Did you know that some forex brokers pay interest to traders? The interest is mostly given on margin. From InstaForex to Saxobank, here are a few forex brokers with interest for traders.
In forex trading, we as traders need brokerage services to connect our transactions to the currency market. So the money that we are going to invest must be deposited or entrusted to a broker before we trade it in the market. In this case, some brokers offer to pay interest on traders' funds that have been deposited. Unlike the interest given by commercial banks, brokers pay interest in a non-tradable condition.
In other words, the broker will only give interest to traders' funds that are not traded on that day. This interest is called interest on margin or interest on the balance. The amount of interest paid to traders has usually counted annually (annual rate/per annum), but it is calculated and paid every month.
For traders, this feature is quite interesting because some of them don't use all of their deposits at once. This means that a portion of their balance would become idle and will not grow unless they use it to trade. But with interest added, traders can get profit even when they're not trading.
However, only a small number of brokers provide this kind of service, so you must choose your broker carefully if you want to get this benefit. This article will help you identify which broker facilitates interest in the balance in their services along with the rules and requirements.
1. LiteFinance
LiteFinance has been around since 2005 and has become one of the most popular brokers ever since. Generally, this broker offers three types of trading accounts: Classic, ECN, and Cent account, but they only give interest to balances on Classic and ECN trading accounts. On the Classic account, LiteForex gives an interest of 3.5% p.a. while on the ECN account, they give up to 7.5% p.a. However, the interest will not be given to Classic and ECN account holder that chooses the Swap-Free (Islamic account) option.
Moreover, interest will be given on surplus funds or funds that are not traded. Account conditions are automatically checked strictly at 23:59 GMT+3 using the LiteFinance software to gather the data of the client funds that are not traded on that day. The amount of daily interest that a client gets will be calculated using this formula:
Daily Percentage (%) = (client's surplus funds) interest rate/100/360
The total daily interest earned in a full month will be paid by LiteForex on the last day of each month and will be put in the client's balance under the label "IR".
Regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), LiteForex is also subjected to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). However, aside from basing its operation on Cyprus, LiteForex also branched to the Marshall Islands. Here, LiteForex hasn't been regulated by any financial regulator yet and conducts its operation under the name of LiteForex Investments Limited (different from LiteForex European Limited which is regulated under CySEC).
Based on some traders' experience registering in LiteForex, the company doesn't strictly limit EU-based traders to LiteForex European Limited. Such traders can openly register under LiteForex Investments Limited that is not subjected to higher leverage restrictions issued by ESMA.
Trading assets in LiteForex range from Currency, Metals, Oil, Stock in CFD, Global Indice, as well as Cryptocurrency. More importantly, the broker provides traders with the chance of trading more than 40 large American companies' Stocks in CFDs.
With the support of both MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms, LiteForex traders are given the freedom of trading various instruments with the most well-known technologies in trading. It is also the gateway to access an extremely wide selection of custom indicators and Expert Advisors that everyone can discuss and download in MQL4 and MQL5 sites.
ECN and Classic are the only account types offered by LiteForex. Although relatively limited, the account choices have managed to accommodate the majority of traders' needs, particularly those with early to intermediate levels of trading experience.
Interestingly, LiteForex boasts its capability of giving an annual interest for ECN traders which amounts to 2.5% of the accumulated daily free margin. As a complimentary, LiteForex also built a Social Trading system that manages to completely resemble a social media platform with special features solely based on usual trading necessities. The said platform is also easily integrated with traders' Member Area.
On the payment methods' front, LiteForex provides a lot of choices ranging from standard Bank Transfer to electronic payments like Skrill and Neteller. This broker is also known for its ongoing Zero Fees program that relieves traders from the attached fees from each method payment.
More than its commitment to ease traders' experience in terms of payment and trading, Liteforex used to be recognized as one of the first brokers initiating the innovation of Cent Account for small traders, thus the name "Lite". However, the company's focus seems to change over the years so they now choose to limit their service only to ECN and Classic traders.
Furthermore, LiteForex has been serving global retail traders since 2005, an accomplishment not many forex companies can achieve. Therefore, it can be concluded that even though LiteForex is operating as an offshore forex broker, its durability for more than 10 years serves as a reminder of retail traders' trust.
Another thing to note from this broker may come from its expansion to Asian countries and their passionate effort to penetrate the markets profoundly. Not only the language support in the official website, but LiteForex also goes beyond to maximize its commitment by providing local payments and other means specifically tailored for each country's traders.
