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PepperstoneActivTrades Review
Written by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by John Bringans
Fact-checked by Joey Shadeck
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 83% of retail CFD accounts lose money. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
ActivTrades is a long-standing brand with a proprietary trading platform, ActivTrader. ActivTrades also provides a well-rounded offering of third-party platforms and a good selection of custom add-ons, indicators, and trading tools for MetaTrader. Drawbacks include a smaller selection of tradeable symbols and fewer educational resources than what’s available from the best forex brokers.
-
Minimum Deposit:
0 -
Trust Score:
81 -
Tradeable Symbols (Total):
1267
Can I open an account with this broker?
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ActivTrades pros & cons
Pros
- Indemnity insurance up to $1 million from Lloyd’s of London (ActivTrades offers additional insurance up to $1 million, under specific terms and conditions).
- Market analysis and Weekly Outlook articles provide a good foundation for research.
- Offers TradingView and the full MetaTrader suite (MT4 and MT5).
- Multiple custom add-ons for MetaTrader including the SmartOrder tool, SmartTemplate and Pivot Points Indicators, and SmartPattern and Smartlines tools.
- Good variety of webinars and educational videos, but not as many as category leaders for market research and education.
- News headlines from FXStreet.
- Advanced trading tool feature with a progressive trailing stop, akin to a complex order type.
Cons
- Weekly Outlook videos have been discontinued.
- ActivTrades holds fewer licenses than the most trusted brokers.
- Educational articles are unorganized and there are no interactive courses.
- The minimum deposit is $500 if you reside in Brazil or China (otherwise it is zero).
- Offers a smaller range of tradeable assets than the top multi-asset brokers.
Overall Summary
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Trust Score | 81 |
| Offering of Investments |
|
| Commissions & Fees |
|
| Platform & Tools |
|
| Research |
|
| Mobile Trading |
|
| Education |
|
ForexBrokers.com has been reviewing online forex brokers for over eight years, and our reviews are the most cited in the industry. Each year, we collect thousands of data points and publish tens of thousands of words of research. Here's how we test.
Is ActivTrades safe?
ActivTrades is considered Trusted, with an overall Trust Score of 81 out of 99. ActivTrades is not publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by two Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulator (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and two Tier-4 regulator (High Risk). ActivTrades is authorised by the following Tier-1 regulators: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and regulated in the European Union via MiFID . Learn more about Trust Score.
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2001 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 2 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 2 |
Offering of investments
ActivTrades offers CFD trading across 1,267 symbols on MetaTrader 5 and the broker’s proprietary ActivTrader platform. MetaTrader 4 has a smaller selection, as it does not support share trading. ActivTrader covers the most popular asset classes available as CFDs, including popular indices, forex pairs, ETFs, commodities, bonds, and cryptocurrencies, across its platform and account types.
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 1267 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 49 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Commissions and fees
Overall, I found that ActivTrade’s spreads are slightly better than the industry average but not as good as the best low-cost forex brokers.
ActivTrades offers one primary account type (referred to as its “Individual Account”) along with Professional Account and Islamic Account options. Traders can also use a demo account to practice trading without risking their funds. It’s worth noting that there is no account type designed specifically for high-volume traders, and no active trader pricing.
As with most trading accounts marketed as “professional accounts”, the main differentiator is the lower margin requirements, which can impact the amount of leverage you can access; spreads remain the same across account types. The Islamic Account option at ActivTrades is designed to meet Sharia compliance for religious purposes.
All that said, commissions and fees at ActivTrades will largely depend on the assets you trade and the availability of individual assets will vary depending on the platform you use.
Average spreads: ActivTrades lists its target spread for each asset, but actual spreads may vary throughout the trading session – including during the rollover period when spreads can widen (this is common amongst brokers). I reached out to ActivTrades directly to obtain average spread data for the EUR/USD, which stood at 0.98 pips for May 2024.
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | 0 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.98 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
Mobile trading apps
Overall, I feel that the ActivTrader mobile app has a great foundation, and the addition of more features will only further enhance the experience and bring the app closer to the best mobile trading apps provided by industry leaders.
