Broker comparison – who is the best? In this article, we are introducing the broker Admiral Markets.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
About Admiral Markets
Admiral Markets is an international forex broker with the declared aim of making currency trading transparent and accessible for everyone around the world. The main office of the online broker operating under the name of Admiral Markets AS is in London, but the company also has a branch office in Berlin in addition to that. The holding company is Admiral Markets Group AS, wherewith the subsidiaries Admiral Markets UK Ltd., Admiral Markets Pty. and Admiral Markets Cyprus Ltdare are directly affiliated.
Admiral Markets makes a number of trading options and instruments available for its clients around the world. At this moment in time, the company can already boast 120,000 active customers globally, with a monthly trading volume in excess of 50 billion US-dollars. The online broker has nearly 400 employees worldwide.
The online broker’s vision
The vision of Admiral Markets is best expressed in their own words, quoted from the website:
“We believe everyone creates their own success. Our role is to give them the tools and knowledge to achieve their goals.”
In this context, the online broker also uses the apposite motto „Trading is for everyone„.
The history of Admiral Markets
Admiral Markets was founded in the year 2001 in Russia. The establishment of a first European branch followed in 2003 already – namely in Estonia. The first German branch was then opened in 2011.
In 2016, the group reviewed its global strategy and developed a new one that is focussed on key markets and target segments, apart from significantly improving the range of services for retail investors (expanded trading instruments, new training programmes, etc).
Deposit protection and regulation of the online broker
If you are looking for a suitable broker, its regulation and protection of your deposits, especially, have a key role to play.
The Admiral Markets online broker is regulated by the British FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) and therefore subject to strict requirements. The FCA guidelines additionally ensure that all funds deposited by clients are kept separate from the company’s own capital in an EEA-regulated banking institution. This ensures the safekeeping of their funds, and that they can only be used for the intended purposes. Permanent monitoring and control by the competent authority is part of this process.
In the event of insolvency, customers can obtain compensation by way of the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme). The maximum amount insured this way equals 85,000 pound sterling.
In addition to this, Admiral Markets also offers a so-called „Negative Balance Protection Policy“ that protects professional clients from negative balances of up to 50,000 GBP. Retail customers even enjoy complete protection from negative balances.
Awards won by Admiral Markets and references
Compared to many other online brokers in the market, Admiral Markets is a relatively new arrival in this sector. Be that as it may, the company already has a great number of awards and references to show for itself. Particularly worth mentioning are the following:
- DKI (German Customer Institute) : Honoured as the „Best CFD Broker 2019″ with a total rating of 1.3 in a survey conflating the ratings of over 1,000 traders for this broker.
- onlinebroker-portal.de: Admiral Markets also won the „Best Forex Broker“ award in the annual user survey of this website in 2019.
- BrokerWahl at Broker-Test.de: Also in the same year, the Admiral Markets online broker has been able to take first place in the „CFD Broker of the Year 2019“ category for the very first time.
Which tradable markets are offered by Admiral Markets?
As an investor or trader, one is naturally particularly interested in the range offered by an online broker. This is relatively extensive at Admiral Markets with over 7,500 assets. So let us take a more detailed look below at the types of tradable market this online broker makes available to its clients.
Forex
Admiral Markets offers its customers a great diversity of different trading instruments. Leading the pack is Forex trading, however, which is most of all known for its high volatility. The online broker offers traders over 40 CFDs on currency pairs to choose from here, available for trading 24/5. The range not only includes popular majors such as EUR/USD, but also forex minors like EUR/GBP and exotic currency pairs such as USD/CZK, for example.
Also to be highlighted is the fast order execution, which takes place within milliseconds at the optimal market price.
Commodities
Another market tradable at Admiral Markets embraces the area of commodities. Customers can trade CFDs on various commodities such as crude oil, gold, silver palladium and more here, both short and long. The commodities trading is also possible 24/5. For a minimum deposit of 100 euros, retail clients can trade with leverages of up to 1:20 here, and professional clients of 1:500.
Indexes
Added to this is the possibility of trading CFDs on indexes. Customers can trade the most popular stock indexes both long and short to benefit from their rising or falling prices, respectively. The timeframe and leverage conditions are the same as with the commodities, and the minimum deposit is also 100 euros.
Stocks
Classic shares and stock CFDs can naturally also be traded at the Admiral Markets online broker. Customers can trade the world’s best-known blue chips (US blue chips, EU blue chips, etc.) via bond CFDs long or short, with no additional costs incurred for short positions. Retail clients can go for leverages of up to 1:5, professional clients of up to 1:20 maximum. In addition to which stock traders can also benefit from dividends on long positions with Admiral Markets.