To keep their traders engaged in more trading activities, LiteForex also holds seasonal trading contests and various kinds of promotional bonuses. Their profile in numerous review sites also indicates a relatively safe broker for retail traders.
Yet, it is important to note that LiteForex offers its service globally as LiteForex Investments Limited which hasn't been registered to any financial regulations. This may subject traders to difficulties in filing complaints and compensation claims should there be unfortunate incidents in the future.
But if we take a look at its long-standing as a comparatively experienced broker since 2005, it is quite safe to say that trading in LiteForex can be considered quite reliable, especially considering its status as an offshore brokerage.
2. InstaForex
InstaForex is a Russian-based broker that has existed since 2007 and currently has clients spread across 50 countries worldwide. This broker provides interest on the balance for all account types. The interest rate is 5% p.a. for active accounts and 2% for inactive accounts. Interest is calculated on the last day of each month.
Not only does this broker give interest on the balance in trading accounts, but this broker is also famous for giving out a variety of deposit bonuses that can be used to increase traders' capital in the highly volatile market. Although, as you can probably guess, the bonus funds will not earn additional interest.
InstaForex is an international broker that provides trading services to traders globally. Since it was founded in 2007, InstaForex has provided for clients from various countries as many as 7 million traders. Based in Kaliningrad, Russia, InstaForex always attempts to improve the quality of the company in order to captivate the hearts of their clients.
Their hard work can be proven, one of which is by achieving a variety of awards, including Best Forex Cryptocurrency Trading Platform 2018 by UK Forex Awards, Best ECN Broker Asia 2018 by IBM, Forex Broker of the Year for Eastern Europe 2018 according to le Fonti Awards, Development, and Success award at Financial Olympus 2016-2017, etc.
There are 4 types of account offered by InstaForex representing a universal trading tool that help to work on international financial markets, such as Insta.Standard, Insta.Eurica, Cent.Standard, dan Cent.Eurica. Trading account types differ by the methods of accounting spreads and commissions, which are picked by the trader opening an account.
Insta.Standard account is relevant for standard trading terms on the Forex market and allows a trade to be settled with classical spread and with no fees. Traders will be charged a fixed spread every time they make a transaction. Spreads that are provided ranging from 3-7 pips. The main advantage of this type of accounts is its universality, as a trader can change the trading leverage and work with a deposit size convenient for traders.
Different from Insta.Standard accounts, Insta.Eurica accounts do not require payment of any spread on opening a deal. Therefore, this type of InstaForex account is suitable for beginner trader with a minimum transaction of 0.01 lots.
There are also other types of accounts InstaForex, namely Cent.Standard and Cent.Eurica which can be used for beginner traders because they can use the minimum transaction volume, which is 0.0001 lots (the cost per lot is USD0.1 cent). Deposit currencies that can be used by traders are EUR and USD (for all types of accounts).
Trading in InstaForex is quite a given as traders can choose to trade with leverage between 1:1 to 1:1,000. With a minimum initial deposit requirement of only USD1 (for all types of accounts), InstaForex clients have the opportunity to get a 30% to 100% deposit bonus.
Not only that, but beginner traders are also exempt from confusion in determining forex trading strategies. Because Instaforex provides ForexCopy services that allow traders to copy orders from professional traders in just a few minutes.
And then, there are around 300 trading instruments offered by InstaForex for traders. In addition to currency pairs, there are also futures, shares, gold, silver, CFDs, Bitcoin, and others.
Every InstaForex client is free to choose a trading platform that can be tailored to their needs. There are four types of trading platforms available, including InstaBinary, WebIFX, MetaTrader4, and MetaTrader5. Each platform has advantages and disadvantages. InstaForex also provides video tutorials on how to register on each platform. It aims to make it easy for beginner traders who want to join InstaForex.
If a trader still confused after seeing the video tutorials, traders can contact customer service available 24 hours connected to various social media, including email, Skype, Whatsapp, Telegram, Viber, Twitter, and Phone Call. On the InstaForex website, there are around 30 languages provided to facilitate traders from various countries.
The trader can also help themselves with trading calculators provided on the InstaForex website. Traders can accumulate currency pairs, Leverage, volume, and currency used.