ActivTrades provides a good selection of mobile trading apps. Traders gain access to the broker’s flagship ActivTrader mobile app along with third-party apps MetaTrader (MT4 and MT5) and TradingView. All mobile apps are available for iOS (via Apple’s App Store) and Android (via the Google Play Store).
The MetaTrader and TradingView mobile apps available with ActivTrades are the standard versions you’d get straight from the developer. As such, I focused my testing on ActivTrades’ proprietary mobile app for this review.
ActivTrader mobile app: The ActivTrader mobile app offers a smooth user experience and delivers a good balance of features. In addition to sentiment data, the mobile version of ActivTrader includes TradingView charts and forex news headlines from FxStreet.
User experience: I found the ActivTrader user experience to be straightforward and smooth. For example, the trade ticket window features trailing stops and the ability to set stops or limit levels as a price or in pips. More complex order types are available, such as buy entry stops, sell entry stops, buy entry limits, and sell entry limits. That said, some advanced order types, like one-cancels-other and one-triggers-other orders, weren’t available.
While testing the ActivTrader platform, I found some intriguing tweaks to order types. I liked that the platform’s Progressive Trailing Stop makes a regular trailing stop even more dynamic with an additional parameter that modifies the original stop distance. There’s even an option to adjust the stop distance if specific price targets are met along the way. I was intrigued by this innovative feature; recreating such orders manually would be complicated (in many cases, this would be impossible without a trading API).
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 11 |
| Watchlist Syncing | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes |
Other trading platforms
Based on my testing, ActivTrades offers a solid lineup of platforms, particularly excelling with MetaTrader 4 and 5, enhanced by valuable custom tools that elevate the trading experience. However, its proprietary ActivTrader platform, while powered by TradingView charts, feels minimal and lacks the advanced features many traders expect. Overall, the platforms are functional but could benefit from further refinement, especially for more sophisticated users.
MetaTrader: The MT4 and MT5 platforms at ActivTrades come with a good variety of proprietary indicators and downloadable custom tools. The MetaTrader add-ons available at ActivTrades do a great job of complementing the default MetaTrader experience. Though many of the best MetaTrader brokers offer add-ons to enhance the platform, I was pleased to see the level of detail in these enhancements and I was impressed by the value added by ActivTrades’ custom tools.
TradingView: The TradingView platform available with ActivTrades is the standard TradingView experience that can be found with all brokers that offer this award-winning trading platform. The only difference to be noted here between ActivTrades and the best TradingView brokers would be the number of tradeable markets and the applicable spreads and trading costs.
ActivTrader: The web version of the broker’s flagship ActivTrader platform is similar to the mobile app in design, featuring a simple layout with the ability to customize watchlists and explore pre-defined lists by asset class. Forex charting is powered by TradingView, which is a plus. All that said, there simply isn’t much going on in the platform beyond charts powered by TradingView, predefined and custom watchlists, positions and orders section, and news headlines. Though ActivTrader offers a simple, minimalistic platform experience, it has a good foundation and – like its mobile counterpart – I see room for continued improvement.
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 11 |
Research
Though I found that ActivTrades has a good balance of research content, the quantity of content trails behind what you find with the best forex brokers.
Research at ActivTrades primarily consists of an assortment of articles available within its analysis portal, including its Weekly Outlook series, as well as Market Analysis and Macro Analysis articles. Overall, I found the quality of the research to be good. ActivTrades’ research content balances detail with ease of reading, though it’s not yet at the level of the best brokers for research.
ActivTrades also provides video content, such as its weekly Monday Market Matters webinar series. I was disappointed to see that the broker’s Weekly Outlook videos seem to have been discontinued in recent months. It’s also worth noting that ActivTrades streams headlines from FxStreet within its platforms, a feature that helps to round out its overall offering.
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Autochartist | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes |
Education
ActivTrades offers platform tutorials and a good selection of archived webinars, but the lion’s share of the broker’s educational content consists of 70+ articles found in its Macro Analysis section. It’s worth noting that these articles, including examples such as “Understanding Oil Benchmarks,” were organized as research content – not as educational resources. Such topics could benefit from being organized into a new educational section. Until then, the Learn to Trade section makes up the remaining core of ActivTrades’ educational resources.
