InstaForex Review

New to forex?

It’s not easy learning a new craft, especially one that is full of numbers, charts, and odd terminology – but it is probably easier than you think. After all, the forex market is growing as COVID-19’s economic impact has drastically impacted the world’s leading currencies.

Naturally, the forex brokers of the world have seen a huge influx of new clients since COVID-19 began and are upping their offers to grab a piece of this gigantic pie. 🥧

One of the more competitive brokerages is InstaForex, an award-winning company that offers its 7 million clients many handy features including copy-trading.

If you’re not confident enough in your trading strategies or just don’t have time to manage your portfolio, you can use this feature and still make solid trades. Essentially, copy-trading means following expert traders through your trading app, looking at what they do, and copying their trades instantly with a simple push of a button.

That way, you can earn a profit without spending the time to do it all by yourself. However, this feature isn’t impressive on its own, which is why InstaForex has made sure traders have everything else they need for a pleasant and profitable trading experience. 💷

In this review, we will cover all the aspects of this brokerage to see if it is safe, easy-to-use, cheap, and worth your time in general.

Ready? Let’s jump in.

What is InstaForex? 📚

InstaForex is an international forex broker that provides an accessible trading platform to a whopping 7 million customers worldwide. The broker was founded in 2007 in Kaliningrad, Russia but has since grown with over 260 offices spread across the world.

The brokerage is mainly focused on user-friendly forex trading and has won over 30 awards in this area. Among other things, InstaForex has gotten accolades for having the best copy-trading platform in the UK, as well as being the best broker in Asia, and the best ECN broker in Europe.

Regulation: Is InstaForex Legitimate? 🛡

As a globally-available broker, InstaForex is regulated by multiple financial institutions including the FSC and the BVI. EU clients are protected by CySec, the only top-tier regulator keeping its watchful eye on InstaForex.

Moreover, InstaForex is a member of the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) in the EU. This means that the broker’s European clients are insured by up to €20,000 in case their account balances are somehow unrightfully damaged. This membership is not a small matter – unruly brokers get their licenses taken away regularly for not complying with the ICF.

InstaForex also provides negative balance protection, which means clients’ balances cannot go below zero in case they make a bad, overly-leveraged trade – this is a must for all beginners, as it heavily reduces trading risks. 

On the downside, the broker isn’t listed on a stock exchange and is not regulated by any top-tier regulators aside from CySec. Nonetheless, InstaForex is still regarded as a safe and regulated brokerage due to its reputation and adherence to regulations – this is a trend among Russian forex brokers that are steadily changing their reputation for the better.

InstaForex Compared

InstaForex Fees Explained 👨‍🏫

The pricing structure on InstaForex depends heavily on what account type you choose. Most options include fixed or floating spreads but some accounts pay the broker via commissions. 

The Insta.Standard account is for all kinds of traders and has fixed spreads ranging from 2 to 7 pips, therefore, some fees are low and some are high. For example, the EUR/USD pair is 3 pips, which is almost 2 times more than what other top forex brokers ask. 

A little more beginner-friendly is the Insta.Eurica account. The fees here are paid through commissions and range from 0.02% to 0.07%, which is competitive. Also, Insta.Eurica has leverage up to 1:1000, depending on what product you’re trading.

The ECN trading account uses floating spreads which are 1.2 pips on average – very cheap compared to Insta.Standard. One step above is the ECN Pro account where the average spread is 0.8 pips – however, the Pro account requires a $1,000 minimum deposit.

If you like scalping, then you need a specialized account. The Scalping account uses the same average float spread of 1.2 pips and is used exclusively for making quick, low-profit deals. This is one of the forex trading strategies that’s not allowed with most other brokerages, making InstaForex great for traders who use this method.

Deposit & Withdrawal Processes 💳

There are practically no downsides to InstaTrades’s deposit and withdrawal options. All withdrawals are free and only take up to 3 days – however, some fees may apply but that depends on your country’s laws and regulations. To be completely safe, contact the broker’s customer service and ask about withdrawal fees.

Deposits are very easy as there are several options you can use to put money on your account balance. Clients can transfer funds via ePayments, PayCo, Skrill, Neteller, Trustly, SoFort, and many more e-wallets. Naturally, you can also use wire transfer or just make deposits through your credit or debit cards.

You can also fund your account directly with Bitcoin, which is rare among forex brokers and shows that InstaForex is keeping up with the latest trends. Aside from all this, the minimum deposit for most account types is zero and you can set up accounts with different base currencies, the most popular of which are USD, EUR, and RUB.

