document where you have deposited USD10,000 but because of gapping, your loss is USD15,000.

Overall, OliveFX is an Australian company that must comply with the ASIC requirements, including to hold client’s money in a segregated account. However, we notice that trading conditions are not so competitive as the company claims. Spreads are wider than announced, there is neither demo account available, no negative balance protection. The company acts as a market maker and there are not so many instruments available. The leverage can be lifted to 1:500 but keep in mind the risk of heavy losses increases.