SquaredFinancial Review

SquaredFinancial.com in brief

SquaredFinancial is a trade name of the company Squared Financial (CY) Ltd, which describes itself as a global investment portal providing exceptional execution speed, competitive spreads, and in-depth market analysis. Squared Financial (CY) Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Customers can trade more than 70 currency pairs, commodities, and indices, through the popular terminal MetaTrader 4 (MT4). No minimum initial deposit is required.

Regulation

The first thing you need to do before opening an account is to check the regulation of the brokerage company. Squared Financial (CY) Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license number 329/17. SquaredFinancial holds a cross-border CySEC license, authorizing the provision of investment services. The company complies with EU and local regulations such as the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II). The company is a member of the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), a scheme that serves to protect retail customers by paying compensation in the event of default.

Account Types

There are two types of live trading accounts available, which differ in the required initial amount of the deposit and the offered spreads and commissions.

SquaredPro account – There is no minimum required amount and the spread for the EUR/USD pair starts from 1.2 pips. Trading is commission free.

SquaredElite account – You must invest at least USD5,000 to open this account. The spread for the EUR/USD pair is close to zero at the expense of the USD5 commission per lot traded.

Both accounts provide access to 5 different asset classes and more than 70 instruments.

What Type of Brokerage the Company is?

Both the Order Execution Policy and the Client Agreement files confirm that the company arranges for the execution of client orders with the execution venue. It is understood that the company does not execute the client orders in CFDs as a principal to principal against the client, i.e. the company is not itself the Execution Venue for the execution of the client orders. The company’s current execution venues can be found in the Order Execution Policy document and they include LMAX Broker Limited, MeritKapital, Invast Financial Services Pty Ltd, etc. The interesting thing is that Squared Financial (CY) Limited is included in this list, which contradicts the claim that the company is not the execution venue. Apart from this, Squared Financial (CY) Limited declares that it transmits every client order (arranges for its execution) with the third-party liquidity providers (execution venues). This means that it uses the Straight Through Processing (STP) model to execute client’s orders; Therefore, there is no conflict of interest, and the company earns money only from the spread and commissions.

There is a text that warns of slippage when trading CFDs. This is the situation when at the time that an order is presented for execution, the specific price shown to the client may not be available; therefore the order will be executed close to or a number of pips away from the requested price. Slippage is the difference between the expected price of an order, and the price the order is executed at. In other words, the client orders may not be executed at declared prices. It is noted that slippage can occur also during stop loss, take profit and other types of orders. The company does not guarantee the execution of your pending orders at the price specified. It confirms that your order will be executed at the next best available market price from the price. Slippage may appear in all types of client accounts. This means that the stop loss orders are not guaranteed.

The Client Agreement file informs that the company operates on a “Negative Balance Protection” basis. This means that all retail clients cannot lose more than their account balance.

Fees

There is no inactivity fee, so you can choose the when and how frequently you want to trade. Of course, there are common fees such as spread, swap and rollover. Additionally, there is a currency conversion fee. If the deposit currency is different than EUR, USD and GBP, the company will charge a currency conversion fee of 0.15% for the amounts up to 50,000 and 0.30% for amounts above 50,000.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits can be completed by bank transfer, credit/debit cards or by e-wallets such as Neteller and Skrill. The company does not charge fees on deposits and does not accept cash as a deposit method. However, intermediary banks may charge a fee according to their own fee structure. Deposits made by bank transfer have a processing time of up to 3 business days, those made by credit or debit card are processed within 1 hour and payments made via Skrill and Neteller are immediate.

Withdrawals should be made using the same method used by the customer to fund his trading account. If the withdrawal requirements are met, the company will pay the withdrawal amount within five (5) business days. There are currently no withdrawal fees, but SquaredFinancial warns that it may charge such fees and information on their amount can be found on the website.

Trading Platforms

Customers can trade via one of the most used terminals worldwide – MetaTrader 4 (MT4). It is a market leading forex trading platform with an easy-to-use interface. MT4 is effective, user-friendly, and flexible. You can create your own custom layouts and templates. MT4 has all the charting and analysis capability that any trader needs combined with fast order execution directly from the chart. A huge advantage is the ability of automated trading – you can use available indicators or Expert Advisors (EAs) or create new ones using the MQL4 language. MetaTrader platform is available as a desktop version and as a mobile application for iOS and Android smartphones.

Assets

Forex – You can trade 50 major, minor, and exotic currency pairs. The minimum spread for the EUR/USD pair depends on the account type and is 1.1 pips for the Pro account and close to zero for the Elite account.

Indices – More than 10 indices are available for trading, but there is no information on the website, and you must open an account to see the trading conditions.

Commodities – 3 precious metals (Gold, Silver and Platinum) and 3 energy products (Crude Oil, Brent Oil and Natural Gas) are available for trading. The average spread for the Gold is USD0.11 and for the Crude Oil is USD0.50 for both types of accounts.

You will be charged a commission of USD5 per lot traded, if you open the Elite account.

Education

There are two sections with educational materials. The Learn section contains Academy, Video Tutorials, eBooks, Articles, Trading Guides, Financial Glossary and FAQs.   In the Market Insights section, you can find Market Analysis, Comments, and Trading Tools such as Economic Calendar and Trading Calculators.

Summary

SquaredFinancial is regulated by the CySEC and this license allows it to provide financial services throughout the European Union. It uses the STP model to execute orders transmitting them to its liquidity providers. The company provides not so wide range of trading instruments (shares are not among them) via the popular MT4 terminal. There are two types of live accounts that differ in spreads, commissions, and initial deposit. No minimum deposit is required, but if you want narrower spreads, you must invest USD5,000. However, you will be charged a commission for each transaction.