Vantage

About Vantage Markets

Vantage Markets also known as Vantage is a well-regarded CFD broker which has been operating for 15 years and is now part of the Vantage group of companies that has a client base of more than five million traders. The firm is a multi-product broker which means investors can trade a wide range of instruments in the global financial markets including CFDs on forex, indices, commodities, bonds, cryptocurrencies, and more than 50 of the most popular shares listed on the ASX.

The firm’s strong presence in  the Australian market is underpinned by its compliance with the regulatory standards set by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and having a head office located in the heart of Sydney at Level 12, 15 Castlereagh Street, New South Wales, 2000, Australia.

Vantage’s impressive growth since it was founded in 2009 can be put down to the broker getting the basics right and offering a range of additional services designed to enhance the trading of its clients. Vantage traders have access to top of the range trading platforms, competitive pricing, liquid markets, 24/5  support and an extensive range of research and analysis tools. The decision to set out to provide its clients with the best trading experience has been matched by industry awards as well as a large following of other traders. In 2024 it was awarded the ‘Best Multi-Asset Broker’ award at the Online Money Awards, the Best Trade Execution award at the Global Forex Awards and the esteemed “Best Trading Experience – Global 2024” award from Ultimate Fintech.

The suite of services Vantage offers make them a credible candidate for any shortlist of brokers. But no broker ticks all the boxes for all traders. This review will consider the pros and cons of Vantage and the reasons why it might be the broker which best fits your style of trading.

Products and Trade Offers

Vantage offers its clients the opportunity to trade more than 1,000 financial markets. That number will be sufficient for most traders but falls short of some other platforms which offer in excess of 5,000 markets.

The range of assets on offer at Vantage is impressive with bonds for example being available to trade, something which isn’t always the case. That opens the way for investors to apply more sophisticated trading strategies and their portfolios to benefit from one of the golden rules of investing – diversification. The range of other markets includes:

• +40 Forex markets, including major, minor, and exotic currency pairs
• Indices including the global leaders such as the S&P 500, Dow Jones 30, and Nasdaq 100
• Commodities including energy markets, precious metals, and soft commodities
• CFD shares listed on the main exchanges in Australia, Hong Kong, US, UK, and the Eurozone.
• Bonds issued by a range of international governments which can be traded in small size

Vantage provides clients with a choice of five accounts – each one designed to support a particular style of trading.

Standard Account – This is ideal for beginners and does not charge commissions per trade. It is commission-free which helps simplify the cost-benefit analysis of a potential trade and like the other accounts has a reputation for providing lightning-fast execution and tight spreads. The minimum deposit requirement for the Standard account is $50 or the equivalent.

RAW Classic Account – This account is a step up from the Standard account and offers high-speed execution. The RAW account offers not only competitive commission fees but also ultra-low spreads. The bid-offer spreads associated with some products in this account can get down to as low as 0.0pips, traders can benefit from tiger spreads, which can help reduce trading costs and enhance overall trading efficiency. The minimum deposit requirement for the RAW Classic account is $50 or the equivalent, and the account offers commissions from $2.5 per standard FX lot (each side).

RAW Premium – An account which delivers similar high-speed execution and razor spreads as it’s Classic version, but with the added benefit of even lower trading commissions. Raw Premium commissions of $1 per standard FX lot (each side) are available to users who meet the upgrade criteria and excludes TradingView accounts. The criteria is for one to have closed a minimum of 5 trades in the past 30 days, with a notional value of at least $500,000.

Perpetual – This account allows crypto traders to hold positions without expiration, and aims to mirror exchanges. Although the product is still a CFD, the way in which the position is held allows for better conditions for those intending longer hold periods. The commission on BTC/USD at the end of Q3 2024 of 0.05% per lot was half that of many exchanges, offering a cost effective way to take crypto positions.

Professional Account/ Wholesales Account– Designed to cater to professional clients and institutional traders this account is only available to those who meet the selection criteria. Those who do qualify will be able to take advantage of minimal commissions, flexible leverage, low spreads, and exclusive account managers. Do keep in mind that being classified as a wholesale client means that certain protections afforded to retail clients will not apply.

Demo – However experienced you are, there is always a benefit to be found by testing new strategies using a Demo account. The Vantage Demo account includes all the features of a live account and because the live accounts are known for super-fast execution speeds there is less chance of slippage resulting in the theoretical performance of a Demo strategy not correlating with real-world trading when it takes place.

The Standard, RAW, and Professional accounts, all state that there are no charges made by the broker on cash deposits, though it is important to check any third-party processers don’t apply fees. There is also a wide range of base currency options. Not all of the four Vantage accounts support all of these currency options, but the starting point is an impressive five base currencies.

