Levetrade Review – Pros And Cons Of A FSCA Regulated Firm

This South African trading portal was just recently established as a trading brand in the ownership of AFK Capitals Ltd. Although the website represents decent work and looks appealing with everything it has to offer, we have to discuss several crucial points. 

Some of them are the meaning of trading on platforms without premier license and the protection levels. This and many more important questions are answered in the following Levetrade review, so keep reading to find out more. 

FSCA Regulated

The South Africa incorporated owner of the brand in question, AFK Capitals Ltd, is also licensed by FSCA. Although somewhat diligent in their licensing and supervising duties, this regulator allows unlimited leverage, in contrast to Tier 1 regulators like CySEC, FCA, BaFin, FINMA and others, who didn’t license this firm. 

Still, FSCA ensures the existence of compensation funds, so clients are still better protected than in case of trading with offshore or unlicensed entities. GoldenrodFX is one example of such schemes.

Also, considering that a premium license is desired and recommended, we’d advise you to choose a better regulated brokerage house instead.

Where Are The Clients From

Due to different regulatory directives at work in the US, the company explicitly declares not to provide services to US citizens. On the other hand, these are the countries where the majority of the clients come from:

• South Africa
• Singapore
• Cyprus
• Malaysia
• United Kingdom

In accordance with the Whois information, this firm has been in the business since February 2022, so the project is relatively fresh. Without being present on social networks, it is somewhat questionable how they promote their services and get new clients to sign up. It is possible that this business engages phone salesmen to market and sell their services.

Above Average Trading Costs

The heightened leverage allows clients with higher appetite for risk to trade with up to 1:400 leverage for selected account and instrument types.

Spreads are somewhat looser than the industry average, with 3.0 Pips for trading forex pairs on low-end accounts, and tightening to 0.9 Pips on the most expensive account.

Fees are rather expensive, as the withdrawals are charged $25 for bank wire transfers. Dormancy fee is exorbitantly large and is charged $100 for each sub-account that has been inactive for 2 months or more. The company also charges a $50 “no trade fee” for accounts that request a withdrawal without facilitating any trading.

Lagging Behind Competition

Many of the trading features that this firm offers are subpar when compared to a counterpart from a Tier-1 regulatory environment.

The expectations differ from region to region, and so does the quality of service apparently. Provided software is worse than the one available with the majority of competitors, and the trading accounts are not exactly cheap.

Proprietary Web Trader

One certain disadvantage of signing up with this trading brand is not getting the chance to trade on most prestigious software like eternally popular MT4, MT5 and cTrader. 

As a matter of fact, the only online trading solution awaiting you here is a simplistic web trader. Although it creates an illusion of advanced features and tools, it greatly lacks all of the progressive add ons available on acclaimed terminals.

CFD Trading Assets

The whole point of trading CFDs is the chance to speculate on market changes without owning the underlying asset. Understanding that, the platform offers traders following financial products to buy and sell:

• CFDs on Forex (EUR/USD, EUR/CHF, USD/JPY, USD/AUD)
• CFDs on Commodities (Corn, Wheat, Silver, Natural Gas)
• CFDs on Indices (DAX, Dow Jones, CAC40, HK50, AUD200)
• CFDs on Shares (Disney, Boeing, Caterpillar, Nvidia, Tesco)
• CFDs on Crypto (BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, NEO, DOT, DOGE, LUNA)

Account Prices Are A Rip-Off

Levetrade account types are tiered, with higher tiers including higher leverage, tighter spreads, and swap refunds.

Let’s have a look at them now:

• Classic – $250, leverage 1:200
• Silver – $5,000, leverage 1:200
• Gold – $25,000, leverage 1:400
• Platinum – $100,000, leverage 1:400

Many brokers in the industry allow trading with an initial deposit of $10 or less. Expensive tiered accounts like these are reminiscent of the ones offered by less scrupulous companies like LQDFX.

Mobile App Is Only A Promise

Before revealing anything about their mobile trading distribution, the site owners force you to login. However, even after we’ve opened an account, accessing the page that markets a mobile platform doesn’t give any download links. It seems that fake advertising is all there is to find here.

1 Week Demo Account

The risk free trading is available on this site, but at a certain cost. Firstly, the default Demo account you get after creating a Levetrade login only lasts for a week with $10,000 virtual cash. Although all demo accounts mean trial platform testing, it is unfair to force clients to invest in order to unlock longer lasting Demo.

Withdrawal Options

While the company offers multiple financial channels for payouts, matching the deposit methods, this is not advertised or discussed anywhere outside the Terms of Business, nor are any involved fees.

The payment methods include bank cards, bank wires and cryptocurrency transfers, and are said to be handled in 3 days or less. If you have persisting problems with payouts from this company, feel free to contact our legal experts.

No Prompt Customer Support

There is not live support, instead, the chat greets you with text reading “We’re currently away. Please leave us a message!”. It seems as though clients who encounter urgent issues will just have to weather the ensuing problem.

Other means of contacting clients support include phone and email, but the company doesn’t openly disclose the exact work hours of Levetrade support.

The Overall Experience, Summarized

While the broker license does check out, it is from a flimsy regulatory jurisdiction. In many ways, this firm is seriously lagging behind the competition. There are some aspects of the service that are not transparent enough, and some others that are openly a total rip-off.

In either way, this is not the broker we’d choose to start our business with. If you have invested with this firm, and they start to exhibit some unscrupulous behavior, you may rely on our team of professionals for legal aid.

FAQ Section