iTrader Review

Looking to recoup some lost income through forex trading? Wondering whether iTrader is a suitable option to help?

Since COVID-19 measures were implemented globally, the forex market has been subject to a degree of volatility that we haven’t seen in years. Though this offers the potential for greater opportunity, it increases the influx of scam artists. For this reason, finding a safe and reliable broker should be at the top of your list. Is iTrader safe and reliable?

It must be highlighted that in June 2020, the broker’s CySEC license was partially suspended. Given that, should you still give iTrader a chance? Does the educational material and research tools provided make up for it? Does customer support provide all the help needed?

In this review, we will discuss why iTrader’s license was suspended, and delve into its past. We will also outline whether the fees, support, and services provided by iTrader are enough to overcome this lack of regulation.

Let’s dive in!

What is iTrader? 📚

Trader is the brand name that represents Hoch Capital LTD, an investment firm based in Cyprus. In June 2020, the broker CySEC license was suspended due to local violations in the UK, which we will discuss more soon.

This broker aims to attract retail traders, but the team at iTrader seems to have more experience in web-commerce, as opposed to financial services. The information provided on the broker’s website is light, to say the least. Nothing about it made us feel confident about its ability to safely and effectively manage clients’ money.

iTrader is a newer broker which doesn’t help create a good impression on first glance; it’s website has a bit too much glitter, and contains too little substance, for traders trying to consider their options.

The shine and ribbons (not literally) on the website could be misleading for newer investors. In favour of the broker, it mentioned that it has sales experience, which comes through, slightly, we suppose.

To see why iTrader didn’t make our list of the most ideal forex brokers, we will first need to take a look at its regulation.

Is iTrader Safe? 🛡

On June 1st 2020, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) partially suspended iTrader’s license. 

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the regulatory authority in the UK, said that Hoch Capital Ltd used celebrities to falsely endorse its products on social media. FCA then let CySEC know, who then took the decision to suspend its license for one month until it undertook some corrective measures. If these measures are not followed, the broker will face possible fines and/or the revocation of its license.

CySEC, the Cypriot watchdog said, the decision was made based on the potential violation of local regulations, for misleading potential clients. Furthermore, on July 22nd it was reported that Hoch Capital Ltd. informed CySEC of its intentions to renounce its Cypriot Investment Firm (CIF).

Shortly after this saga, Sweden’s financial regulator FI issued a statement admitting that it had received a high number of complaints against the broker.

iTrader clients are protected by the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), as mandated by the EU Directive. If this broker goes insolvent, you could regain up to €20,000. This is considered the norm throughout the EU. In addition, all iTrader clients’ money is held in segregated accounts.

iTrader’s Spotty Past ⚠️

iTrader has a long, and spotty history. In November 2016, the Israel Securities Authority (ISA) raided iTrader’s main office in Israel. During the raid, the ISA took the CEO, and the companies owners in for questioning. That year, it was reported that the broker had used aggressive marketing tactics to try and attract new customers, and made promises of a 90% yield, in some cases.

Since this, there were reports from across the globe that iTrader was continuing to operate through an outsourced call center in the Philippines, even pretending to be from JP Morgan.

In March 2019, CySEC reached a settlement with Hoch Capital Ltd. where the firm made a $20,000 settlement regarding a compliance investigation the Cypriot regulator had begun. Though the details were not made public, they were surrounding the information it was giving to clients, as well as the general conduct of its investment activities.

In August 2019, iTrader’s owner was summoned to a pre-indictment hearing in Israel. The Taxation and Economics Prosecutor’s Office suspected the broker of misleading clients, again, and exploiting customer’s inexperience with binary’s options, pressuring them to invest.

iTrader Compared

iTrader Fees Explained 💰

When looking for the best forex broker for your needs, make sure you have a good grasp on spreads and commissions, first. iTrader makes its money from its spreads, but this broker is a market maker, and generates the majority of its income from traders losses, when it acts as a counterparty.