• AUD – Australian Dollar
• USD – United States Dollar
• GBP – British Pound Sterling
• EUR – Euro
• NZD – New Zealand Dollar

Deposits can be made to your vantage account using a range of payment processing options. These include Visa/Mastercard debit card or credit card, Australian bank transfer, PayID, BPay, PayPal, ApplePay, GooglePay, and broker-to-broker transfers. The length of time taken for funds to be processed varies according to which payment provider you choose to use but the times are very competitive. With the exception of bank transfers, and broker-to-broker transfers which could take up to 5 business days, the other methods of deposit are broadly instantly available, with PayID taking up to a few hours.

Commissions and Fee Charges

One area where Vantage claims to have an edge on its peer group is on commissions and fees and during our testing, we found the broker’s claim to be broadly true.

The headline-grabbing 0.00pips spreads found in some markets are hard to beat, spreads just don’t get tighter than that. Vantage operates using variable spreads and whilst this reflects the core nature of the world’s financial markets it is important for traders to monitor them. During moments when market liquidity dries up, spreads can be expected to widen.

The Standard account offers some of the most transparent pricing. That account is commission-free, but the other accounts do apply charges on each leg of a trade. Overall fees are still low compared to the rest of the market, but commissions do need to be factored in. One option available to those with $25,000 on hand is to open a Premium account which focuses on keeping trading commissions even lower than they are in the other accounts.

Administrative fees can be particularly irksome which is why the decision by Vantage to not apply an inactivity fee is to be welcomed. Another sign of the broker’s confidence in its position regarding trading costs is that it provides a Fee Calculator which allows clients to run a full cost-benefit analysis of any trade before deciding whether to open a new position.

What Others Say

A review by Compare Forex Brokers pinpoints the main selling points of Vantage and highlights how with a bit of thought about account choice traders can start trading using T&Cs which suit their personal preference.

“We think Vantage is a good choice for traders who want a choice of commission (RAW, Pro) and no commission (Standard) trading accounts with low trading costs”

Broker Chooser gave Vantage a 4.2/5 rating based on analysing 600+ criteria and testing via opening a live account. Its thorough analysis concluded that.

“… non-trading fees are very favourable (e.g. there is no inactivity fee). Opening an account at Vantage is super-fast (less than 5 minutes) and fully digital. The broker offers a great variety of deposit and withdrawal options, most of them free of charge.

On the negative side, the product portfolio is rather limited as the broker only offers forex and some CFDs to trade. “

The analysts at Forex Brokers give Vantage a high rating in terms of client security. Being a global broker Vantage is regulated by a range of different financial authorities with the blend being sufficiently strong for the Forex Brokers team.

“Vantage is considered Highly Trusted, with an overall Trust Score of 90 out of 99. Vantage is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Vantage is authorised by two Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulator (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and two Tier-4 regulators (High Risk).”

Vantage is regularly ranked highly in performance tests conducted by Investing.com. The metrics assessed in the tests include leverage, spread value, spread stability, slippage rates, market depth, large order cost, and swap competitiveness. These are carried out in various types of market conditions including periods of high volatility around significant events such as the US presidential election.  As a report on recent tests states: “(Vantage) once again solidified its reputation for excellence, outperforming competitors across multiple key categories” 

Customer Service

Vantage offers multilingual customer support on a 24/5 basis. The support team can be contacted via live chat or email. During our testing we found the chatbot in the live chat function to be a step up from the market-norm. It quickly and effectively answered most of our questions with supporting links from the comprehensive FAQ section of the site being enough to help us resolve most queries.

Transferring to a human agent involved a delay and the response times to email requests were longer than we expected but all-in-all Vantage deserve praise in this area. Providing customer support costs brokers money and it’s refreshing to find a broker which is focussed on delivering cost-effective trading terms whilst still ensuring that clients are supported to a sufficient degree.

Platform Features and Tools

Each of the three platforms on offer provide Vantage clients with an institution-grade trading experience. The MetaTrader MT4 and MT5 platforms are well-known among the trading community and are ideal platforms for those wanting to apply technical analysis and charting techniques. They also support algorithm-based systematic trading models and allow Vantage clients to develop their own strategies or use automated trading systems developed by others.

The Premium Trader Tool platform is made available to those who deposit $200 or more and is packed full of powerful trading tools. The charting package includes 100 default technical indicators and has 12 types of charts which can be set to multiple time frames. This section also provides carefully curated research content, including real-time news, analysis, and educational materials designed to support your trading decisions.