The payment system in InstaForex is also diverse. Traders can pay deposits via Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, PayCo, as well as Wire Transfer. All in all, InstaForex is a well-rounded broker for many types of traders.
3. FreshForex
Like InstaForex, FreshForex also came from Russia but was founded earlier in 2004. This broker gives interest ranging from 1-36% p.a. depending on the number of lots traded by the clients. The minimum trading volume required is one standard lot (100,000 currency units).
The interest will be given to traders with either a Classic or a Pro account that is not connected to the rebate program and have already been verified. Traders will be paid at the beginning of each month based on the previous month's trading records. Compared to the usual interest on margin applied by other brokers, we can see that FreshForex's program is more like a trading reward bonus.
4. FXCM
FXCM was established in 2009. This broker offers an interest of 5% p.a. for usable margin up to a maximum of $50,000 (minimum account opening $50). This means that each client will have the opportunity to earn a maximum of $208 per month in interest.
Every day the broker will check how much usable margin is available on the client's account. The interest will then be calculated based on the average usable margin on the client's balance each month. For traders who do not wish to earn interest for religious reasons or other grounds, they can contact FXCM customer service to disable the interest on margin.
FXCM (Forex Capital Markets) is a brand name of a retail broker for trading on the financial market, especially the foreign exchange market. The broker was founded in 1999 and was originally headquartered in the United States. After a series of lawsuits from customers and case settlements by the US regulator (CFTC), FXCM moved from the US and became a UK-based broker, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registration number 217689).
Trading with FXCM is supported by enhanced execution with the Liquidity providers' stream pricing through the FastMatch Electronic Communication Network.
FXCM works with several global banks, financial institutions, and other market makers as their Liquidity providers including Barclays Bank, Citadel Securities, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, FASTMATCH, XTX Markets Limited, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Commerzbank, and Jefferies Financial Services.
This, in turn, enables FXCM to present its clients with fast trade execution, competitive spreads, low negative slippage, no re-quotes, no stop/limit restrictions, and up to 89% of orders are executed at the requested price or better.
For the trading platform, FXCM is remarkably known for its proprietary product called Trading Station. The latest version of this platform's web display is claimed to be built in Mac Friendly HTML5. It features a range of trading appliances such as integrated news, economic calendar, FXCM's top trading tools, social trading functionalities through FXCM Cloud, customized trading analytics, automated strategies, and advanced charting for better analysis. For flexible traders who prefer trading on-the-go, FXCM has also provided Trading Station in mobile version, both for iOS and Android users.
However, the company's in-house platform is not the only option presented for clients. FXCM also gives the choice to use MetaTrader 4 for clients who are more familiar with MetaQuote's product. Also, ZuluTrade access is enabled for clients with keen interests in copy trading schemes that transcend across brokers.
Instead of classifying account types based on minimum deposits, FXCM chooses to offer trading accounts based on the instruments traded. For FX traders, this broker provides Active Trader and Institutional accounts.
Active Trader is the ultimate account type for retail traders with two-tier pricing. Tier 1 applies a minimum deposit of $25,000 with a $30 commission for 1 million volumes traded, while Tier 2 has no detail on deposit requirement but gives better fee conditions. Spreads in both tiers start from 0.2 pips.
Institutional account, also known as FXCM Pro, is marketed as a wholesale execution and liquidity solution for retail brokers, hedge funds, and emerging market banks. The account presents trading spreads from 0.1 pips and other competitive benefits like API solutions as well as prime brokerage services.
For non-FX traders, FXCM provides a CFD trading account with low spread costs from 0.37 pips (in XAU/USD) and a wide range of class assets from precious metals, soft commodities, and indices.
Last but not least, a collection of in-depth articles is provided to help traders' knowledge and insights on the forex market. Trading tools like FXCM Plus, Market Scanner, Trading Signals, and Technical Levels are also developed to support traders who open accounts in FXCM .
In conclusion, FXCM is an experienced retail broker with a lot of "ammunition" to help traders with its best version of execution, pricing, and tools. It is a well-regulated broker backed with a long history in the financial market, even though it has a dark history in the United States' brokerage industry.
Still, the relatively high standard on minimum deposit ($25,000) puts FXCM as a broker suitable for experienced traders with good money management. It is not recommended for new traders with limited capital.
