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Last Updated On March 15, 2024
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Octa is a good low-cost broker, with a few drawbacks. On the one hand, it has very low trading costs, charges no fees for deposits and withdrawals, and has a great copy trading service.
On the other hand, Octa onboards Malaysian traders through its Comoros Union-based entity, which has few regulatory protections, and the range of instruments available to trade is slightly limited compared to other brokers, with 52 Forex pairs, 5 commodities, 10 indices, 150 equities, and 30 cryptocurrencies.
If you can look past these issues, you will find an excellent low-cost broker: Three swap-free accounts with minimum deposits of 25 USD, a slick mobile app, and a good range of trading tools. Octa also heavily promotes its wide range of bonuses, and it can offer leverage of 1:500 on Forex pairs.
Finally, the website is fully translated into Bahasa Melayu, and Octa always runs competitions and promotions for Malaysian clients.
🏦 Min. Deposit | USD 25 |
🛡️ Regulated By | CySEC, FSCA, MISA |
💵 Trading Cost | USD 6 |
⚖️ Max. Leverage | 500:1 |
💹 Copy Trading | Yes |
🖥️ Platforms | MT4, MT5, OctaTrader |
💱 Instruments |
Octa is regulated by CySEC in the EU, which provides strict regulatory oversight, but Malaysians are onboarded through its entity based in the Comoros.
Regulation: Octa has a good reputation, but it is only regulated by a single tier-2 regulator: CySEC in Europe. However, Malaysian residents will be trading under the subsidiary, Octa Markets ltd, which is registered in the Comoros Union, a comparatively weak regulator.
Still, Octa does have a good reputation, and its European operations are overseen by one of the better regulators in Cyprus.
Safety Features: Octa segregates all funds from the company’s operating capital, and offers negative balance protection to all its clients. Comoros registration also means that Octa can offer higher leverage and bonuses to Malaysian traders.
Company Details:
Octa offers all of the major classes of trading instruments, but the range of instruments in each class is slightly below the industry average.
High Leverage: Octa has 30 cryptocurrencies to trade at 25:1 leverage. This isn’t the largest selection in the world, but it is wider than most other brokers. Leverage is up to 500:1 for Forex trading.
Full list of Instruments:
Note that traders can only trade on 74 of Octa’s 230 instruments on the MT4 Account, but the full range of instruments is available on the MT5 Account.
Overall, Octa has fewer instruments for trading than most other brokers but offers all the major asset classes.
Octa has three trading accounts with very low costs, but we found the rules on leverage restrictive. Each account is linked to a different trading platform, and the number of instruments available on each account differs, too.
Trading Fees: All three of Octa’s accounts require a minimum deposit of only 25 USD, and each account is associated with a different trading platform (MT4, MT5, or OctaTrader). Trading fees are the same on all three accounts.
Account Trading Costs:
Trading costs at other brokers tend to be 9 USD per lot of EUR/USD, making Octa one of the lowest-cost brokers in the industry. We were also pleased to find that all accounts are swap-free.
MT4 Account: The MT4 Account requires a minimum deposit of 25 USD, and no commission is charged on trades. Spreads start at 0.6 pips (EUR/USD) and average at 0.7 pips, tighter than other similar brokers. Leverage is up to 500:1 for Forex trading, and the margin call/stop out is 25%/15%. Energies, Forex, indices, and cryptocurrencies are available to trade, but not equities.
MT5 Account: The minimum deposit is also 25 USD on the MT5 Account. Spreads start at 0.6 pips, and average at 0.7 pips on the EUR/USD, and no commissions are charged. The MT5 trading platform has some extra features, including depth of market, an integrated economic calendar, and full-size tick charts. Traders can access Octa’s full range of financial instruments on this account.
OctaTrader
The OctaTrader Account, available on OctaFx’s inhouse trading platform also has a 25 USD minimum deposit. Its trading conditions almost exactly mirror the MT4 Account, but traders can trade on an extra 6 indices.
Leverage Restrictions: Octa has a couple of odd rules on leverage: Traders can only modify their leverage levels once every 24 hours, and the following leverage restrictions apply to all deposits:
Octa has many funding options for Malaysian residents, including local online banking, credit cards, and cryptocurrencies. Withdrawals are very fast and free, but we could only open an account in US dollars or euros.
Octa does not allow funding to or from third parties like most brokers. All withdrawal requests from a trading account must go to a funding source in the trader’s name.
Accepted Deposit Currencies: Malaysians will be disappointed that Octa only allows trading accounts to be denominated in EUR and USD. Always check the exchange rate when converting from MYR to other currencies, as hidden conversion fees can make trading expensive and affect profitability.
Funding Methods: Octa does not charge any withdrawal fees, and withdrawals are generally completed within a few hours.
Octa’s funding options are excellent for Malaysian traders. Deposits and withdrawals are much faster than most other brokers in the industry and are always free. Malaysian traders will be especially happy with the fast deposit and withdrawal from local banks.
Octa has its own trading management app that integrates well with both the MT4 and MT5 apps.
OctaTrader is a well-designed trading app with a slick and easy-to-use layout available on both Android and iOS.
