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Please Note: Exness was not included in the 2019 annual review. As a result, this broker's ratings may be outdated. Read our Best Forex Brokers 2019 guide for a look at the top rated forex and CFDs brokers.
Founded in 2008, the Exness Group (Exness) maintains two entities with regulatory status in the European Union (EU): Exness UK Ltd, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom (UK), and Exness (Cy) Ltd, regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), with passports throughout several EU member states.
Exness offers the popular suite of trading platforms developed by MetaQuotes Software Corporation, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). The broker provides multiple account types and access to 104 forex pairs and eight metals contracts.
Is Exness Safe?
Exness is considered average-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 73 out of 99. Exness is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Exness is authorised by one tier-1 regulator (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and zero tier-3 regulators (low trust). Exness is authorised by the following tier-1 regulator: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Learn more about Trust Score.
Regulations Comparison
| Feature | Exness | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2008 | 1974 | 1992 | 1989 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bank | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 1 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Trust Score | 73 | 99 | 98 | 98 |
Offering of Investments
The following table summarizes the different investment products available to Exness clients.
| Feature | Exness | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forex: Spot Trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Currency Pairs (Total Forex pairs) | 104 | 91 | 182 | 183 |
| CFDs - Total Offered | 112 | 15000 | 32999 | 9959 |
| Cryptocurrency traded as actual | No | No | No | No |
| Cryptocurrency traded as CFD | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Offering of Investments |
Commissions & Fees
Exness offers several account types and execution methods where the commissions and fees vary. In the Classic MT4 account a minimum deposit of $2000 is required, and the spreads are slightly lower than in the Mini account.
Exness lists an average spread of 0.9 pips for the Classic account.
| Feature | Exness | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Initial Deposit | $1.00 | £250.00 | $2,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.900 | 0.750 | 0.900 | 0.744 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | N/A | 0.363 | 0.600 | 0.744 |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Commissions & Fees |
Research
Exness offers research mainly in the form of third party content, including headlines from Dow Jones News within the trading platforms, and content from Trading Central, including Trading Central WebTV, which has daily video content.
Exness also offers the TC.TechnicalAnalysis Trading Indicator from Trading Central, and an economic calendar. The broker lacks in-house content, and the last post in its Analytics section had not been updated since early January 2018. Although Exness’s range of third party research is satisfactory, it could improve its in-house research offering significantly.
| Feature | Exness | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Weekly Webinars | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AutoChartist | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Delkos Research | No | No | No | No |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research |
Platforms & Tools
Exness is a MetaTrader-only broker, offering the suite of platforms from MetaQuotes Software Corporation, including the MT4 and MT5 platforms. To learn more about this suite, read our MetaTrader guide.
While MT4 and MT5 come standard, with little variation in functionality from broker to broker, there can be significant differences in how the platform is set up for trading spreads and commissions, execution, and other tools, features, and administrative areas.
Besides spreads, the range of instruments, and account types, here is a summary of the differences in features between Exness’s MetaTrader offering and the default MetaTrader experience:
- News headlines stream from Dow Jones News
Mobile Trading
Exness offers iOS and Android mobile trading applications for its MetaTrader platforms, available directly from the developers at the iTunes Store and the Google Play Store.
| Feature | Exness | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trading - Forex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trading - CFDs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watch List | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watch List Syncing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 26 | 41 | 23 |
| Charting - Draw Trend Lines | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Trend Lines Moveable | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Drawings Autosave | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Forex Calendar | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading |
Other Notes
Exness notes that slippage can occur during the first three hours of trading for a given instrument, but insists that thereafter it will limit any such gap within a predefined range, depending on the instrument traded, ranging from 8 to as much as 40 points.
Final Thoughts
Exness provides a decent array of forex pairs and account options for traders looking for MT4 and MT5 from an EU-regulated broker, but it lacks the range of CFDs forex brokers typically offer. The firm’s research offering is very light and is another area in which Exness has room to improve to compete with other brokers in its category.
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." Learn more.
About the author: Steven Hatzakis Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of 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. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
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