Umarkets Review (2021) - Pros and Cons Revealed.

Umarkets is an established forex broker company in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Finding a reputable Umarkets review local or worldwide can be a difficult process, especially finding a complete list from a trustworthy reputable source.

Below is an in-depth review of Umarkets to help you make an informed decision before opening your account or trading on their platform.

According to research recently done,

Umarkets is an STP offshore broker and offers traders worldwide access to a range of assets for trading by using flexible and powerful platforms.

The broker is equipped with a team of market experts to provide traders with analytics, market forecasts, and numerous trading strategies.

Umarkets has been established in 2008 with its headquarters in Kingstown, St Vincent, and the Grenadines.

Umarkets is owned by Market Solutions Ltd since October 2017, which is also located in Kingstown. The broker has been using the same brand name with a registration out of Belize under the name Maxi Services Ltd.

Ownership of this brokerage changed numerous times, but the company has maintained a strong relationship with HSBC, Europes largest bank.

Awards and Recognition

In the world of forex broker companies, it counts much for the companys reputation if it has been honored with awards from esteemed organizations or publications.

Although Umarkets is rated highly by some customers in personal online reviews, there is no information available on the Umarkets homepage about any awards received.

Umarkets Accounts

A forex account is a trading account held by a trader with a company like Umarkets, that is issued with the primary purpose of trading through its platforms. The number and type of accounts that a trader can open with a broker company usually differ according to the country in which the brokerage operates, the country of residence of the trader, and the regulatory authorities under whose jurisdiction it operates.

Types of Accounts and Their Feature

Umarkets offers traders the option to open a demo account which can either be used by beginners as a practice account or by brokers who want to explore the brokers offer in a risk-free environment.

This account is free to open, has a balance of virtual money that can be used to practice with and with Umarkets the demo account is valid for two weeks.

The following live account types can be opened with Umarkets:

Mini Forex Account

Minimum trading size of 1 lot

Spreads from 2.5 pips

Zero commissions charged

Standard Forex Account

Minimum trading size of 1 lot

Spreads from 2 pips

Zero commissions charged

Gold Forex Account

Minimum trading size of 5 lots

Spreads from 1.7 pips

Zero commission trading and access to additional features and benefits.

Platinum Forex Account

Minimum trading size from 5 lots

Spreads from 1 pip

Zero commission trading and several additional benefits and features

Umarkets also provides the option to open an Islamic Account, which is used by Muslim traders who follow the Sharia law which prohibits that its followers pay any form of interest, such as overnight fees.

Overnight fees are charge should traders have positions that stay open for longer after the trading day has concluded, and through the provision of an Islamic Account, Muslim traders are exempted from paying such interests and fees.

The process to open an account can be started from links on the company homepage. It is an easy process and starts with a short online registration form that must be completed with some basic information such as the traders personal details.

Supporting documents as proof of the traders identity and residential address need to be attached. As soon as this is verified by the broker the trader will be notified and can fund the account and start trading.

The deposit currencies that Umarkets supports are not indicated, but it is safe to assume that the broker will support the use of USD, GBP, and EUR, and other common and popular currencies.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Umarkets requires the following minimum deposits to open the different types of accounts:

Mini Forex Account – minimum deposit of $ 500

Standard Forex Account – minimum deposit of $ 5 000

Gold Forex Account – minimum deposit of $ 10 000

Platinum Forex Account – minimum deposit of $ 35 000

Traders have the option of the following payment methods for deposits or withdrawals:

Bank Wire Transfer

Credit cards

Debit Cards

Neteller

Skrill

There is no indication on Umarkets‘ website of how long deposits or withdrawals take to reflect into a trader’s account.

Cost and Fees, Commissions and Spreads

The cost of trading depends on different factors like commissions, spread, and margins.

The spread of a currency pair is the difference between the bid and the asking rate. A pip represents the smallest increment that an exchange rate can move. One pip is 0.01 for currency pairs with JPY as the term currency and 0.0001 for all other pairs.

The amount of money required in your account to open a position is called the margin and is calculated according to the current price of the base currency against USD, the size (volume) of the position, and the leverage applied to your account.