Easy to use: After downloading the app, we found it easy to open new real and demo accounts, manage our leverage, deposit and withdraw funds, and trade on the charts.
Trader Tools: The newly added Space tool is a customisable trading feed you can adjust to your trading style and interests. Space offers real-time market insight, pattern analysis and technical and fundamental analysis. Other useful tools include a feed of market news and trading ideas from reliable news sources, and a profit calculator. It also features a market monitor so we could keep tabs on our favourite trading instruments. None of these tools are ground-breaking, but they all worked as expected, and the profit calculator took into account the different swap rates on MT4 or MT5.
Customer Support: Support was available 24/5 from inside the app. We found the customer support team helpful and responsive.
The app also lets you manage any bonuses or contest accounts you have open with Octa. Overall, we liked how user-friendly the app is; its simple design will appeal to beginner traders.
There is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop versions of these trading platforms, including reduced timeframes and fewer charting options.
Octa’s mobile trading support is good compared to other brokers, with the MT4 and MT5 mobile versions available and the OctaTrader app.
With support for MT4, MT5, and OctaTrader, Octa has good platform options. Octa also has one of the best copy-trading platforms in the industry.
Octa offers its own trading platform, OctaTrader, which is integrated in the Octa trading app for a seamless trading experience. This means you don’t have to download separate apps or switch between apps while trading. Deposit, withdraw, manage accounts, trade, read market analysis—everything in one app.
The platform also adopted a charting technology by TradingView. The app features Space, an exclusive feed by Octa with technical and fundamental market analysis, trend directions, market news, economic calendar, and more from Octa analysts. Space is freely available to all Octa traders.
The main benefit of using third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can keep their own customised versions of the platforms should they choose to migrate to another broker. Both MT4 and MT5 are available for Windows, Android, iOS, and web browser.
Overall, Octa’s platform support is about average when compared to other brokers. Additionally, MT4 and MT5 are generally more difficult to set up and are less user-friendly than the web-based platforms available at some other brokers.
Octa also offers a copy trading platform free for all accounts, allowing beginners to copy the trades of more experienced, successful traders for a small fee per traded lot. Beginners simply find the Strategy Providers they want to follow and click “Copy.” Their positions will be copied automatically. The copy trading service is also user-friendly and well-designed. This function is also available through the mobile app.
The only downside to the copy-trading app is that it is only currently available on Android devices.
Platform Overview
Octa runs several promotional schemes for clients – some of which you don’t even have to spend any money to benefit from:
50% Deposit Bonus
Octa offers a deposit bonus scheme (up to 50% of your deposit) though withdrawing the bonus is conditional on trading activity, using the following formula:
Fixed-Rate Deposit Promotion
Especially for Malaysian traders, Octa offers clients the chance to make an initial deposit at the fixed rate of 300 MYR = 100 USD. This deposit can also be withdrawn at the same fixed rate.
Demo Contests
Octa runs demo account contests on the MT4 platform. The demo contest runs for 4 weeks, and the participant with the largest demo account balance at the end of the period will win 500 USD, with smaller prizes for the rest of the top five.
Octa 16 Cars Competition
To enter this contest, traders must open an MT4 account and denominate it as their contest account. Traders then must make the highest possible profit and traded volume with the best profit/loss ratio. The closer traders are to the top in these three categories, the higher their chances of winning.
Trade & Win: Get Gadgets for Trading
The Trade & Win promotion gives traders free prizes and gadgets based on their trading volume. For instance, if you have traded 150 lots with Octa you would be eligible for an Android smartwatch. Other prizes include phones and even laptops.
The account opening process at Octa is hassle-free and accounts are ready for trading immediately. Account verification is only required for withdrawals.
All Malaysian residents are eligible to open an account at Octa if they meet the minimum deposit requirements stipulated by the deposit method they choose.
Creating an account is straightforward, the process is fully digital, and accounts are available for trading immediately:
New traders will have to click on the “Open Account” button at the top of the page where they will be directed to register an account.
Overall, Octa’s account-opening process is fully digital and hassle-free, and accounts are available for trading immediately.
Octa has a greater range of useful trading tools than other similar brokers.
Alongside industry standards such as an Economic Calendar, Profit, and Trading Calculators, Octa also offers an Account Monitoring tool and Autochartist.
Overall, Octa offers a good range of trading tools, including Autochartist, one of the best technical analysis tools in the industry.
The educational material at Octa and its alternative website is good but focused on new traders; for more experienced traders, there is little in the way of educational support. Customer support is competitive but where Octa really shines is in the research and market analysis available.
The educational materials available at Octa are more comprehensive and in-depth than what is available at other brokers, but it is more geared toward beginners than experienced traders.
YouTube: Octa offers numerous free resources to help you learn trading. Octa is very active on YouTube, with a range of live trading sessions and webinars taking place regularly. In addition, a workshop for novice traders is held every Saturday in different languages, including Malay and English. You can also watch the recordings of the past webinars, as they are saved on YouTube and always available.
