Broker comparison – who is the best? In this article, we are introducing WH Selfinvest.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
What is behind WH Selfinvest?
The online broker WH Selfinvest was established in Luxembourg in 1998, making it one of the first online brokers engaged in the area of forex and CFD altogether. WH Selfinvest understands itself as a true online broker, strictly abstracting itself from the term „market maker„.
The declared aim of WH Selfinvest largely continues to consist of offering its clients cutting-edge technology and powerful platforms enabling them to trade with low spreads.
At the time of this report, the online broker has already expanded to ca. 30 different countries, providing its clients with a direct point of contact in its branches there. They also include a German branch in Frankfurt am Main. The trading at WH Selfinvest is meanwhile primarily focused on the forex sector, futures, CFD and stock trading.
The WH Selfinvest online broker enables its clients to trade over 5,000 CFDs and more than 80 different currency pairs.
Awards won by WH Selfinvest
In its past years as an established online broker, WH Selfinvest has been able to garner many different awards for its services and proposals.
As listing all these awards would go far beyond the scope of this report, some of the latest ones shall suffice here. If you are interested in more details, you can always view all the awards collected at the WH Selfinvest website.
- First place as “Futures Broker of the Year 2019” and second place as “CFD Broker of the Year 2019” in the annual broker awards, with WH Selfinvest winning the former a whopping five times in the last six years.
- 14 awards by the market research company „Investment Trends”, inter alia for the customer service, spreads, selection of markets and currency pairs, commissions, price-benefit ratio, etc. in June 2019.
- Honoured as the best CFD Broker by the renowned financial magazine “€uro am Sonntag” in July 2019 for its pricing and order fulfilment.
- 5-star rating by the market research company „Deutsches Kundeninstitut“, including for the provided customer service, trading platforms and order options, as well as being honoured as the “Best CFD Broker of 2019”.
These are only the latest awards, as explained above, with the online broker also able to boast of many more in previous years.
Regulation and deposit guarantee
One key aspect for interested investors selecting a broker is always also the regulation. It should be mentioned to start with in this context that WH Selfinvest is licenced as a „stockbroker„, „commission agent“ and „asset manager“ in one. The WH Selfinvest online broker is meanwhile regulated by the „Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier“ (CSSF) in Luxembourg.
But as the company also has branches in some other European countries by now, these are regulated by the respective national institutions. The Belgian branch is supervised by the „Financial Services and Market Authority“ (FSMA), for example, and the German branch by the „German Financial Supervisory Authority“ (BaFin).
In addition to which deposited client funds are safekept and protected separately from the company’s own capital. Client deposits are kept in reputable bank institutes – depending on the branch in question. These bank institutes include the following, amongst others:
- ED&F MAN
- BIL (Banque Internationale à Luxembourg)
- LCL (Le Crédit Lyonnais)
- ING Bank
- Belfius
- Postbank
Which markets can be traded at WH Selfinvest?
Let us next take a closer look at the tradable markets available to the clients of WH Selfinvest. As already briefly outlined above, the online broker has a relatively extensive range of trading tools on offer, with over 5,000 underlying assets in the area of shares, indexes, commodities, forex, and futures.
Futures
Futures are always traded at a stock exchange as a matter of principle. In the process, WH Selfinvest banks on ultra-fast order fulfilment based on tick-by-tick data, ensuring that slippage will only be suffered very rarely indeed. Besides the popular markets such as the DAX etc., WH Selfinvest also permits many other futures to be traded. The fees charged by the respective exchanges for real-time market data are perforce passed on to its clients by WH Selfinvest.
In addition to Tick charts, Range bars and Renko can also be used at WH Selfinvest to provide investors with all the relevant information and details at all times. The tick-by-tick data tend to be much more reliable and precise than the half-second snapshot data offered by some brokers.
CFDs
The product range at WH Selfinvest is huge, with over 5,000 CFDs and Currency pairs, grouped as follows:
CFDs for
- Market indexes (cash and futures)
- Interest and bonds
- Debentures
- Important commodities (cash and futures for metals, energies, agricultural commodities)
- Shares and ETFs
as well as
- 81 currency pairs
Any order size from 1,000 units can be fulfilled here. The available forex pairs can be traded around the clock on 6 days of the week. And in contrast to many other brokers, there is no dealing spread at WH Selfinvest – i.e. no additional surcharge on the market spread. And last but not least, the online broker also provides its clients with a great number of helpful and free trading tools.
Shares
In the area of stock trading, the online broker cooperates with Interactive Brokers. Which is also why accounts held with the latter can be transferred to WH Selfinvest for free and without needing to close positions.
