OctaFX offers a basic, low-cost MetaTrader platform experience alongside its social copy-trading platform.
It has made great strides with its pricing options for traders, but suffers from a limited range of tradeable instruments and a lack of variety in its educational content. OctaFX also holds just one regulatory license.
- Minimum Deposit: $25
- Trust Score: 66
- Tradeable Symbols (Total) : 52
Pros
- Founded in 2011, OctaFX is regulated in only one tier-2 jurisdiction (Cyprus), making it a high-risk broker for forex and CFD trading.
- Maintains a growing array of well-organized research, with trading ideas, daily updates, weekly forecasts, and third-party content.
- OctaFX offers a new proprietary platform for social copy-trading.
Cons
- Customers served by the broker’s non-regulated offshore entity in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) are not afforded any regulatory protection.
- OctaFX appears to offer competitive trading costs, but its listed spreads do not have corresponding date ranges, and are paired with a narrow selection of just over 50 tradeable symbols.
- OctaFX struggles to compete with the leading multi-asset brokers in areas such as education.
- cTrader’s platform is no longer available with OctaFX.
Overall summary
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Overall | |
| Trust Score | 66 |
| Offering of Investments | |
| Commissions & Fees | |
| Platforms & Tools | |
| Research | |
| Mobile Trading Apps | |
| Education |
Is OctaFX Safe?
Regulations Comparison
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2011 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 0 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 |
| Trust Score | 66 |
Offering of investments
OctaFX offers fewer than 50 tradeable instruments. By comparison, industry leaders IC Markets, ACY Securities, FP Markets, JustForex, OctaFX, Pepperstone, Exness, Tickmill, , and Fusion Markets all offer over 10,000 tradeable instruments.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading at OctaFX is available through CFDs, but not available through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying Bitcoin). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker’s U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents.
The following table summarizes the products available to OctaFX clients.
OctaFX offering of investments:
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Forex Trading | Yes |
| CFD Trading | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 52 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 28 |
| US Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Int’l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No |
| Cryptocurrency (CFD) | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes |
Commissions and fees
OctaFX has struggled with pricing in the past, but has vastly improved in this category and is now gaining on the lowest-cost MetaTrader brokers.
Account types: Any commissions or fees you pay at OctaFX will depend on your chosen account type and the OctaFX entity under which your account is regulated. European clients will choose the broker’s EU entity, whereas international clients are served from OctaFX’s offshore entity in Saint Vincent and The Grenadines (SVG). In the EU, only MT5 is promoted and thus a single account is available, whereas the SVG entity offers accounts for both MT4 and MT5.
Spreads: OctaFX’s spread pricing varies depending on which of its entities regulates your account. For example, its EU entity is slightly better for the EUR/USD pair at 0.5 pips, compared to 0.7 pips for the SVG entity. It’s worth noting that OctaFX did not provide a date range for its average spread data, and thus the values don’t carry as much weight as spreads that have a corresponding date reference. All in all, OctaFX has improved its pricing and appears to keep pace with the lowest-cost MetaTrader brokers, but with no date range available for its average spread claim, we were unable to make an exact comparison.
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OctaFX pricing summary:
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $25 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD – Standard | 0.6 (August 2021) |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD – Active | N/A |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No |
| Execution: Agency Broker | Yes |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes |
Mobile trading apps
OctaFX does have a proprietary app for social copy trading (the OctaFX Copytrading app), yet it still trails behind industry leaders such as IG and Saxo Bank. For our top picks among trading apps, read our guide to Best Forex Trading Apps.
Apps overview: Since OctaFX is a MetaTrader-only broker, iOS and Android versions of the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) app come standard and are both available for download from the Apple App Store and Google Play store, respectively. OctaFX also offers its proprietary OctaFX Copytrading app for social copy trading – which I was unable to install or test due to geolocational restrictions I encountered on Google Play.
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OctaFX mobile trading:
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Alerts – Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watch List | Yes |
| Watch List Syncing | No |
| Charting – Indicators / Studies | 30 |
| Charting – Draw Trendlines | Yes |
| Charting – Trendlines Moveable | No |
| Charting – Multiple Time Frames | Yes |
| Charting – Drawings Autosave | Yes |
| Forex Calendar | Yes |
Other trading platforms
OctaFX is primarily a MetaTrader broker, offering MetaQuotes Software Corporation’s suite of platforms that include MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5).
Copy trading: OctaFX offers a web interface for copy trading (providers are known as Masters) that connects to its MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform offering. OctaFX’s copy trading offering has grown, and I found that it merits inclusion alongside the best copy trading brokers – though it still has room to improve.
From over 6,201 systems available on OctaFX’s Copytrading app, 2,432 were found to either break even or achieve profitability in the last three months – about 39% of all strategies. I found the layout useful, although I would like to see more performance statistics that would help traders differentiate from among the Masters (providers of each strategy).
