Vantage Broker Review

Malaysian traders will be trading under the subsidiary, Vantage Global Limited, authorised by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC).  

For all intents and purposes, the VFSC is not considered a forex broker regulator and applies no supervision of any CFD trading-related activities.  Clients must rely solely on the reputation of Vantage, as no additional measures exist to ensure client protection. However, in a show of good faith, Vantage segregates all funds from the company’s operating capital at AA-rated Australian banks, and it offers negative balance protection to all its clients.  

While Malaysians may be apprehensive about trading under a subsidiary that is essentially unregulated, Vantage subsidiaries in Australia and the UK are also regulated by ASIC and the FCA, which are both top-tier authorities. Vantage also conducts regular audits and has professional indemnity insurance that covers its employees, representatives, and other authorized representatives, but does not participate in a compensation scheme. 

Overall, because of its history of responsible behaviour, ASIC and FCA regulation, and the fact that Vantage is regularly audited, we consider Vantage a safe broker for Malaysians to trade with.  

The account-opening and verification process at Vantage is seamless, fully digital and accounts are ready within 24 hours, which is about the industry average. 

All Malaysian residents are eligible to open an account at Vantage, as long as they meet the following minimum deposit requirements:

• Standard Account: 200 USD
• Raw ECN Account: 500 USD
• Pro ECN Account: 20,000 USD

Vantage offers corporate and individual accounts.  For the purposes of this review, we will outline the process for opening an individual account:

1. From the Vantage homepage, you will have to click on the ‘Live Account’ tab where you will be directed to register an account with a name, email address, telephone number, and country of residence.  
2. Vantage’s registration form requires traders to fill in their personal details, including physical address, date of birth, and ID number. 
3. Next, traders are required to fill in their financial details, employment status, and trading knowledge.  
4. Traders will then have to choose their preferred trading platform (MT4 or MT5), choose their account type (click here for more on Vantage’s account types), and account currency.  
5. Verification usually takes less than 24 hours and Vantage will need:
   1. Proof of Identification – Vantage accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. 
   2. Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the account holder within the last 6 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority. 

Overall, Vantage’s account-opening process is fully digital and hassle-free and accounts are ready for trading within 24 hours.

Vantage’s range of financial instruments for CFD trading includes Forex, share CFDs, commodities (energies, metals, and softs), indices, and cryptocurrencies.

The Standard Account has trading costs included in its variable spreads, while the Raw and Pro account offers raw spread pricing in exchange for a commission per lot.  The trading costs on the Raw and Pro accounts are lower than those on the Standard Account and lower than those of other brokers.  Most other good brokers have an average trading cost of 9 USD per lot of EUR/USD traded.

Swap Fees

The other main trading cost to consider is the overnight swap fee. It is determined by the overnight interest rate differential between the two currencies involved in the pair and whether the position is a buy ‘long’ or sell ‘short’. Unfortunately, Vantage’s swap rates are not published on its website.  

Vantage’s Non-trading Fees

Vantage’s non-trading fees are lower than other similar brokers.  

Some of the most overlooked trading costs are the non-trading fees that are charged by brokers.  These fees can significantly affect your profitability and so should be carefully scrutinised.

Unlike other brokers that charge fees for deposits, and on inactive accounts, Vantage does not generally charge any non-trading fees. However, a 25 USD fee is charged for withdrawals via bank wire transfer. 

Overall, this is a welcome development in an industry where additional fees are charged on almost every transaction.

Tickmill’s Account Trading Costs:

An ECN/STP broker, Vantage offers trading on Forex, indices, energies, metals, cryptocurrencies, and shares. 

Vantage offers three live accounts with higher minimum deposits linked to tighter spreads on either the MT4 or MT5 platform.

Its Standard Account has a minimum deposit of 200 USD, making it accessible to beginner traders.

We define beginner traders as inexperienced traders who have never traded before or have been trading for less than a year. Beginners often do not want to risk trading large sums of money, and will generally not be able to trade full-time during the workweek. 

In general, experienced traders tend to prefer accounts with higher minimum deposits and tighter spreads. Vantage’s Raw ECN and Pro ECN Accounts offer raw spread pricing and low commissions, but this is in exchange for minimum deposits of 500 USD and 20,000 USD respectively.  

