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The online trading industry has been expanding for years, and it has exploded even more in the past 12 months due to current events. In the past year, more and more people sought to find additional income streams. Trading from home has become one of the most lucrative ways of earning considerable amounts. As a result, many have decided to become full-time traders. No one is saying that it is easy to make money this way, but it has definitely become the preferred option for many. Novice traders face a lot of questions, but one of them holds much more importance, as it can affect their trading the most. We are of course talking about choosing your first brokerage.
There are countless options at this point, and it seems traders are spoiled for choice. Sadly, not all of them are created equal. This means unaware traders are potentially facing a pitfall if they make a wrong pick. The weight of this choice can be a detriment to newcomers. In our articles, we aim to breakdown all new and old brokerages and determine if they are trustworthy or better left behind. This time we are focusing on a company based in Dublin, Ireland. This is certainly an uncommon place, mainly due to strict regulations. Local government is strict when it comes to forex laws, so their location is a good sign. Regulation is one of the most important aspects for any brokerage, and we are happy to see FXBrew devote resources towards meeting those expectations. In the rest of our FXBrew review, you can see a more detailed breakdown of all the technical aspects, including platform performance, support experience and education tools.
Platform and Execution SCORE: 70%
Arguably, the choice of the platform the most important aspect for any trader. This is where most of your time will be spent, and it is vital for it to function properly. FXBrew doesn’t disappoint, as they offer the true and tested Meta Trader platforms. Based on your preference, you can opt for MT4 or slightly more advanced MT5. These gained a reputation of being the industry standard for a reason. They offer plentiful tools for traders to experiment and analyse their performance on the markets. An additional benefit of MT5 is that it is available on mobile platforms such as iOS and Android so that all traders can monitor the markets and alter their strategies on the go. These mobile solutions offer the full experience, so you can rely on them entirely. Of course, you will probably be much more comfortable using a bigger screen, but that is for you to decide.
The biggest drawback to using Meta Trader platforms is that they can seem hardly accessible for beginners. Their design is not that user-friendly, so if you are an inexperienced trader, you will need to devote a significant portion of time just trying to figure out how everything works. This is particularly tiresome given the fact that you are not provided with proper education tools and have to do everything on your own. This is exactly why many brokerages devote time and resources to build their own custom web solutions that are much more beginner-friendly. Alternatively, if you are an industry veteran, you will have little issue with the platform choice, or its performance.
Withdrawal Speed SCORE: 65%
This is where things start taking a turn for the worst. When discussing payment options, you really only have two options – Wire Transfer and via Bitcoin. We are used to seeing brokerages offer dozens of choices for their traders and this lack of variety is troublesome. Another thing we took issue with is the processing times for withdrawals, which were far from advertised. First of all, even though it is not disclosed on the website, those times vary depending on your account type. We felt a significant discrimination based on how much money you were willing to deposit in the first place. FXBrew advertises a processing time of 1 working day, but in reality, you will be facing up to a week. We find this unacceptable in time when are crypto transactions are expected to be instant. Even if you use Bank Wire Transfer, you will still have to wait a significant amount of time. Whether this is due to the broker, or your bank policies, you are still left with the short end of the stick.
Support and Assistance SCORE: 30%
One this that you can always expect when trading online is that you will require assistance at some point. Sometimes you will be facing an issue with the platform and sometimes you will just have a question regarding payment. In either case, you will need a qualified representative to communicate with. Modern brokerages offer numerous channels for communication to suit different preferences and needs. Sadly, you cannot expect this from FXBrew. They only offer email support, via your preferred browser, or the on-page form. You will hardly be satisfied with either choice. They claim they offer 24/5 support, but this is hardly the case. We had to wait for days to get any type of a reply and in most cases, they were not polite and failed to resolve any issues we had. At times we felt we were chatting with a bot and not another human being. Given how far the industry has progressed, we are disappointed to see how hard FXBrew needs to work to catch up to the competition on this front.
Education and Tools SCORE: 30%
Given how many new traders there are nowadays, many brokerages have decided to offer some kind of incentive in the way of educational resources. These are in place to form a tight bond with the trader by enabling them to learn how to trade before committing fully. FXBrew is clearly not interested in this audience, as they do not offer a single learning tool or resource. It is true that there is an abundance of free material on the web, however, the lack of desire to help out is a red flag. This shows that the brokerage is not willing to form a long-lasting relationship with its clients, and that speaks volumes. This could be forgiven if we were talking about a recently formed brokerage, but FXBrew has been around for several years. This is why we feel there is no excuse for their lack of desire to extend a reaching hand to novice traders.
In our FXBrew review, we uncovered many positive and negative aspects of trading with them. Based on where you are coming from, and your preferences and needs, you might have a drastically different experience. If you are new to this game, we would recommend that you stay clear of FXBrew. They are not welcoming to beginners in any way, starting with an inaccessible platform, lacklustre support system or non-existent educational tools. At this point, there are far more competent brokerages you should consider. If on the other hand, you are a veteran trader, you will no doubt enjoy the comprehensive platform. Even so, you will face incompetent support that will nullify all the gains you might previously get. All things considered, we would advise looking for other options for your online trading needs.