What Can I Trade With InstaForex? 💱

The list of tradable products at InstaForex is strong when it comes to forex – you can trade 107 currency pairs, which is comparable to the most prominent competing brokerages. The list of CFDs only includes 88 U.S. stocks but you can also trade binary options, as well as silver, gold, and other commodities.

The broker updates its list of products regularly – not long ago, traders only had access to 30 U.S. stocks, so it’s not unreasonable to assume this list will grow in the future. Users can also buy and sell CFDs on natural gas and crude oil, as well as the 5 most popular cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. 

All in all, the offer of financial instruments is very comprehensive and includes just about everything a currency trader can wish for. However, this might not be the perfect choice for devoted CFD traders because InstaForex’ list of products falls short to those of top CFD brokers in the business today.

Trading Platforms 🖥

InstaForex sticks to the classics when it comes to trading platforms. There are only two options for trades, MetaTrader 4 and its younger, faster sibling, MetaTrader 5. 

MT4 is the most widely-spread trading software on the market and is highly appreciated for its well-rounded functionality. Moreover, it is hailed by the traders of the world as one of the top forex trading platforms due to its intuitive design and logical workflow.

The sturdy MT4 may lack the glitz of more modern platforms but it makes up for it with a plethora of add-ons that can improve the trading experience significantly. You can get 18 plugins through InstaForex which give numerous candlestick charting capabilities – these options are very handy for executing the most popular forex trading strategies.

Much like its older cousin, MetaTrader 5 provides a full set of trading features in a much more modern-looking frame. However, MT5 has a more comprehensive suite of charting options and is a faster, smoother piece of software.

The only downside to the newer program is that it doesn’t have nearly as many custom modifications you can boost your trading experience with – but if you don’t need any modifications, MT5 is a superior trading platform on most accounts.

Copy-Trading with InstaForex 👥

A unique feature of InstaForex is its copy-trading capability provided via the so-called forex Copy system. Essentially, this feature enables users to watch expert traders at work and copy their trades instantly by just clicking a button. 

This feature is great for new traders who want to learn from the pros, as well as those who don’t have the time to devote themselves to trading but still want to make a safe profit. You can pick your favorite from the list of pro traders and piggyback your way to greater profits. 

However, these expert traders like money too, which is why they charge commissions to all users copying their trades – in all cases, copy trading is more expensive than independent investing. 

Nonetheless, this is a great option to have, especially if you want to have a closer insight into the strategies of seasoned experts. Only a few forex brokers like eToro have solid copy-trading capabilities, so this feature is a testament to InstaForex’ competitive edge.

Research 🕵️‍♂️

InstaForex offers a plethora of charting tools and news feeds through its platforms, and 30 analysts provide their research to the broker’s clients. Some of these researchers provide more comprehensive data and stronger arguments than others, but you can take your pick and choose the ones that seem the most precise.

You can also get regular news from the broker’s Youtube channel – this includes analyst opinions, predictions, global events, and interviews of numerous guest analysts. The channel also monitors MT5 forums and posts the most popular articles and comments in regular videos. 

All in all, InstaForex has solid research tools and analyst opinions but you might need to filter through the numerous sources to isolate the very best information. The research here is great, but if you want to go into detail and work with more information, Interactive Brokers might be a better option because of its robust selection of tools and availability of stocks.

Education 🎓

All brokers have an incentive to educate their clients to become better traders – and InstaForex takes this job very seriously. The brokerage has an extensive education center on its websites which includes a glossary as well as trading courses for investors of all levels – a new trader can gain high-level theoretical knowledge through these lessons alone.

Moreover, the educational materials are well-organized and you also have access to tests you can do to reinforce your knowledge. Unfortunately, these resources are in written form, but if you want video lessons, you only need to go to InstaForex’ Youtube channel. The channel has thousands of videos, and among them, playlists with lessons on how to trade and use the broker’s platforms.

If you want to put your knowledge to practice, there’s always Instaforex’ demo account. This feature allows you to trade on the real markets using virtual money – that way, you can test and get used to executing your strategies without risking real money. All in all, InstaForex has a bulletproof educational offer, making it a sound choice for beginner forex traders.

Customer Service ☎

The customer support agents are available 24/5 via several mediums. These include phone, email, live chat, Telegram, Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp, and Viber. 

We sent InstaForex an email with a simple inquiry to see how quickly the customer service will respond and how they will answer our question. We were pleasantly surprised when we got a reply just 30 minutes afterward. This is very quick for email customer support – most brokers usually take a couple of days before responding to prospective clients.