WH Selfinvest also offers its clients a number of opportunities when it comes to stock trading. Besides the low commissions, explained in greater detail in the next section, direct market access also ensures a swift and precise order execution. In addition to which the shares, options, Equity warrants and ETFs can be traded at 120 stock exchanges in 26 countries.
Trading conditions at WH Selfinvest
Now that we have seen which markets can be traded at WH Selfinvest, the next step should be a closer look at the trading conditions there.
Futures
The spreads for futures are usually very tight and fair at the WH Selfinvest online broker. The general rule that the fees for futures trading also always depend on the respective exchanges, and are correspondingly subject to certain fluctuations, still applies here nonetheless.
At the time of this report, the order fee for the DAX-Futures amounts to € 0.80. The illustration below lists some of the most frequently traded futures with their respective trading conditions. The highlighted futures are meanwhile provided by Eurex, one of the „world’s largest futures exchanges for financial derivatives“. But WH Selfinvest also provides its clients with a number of other options to choose from besides Eurex.
Order fees for futures contracts at WH Selfinvest
Additional costs will be incurred for real-time data on top of this, depending on the selected stock exchange. The monthly fee for Eurex currently comes to € 20.
CFDs
Let us next take a look at the CFD trading fees. The online broker also scores here with very tight spreads, starting from as little as 0.3 points with the main indexes. In addition to which the DAX-CFD spread can be traded with a mere 0.8 points from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The market spread is not expanded with WH Selfinvest – meaning that there is no surcharge on the fee in the form of dealing spreads. Apart from which the online broker offers real-time prices for free, provided by the international news agency Reuters and the exchanges in question.
It is also worth mentioning that there are no hidden costs at WH Selfinvest. Neither are costs incurred in this context for orders or liquidations by phone, nor are order changes or cancellations linked with any expenses. And in contrast to many competitors, no fees become due for inactive accounts, either.
As a WH Selfinvest client, you can choose from two account options:
- Mini Account (low variable fees)
- Standard Account
While a variable fee is charged with the Mini Account, the Standard Account offers a fixed fee. Please see below for the exact fees charged for CFD trading.
Conditions for CFDs based on indexes, bonds, and commodities:
| Mini Account | Standard Account |
| 0.007 % of the order size; no minimum required, | € 3 Euro fixed costs per order |
Opening a Mini Account is most of all recommended for traders with small orders, while the Standard Account caters to traders with larger order volumes. The trading conditions for CFDs based on shares and ETFs are meanwhile somewhat different.
Conditions for CFDs based on shares and ETFs:
| Continent | Trading conditions |
| Europe | 0.07 % per filled order |
| North America | 0.027 USD per share |
| Australia | 0.07 % per filled order |
| Asia | 0.4 % per filled order |
As you can see, the conditions for trading stock CFDs and ETFs differ from one region to the next, but they all have a minimum commission of € 7 in common. The minimum commission is always calculated in the base currency of the respective shares, however, and will be a little higher as a rule.
Forex
Although the forex currency pairs available at WH Selfinvest can also be traded as CFDs, there are a number of differences where the trading conditions are concerned.
As a client, you can initially choose between commission-based and spread-based Currency trading.
- Spread-based forex trading
One key feature of the spread-based forex trading is that no commissions are charged. The variable spreads meanwhile depend on the market conditions. If the trading volume is high, the spread will be correspondingly lower, too. In addition to which immediately pending or just published Business news will not directly affect the extent of the spreads. It should be noted, though, that the spread-based forex trading is not available with the Mini Account.
- Commission-based forex trading
In this case the clients always trade with fixed spreads. This will for example also facilitate a „precise back-testing“ of trading strategies, as one is always aware of the spread in the order fulfilment as a client this way.
In contrast to spread-based trading, clients can also use the MetaTrader 4 trading platform here. It is also to be noted that the commissions are fully charged directly when a position is opened, both for the entry and the exit, which is why no further commission is charged for closing a position.
The commission in this case amounts to 3.5 percent per 1,000 traded units of the respective base currency. The spreads here can partly start from as little as 1.0 pips for the EUR/USD and USD/JPY currency pairs.
If you are interested in the details, the spreads for all available currency pairs can be found on the WH Selfinvest website in the „Contract specification“ section. The spreads in spread-based trading will naturally be a little higher.
And finally a few words about the margin in CFD trading with currencies. This comes to either 3.33 % or 5.00 %, depending on he selected currency pair.
Shares
Last but not least, some brief information on the trading conditions for stock traders. The commissions are manageably listed in the following table.
| Markets | Conditions | Minimum |
| Shares and ETFs (in EUR) | 0.09 % | 3.95 euros |
| Shares and ETFs (in CHF) | 0.09 % | 9.95 Swiss francs |
| Shares and ETFs (in USD) | 0.01 USD per share | 1.95 USD |
| Structured products (in EUR) | 0.19% | 5.95 euros |
Which platforms are available at WH Selfinvest?