Commissions are the charges imposed by an investment broker on a trader for making trades on the traders behalf. The level of commissions depends on the asset being traded and the type of service offered by the broker.

Execution-only brokers, which do not involve in personal investment advice and give traders complete control over how they trade the markets, usually charge lower commissions.

While the contract for differences (CFDs) trading is a form of derivative trading that enables traders to speculate on the rising or falling prices of fast-moving global financial markets, its trading on shares will incur commission. CFD trades on other markets have no commission but do wrap a spread around the market price of a certain instrument.

Umarkets offer traders a tight spread that starts from 1.7 pips on, for example, the Platinum Forex Account. But these brokers also charge commissions on trades.

With Umarkets Forex and metals CFDs are commission-free, while energy, cryptocurrencies, equity, and index CFDs carry a fee.

The pricing structure is listed on the brokers website. For example, the EUR/USD spread is listed at 2.5 pips in the Mini account, but the spread is reduced to 1.0 pips in the Platinum account.

The broker offers commission-free trading on all its accounts, except cryptocurrencies that range between $3 to $7 per side.

Swap rates on leveraged overnight positions apply and are between 0.005% and 0.015% of the transaction size.

After 90 days of inactivity, a monthly maintenance fee of 5% applies. Traders also will incur a 5% fee if a withdrawal is requested before they have executed five trades.

Other than the minimum deposit requirements and spreads, there are no other fees indicated for Umarkets, but traders will have to verify whether the broker charges additional fees before signing up for an account.

Leverage

Umarkets allows a leverage ratio of 1:200.

The amount of leverage is expressed as a ratio, for instance, 50:1, 200:1, or 500:1. Assuming that a trader has $1 000 in a trading account and is trading ticket sizes of 200 000 USD/JPY, that leverage will equate to 200:1.

Leveraged product trading magnifies a traders potential profit – but of course, also increases the potential loss. This facility enables traders to get a larger exposure to the market than the amount they deposited to open a trade.

Bonuses

Forex brokers often lure new traders with offers of deposit bonuses. This can be useful, but it is essential to discern what the conditions are to really benefit from a bonus.

The bonus usually compensates traders for choosing a certain broker, since once the account is active, the trader will have the same expenses as any other. The bonus usually only starts giving some expenses back to the trader once the person has proved himself as an active trader.

Hence, although no deposit bonuses are a great way to help you start trading, the terms to benefit from it often require trading with such a high volume before you can withdraw profits, that it may not be worthwhile.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has also recently placed investor protection measures on the marketing, distribution, or sale of CFDs which prevent brokers to provide the retail client with a payment, monetary or excluded non-monetary benefit in relation to the marketing, distribution or sale of a CFD, thus ruling out the offering of such bonuses.

Umarkets offer a few bonuses and promotions for its clients. Refer a friend and get a 15% bonus from each deposit in the amount of $500 to $10 000. For deposits over $10 000, there is a fixed bonus of $1 500.

New traders qualify for a welcome bonus of 30% on your first deposit. This means that when you open an account with $5 000 dollars, Umarkets will add to your account another $1 500 dollars. This offer is time-limited.

Additional offers can be found on the brokers website.

Trading Platforms, Software and its Features

The forex trading software, also called the platform, provided by a broker company to its clients to carry out their trades can be a multi-asset one that allows clients to trade forex as well as other asset classes like CFDs on stocks, stock indices, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies.

Some companies provide an own proprietary platform, while others prefer well-known platforms. If there is a choice, the trader should keep in mind what he would like to trade.

Umarkets offers three trading platforms to choose from:

xCritical Trading Platform

xCritical Mobile Trading App

MetaTrader4

MT4 is still the most popular platform and is available as a desktop and mobile version as well as a web trader. It allows full support for automated trading strategies and comes equipped with all the necessary charting tools and news, analysis reports and financial calendars for successful trading.

The xCritical platform is a relatively new platform and a good alternative to MT4 and the most used platform at Umarkets.

The Autochartist, which is a tool that scans markets for chart patterns and trading opportunities fully autonomously, is integrated with XCritical.

These trading platforms are offered in several languages which include English, Spanish, Russian, German, and Portuguese.