Vantage allows hedging, scalping, and copy trading, and the Standard and Raw accounts are available as Islamic swap-free accounts. Maximum leverage under the VFSC regulation for Malaysian traders is up to 500:1 on major Forex pairs.  See below for account details:

Standard STP Account

The Standard account is perfect for novice traders who want direct market access with no commissions. The minimum deposit on this STP account is 200 USD.  Fees are included in the spreads, which start at 1.0 pips on the EUR/USD, and traders can access leverage of up to 500:1.  These trading costs are average for the industry.  Minimum transaction levels are at 0.01 lots.  

Raw ECN

As the name implies, this is an ECN account, with no dealing desk.  Raw ECN accounts are professional trading accounts with floating spreads starting at 0 pips on the EUR/USD. The minimum deposit is 500 USD, leverage is 500:1, and a commission of 3 USD is charged/lot per side (6 USD round turn).  These trading costs are lower than those of other brokers.

Pro ECN

Pro ECN accounts are tailored for professional traders and money managers who trade in high volumes.  The minimum deposit is 20,000 USD, leverage is up to 500:1, spreads are tight, starting at 0.0 pips, and a commission of 2 USD/ lot per side is charged (4 USD round turn).  These are some of the lowest trading costs in the industry.

Islamic Swap-Free Accounts

The Vantage swap-free accounts are available for Forex traders who are unable to receive or pay swaps due to religious beliefs. Vantage Swap-Free Accounts incur no swaps or interest charges on overnight positions. Instead, the account holder is charged an administration fee on overnight positions which is deducted from the balance of the account.  

The administration fee is made up of the fees imposed by its liquidity providers plus an internal processing fee (approx. 10%). Because the fee imposed by its liquidity providers is variable, admin fees also tend to vary. Apart from this difference, swap-free accounts have exactly the same trading conditions and associated terms as Vantage’s regular accounts.

Demo Account

Those afraid to risk real money on trading will be glad to learn that Vantage has introduced an unlimited MT4 demo account. Traders can test strategies and analyse data on over 300 instruments.  

As a well-regulated broker, Vantage ensures that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed. 

Vantage offers a range of deposit and withdrawal methods, including bank wire transfers, local bank transfers, credit cards, and debit cards, Skrill, Neteller, BPay, Poli, and Unionpay transfers.  However, these are not all available for Malaysian clients.

Deposits for all payment methods are free, although clients will have to absorb the fees charged by their various banking institutions.  All withdrawal requests are processed Monday to Friday, 9 am – 7 pm (AEST), within one business day. Clients can withdraw funds online by simply logging into the secure Vantage client portal and selecting the withdraw tab from the menu.  

Base currencies (Trading Account Currencies)

Vantage offers a wider range of base currencies compared to other similar brokers.  

Vantage clients can choose between 9 base currencies, including AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, SGD, CAD, NZD, JPY, and HKD.

However, Vantage does not offer MYR trading accounts, which is a disadvantage for Malaysians who will likely have bank accounts denominated in MYR, and who will have to pay currency conversion fees on deposits and withdrawals.

For traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month), it is better to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

Overall, Vantage offers more trading account currencies than most other large international brokers but it doesn’t offer accounts denominated in MYR.  

Please see the following list of payment methods for further details:

Vantage has a diverse range of active deals and promotions, including 50% credit bonuses, 15% withdraw bonuses, Trade-More-Return-More bonuses, Swap-free promotions, and ‘refer a friend’ bonuses.  See the Vantage website for more details.

All the trading platforms supported by Vantage are available as mobile and tablet downloads – allowing traders to keep track of their open positions while on the move.

MT4/MT5

Both MT4 and MT5 are available as mobile and tablet downloads on Android and iOS – allowing traders to keep track of their open positions while on the move. 

The advantage of using the MetaTrader platform is the cross-device and multi-broker functionality, making it easier to change brokers or use multiple brokers.  

Vantage’s MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes and 30 indicators. However, traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop trading platforms, including reduced time frames and fewer charting options, but traders can close and modify existing orders, calculate profit and loss, and trade on the charts. 

Vantage App

With a suite of technical indicators such as Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, MACD, 9 timeframes, charting tools, and 10 timeframes, the Vantage App offers traders of all styles powerful yet simple technical charting.  It is packed full of features such as order management, custom watch lists, trading signals by Trading Central, alerts, news calendars, and more. 