It’s to Vantage’s credit that despite being a low-cost broker they still offer clients additional services such as the impressive TradingView tool. This software package is institution-grade and can take a beginner’s trading up to the next level as soon as they achieve an account balance of $500 or more. TradingView supports multiple-screen trading and dashboard layouts can be formatted to personal preference and saved so they can be used across other markets. This feature extends across both the desktop and mobile formats of the platform making for a continuous trading experience.

TradingView comes with advanced stock screeners, a neat live news panel, and it can be set up to send price alerts so that you can keep in touch with the markets even if you’re not looking at your screen. The strategy tester tool is a neat addition and allows you to test new ideas and if you want to find out what other investors are trading then the community area of the platform is the place to head and take on the thoughts and ideas of other traders.

Vantage does not currently offer the option for Australian clients to trade using managed accounts or copy trading. It does though have a dealing desk for those who prefer to use that service rather than book their trades online.

Mobile Trading

The Vantage app is available on iOS and Android devices. It does an impressive job of carrying over the functionality of the desktop platforms to a handheld device and its user-friendly functionality was referenced as one of the reasons for the broker winning the “Best Trading Experience – Global 2024” award from Ultimate Fintech.

The Vantage app offers more than just trade execution. You can use it to keep up with market developments using the economic calendar, newsletters, and in-depth market analysis. It can also be set to a variety of language and screen layout settings and can be used to carry out account administration functions such as transferring funds between accounts.

You can download the Vantage App here.

Robo Trading

The MetaTrader MT4 and MT5 platforms have long been the cornerstone of automated trading of the markets. Both platforms have a huge following of traders who are happy to share and sell their models through the Expert Advisors program. There have also been upgrades to the functionality and user-interface and the introduction of new ‘wizards’ makes developing your own models a far more user-friendly experience.

If you have existing models these can be plugged into your Vantage account using the broker’s API (Application Programming Interface) resulting in a less labour-intensive and more hands-off trading experience.

There are also other automated trading options available on the platforms. The AutoTrade service is easy to sign up to and holds a bank of 90,000 professional traders and published trading systems which have been screened and approved by AutoTrade. That filtering process helps when selecting which of the brightest and most profitable social forex traders to follow. The service also allows you to manage and customise each copied FX trade and base decisions on granular-level portfolio statistics.

To help traders get the most out of the models they are using, Vantage also offers clients virtual private server (VPS) connectivity to certain jurisdictions. This hooks models up to an external server which is positioned to provide lower-latency connectivity to the markets. The VPS service runs 24 hours a day without
interruption and avoids potential downtime caused by internet connectivity issues or power outages.

Research and Learning Section

As soon as you open an account with Vantage you gain access to an impressive range of educational and research features which help the broker stand out from its peer group.

Educational material encompasses a broad range of topics designed to outline ways to get the most out of the platform or build your own trading strategies. Those looking to make further progress with their trading skills can take advantage of the Vantage Training Academy which is a dedicated resource full of guides covering all the features of technical analysis and fundamental analysis.

Market events can be tracked using the broker’s news monitor, economic calendar, and the Week Ahead reports. There are also opportunities to gain valuable insights into market sentiment by tuning in to webinars which take place on Monday and Friday where experienced traders share their views on market trends.

Regulatory Details

Vantage offers its services globally so is regulated by a range of different financial authorities. The Australian operations are overseen by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Compliance conditions set out by ASIC are designed to protect the interests of clients and include:

• Standardised Margin Close Out rules – If your margin level reaches the standardised margin close out (MCO) level then Vantage is required to close any or all of your open positions as quickly as possible. This helps protect clients from potentially incurring further losses. MCO settings are determined via a series of rules and regulations and can for example be as high as 50%.
• Negative Balance Protection – This rule ensures that a client’s total losses cannot exceed the size of their deposits.

Leverage terms for Australian clients are also capped with the rates determined by the type of asset you are trading:

• 30:1 for CFDs over major currency pairs (3.33% margin)
• 20:1 for CFDs over minor currency pairs, gold or a major stock market index (5% margin)
• 10:1 for CFDs over commodities (excluding gold) or a minor stock market index (10% margin)
• 5:1 for CFDs over shares or other underlying assets (20% margin)
• 2:1 for CFDs over crypto assets (50% margin)

Vantage holds all Australian client funds in segregated trust accounts with top-tier Australian banks. This keeps client funds separate from the company’s capital and ringfences deposits in the unlikely event of the broker becoming insolvent.

A nice-to-have additional layer of protection is offered in the form of the enhanced protection insurance scheme the broker has set up with Lloyd’s of London. It provides cover up to US$1,000,000 per claimant and is included at no additional cost. It doesn’t cover trading losses but is designed to protect client funds in the unlikely event that Vantage is unable to meet its financial obligations.

OUR SUMMARY