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OctaFX trading platform:
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes |
| cTrader | No |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting – Indicators / Studies (Total) | 51 |
| Charting – Drawing Tools (Total) | 31 |
| Charting – Trade From Chart | Yes |
| Watchlists – Total Fields | 7 |
| Order Type – Market | Yes |
Market research
OctaFX’s market research is well organized and varied in its content. Rather than specializing in any one field, OctaFX provides a wide assortment of content types. However, when compared to research leaders IG, Saxo Bank, and CMC Markets, OctaFX has room to enhance its research offering.
Research overview: OctaFX’s research content lives in its Market Insights section, which features an economic calendar, daily analysis posts, as well as automated technical analysis by way of MetaTrader’s Autochartist plugin. My favorite features were the interest rates tracker, daily and weekly forecast articles, and the economic calendar – which was useful for keeping track of national holidays and global trading hours.
Market news and analysis: OctaFX produces daily articles that cover technical and fundamental analysis across popular trading symbols including forex and CFDs. It also offers its OC LiveTrader series, which consists of video content that is live-streamed on its YouTube channel. The quality of OctaFX’s research material is on par with what you’d typically find with the average broker, but lacks the rich content offered by the best brokers in this category.
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OctaFX research:
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Autochartist | Yes |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No |
| Delkos Research | No |
| Social Sentiment – Currency Pairs | No |
| Economic Calendar | Yes |
Education:
While OctaFX has improved its educational offering with webinars and live trading session recordings, its educational articles and videos suffer from a lack of variety.
Learning center: OctaFX’s website has a dedicated forex education section with roughly 20 articles for beginners. The OctaFX Youtube channel has archived webinars, and also hosts its Forex Basic Course video series that spans 11 parts.
Features like its trading glossary, platform tutorials, and dozens of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) help to flesh out OctaFX’s educational offering. That being said, there isn’t much educational content for learning how to trade or understand market dynamics. It’s worth mentioning that the broker does have a blog and a YouTube channel, yet I was still left wanting more.
Room for improvement: OctaFX’s educational offering would benefit from an overall expansion of its articles and videos, and an increase in the range of topics covered. Arranging the educational content by experience level would strengthen its ease-of-use, and balance the overall experience.
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OctaFX education:
| Feature | OctaFX |
|---|---|
| Has Education – Forex or CFDs | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
| Videos – Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos – Advanced Trading Videos | No |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
Final thoughts:
OctaFX offers the full MetaTrader suite, albeit with a fairly limited offering of tradeable instruments. There’s no question – if OctaFX wants to compete with the best MetaTrader brokers, it needs to make improvements in its range of products and its research and education.
Though it has been granted regulatory status in Cyprus, OctaFX’s lack of additional reputable licenses heavily weighs down its Trust Score. Becoming regulated in more jurisdictions – especially tier-1 jurisdictions – will go a long way towards building trust with existing and prospective customers.
Is OctaFX a good broker?
OctaFX is an up-and-coming broker that has been in operation for nearly 10 years. Its growth has enabled OctaFX to continue to expand its products and services. Adding additional regulatory licenses in tier-1 jurisdictions would be a step toward winning more client trust.
Is my money safe with OctaFX?
As OctaFX is only regulated in Cyprus, we consider the broker to be a higher risk than those firms that are regulated in numerous tier-1 jurisdictions.
Founded in 2011, OctaFX holds regulatory licenses primarily in Europe through its Cyprus-based entity – Octa Markets Cyprus Ltd – which is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Your account may be eligible for certain CySEC protections – in the extraordinary event of Octa Markets Cyprus Ltd.’s bankruptcy, for example, you’ll be protected for up to 20,000 euros from the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF).
The brand’s international entity, Octa Markets Incorporated, is the brand’s international entity. It is based in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), and it provides little to no regulatory protection. The security of your funds – in terms of regulatory protection – will depend on which OctaFX entity holds your account, and which –if any – relevant regulations provide customer protections.
What is the minimum deposit for OctaFX?
Minimum deposits at OctaFX will vary depending on your country of residence and your chosen payment method. They can go as low as $25 (USD) when funding with Visa/Mastercard, to 50 euros (EUR) when using Skrill/Neteller to as much as 500,000 Indian rupees (INR). It’s important to note that minimum deposits and trading costs will also depend on which OctaFX entity you choose for establishing your trading account.
OctaFX has over 50 different payment options, such as Visa, Neteller, Fasapay and bitcoin, as well as a large variety of local bank transfers. The availability of these payment methods may also depend on your country of residence.
About OctaFX
Founded in 2011, OctaFX is part of a group of global entities, which include Octa Markets Incorporated (based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) and Octa Markets Cyprus Ltd (based in Cyprus).
