What is Olymp Trade?
Olymp Trade is an online brokerage first established around 2014 in Seychelles. It offers its clients a Fixed-Time Trading platform for Forex pairs as well as with commodities, stocks, and indices. The broker had initially focused on serving novice traders with optimal training conditions in order to get them properly introduced in the investment industry.
Their strategy change soon after IQ (now called IQ Option, another leading online brokerage left the market. IQ had mostly provided services to clients in Russia. However, after IQ left, most of its clients flocked to Olymp Trade as an alternative.
The sudden influx of clients benefited Olymp Trade tremendously, driving the broker to the same amount of fame as its IQ counterpart. By taking full advantage of the situation, Olymp Trade expanded rapidly, especially after making an online presence with countless YouTube advertisements.
Later on, the brokerage won several awards for the quality of its services and its trading platform. In 2016 alone, it had won the KROUFR Award for “the Best FX broker”, an IAIR Award for “The Best Trading Platform”, and a Show FX World Award for “the Fastest Developing Broker”.
However, as Olymp Trade continued to grow, many negative user reviews began propping up around the internet. The reviews came with accusations ranging from Olymp Trade not being up to industry standards, to the broker being an illegitimate operation. Given the broker’s esteemed reputation, it may have come as a surprise to others.
Therefore, in this review, we will look into the details of the services and trading platform of Olymp Trade and conclude if the broker really is a scam or not.
Olymp Trade: Services and Offerings
• Trading Instruments
Olymp Trade is primarily a Forex broker that offers major, cross, and exotic pairs. Only recently has the broker allowed traders to invest in cryptocurrency.
In addition, Olymp Trade also offers more than 60 trading instruments that include commodities, stock indices, and exchange shares.
The broker is partnered with a cryptocurrency-focused company known as CryptoIndex that allows Olymp Trade’s clients to trade 24/7 with the best deals available. This can be true especially with profitability going as high as 70% on the weekends.
• Account Types and Bonuses
Olymp Trade currently has two account types – the Regular Account and the V.I.P. Account.
While the features of Olymp Trade’s Regular Account are almost similar to that of a V.I.P. Account, the advantages are obviously better than the latter. One of the best advantages of a V.I.P. Account is the profit percentage a trader can gain after a successful trade, with some going as high as 90%.
• Trading Platform
Trading with Olymp Trade is done through a Fixed-Time Trading platform. This makes the trading procedure with the broker much more streamlined than its competitors, though not necessarily for the better. In Fixed-Time Trading, clients open a position with a prediction that the asset’s price would go either up or down after a specific time. Traders also can “Push” a position, which means that they predict the price of an asset to remain the same after a set time. Most trade durations can be as quick as a minute to a full day. The minimum amount required to open a position is $1 and the maximum is $1,000.
If the traders had predicted correctly, they would be credited with a profit percentage of the asset’s movement. This will immediately be delivered to their account.
• Payment Options
Olymp Trade offers its clients multiple payment options and deposit methods. This can be done with E-Wallets such Neteller and Skrill, or with bank cards such as Visa and MasterCard.
Additionally, after Olymp Trade had started offerings for cryptocurrency, accounts can also be funded with BitCoin.
Other methods include services such as WebMoney and FasaPay.
At the time of writing this, traders can open an Olymp Trade account with a minimum deposit of only $10.
Olymp Trade: Is it safe?
While there has always been an inherent risk when trading with online brokerages, it is important to distinguish the differences between the common problems of trading and a scam. Common problems can stem from the unfamiliarity of the broker’s trading platform or an expensive mistake from the trader’s part. This could lead to the deactivation or freezing of an account or denying the client access to his funds temporarily. However, these actions would not necessarily be considered as a scam.
On the other hand, a fraudulent brokerage would deceive its clients with hidden fees and would find ways to remove opportunities for traders to earn a profit.
And in today’s modern world, it is fairly easy to set up an illegitimate business aimed on scamming people out of their money. Therefore, in order to deal with this, many online brokers license their operations under regulatory bodies.
Holding a certificate from these financial entities can guarantee its clients safety and security over their funds and best interests.
In Olymp Trade’s case, it is currently regulated by the International Financial Commission (IFC), an authoritative regulatory body. This would mean that the operations done by Olymp Trade have been under investigation and have passed industry standards.
One of the main reasons why one might think of the broker as a scam might likely be attributed to the broker not adhering to the usual fee structure and money-making practices done by other online brokers.
However, it must be emphasized that Olymp Trade is a Fixed-Time Trading broker meaning that it follows a structure considered appropriate for such.
Olymp Trade: Conclusion
In conclusion, it is safe to say that Olymp Trade is not a scam just from the license it holds. Furthermore, because of the quality of its services and full transparency with its clients, Olymp Trade deserves all the recognition it has been getting.
Overall, Olymp Trade is a perfect stepping stone for people interested in Fixed-Time Trading. This may well be true as its simplified platform and structure offers enough room for traders to learn, as well as experiment with different trading strategies.