5. Saxobank
Saxobank is a brokerage brand of a European banking company, so it is not surprising that they offer interest on traders' positive balance. However, this broker does not explicitly explain how much interest they can give, possibly because the interest can fluctuate depending on the European Union's interest rate. Since the region's interest rate is currently set at zero percent, the amount of interest from Saxobank is probably not much. However, they can guarantee safety because of their credibility.
Saxobank was founded in 1992 in Denmark, which began as a brokerage business. At present, they have penetrated the online banking and forex trading business internationally. The company is known as one of the best in the industry.
Their innovative platforms have been used by Microsoft's global institutions, Barclays Stockbrokers Ltd, and TD Waterhouse. The platforms include SaxoTraderGO, an award-winning trading platforms and is offered as Saxobank's flagship. Two other platforms are SaxoTraderPRO and SaxoInvestors. Each platform has advantages and functions.
SaxoTraderPRO is suitable for use by advanced traders and institutional clients, which trade faster via quick-close all features and view exchange order books and execution reports in real-time. On the other hand, Saxo TraderGO is a platform for retail traders. This type of platform offers easy portfolio management from a single account. For example, traders can get live and historic reports of net holdings.
As for Saxo Investors which is a user-friendly case-product platform tailored to retail investors, there are several advantages including browsing curated themes and pre-made screenings. Also, clients can choose between diversified investment portfolios. It is a responsive platform accessible from any device.
The Saxobank website accommodates the needs of international clients, with dozens of languages available on the Saxobank website. Besides English, there are also Japanese, Mandarin, French, Italian, Indonesian, and many more.
When clients choose Saxo, clients are choosing to trade with a fully regulated industry leader, who adheres to strict regulatory requirements in 15 financial centers around the world, including the UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Denmark.
Another advantage is traders have so many choices of instruments that can be traded on Saxo, covering 40,000 instruments across 184 forex pairs, 9,000 CFDs, 19,000 shares, 200 Stock options, 2,500 ETFs, Futures, Gold, Silver, and many more.
Since the company also serves as a bank, the speed of execution at Saxo can be guaranteed. However, some traders may feel that Saxobank is not suitable for individual trading, as the minimum capital is too large and the spreads and commissions are considered burdensome for so many clients. The spread which is charged by Saxobank for each pair is quite large, so it is not suitable for scalpers. Meanwhile, the commission that must be paid by traders to this broker starts from USD1.
Furthermore, Saxobank often stops trading for a few seconds before the release of important news and only activates it again after the news is released. This makes news traders do not have the best opportunity to act on Saxobank.
Actually, The deposit value can be adjusted according to the level of account chosen by the clients. There are three levels in Saxo Accounts, including Classic (minimum funding is 500 Pounds), Platinum (minimum funding is 50,000 Pounds), and VIP (minimum funding is 1,000,000 Pounds). Clients can use leverage 1:200 and a minimum lot of 0.05.
Traders are spoiled with various kinds of facilities provided by Saxobank. Each aaccount level has its own facilities offering that can be adjusted to the needs of traders. The higher the level, the more complete the facilities provided.
For example, traders who have VIP accounts will get personal relationship managers, and direct access to trading experts 24 hours. These facilities are not found when traders choose Classic and Platinum accounts.
For Corporate Clients, Saxobank provides 40,000 instruments, with 1: 1 support from expert account managers and the security that comes from their 25+ year experience.
If clients meet professional criteria, they can join Professional Accounts at Saxobank. The criteria in question include having a financial portfolio that exceeds around 500,000 Euros, having placed at least 20 relevant trades in significant sizes over the last four quarters, and having worked in the financial sector for at least one year.
Moreover, Saxobank provides more than 100 institutional specialists operating from offices in key financial centers, including Denmark, London, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, and Dubai. The client can choose the location closest to their area. With this kind of support, Saxobank is optimistic for delivering the right solution for the business of clients.
From the explanation above, it can be concluded that Saxo is more suitable for deep-pocket forex traders who are interested in forex trading as an investment portfolio. The broker's business focus is also more towards institutional clients rather than retail clients.
6. Axi
Axi is a broker that has been around since 2007 and is regulated by two top regulators: ASIC Australia and FCA UK. As stated on its official page, Axi presents offers with the lowest spreads on the market (starting from 0 pips) and 500:1 leverage. Many traders are interested in trading with Axi because there is no minimum deposit limit, transparent price quotes, and of course, the interest on the balance.