Videos and Articles: The Octa website has an extensive education section with videos and articles for beginner and intermediate traders. The education section is anchored by a collection of articles collectively called Forex Basics. Article topics range from explainers on ECN trading and Risk Management to Technical Analysis and Trading Strategies and more advanced concepts such as Pair Correlations and Fibonacci Retracements. These articles are detailed and well-written and offer valuable advice for new and intermediate traders.
Tutorials: There is a short Tutorial section covering the MetaTrader platforms, CopyTrading, Autochartist, and CFDs, and a Video Tutorial section focused on getting started with MetaTrader. Finally, there is a FAQ section and a useful glossary of Forex trading terms. The education section also links the Manuals for the different platforms Octa supports.
Octa also offers a free Telegram channel with strategies, trading ideas and other exclusive materials from experts.
Finally, Octa offers Space where trading experts and analysts share daily market analytics and trading strategies to help you achieve your investment goals.
Overall, Octa’s educational materials are some of the best in the industry, but it could include content that is more suitable for advanced traders.
Like its education section, the market analysis materials available at Octa are better than most other brokers.
Market Insights: Octa has an excellent Market Insights section which is updated frequently. Regular posts include a Daily Forecast, a Daily Review, and Weekly Review. These posts frequently offer predictions of future market movements – but be cautious and do your own research before acting on any predictions.
Octa YouTube Channel: The Market Insights section also has a daily video series, uploaded to the Octa YouTube channel, called Market in a Minute, which covers all the big news from the Forex markets for the preceding trading day. In addition to all these regular updates, there are irregular short pieces published in reaction to trading events with detailed technical insight.
Forex News: Octa also hosts a Forex News section, with short briefings on all the major news stories affecting the Forex markets, this is updated over the weekend and the articles are well-written and concise. These briefings are offered without any suggestion of how the events will affect the markets.
Octa Telegram Channel: Octa has a special analytics channel called Octa analytics that is aimed at helping traders stay on top of important market events and market trends. Users can check the most likely trading scenarios and discuss them within the community. Octa also posts messages dedicated to market insights and service updates.
Octa customer support is open 24/7 via live chat and 24/5 via phone, email, WhatsApp, and Telegram in many languages, including Malay and English.
Additionally, the Finance Department is open from 06:00 – 22:00 (EET), and the customer verification department is open from 08:00 – 17:00 (EET) for account setup and troubleshooting queries.
We found the support team very responsive but uninformed.
Regulation: Octa is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and registered with the Financial Services Authority of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG FSA):
The FCA (the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority) briefly regulated the company from 2015 to 2017 (ref: 679306) but decided not to renew its licence after the Brexit referendum and instead kept its focus on the EU market.
Industry Recognition: Octa has received plenty of industry recognition in recent years, winning:
FxScouts also awarded Octa Best Forex Copy Trading Platform 2021 for its innovative approach to copy trading.
We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process. Central to that process is the evaluation of the broker’s reliability, the broker, the platform offering of the broker, and the trading conditions offered to clients, summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.
Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. Octa would like you to know that: Forex margin trading involves substantial risks. Forex margin trading exposes participants to risks including, but not limited to, changes in political conditions, economic factors, acts of nature, and other factors, all of which may substantially affect the price or availability of one or more foreign currencies.
Octa is good or excellent across the most important areas. Octa’s trading costs are some of the lowest in the industry, and it has no swap fees. Its intuitive yet sophisticated copy-trading platform was the recipient of our Best Copy Trading Award for 2021. It has an excellent analytical section, a well-designed education section for beginners, world-class trading tools, and a range of exciting bonus options for Malaysian traders. Additionally, its customer support is available 24/7, which is exceptional in an industry where the norm is 24/5.
However, although Octa is a decent all-around broker, traders may be put off by the lack of decent regulation, which for many traders will mean an immediate end to their interest. Additionally, Octa has a limited range of financial instruments, although, in October 2022, it added a range of equities to its offering.
Chris joined the company in 2019 after ten years experience in research, editorial and design for political and financial publications. His background has given him a deep knowledge of international financial markets and the geopolitics that affects them. Chris has a keen eye for editing and a voracious appetite for financial and political current affairs. He ensures that our content across all sites meets the standards of quality and transparency that our readers expect.
Alison joined the team as a writer in 2021. She is the Senior Editor for FXScouts. She has a medical degree with a focus on physiotherapy and a bachelor’s in psychology. However, her interest in forex trading and her love for writing led her to switch careers. She has a passion for Forex trading and over a decade of editorial experience researching Forex and the financial services industry, producing high-quality content. She hosts a weekly podcast, “Let’s Talk Forex,” alongside her colleague, Chris, and has produced over 100 Forex educational videos for the FXScouts YouTube channel. She also writes weekly technical analyses and has tested and reviewed over 100 Forex brokers.
Ida joined our team as a financial writer in 2023. She has a degree in Digital Marketing and a background in content writing and SEO. In addition to her marketing and writing skills, Ida also has an interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Her interest in crypto trading led to a wider fascination with Forex technical analysis and price movement. She continues to develop her skills and knowledge in Forex trading and keeps a close eye on which Forex brokers offer the best trading environments for new traders.
Find out how Octa stacks up against other brokers.
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