ETFs
ETFs (exchange-traded funds) are another tradable instrument that customers of Admiral Markets can trade with low commissions starting from as little as 0.01 US-dollars. As with the stock trading, customers can also enjoy the dividends of stock companies here. Whereas ETFs can principally be traded without leverage and margin (and thus without greater risk), ETF CFDs allow for a leverage of 1:5 (for retail clients) and/or 1:20 (professional clients).
Bonds
Where the bond trading is concerned, retail clients can trade with leverages of up to 1:10 again, and professional clients with leverages of up to 1:200, both short and long. Trading is also possible from as little as 100 euros here.
Cryptocurrencies
And finally, Admiral Markets also offers the option of trading CFDs on cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, Litecoin, bitcoin cash, Ethereum, etc. Customers can thus bet on the falling or rising prices of the crypto CFDs without needing to hold any of the real cryptocurrencies themselves.
The online broker’s trading platforms
With all the tradable instruments highlighted in the previous sections, we should take a closer look now at the trading platforms available at Admiral Markets. The online broker offers four different options here.
MetaTrader 4
First and foremost, Admiral Markets does offer the popular MetaTrader 4. This tried-and-tested trading platform enables traders to apply effective technologies in an equally advanced environment. MetaTrader 4 is not regarded as the most popular trading platform for currency and CFD trading on the market without reason. The platform’s concrete advantages can be summarized as follows:
- Fast manual or automated trading
- Advanced chart analysis options and tools
- Easy to manage & user-friendly design
- Fully and individually customizable
Apart from this, the trading platform also supplies its users with free real-time prices, charts, news, and analyses, all of them customizable. That MetaTrader 4 can be used with your desktop, online or mobile apps (Apple and Android) should go without saying.
MetaTrader 5
With MetaTrader 5, Admiral Markets offers its clients a highly proven multi-asset platform enabling investors and traders to effectively trade forex, CFDs and other instruments. The analysis tools and charts are technologically sophisticated and progressively integrated in the platform to offer traders optimal conditions for automated trading. Here a brief outline of MT5’s advantages:
- Technologically highly developed charts
- Free market information and relevant news
- Extensive range of upskilling options
- Great number of markets
- Level II price quotation
- Trading algorithms and VPS support
Besides your desktop, MetaTrader 5 can also be installed on mobile devices.
MetaTrader Supreme Edition
MetaTrader Supreme Edition is highly recommended for anyone wishing to go even one better. This trading platform is exclusively reserved for the clients of Admiral Markets and can be downloaded free of charge for both MT4 and MT5. The Supreme Edition equips these platforms with additional cutting-edge tools and provides a command centre for forex and CFD trading. The extra advantages can be detailed like this:
- Precise indicators for technical analysis and analysts‘ opinions for optimizing trading strategies
- Market sentiment widget expansion
- Uncomplicated administration using the mini-terminal
→ 1-click trading with SL, TP and TS
→ Integrated margin calculator
→ Templates for OCO & OCA orders
→ 1-click reverse order & hedging
- Tick chart trader
- Realtime news directly on the platform
- Trading simulator
MetaTrader Webtrader
Not least of all there is also the option of trading directly by way of the MetaTrader Webtrader if you do not want to download any software or fail to meet the system requirements. The trading will then happen directly in the bowser and is possible at any time from any place.
Deposits and withdrawals with Admiral Markets
The Admiral Markets online broker offers interested investors a number of different options for depositing funds in their customer account. The following table lists the most popular options amongst German customers.
| Deposit | Fees | Minimum amount | Maximum amount | Wait |
| Bank transfer | Free | No minimum | No maximum | Up to 3 working days |
| Klarna | Free | € 50 | € 10,000 | Immediately |
| Visa or MasterCard | Free | € 50 | € 5,000 | Immediately |
| Skrill | 0.9%, € 1 minimum | € 50 | € 10,000 | Immediately |
| Neteller | 0.9%, € 1 minimum | € 50 | € 10,000 | Immediately |
Withdrawals are usually made the same way as deposits. If there is no activity in a customer account for more than 24 months, a € 10 inactivity fee becomes due every month for holding open positions.
Which account models are available at Admiral Markets?
Let us now turn to a key area for selecting a suitable online broker: the available account models. Admiral Markets offers two different account types each for the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms, with Admiral.Markets and Admiral.Prime tailored to the MT4 platform and Admiral.MT5 and Admiral.Invest to the MT5 platform. The conditions of the individual account types are set out below.
