Saxo Bank Review

For traders that can afford the USD 10,000 minimum deposit (GBP 500 for the UK), Saxo Bank offers competitive pricing, excellent trading platforms, brilliant research, reliable customer service, and over 40,000 instruments to trade.

Top Takeaways for 2019

After spending several hundred hours testing 28 forex brokers over six months for our third annual forex broker review, here are our top findings on Saxo Bank:

• Founded in 1992, Saxo Bank is regulated in six tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe (low-risk) broker for trading forex and CFDs.
• Saxo Bank is an exclusive broker, requiring a USD 10,000 minimum deposit (GBP 500 for the UK, SGD 3,000 for Singapore) to open a entry-level "Classic" account. Saxo Bank's Platinum and VIP accounts require USD 200,000 and 1,000,000, respectively. If the minimum deposit is a deal-breaker, consider IG or CMC Markets.
• Alongside access to trading 40,000 instruments across forex, CFDs, stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds, among others, Saxo Bank offers excellent pricing across the board.
• Saxo Bank's flagship platform, SaxoTraderGo, is brilliant, finishing as our top web-based platform for 2019. SaxoTraderGo provides traders a rich offering of trading tools and research, helping the broker to finish Best in Class (top 7) in numerous categories including Mobile Trading, Active Trading, Ease of Use, and Education.
• Saxo Bank offers excellent customer service. The broker finished 5th (out of 23) in our national testing from locations across the United Kingdom.

Overall Summary

Is Saxo Bank Safe?

Saxo Bank is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 98 out of 99. Saxo Bank is not publicly traded, does operate a bank, and is authorised by six tier-1 regulators (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and zero tier-3 regulators (low trust). Saxo Bank is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Securities Futures Commission (SFC), Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more about Trust Score.

Offering of Investments

Saxo Bank is a real multi-asset broker catering to investors and traders with more than 35,000 electronically-tradeable symbols across a wide array of international markets and asset classes (and an additional 5,000 bonds offline, for a total of 40,000 instruments). The following table summarizes the different investment products available to Saxo Bank clients.

Commissions & Fees

Overall, Saxo Bank provides traders excellent all-around pricing for trading forex and CFDs.

Account types: Saxo Bank offers three account types. The entry-level Classic account requires a USD 10,000 minimum deposit, while the Platinum account for active traders requires USD 200,000. Finally, Saxo Bank's VIP account, which offers the most savings on pricing, is reserved for elite investors who deposit at least USD 1,000,000. The exception to these steep requirements is in the UK and Singapore, where the Classic account is available with a deposit of only GBP 500 or SGD 3,000, respectively.

Spreads: Referencing Saxo Bank's Global Standard pricing data for the 30 days ending October 10th, 2019, the average spread on the EUR/USD pair was 0.6 pips. Saxo Bank's primary focus is its spread-only pricing, which is commission-free and applicable to all traders. That said, Saxo Bank's volume-based pricing includes a default commission equivalent of only 0.5 pips and could make sense for active traders.

Best execution: Saxo Bank is committed to the FX Global Code, an evolving interbank standard around enhanced disclosures and execution best-practices. The mission of the FX Global Code is to promote integrity and transparency across the global foreign exchange market.

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Platforms & Tools

No question, Saxo Bank's proprietary trading platforms SaxoTraderGO (web) and SaxoTraderPRO (desktop) set the industry benchmarks, thanks to their streamlined designs and robust trading tools. While both platforms are great, the web version is my preferred choice.

SaxoTraderGO: SaxoTraderGO is the broker's responsive web-based platform that is designed around simplicity, yet is rich with features. Charting is robust, offering 55 indicators and nearly 20 drawing tools, including Trade Signals from Auto Chartist.

SaxoTraderPRO: The broker's flagship desktop platform is SaxoTraderPRO, which resembles SaxoTraderGO in terms of look and feel. Functionality is similar; however, the PRO platform offers a larger selection of professional trading features. For example, PRO supports up to six monitors, streaming Level 2 order books, streaming time and sales, and algorithmic orders. Note, additional data subscriptions are required to use tools like the streaming Level 2 order book, which is a standard industry practice.