Because iTrader offers CFDs in indices and equities, dividends apply. The broker doesn’t reference on its website how they are passed to clients, which is notably missing. The broker does mention swap rates, which implies that both positive and negative swap rates are transferred onto traders.

What Can I Trade with iTrader? 📝

iTrader has a wide selection of asset’s across the FX market. Surprisingly, the broker offers an extension selection of cryptocurrencies. There are also commodity CFDs, but equity CFDs are commercial companies in the EU and the U.S., with a sprinkle of some in Australian companies, while index CFDs have a good selection to start.

Overall, clients will gain access to five asset types which is a good introductory number, and is enough to create a diverse portfolio.

There is an Asset Index where the minimum spread is listed but it should be noted that the actual spreads could be higher than what’s listed.

A maximum leverage of 1:500 is listed, but this is for professional traders only. Retail traders, on the other hand, will get a maximum leverage of 1:30. This sounds like the broker might be trying to just raise its account opening rate, with the hope of getting deposits. 

This is rectified in the account types section, but it contradicts itself by listing a leverage of 1:400 for professional traders. These contradictions don’t help create trust.

A solid selection of currency pairs is offered, and spreads for the EUR/USD is listed at 0.7 pips. The reality of this spread will likely end up being significantly more. The spreads overall are fair, but keep in mind that retail clients will have a maximum leverage of just 1:30.

Account Types 🗃

This broker offers three account types: Silver, Gold, and Platinum – sounds fancy, right? Each account has a different spread; for example, the Silver account has a bid-ask price of 2.2 pips for the EUR/USD pair.

The Gold lists this pair at just 1.3 pips, while the Platinum lists it at an impressive (on first sight, but more on this later) 0.7 pips. This is the lowest spread listed on the site.

The Benefits of iTrader 🏆

Traders will benefit from iTrader’s extensive range of cryptocurrencies, and attractive selection of assets. The maximum leverage that all traders will get access to seems to be 1:2, but there has been an effort made to implement this asset class which is possibly the best surprise we’ll talk about in this review.

There is a diverse range of indices and hedging tools, and iTrader provides access to a good amount of global indices, ideal for retail traders.

Moving on to CFDs, clients will be limited to the biggest EU and U.S. names, as well as some Australian names. While beginner investors will find this adequate, more advanced traders who are quite capable and willing to do a broader search won’t find this too appealing.

On the upside, the good selection of commodities has a mixture of both hard and soft commodities, including all the major metals.

Where iTrader Could Improve 👨‍🔧

There is a pungent smell of iTrader’s lack of experience through its account types. When we take a closer look, it’s easy to see that the accounts have different spreads, as we mentioned. There is a minimum deposit of $250 listed, but this isn’t mentioned in the overview of the account types. To find this out, you need to find the Contract Specifications PDF. 

Since it seems that the deposit size isn’t of huge importance, which signifies to the wider approach that brokers have taken to abandon the need for larger deposits as a reward for improved trading conditions, the most suitable option seems to be the Platinum account.

In other words, the other two accounts are, for lack of a better word, worthless. There could be some requirements to upgrade to Platinum, but these aren’t mentioned.

On a more thorough inspection, the services that come with the Silver account show no sign of any videos or webinars; which is utterly ridiculous because investors signing up to these accounts will have the biggest need for education. Assuming that retail traders are to begin at Silver.

Discounts & Bonuses 🎁

There are Swap discount rates offered of 25% with the Gold accounts, and 50% in the Platinum accounts. It seems that something is off with this and iTrader isn’t being transparent about it.

How it finances these discounts is anyone’s guess, and when trades are placed, do these charges come into effect? It’s not clear. And this fact suggests that trades remain in house, and aren’t connected to the real market.

The broker makes another misstep when it lists the maximum leverage offered to professional clients, when most of its clients will likely be retail.Overall, this show’s that iTrader doesn’t have the experience required.

To continue our critique, the broker conflicts itself in the Become a Professional section when it states the maximum leverage is 1:500 and the bother retail and professional clients can access the VIP education. 

