Trade Nation Review

October 2023

73.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Trade Nation opened its doors in 2014 under the name Core Spreads. They started operations with a handful of staff and by 2019 had grown into an international operation. That year the company introduced the change of company name.

The broker has a rather small variety of assets to trade on, although they cover all of the main FX and stock index markets. Currently, they offer 33 forex pairs, 29 indices and 10 commodities. Along with macro markets, they also offer stocks and bonds. They have a wide list of individual shares in European, UK, Danish and South African Stocks.

From its small origins, Trade Nation now has 3 operating offices in London, Sydney, Johannesburg, and The Bahamas.

Pros

  • Very Competitive Spreads
  • Easy to Understand Platform
  • Top-of-the-Class Customer Support 24/5
  • Top-Tier Regulation

Cons

  • Limited Choice of Markets
  • No MetaTrader Platform

Is Trading with Trade Nation Safe?

Trade Nation is regulated by the following financial regulating bodies:

  1. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the regulatory body for the UK
  2. Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) – the regulatory body for Australia
  3. Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) – the regulatory body for South Africa
  4. Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) – the regulatory body for The Bahamas


This broker has worldwide coverage of regulatory authorities. Two of which are top-tier institutions: FCA and ASIC. UK traders are also covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme for up to £85,000.

Spreads & Fees

The bid offer spread is where most FX brokers earn their incomes. The “spread” is the difference between the bid price and the ask price measured in pips.

The table below shows the minimum spreads for each of the major forex pairs as listed on the Trade Nation website and compares them against the industry average.

Trade Nation Spreads

Note: Spreads are variable and can change depending on the time of day and market conditions. For information purposes only.

Trade Nation has some of the tightest spreads in the industry which will help traders save money on trading costs. They also keep their bid offer spreads fixed independently of market conditions. So when the market gets more volatile and spreads usually widen, you will still take advantage of low spreads.

We particularly like that the EUR GBP, one of the retail traders' favourite pairs, has the lowest spread we have found. Other highly competitive spreads include the GBP USD and the USD CAD. One note to make, Trade Nation keeps these tight spreads during European trading hours and then widens spreads in after-hours trading.

Platforms

This area may be a sour note for some of the more sophisticated traders as you only have one choice and that is the proprietary trading platform. The platform is easy to use and understand. The interface is user-friendly and has all the commands and risk management tools you would need.

The platform is web-based; no download is needed. So, you can access your trading station from any computer with an internet connection. Learning to use the platform seems straightforward and user-friendly.

The charts are powered by ChartIQ and open up in a new window. This allows you to stack them side by side or in any way you wish, within your browser. The technical tools are many and cover a vast number.

Drawing tools and chart types also cover all of the different features a trader might need. In terms of sophistication, the platform does a very good job. The only problem of not having a choice is that more seasoned traders may be used to MT4 or another of the well-known platforms. And there is no way to automate trades or produce your personalised technical indicators.

Their in-house platform allows you to set up a demo account. This feature is especially useful for new traders to hone their skills as well as learn about the platform. As it is for experienced traders wanting to test-run the platform before opening a live account.

Trade Nation Platform

Mobile Trading

The proprietary Trade Nation platform is also available for download on Android or iOS smartphones. You will still be able to access all the functionality of the browser-based version. You can run both the demo and live accounts from your smartphone.

Benefits of the Trade Nation’s mobile app include:

  • Access to risk management on the go
  • Price alerts
  • Cross-platform access
Trade Nation Mobile Platforms

Education

Trade Nation’s education is well written and extensive enough to guide a complete beginner from zero to a self-sufficient trader. The material is published under two tabs Beginners Guides and Platform Guides.

The beginners' guide covers material from forex, CFDs, spread betting as well as trading signals. The material covered has very little in terms of technical analysis and more with trading strategies and psychology. Some of the topics covered include:

  • What equipment do I need to start trading?
  • How important is regulation in trading?
  • Create a financial strategy
  • Get to know the markets
  • Have a reason to trade
  • My account
  • Payments

The educational content from Trade Nation is well exposed. However, it is not a one-stop shop and you will have to go elsewhere for technical education. Having said that, most brokers’ technical education content is limited in scope.

Research

Research from Trade Nation is very limited in the sense of headline news or market analysis. They post an article around once a week on their blog. The articles cover various topics from subjects as varied as Thematic Investing to What are CBDC's.

On the other hand, they offer trading signals through their partnership with Signal Centre. This is the only major signal provider with authorization from the FCA. The requirements needed to meet FCA standards show the high quality of Signal Centre’s work.

The signals are elaborated by using the traditional analysis of publicly available data. But the Signal Centre goes a step further and analyses alternative data. That is data that is available on social media and often goes unnoticed by the retail trader.

Trader Support

Customer support is available 24/5 and as far as we could decipher only in English. And rather disappointing, in this day and age of digital connections, there is no online chat. You can speak to customer support via:

  • Telephone
  • Email

Verdict

We feel Trade Nations has a lot to offer mostly to new and intermediate traders. They have a very low bid offer spread, which greatly reduces your trading costs. Their trading platform is easy to use with plenty of educational videos on how to get the most out of the platform.

They have a large enough selection of markets to keep most traders busy. Unfortunately for more sophisticated traders their platform alone may not cut the mark. Yet we find the platform has a full array of technical tools although it lacks a live news feed.

Overall, this is a valid option if you are just entering the retail trading business, or looking for tighter spreads in your manual trading activity from a streamlined service.

73.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.