Usability: Saxo Bank provides a universal platform experience. Menus have a similar feel, customized charts and watch lists automatically save and sync with the mobile app, and, all in all, great attention to detail can be seen throughout.

MetaTrader: For traders who insist on using MetaTrader instead of SaxoTraderGo, the option is available, but it isn't cheap. To use MetaTrader with Saxo Bank, a $20,000 minimum deposit is required, which also includes a $2,000 per month minimum spend requirement.

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Research

Saxo Bank combines quality in-house research with well-known third-party providers to offer an excellent research experience. In 2019, Saxo Bank is No. 1.

Range of content: Saxo offers a rich, diverse research offering across its websites and platforms. Research ranges from in-house analysts who publish daily analysis through Saxo Bank's Market Analysis portal to content provided by numerous third-party providers.

Usability: Saxo Bank does a great job of centralizing its research within the SaxoTraderGo web platform. Third-party research providers include Auto Chartist (automated trade signals) and streaming economic news from NewsEdge and RanSquawk. To find flaws, we had to get picky; for example, while there is an integrated economic calendar, it is not interactive.

SaxoTraderPRO: Saxo Bank's desktop platform offers even more research tools than its web counterpart, including screeners, level 2 order books, and equity research reports from FactSet.

Reports: Saxo Bank's research team delivers quarterly outlooks and yearly forecast reports in pdf format. Furthermore, related podcasts with accompanying blog posts are provided, complementing the daily coverage from within the Market Analysis section.

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Mobile Trading

Saxo Bank does a great job tying in high-quality trading tools and research into its mobile app, unifying the reliable SaxoTraderGO web-based platform experience.

Trading tools: The economic calendar, market news, and other research content, including pattern recognition analysis from Auto Chartist, all match the web-version of the platform.

Charting: The charting capabilities are rich with drawing tools, indicators, and customizations, again providing a nearly identical experience with the web-based version of the platform.

Syncing: In addition to syncing watch lists, mobile charts in SaxoTraderGO mobile also sync with the browser-based version of the platform. For example, if you draw trend-lines and add indicators in the web-version, they appear in the mobile app (and vice-versa).

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Customer Service

To score Customer Service, ForexBrokers.com partnered with customer experience research group Customerwise to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the UK. For our 2019 Review, 229 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks.

Results

• Average Connection Time: <1 minute
• Average Net Promoter Score: 7.8 / 10
• Average Professionalism Score: 5.1 / 10
• Overall Score: 7.2 / 10
• Ranking: 5th (23 brokers)

Final Thoughts

Saxo Bank does a brilliant job of unifying its desktop, web, and mobile platforms. Not only is the client experience seamless, but it is also rich with tools and research throughout.

Bottom line: For traders that can afford the high minimum deposit, Saxo Bank provides a complete package worth being a customer for, under a global brand traders can trust.

If the minimum deposit is a deal-breaker, I recommend IG or CMC Markets, which provide a similar brilliant experience with less stringent account minimums.

About Saxo Bank

Established in 1992, Saxo Bank (majority-owned by China-based Geely Holding Group) is one of the leading retail forex and multi-asset brokerages with regulated entities across 15 international jurisdictions, including the UK, Denmark, and Singapore. Catering to both retail and institutional clients, Saxo Bank processes over one million transactions per day and holds €46 billion in assets under management (AUM) servicing 860,000 clients as of June 30th, 2019, following its acquisition of BinckBank.

Saxo Bank offers traders nearly every electronically traded asset class, including spot FX, FX options, non-deliverable forwards (NDFs), Contracts for Difference (CFDs), stocks, stock options, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) including cryptos, futures, contract options, and bonds.

Saxo Bank Trading Features

Saxo Bank Research Features

Saxo Bank Mobile App Features

2019 Review Methodology

For our 2019 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 28 international forex brokers over a six month time period. Each broker was graded on 81 different variables and, in total, over 60,000 words of research were produced.

While encouraged, broker participation was optional. Each broker had the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile and provide executive time (live in person or over the web) for an annual update meeting.

All data submitted by brokers is hand-checked for accuracy. Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. 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." Learn more.