The contests are solely open to professional clients, retail clients do not have access to contests. This comes across as a poor set up because retail clients are likely to want to participate in contests, while professionals traders are not.

iTrader Platforms 🖥️

iTrader offers the popular MT4 trading platform, which lacks the upgrades needed to improve the trading experience for its clients. While the MT4 platform is used by a good number of traders, there are some obvious limitations to this platform.

This can be improved through third-party add-ons which you can get for a price. In this case, the broker could have offered some free upgrades, but the fact is, it doesn’t, showing as another example of the broker making claims that it can’t substantiate.

The benefit of the MT4 platform is the support offered by the automated trading solutions, but there is a nice price attached to the most effective ones. The library contains an expansive range of EA’s and other tools, but (more buts) be cautious. 

There is back-testing which will help create a solid strategy, but this will fall on the user. When it comes to this platform, iTrader gives the bare minimum to improve things for its clients.

iTrader Mobile 📱

iTrader has a mobile app for iOS and Android, but the online reviews do not look good. The reviews are poor and customers say the functions offered are too basic. Overall, reviews for this broker are quite negative.

In our review of the top forex trading apps, eToro has taken the top spot, while IG’s app comes in at a close second.

Education: iTrader’s Learning Center 🎓

iTrader offers traders research, or it tries to anyway; traders are invited to the academy center to learn if they can access it. Given that this broker has contradicted themselves a few times at this stage, who has access to the learning center is unclear. We would expect that all iTrader clients interested in the education would be able to benefit from it.

Research Tools 🔎

Research is offered by an in-house team, but it whifs of unprofessionalism through its lack of detail. There has been an attempt to structure the research section but it has failed to do it successfully. 

There are four categories in the research section that are positioned (or thrown) across the site. These contain the financial calculators, the economic calendar, a daily review, and a market summary.

Unfortunately, there is no dedicated research section, which leads us to believe that it’s not something the broker prioritizes for its clients. Given the importance that research plays in creating an effective forex trading strategy, this is a huge let down.

iTrader Education 👨‍🏫

With education, iTrader puts in slightly more effort than the other sections. Within the educational section we can see eBooks, webinars, courses, articles, and tutorials. There’s also a glossary available that explains some important trading terms. All of the educational material has a dedicated section, (unlike the research) and appears to have been given more care.

Education is an easier thing to offer than research but research is the most impactful tool that a broker can bring to the trader’s experience, and therefore it should definitely be given more consideration, either through its own collection or by outsourcing it.

Clients will be able to watch webinars a few times a week which is a high amount of webinars, though it’s not clear who exactly will have access to these. There is no library to watch previous webinars, so assessing the value these will bring is difficult.

There are a total of four eBooks, two of which are very in-depth – around 80 pages on average each. The other two, however, are a measly 8 and 10 pages, which won’t bring much education to a trader.

Traders can also take seven courses, each of which has several sections. While at first this all seems legit, what’s offered is not good content.

Sixteen of the pages address topics in the financial markets. The presentation is okay, surprisingly. This seems to be the best the broker has to offer. There are particularly popular forex brokers for beginners that put a strong focus on educating their clients.

Customer Support ☎

So far, what we’ve seen from iTrader has been pretty minimum. So, it’s no surprise that this extends into the customer service section. Customer support is available five days a week, from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm GMT. When you think that some other brokers offer 24/7 customer support, this pales in comparison.

Support can be reached either through email or phone, depending on your preferred method. There is a disappointing FAQs section that carries the same uncared for trend we’ve seen so far.

The Bottom Line 🚩

This broker highlights the need for beginners to understand the ABCs of forex trading. To start, iTrader has an unusually distressing past in the forex industry, and it’s CySEC license was temporarily suspended due to false advertising.

Aside from this, iTrader’s website and its contents seem to be carelessly thrown together. The educational section leaves much to be desired. The research section provides the bare minimum. The customer support team is open five days a week, as opposed to the 24/7 service offered by other brokers.

Should you decide to continue your search for the most suitable forex broker for you, other considerations might be IG, eToro, and/or Interactive Brokers.