Axi provides interest on free equity funds of AUD10,000 (interest is only given in Australian Dollars). However, the amount of interest rate is in line with the benchmark from the Reserve Bank of Australia.
If traders are looking for brokers with elite class regulations, Axi can be the right choice. Axi is an Australian broker registered under ASIC and FCA. This is the main point because the two regulators are widely recognized to have strict regulations.
"Created by traders, and for traders" is a mission carried by Axi since its foundation in 2007. They continue to strive to accommodate the needs of traders. Axi had the strongest brand association with being "trustworthy" among current FX Traders in December 2014.
In addition, Axi also received other awards, including the most reliable Forex Broker 2017, Highest Overall Client Satisfaction Investment Trend 2017, Commenced back-office operations in Philippines, Cyprus & Singapore 2018, Best MT4 Broker 2018 by the UK Forex Awards, and the Most Trusted Forex Brokers by the 2018 Forex Forex Awards. With the various achievements that have been obtained, Axi seeks to build the confidence of traders from all over the world.
Traders can monitor the movements of spreads on Live Spreads, which are provided by Axi on its official website. These floating spreads are beneficial for traders when price volatility is not high.
In addition to spreads, the difference is also seen in the commission on each account. There is a commission of around USD7 for Pro Accounts, whereas, for Standard Accounts, traders do not need to spend funds for commission.
Meanwhile, the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots and leverage is up to 1:400. Traders can choose their deposit amount because Axi does not specify a minimum amount. Instead, traders have the opportunity to profit when trading on Axi with a 20% deposit bonus. Opportunities to open positions thus increase, accompanied by deposit bonuses that can be withdrawal easily and quickly.
There are around 80 currencies and CFDs traded on Axi. Besides, the company also offers traders looking for diversified investments in other assets like gold, silver, oil, and 11 indices. To attract the attention of traders from various countries, Axi also provides a variety of currencies that can be used by traders as base currency, including AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, NZD, SGD, and USD.
Traders at Axi can enjoy free VPS provided by third parties by depositing a certain amount. The Virtual Hosting Service uses an external server to ensure the platform stays running 24 hours a day and prevents Downtime. Of course, this service is very useful for those who use Expert Advisors.
When trading forex, chart analysis becomes an unavoidable activity. Traders do not need to worry about that when trading with Axi. Because one of the advantages of the Axi broker is Autochartist signals. This facility is useful for following market movements precisely. For traders who use MT4 Standard Account and MT4 Pro Account, they will get Autochartist signals for free.
Besides being able to easily understand the pattern of price movements through Autochartist, Axi also provides easy access to sophisticated trading tools under the name of MT4 NexGen. The advantage of this platform is to find out trading sentiments, Market Insights, Correlation Traders, and Alarm Managers. With this technology, traders can easily access super-fast networks and can handle any high-frequency inflows to scalping.
Traders can also add knowledge about forex trading with the Webinar facility, which is provided by Axi for free. Professional traders and experienced analysts will provide traders with a variety of new trading knowledge in this education program.
Not only that, opening an account in Axi can lead to other experiences such as copying trading strategies from professional traders, with tools like as DupliTrade, Myfxbook, and ZuluTrade. Traders are free to copy trading strategies from professional traders and apply them to their own trade.
If there are still other questions, traders can contact Axi support that is active 24/5. Their staff comes from all over the world, so they got a global team that speaks traders' language from various countries in the world.
Bottom Line
There used to be more brokers that provide interest on balance service, like OANDA. But many of them decided to put this service to an end because in 2015, there are cuts of interest rates in various regions. These policies eventually led brokers to stop giving interest because they should either bear hefty costs or impose negative interest rates on their clients if they don't. Also, it is worth mentioning that the interest balance rate in forex brokers sometimes can be as high as 25%, which is quite impressive and high compared to the interest rate given by commercial banks. So, it is definitely a beneficial feature that not all brokers can provide.
As a trader, it would be favorable for you to choose a broker that provides an interest in balance service. In fact, many traders only use about 5-10% of their deposit balance in their transactions, while the rest of the funds just sit there in their account, making no profit. But with interest in balance, you can get profit even when you're not making any trade.
However, bear in mind that this is just an extra bonus you could get from a forex broker, and the conditions for getting these interests are different depending on each broker's policy. Other than that, there are other factors that should be put into consideration if you're researching for the right broker. So when you choose a broker, make sure to thoroughly weigh all options and read the terms and conditions first.