Webinars: ActivTrades produces good quality webinars which are archived on its YouTube channel. ActivTrades’ webinars typically run just under an hour and are hosted by in-house staff (and occasionally by third-party providers, such as Symax Fintech). It would be great to see ActivTrades organize these webinars into dedicated playlists for a more streamlined viewing experience. Another way they could add to the value of this content is by connecting them to specific courses with progress tracking and quizzes. This kind of interactive educational experience is becoming more common across the best forex brokers.
| Feature |
ActivTrades
|
|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | No |
Final thoughts
ActivTrades is a mature broker that has been in business for over 20 years. Though the broker’s Trust Score of 81 (Trusted) is respectable, it holds fewer regulatory licenses than the most trusted brokers in our database.
During my testing of the broker’s offering and platforms, I found ActivTrades to be a well-rounded option with some unexpected unique features that boosted my overall opinion. Two innovations that helped ActivTrades stand out include its proprietary progressive stop-loss order and its custom suite of add-ons and plugins for the MetaTrader platform.
Though there’s room for ActivTrades to grow in the Research and Education categories, the broker has built a solid foundation in these areas. While its average spreads are better than the industry average, there is no active trading account or volume-based discounts, and ActivTrades offers fewer markets than the best multi-asset brokers.
About ActivTrades
Founded in 2001, ActiveTrades today holds regulatory licenses across the EU, the UK, Brazil, Mauritius, and the Bahamas, and has executed over 500 million trades for over 100,000 customers. In 2012, ActivTrades launched its MetaTrader platform offering, followed by its proprietary ActivTrader platform in 2016, and most recently added the TradingView platform in 2022.
FAQs
What is the minimum deposit for ActivTrades?
There is no minimum deposit at ActivTrades – in most regions. If you reside in China or Brazil, the minimum deposit jumps to $500.
Which trading platforms does ActivTrades offer?
ActivTrades offers four platforms: MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), TradingView, and the broker’s proprietary ActivTrader platform for web and mobile.
Is ActivTrades good for beginners?
ActivTrades is a good choice for beginners due to its easy-to-use ActivTrader platform, well-laid-out website, and decent balance of educational content and research tools. The ActivTrader platform is easy to use, thanks to its minimalist design and layout, making it suitable for beginners who might be intimidated by more complex trading software. The only drawbacks for beginners would be the broker’s lack of educational courses and interactive quizzes and the fact that many of the broker’s educational articles are nestled away in the research category, which can make them difficult to find. I’d also mention that ActivTrades hasn’t yet developed a full educational video offering, which you typically find with the best brokers for beginners.
2024 Review Methodology
At ForexBrokers.com, our reviews of online forex brokers and their products and services are based on our collected data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research on the top forex brokers and monitor dozens of international regulator agencies (read more about how we calculate Trust Score here).
Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools (collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process). We test all available trading platforms for each broker – whether they are proprietary or come from third-party providers – and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables.
We also take an in-depth look at each broker’s commissions and fees, such as bid/ask spreads – including the average spread data for some of the most popular forex currency pairs. We research other trading costs, such as inactivity or custody fees, minimum deposit requirements, VIP rebates and/or discounts, and a range of other important fee-based data points.
Some of the other important research categories that are factored into our testing include mobile trading accessibility and capability, availability of market research and educational content, and each broker’s overall Trust Score.
All content on ForexBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the forex industry.
Read our full explanation and accounting of our research and testing process to learn more about how we test.
Forex Risk Disclaimer
There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.
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Show allAbout the Editorial Team
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Online Broker Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. A forex industry expert and an active fintech and crypto researcher, Steven advises blockchain companies at the board level and holds a Series III license in the U.S. as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
John Bringans is the Managing Editor at ForexBrokers.com. An experienced media professional, John has a decade of editorial experience with a background that includes key leadership roles at global newsroom outlets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, and conducts research on forex and the financial services industry while assisting in the production of content.
Joey Shadeck is a Content Strategist and Research Analyst for ForexBrokers.com. He holds dual degrees in Finance and Marketing from Oakland University, and has been an active trader and investor for close to ten years. An industry veteran, Joey obtains and verifies data, conducts research, and analyzes and validates our content.