Admiral.Markets
Admiral.Markets is the most frequently selected account model with the MT4 trading platform. The minimum deposit required for this account type amounts to 100 euros. The table below details the most important trading conditions.
| Trading instruments | Currencies, cryptocurrency CFDs, spot metal and energy CFDs, index future CFDs, cash index CFDs, stock CFDs, bond CFDs |
| Leverage (forex) | For retail clients: 1:30 – 1:20 For professional clients: 1:500 – 1:10 |
| Leverage (indexes) | For retail clients: 1:20 – 1:10 For professional clients: 1:500 – 1:10 |
| Spreads | from 0.5 pips |
| Limit/stop levels, pips | 0 pips |
| Commission | Only for stock CFDs and ETF CFDs (from USD 0.01 per CFD) |
| Tick size (forex) | 0.00001 |
| Requotes | none |
| Minimum order size (forex) in lots | 0.01 |
| Maximum order size (forex) in lots | 100 |
Admiral.Prime
The second account type option for MetaTrader 4 is Admiral.Prime. The minimum deposit is also set to 100 euros here. The main difference from the first account model above is that no spread becomes due, but a corresponding commission, based on the traded instrument.
| Trading instruments | Currencies, spot metal CFDs, cash index CFDs, spot energy CFDs |
| Leverage (forex) | For retail clients: 1:30 – 1:20 For professional clients: 1:500 – 1:10 |
| Leverage (indexes) | For retail clients: 1:20 – 1:10 For professional clients: 1:500 – 1:10 |
| Spreads | from 0 pips |
| Limit/stop levels, pips | 0 pips |
| Commission | Forex & metals: from USD 1.80 to 3.00 per lot Cash indexes: from USD 0.05 to 3.00 per lot Spot energies: USD 1 per lot |
| Tick size (forex) | 0.00001 |
| Requotes | None |
| Minimum order size (forex) in lots | 0.01 |
| Maximum order size (forex) in lots | 200 |
Admiral.MT5
Admiral.MT5 is the most frequently selected account model with the MT5 trading platform. The range of selectable trading instruments offered here is several times over that with the MT4 platform again. The minimum deposit is set to 100 euros as well. See the table below for details of the other conditions.
| Trading instruments | Currencies, cryptocurrency CFDs, spot metal and energy CFDs, spot agricultural commodity CFDs, index future CFDs, commodity futures, cash index CFDs, stock CFDs, ETF CFDs, bond CFDs |
| Leverage (forex) | For retail clients: 1:30 – 1:20 For professional clients: 1:500 – 1:10 |
| Leverage (indexes) | For retail clients: 1:20 – 1:10 For professional clients: 1:500 – 1:10 |
| Spreads | from 0.5 pips |
| Limit/stop levels, pips | 0 pips |
| Commission | Only for stock CFDs and ETF CFDs (from USD 0.01 per CFD) |
| Tick size (forex) | 0.00001 |
| Requotes | None |
| Minimum order size (forex) in lots | 0.01 |
| Maximum order size (forex) in lots | 100 |
Admiral.Invest
The last of the account variants available at Admiral Markets is Admiral.Invest. This model is most of all intended for customers preferring to trade shares and/or ETFs. The online broker thus makes over 4,350 different stocks and more than 200 ETFs (and even over 500 ETFs for professional clients) available to its clients with Admiral.Invest. Another unique feature is that the minimum deposit only amounts to 1 euro here.
| Trading instruments | Stocks, ETFs |
| Leverage (forex) | X |
| Leverage (indexes) | X |
| Spreads | from 0 pips |
| Limit/stop levels, pips | 0 pips |
| Commission | Stocks & ETFs from USD 0.01 per share |
| Requotes | None |
| Minimum order size (forex) in lots | X |
| Maximum order size (forex) in lots | X |
Analyses at Admiral Markets
Admiral Markets has various different analysis tools to offer for use by the online broker’s clients. Some of the most important analysis tools shall be briefly introduced below.
Premium Analytics
One innovation at Admiral Markets is the Premium Analytics portal providing clients with free access to relevant market news, technical analyses, an economic calendar and global sentiment indicators. All information contents are meanwhile sourced from established enterprises in the financial sector such as the Dow Jones, Trading Central and Acuity.
Fundamental analyses
The online broker naturally also offers rather fundamental analyses of current economic events. These analyses are only available in English at this point in time, however. New articles appear on the website every seven days as a rule.