After exhaustively explaining the conditions for the various trading instruments in the last chapter, this one is devoted to introducing the trading platforms at WH Selfinvest.
NanoTrader Free and NanoTrader Full
With the NanoTrader Free and NanoTrader Full trading platforms, WH Selfinvest offers its clients a specifically developed multifunctional software for trading. The free version is particularly recommended for novices to start with. This will enable users to familiarize themselves with the basic functions. The free version already integrates various useful tools such as the WHS TechScan, for example, which analyses over 100 indicators for Technical analysis, statistics and Trading strategies every day.
Whereas the full version gives traders full access to all the software’s functions. The key functions and features of NanoTrader include:
- 80 integrated, pre-defined trading strategies and signals
- 15 integrated trading tools
- 30 integrated screeners and scanners
- 10 different Chart types (including range bars, tick charts, Renko charts, etc.), 15 drawing tools, and 200 technical indicators
- Twin charts
- Unlimited use of the Demo account
- Uncomplicated creation and management of orders
- Manual and automated trading possible
- Mobile versions for smartphones and tablets
Changing between the various platforms at WH Selfinvest is possible at any time in the process. NanoTrader has already garnered a number of awards for its reliability and many functions in recent years. The monthly fee for using NanoTrader Full amounts to 29 euros.
MetaTrader 4
Besides the proprietary trading platform NanoTrader, WH Selfinvest clients can also trade using the popular MetaTrader 4 platform if they wish. The use of this platform is free of charge, but the functions it offers are somewhat limited. To be noted here, for example, is that it only permits CFD and commission-based forex trading.
TradingView
WH Selfinvest is also one of the very few partner brokers on the TradingView website.
NinjaTrader
With NinjaTrader, the WH Selfinvest online broker offers a further platform enabling clients to trade futures as well as CFD forex. Users of the NinjaTrader platform enjoy the advantage of favourable trading conditions here, along with swift order fulfilment and a competent support.
The trading platform meanwhile offers a variety of helpful tools, for example including progressive charting with individually configurable charts, a chart trader with 1-click trading, modern trade management with already integrated, advanced trading strategies, and the option of fully automated trading.
In cost terms, NinjaTrader comes to 225 USD a quarter, i.e. 75 USD per month.
Demo account at WH Selfinvest
In addition to all the Online trading platforms described above, the online broker also provides a free demo version. This offers unlimited use, in contrast to many other brokers, and has no expiry date. And the demo account can even be used at any time if you are an existing client with a live account.
WH Selfinvest and ATAS
ATAS is the name of a professional trading platform based on the modern method of order flow futures trading. Order flow trading offers an alternative to the technical analysis and focusses on the actually filled orders instead of historic price developments. This trading style is especially popular in the anglophone world, and thus seen something of an insider tip amongst futures traders in Germany.
The analysis platform can boast of a variety of tools and indicators that have been specifically customized to ATAS.
Deposits and withdrawals at WH Selfinvest
Deposits
Deposit-wise, WH Selfinvest offers its clients the classic bank transfer option, with the minimum deposit depending on whether you want to trade CFDs, shares or futures. While the minimum deposit required for stock and futures trading is 5.000 euros, only 500 euros are required for trading CFDs. Each deposit is moreover subject to a fee of five euros.
Withdrawals
In the opposite direction, withdrawals from client accounts are very easily effected by a corresponding instruction in the account management, with one withdrawal per month even being free of charge. Every further withdrawal will be subject to a flat-rate fee of eight euros, however.
Training and upskilling options
WH Selfinvest also offers all clients and persons interested in the stock market a number of options for honing their trading and financial skills. These first and foremost include the offered webinars and seminars providing their attendees with useful know-how. While novices can have the functions and advantages of the various platforms explained to them, more advanced traders and investors can find out more about market analysis and the development of effective trading strategies.
Customer service at WH Selfinvest
Last but not least, we should also take a look at the customer service at WH Selfinvest. A service team for German-speaking clients is available Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. But if you prefer, you can also send them an e-mail or use the live chat. This will evince a competent reply within a very short time as a rule.
Experiences with WH Selfinvest
What can be said in conclusion is that WH Selfinvest is a reputable and established online broker that numbers amongst the premier companies in the trading sector. The experiences reported online are mostly very positive, thanks to the large range of tradable instruments, as well as the multifunctional NanoTrader platform, amongst other aspects. Another positive highlight is that WH Selfinvest clients are continuously provided with tick-by-tick data. This makes WH Selfinvest as suitable for novices as for advanced traders.
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