What is Eightcap?

Eightcap Pty Ltd is an online brokerage firm first established in 2015 and has its headquarters located in Melbourne, Australia. The firm mostly specializes in providing Forex and CFDs offerings to its clients. Furthermore, they also offer a wide range of over 200 financial instruments, including commodities, indices, shares, and even cryptocurrency. 

Since then, Eightcap has garnered a decent reputation for its reliable services and accommodating trading environment. Providing its services to over 10,000 clients worldwide, the brokerage also boasts competitive spreads and lightning-quick execution.  

In addition, Eightcap has won various industry awards, mostly for its innovations in its trading platform and mobile applications. 

Recently, the brokerage has also established an international branch known as Eightcap Global in 2019 and has its head office in Vanuatu.

However, it is important to note that a reliable and capable broker is one of the most crucial aspects of being successful when trading online. Even with of Eightcap’s current reputation, we should determine whether broker is indeed reliable and capable in order to guarantee the safety of your investments. 

In this review, we will briefly look into the offerings and features of Eightcap as well as other details that may reveal whether the broker is worth looking into. 

Eightcap: Services and Offerings

• Trading Instruments

As mentioned before, Eightcap has a large variety of financial instruments to invest in. These include over 42 currency pairs including major and cross pairs. Eightcap also has over 58 types of instruments which include oil, gold, global indices, and 6 cryptocurrency CFDs such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum.

In its Forex offerings, the typical spread for the EUR/USD pair is around 0.8 to 1.2 pips. Depending on the type of account, spreads can also go as low as 0.0 to 0.3 pips. 

• Account Types & Fees

Eightcap currently has only 2 account types – the Standard Account and the Raw Account.

Both require a minimum deposit of only $100 to open, making it a great option for traders with a budget. One of the key differences is that the Standard Account does not have any commissions while the Raw Account is intended for seasoned traders and has a minimum of $3.5 in commissions. The Standard Account also has slightly higher spreads, while the Raw Account features interbank spreads. 

 In terms of fees, Eightcap has overnight fees (also known as a rollover rate), which is an interest charged for holding positions for more than 24 hours. Overnight fees often change and can be highly affected depending on whether the position is a “long” buy or “short” sell.

Eightcap also features high leverage ratios with the maximum reaching 1:500. This allows for the best opportunities for retail traders as it magnifies any profit made out of a trade. However, leverages must be used after proper risk management as it can also magnify losses made per trade.    

• Trading Platform

Eightcap’s proprietary trading platform utilizes the industry-standard MetaTrader (MT4) and MetaTrader5 (MT5) platforms. The MetaTrader software has been held in high esteem by many professional traders for its advanced tools and features. Eightcap’s trading platform can be accessed through desktop and mobile applications. 

One Eightcap’s most notable feature in its trading platform is its AutoTrading solutions plug-in that allows traders to copy the transactions of their peers in the social and copy-trading community. Furthermore, the AutoTrading plug-in allows clients to track, compare, analyze, and share their trading activities directly to their peers’ accounts and vice versa. However, this feature can only be accessed if the client maintains a minimum account balance of $1,000.       

• Payment Options

Eightcap’s payment options are pretty standard, featuring instant transactions that can be done through Visa/MasterCard, Skrill, POLi Payment, fasapay, Avodapay, China UnionPay, and Bank Wire Transfers.

Currencies can be received or deposited in AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, NZD, CAD, and SGD, depending on the trader’s choice. Deposits with any of the mentioned currencies above will be converted into the base currency of the trading account.

While Eightcap does not charge any internal fees for deposits or withdrawals, payments through banks outside of Australia may be subject to fees from the service provider.

Eightcap: Is it safe?

There will always been an inherent risk when trading with an online broker. This can be true especially if the broker is located offshore where regulation laws can be lax. These conditions allow them to easily carry out fraudulent activities if left unchecked.

This is why brokerage firms acquire certificates from reputable financial authorities to put a safety net under its clients in case of an unforeseen event. In addition, these regulatory bodies investigate the firm’s operations and only grant licenses if it passes industry standards.     

In Eightcap’s case, it holds licenses from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which is a fully recognized entity by the trading industry.

Eightcap’s clients are also further protected by its professional indemnity insurance policy.

Eightcap: Conclusion

Eightcap is a fairly decent broker that features competitive spreads and pricing for clients on a budget.  In addition, the wide array of financial instruments listed can be a great opportunity for traders to organically build a portfolio. Its streamlined and easy-to-use interface coupled with lightning-quick response times also makes Eightcap a great trading experience for both novice and veteran traders alike.  

While the online broker could use a few more learning materials on their website, Eightcap definitely provides a safe and comfortable trading environment with the most exceptional of conditions for its clients.