Here is our little exchange of emails:

However, the email we got didn’t answer our question directly. Rather, they just gave us a generic reply concerning CFD trading on InstaForex, which is not what we wanted to know.

Moreover, the customer support agent didn’t strike us as a native English speaker but the message was clear and perfectly understandable so that wasn’t an issue.

Account Setup ⚙

Opening an account with InstaForex is quick, simple, and fully-digital. To get started, you need to fill a standard application form with your information and accept the terms of agreement. Then you just have to prove your residency and identity by providing a copy of your national ID or passport, as well as a utility bill in your name. 

This is the standard signup procedure for forex brokers and it shouldn’t take more than a couple of trading days to get approved. The final step before you can start trading is funding your account – although the minimum deposit is zero, you need money to trade even if it’s only $1.

In summary, the entire application process is straightforward and should only take a few minutes unless you want to go through the entire terms and conditions document. Keep in mind that InstaForex is only available in some countries – these include Austria, Cyprus, France, Ireland, Italy, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and the UK.

Account Types 🗃

There are 5 basic account types on InstaForex, all unique and for a certain kind of trading. The account type you choose will determine your pricing scheme, minimum required deposit, order execution, as well as the number of trading strategies you can use. All accounts have no maximum deposit, leverage ranging up to 1:1000, and a trading cap of 10,000 lots – also, the interest rates are the same everywhere. 

Insta.Standard 👤

This is the basic retail account that supports trading with EUR, USD, and GBP as base currencies. The account has a fixed 2-7 spread fees and offers instant trade execution.

Insta.Eurica 💸

With this account, you don’t need to pay any spreads when opening a trade. This is because the bid price is always the same as the ask price – this is why commissions ranging from 0.03% to 0.07% are charged for all trades. 

ECN 💶

Unlike the two aforementioned accounts, the ECN account only accepts EUR and USD as base currencies and has market execution instead of instant executions, and therefore, it is quicker. This account has floating spreads averaging at 1.2 pips, making it cheaper and quicker than the Insta.Standard and Insta.Eurica – however, the minimum deposit here is $100.

ECN Pro 🌟

As the name suggests, this is an upgraded version of the ECN account and it’s designed for pro traders who need market execution and trade in large volumes. The floating spreads here are only 0.8 pips on average but the minimum deposit is $1,000 – this is the best choice for day traders who want low commissions.

Scalping Account 💰

In the world of forex, a scalping strategy is when traders make very quick trades with large volumes which gives them small, but safe profits each time. The fees and the minimum deposit are the same as on the ECN account, but you need to get the scalping account if you want to trade forex by scalping.

Trading Forex During COVID-19 📈

The Coronavirus pandemic has affected the global economy in many ways but few industries have seen as much impact as the forex trading sector. Since the outbreak began, unemployment dropped worldwide and that drove millions to seek an alternate source of income. Because of this, the number of traders increased, and naturally, overall trading volumes quadrupled.

This influx of traders and new capital has only emphasized existing price trends. The most prominent example of this is the price of USD – the dollar dropped due to high unemployment in the U.S., giving traders worldwide the opportunity to profit from this fall. As a consequence, it is still low compared to its former price and experts believe it will still be a while before the USD fully recovers.

Big events like the ones we’ve seen in 2020 have brought upon an unprecedented trading environment – this makes the markets unpredictable, and thus, volatile. Everyone is talking about volatility in the forex markets nowadays and what that means for traders – essentially, trading currencies is riskier than before, but also much more potentially profitable. 

Nonetheless, the bulk of newcomers to the forex markets are beginners and the high volatility isn’t the most pleasant circumstance for inexperienced traders. Nonetheless, the markets are steadily growing, in part due to the optimism sparked by the incoming COVID-19 vaccine – this news has energized the forex and stock markets alike.

All in all, we are still experiencing an economic downturn and no one knows exactly when things will go back to normal. That is why it’s recommended for all traders, especially beginners, to play it safe in this era of high volatility and unexpected economic plot twists. 

Final Thoughts 🏁

All things considered, InstaForex is a very well-rounded broker that mostly caters to currency traders. The number of currency pairs is huge and you can spice up your portfolio with CFDs which are not very numerous at the moment but are steadily rising in number. 

The trading platforms are very easy to use and offer solid research, as well as copy trading – not something many brokers can brag about. The educational offer is also excellent and would be ideal if it had instructional videos for all trading courses.

On the downside, there are many cheaper brokers with arguably more potent platforms and research capabilities. Nonetheless, InstaForex does a good job of providing for forex traders, regardless of their skill level and starting budget.