Technical analyses and Trading Central
In addition to the fundamental analyses, the clients of Admiral Markets can also benefit from a great number of technical analyses, with the online broker publishing new ones every couple of days (also in English only). With Trading Central, Admiral Markets can furthermore boast of a leading supplier of technical analyses and market insights. The analysis features from Trading Central are only available in the MetaTrader Supreme Edition, however.
Upskilling options at Admiral Markets
That interested investors and traders can also hone their skills at Admiral Markets should go without saying. The online broker offers a number of different training options directly on its website. The range includes helpful webinars and trading seminars as well as interesting articles and tutorials providing you with better and more effective strategies for successful trading.
Webinars
The clients of Admiral Markets can first of all benefit from classic webinars supplying them with valuable information. Professional presenters offer webinars about selected topics on the website at regular intervals. The webinars especially treat of currency and CFD trading. Interested traders and clients are to be supported in familiarizing themselves with the trading software, chart analysis and trading in general. In addition to which it is also possible to ask the presenters individual questions live during the webinar. All the offered seminars are meanwhile free of charge.
Trading seminars
In addition to the above, Admiral Markets also offers trading seminars dealing with various subject areas. True to the motto „knowledge is power„, the online broker teaches its clients the basics of forex and CFD trading. In the process, investors are meant to engage with the topics of Technical analysis and Technical indicators. But the essential themes of the trading seminars also include the operation of the trading platforms and an effective risk management. The presenters of these are also professionals with many years of experience in their area. A schedule of upcoming seminars is always available on the Admiral Markets website if you are interested.
Articles and tutorials
In the broadly diversified portfolio of Admiral Markets, traders and investors can choose from a great variety of articles and tutorials on currencies and CFDs wherein the online broker imparts important know-how that can be as useful for novices as it is for more advanced traders.
Detailed analyses, trading strategies, instructions and helpful comments from experts provide clients with powerful tools for improving their own trading.
Other interesting themes such as the Psychology of trading are also addressed at Admiral Markets, providing their readers with important insights.
Strategies for effective risk management
The sizeable leverages often linked with forex and CFD trading can also lead to sizeable losses and great risks as a consequence: the higher the potential profit, the greater the risk. Which is why one should always also engage with a corresponding strategy for minimizing the risk.
Trading can basically consist of a great variety of different approaches and options for mitigating risks and keeping them on a manageable level. Which is why the Admiral Markets online broker provides its clients with many helpful strategies enabling them to apply an effective risk management.
Glossary
Last but not least, the Admiral Markets website also features an extensive glossary where basic trading terms are explained again in easy-to-understand detail. If you are ever unsure what a specific term means, this is the place to go to look up the exact meaning.
The demo account at Admiral Markets
For all interested traders wanting to give the online broker’s services a try without running any financial risk initially, there is a free demo account that can be used without entering into any commitment for a period of 30 days. This Demo account is quickly opened and permits you to try out the conditions at Admiral Markets and functions of the MetaTrader platforms thoroughly without risk.
All the market data for this are provided free of charge and the news are shown in real time while you trade from your PC or mobile phone. In addition to which the training options are also available in the demo version already. If you should decide to open a live account in the process, the demo account will continue to remain fully usable nonetheless.
Support from Admiral Markets
The support is another one of those features that are very important for selecting a suitable broker. The website first and foremost provides an option for contacting the online broker with any questions or requests you may have by way of a classic contact form. In addition to which the website also details an e-mail address that you can use to contact their support with your questions.
If you have an important or urgent question, you can also rely on their telephone support. This is provided by a professional team in Berlin that will answer all your questions revolving around forex, CFDs, MetaTrader and trading.
Remote maintenance option
Of particular interest is also the possibility of remote support, which you can rely on to open an account with Admiral Markets. The online broker provides a special booking function for this online to support interested traders in opening a live account and downloading the trading platform. Depending on what you need, the service team will help you successfully complete the entire process from the first login through to the full installation of extra tools for the MetaTrader platform. In the process, Admiral Markets relies on the Teamviewer software to provide you with optimal support.
The Admiral Markets experience
In the next step, let us take a short look at the experiences and reviews of Admiral Markets to be found online so far. What quickly strikes one is that the reviews of the online broker tend to be relatively positive all in all. Besides the broad range of tradable instruments, Admiral Markets is especially highlighted for its fair conditions. Another emphasis is on the high-quality customer service that comes up with helpful answers to any questions quickly and reliably.
Conclusions
What can be said in closing is that Admiral Markets is not getting so much positive feedback without reason. The order types are fast and reliable, incurred costs lower than average, and the customer service is competent. It could thus be recommendable for interested traders and investors to gather their own impressions and try the online broker out for themselves.
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