Admiral Trades

Any broker who considers investing with Admiral Trades should be aware that this broker is absolutely unregulated and has nothing to do with the reputable broker Admiral Markets, which is fully licensed. Admiral Trades, that we review here, with website domain admiraltrades.com apparently aims to be recognized as a legitimate forex broker, but in fact it is not authorized by any financial regulator and its forex services are practically illegal.

What’s more this broker offers extremely high leverage of 1:500, which is without a question too risky even for experienced traders. Despite its ok looking website and Admiral Trades’ promises to “support you every step of the way” and to secure your funds as their first priority, its lack of regulation makes this firm very suspicious and risky. We certainly don’t recommend you invest there. Keep reading the full review for more details on Admiral Trades.

Regulation and safety of funds

Admiral Trades claims to be registered in London, the UK. However it doesn’t mention anything about the company it operates under, thus becoming practically anonymous. As we don’t know which company stays behind this website you should agree that it would be highly unwise to put your money on the line.

Furthermore, note that the UK has some of the strictest rules when it comes to forex brokers. The local regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), supervises all licensed brokers` operations. We searched their website, but unfortunately couldn’t find any data about Admiral Trades. Take a look:

So, obviously, this broker offers financial services without the permission of the local watchdog and therefore is not to be trusted. Its activities are not overseen by any authority, so it is very likely for it to be a scam, longing to steal your funds.

Trading with a fully regulated broker with a legit forex license gives you a lot more opportunities and also is safe for your investment. There are some requirements that every legitimate broker is obligated to meet.

For example there is a minimum net capital requirement which serves as a proof of the broker’s financial stability, so it isn’t prone to failure. The amount in the UK is 730 000 EUR and the same applies for most of the counties in the EU.

Moreover all regulated brokers must take part in a compensation scheme, meaning that every client can get compensation by the relevant authority in case of the broker’s insolvency (even though such an unfortunate event is highly improbable). In the UK you can be issued for up to 85 000 GBP. For reference the payable amount in most of the countries in the EU is up to 20 000 EUR.

And lastly, every genuine broker must keep its customers’ funds in segregated accounts apart from its own capital. This is a guarantee that your money is not going to be misused or stolen.

Trading software

Admiral Trades claims its trading software to be “award-winning” with “innovative tools and advanced features”. These claims happen to be unrealistic, as you are going to see in a second.

Admiral Trades’ platform doesn’t require any download, so we accessed it in a couple of clicks. You can see it down below:

It is obvious that this web-based trading platform can’t compare to more sophisticated software like MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 for a couple of reasons. First of all, it has some really random tools and indicators that give you the chance to trade forex assets such as cryptocurrencies, forex pairs, stocks and indices. However it can’t provide a more advanced approach to trading and certainly lacks the cutting-edge features MetaTrader has.

Better look for a regulated broker with proven credibility – such firms most often offer the industry standard MT4 or MT5 alongside some more perks and really advantageous trading conditions.

Trading conditions

Admiral Trades offers four different types of accounts – Standard, Silver, Gold and VIP. Take a look at all of them:

As you can see the Standard account requires a minimum deposit of 250 USD. As a matter of fact this is a random sum, as most reputable brokers tend to ask for the same amount. Sometimes you can open a micro account with an even lower minimum deposit – 10 USD for example. Of course this fact doesn’t really help Admiral Trades credibility, as this broker operates outside the law, as we already stated.

Moreover the spread of 1.5 pips that Admiral Trades claims to deliver is absolutely fine for trading in general. After we registered on its website and accessed the trading software, we were able to see a spread of 2 pips for EURUSD, which is also a good amount. Note that any spread higher than 2 pips comes with higher trading costs and is not favorable for trading. Nevertheless, again this doesn’t make Admiral Trades legit nor reliable by any means.

You can also see that the leverage that Admiral Trades offers is 1:500. Now, this is problematic as this level of leverage is proven to be very risky and more similar to gambling rather than to actual trading. It is not advisable to invest with such a high amount. In fact in the UK there is a leverage cap of 1:30 exactly because of the associated risk. The same limit refers to all countries from the EU as well.

However, if you still want to run the chance and trade with higher leverage, the best thing you can do is to choose some of the offshore subsidiaries of reputable forex brokers here.

In addition, Admiral Trades also offers a welcome bonus as you can see from the picture above. This practice is also illegal, as all promotions and bonuses are forbidden in the UK.

Deposit/ Withdrawal methods and fees

On its website Admiral Trades displays a couple of logos of well-known payment methods – Visa, Mastercard, Wire transfer and Bitcoin transactions. It doesn’t say to actually accept them, in fact it doesn't mention anything at all. This is essential, as the moment we tried to fund our account, we were sent to a webpage with only one payment method – credit card deposit through ChargeMoney, specialized in processing high risk merchants. See for yourself:

One more misleading information on this shady broker’s website. With no doubt any client that values the safety of one's funds, should avoid investing here.

Be aware however that most financial scammers tend to insist on paying with cryptocurrencies. The reason is simple enough – these transactions are proven to be 100% irreversible, so you can’t return your stolen funds no matter what. They are also anonymous so unfortunately you can’t really tell to whom you are sending your funds. Any proof of the fraud would be impossible, so keep it in mind in case you bump into such payment conditions.

On the other hand regulated brokers usually offer a wide range of payment methods to choose from. You can use very reliable payment options such as credit/debit card, as you can file for a chargeback in terms of 540 days. Other preferable methods are the popular e-wallets like Skrill, Paypal and Neteller. They also give you the chance to open a dispute in case you want to restore your funds.