MetaTrader 4

The MetaTrader 4 Platform (MT4) is the most popular online Forex trading terminal in the world. It has a straightforward interface, considered easy-to-use for both novice and experienced traders alike.  It is also widely recognised for its fast execution speeds, range of charting tools, algorithmic trading, and customisability. MT4 is available in over 31 languages.  

Other features of MT4 include:

• Supports the creation, modification, and utilisation of automated trading strategies.
• Supports MQL4 programming language.
• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
• Allows traders to develop their own custom indicators
• Superior charting tools in nine timeframes
• 31 graphical objects
• 30 built-in indicators
• 9 timeframes
• Three order execution types
• Four types of pending orders

While MT4 has great customizability, the platform feels outdated, and some of the features may be hard to find.  In addition, only the basic orders are available, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop.

MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 is the latest trading platform developed by MetaQuotes Software Corp. Set to replace MT4, MT5 is more intuitive and offers significant improvements in copy trading, mobile trading, and other innovative features that make trading account management more efficient.  Other features of Mt5 include:

• 38+ preinstalled technical indicators
• 44 analytical charting tools
• 3 chart types
• 21 timeframes
• Additional pending order types
• Detachable charts
• Trailing stop
• Depth of Market
• An integrated Economic Calendar.

Overall, although Vantage only offers the Metatrader suite of platforms, which are not as beginner-friendly as the proprietary platforms offered at other brokers, it also offers its own proprietary mobile trading app.  

MT4/MT5 Smart Trader Tools

The MT4/MT5 Smart Trader Tools consist of three additional MetaTrader plugins that dramatically improve the trading environment. The tools include an array of sophisticated alarms and messaging systems, and correlation tracking:

• Alarm Manager: Allows traders to set the alarms, apply their rules and triggers.  It offers 6 types of alarm alerts available on SMS, via email, and push notifications.  
• Correlation Matrix and Correlation Trader: These tools work together to show correlations between pairs of trading symbols. It functions with any symbols available in the trading platform, allowing a calculation of the correlation between multiple asset classes against Forex. The Correlation Trader will then allow for a detailed inspection of the correlation between any two instruments.
• Excel RTD Link: Clients can use MS Excel fans to compare, analyse and create rules in real-time across multiple accounts using their favourite spreadsheets.

Forex VPS

Clients with a minimum balance of 1,000 USD will be able to opt into the Vantage free VPS promotion.  Traders will be able to select their preferred VPS provider, send Vantage the receipt, and they will refund the account.  

Vantage’s preferred VPS providers include Photon VPS, Next Point Host, Commerical Network Services, and Winner VPS.

VPS services ensure that trades are never disrupted by technological or connectivity issues, such as load-shedding or internet service failure, which is a benefit to algorithmic traders who need to be connected to a server 24/7 to maximise uptime.  Other benefits of the VPS service include:

• 24/6 VPS email support
• 24/7 Redundant power to your VPS
• 24/7 Redundant internet connectivity to your VPS
• Low latency connectivity to FP Markets trading servers for precision trading
• Uninterrupted EA trading

Sentiment Indicators

Vantage’s sentiment page displays the overall long and short positions of the Vantage book. The sentiment ratio of long to short positions is represented as a percentage and displayed as a sliding scale where red represents clients’ shorts and blue represents their longs.  Sentiment indicators are available for Forex, commodities, and indices.  

Traders should be aware that as forex is a decentralised market, Vantage’s sentiment readings are of the Vantage book only. By reading this snapshot of the market, however, traders will get an idea of the average trader’s mindset and therefore take advantage of the supply/demand imbalances that may result.

Pro Trader Tools

Pro Trader tools are available to clients with a minimum balance of 1,000 USD.  Pro Trader tools include various market news updates, trading ideas, an economic calendar, and various analyst views:

• Market Buzz: A news feed that offers news analytics and sentiment indicators.
• Featured Ideas: Access technical and fundamental trade ideas based on proven, backtested strategies across all your favourite currency pairs and technical setups. 
• Economic Calendar: Vantage offers actionable, real-time economic data, which allows traders to act on market-moving events from more than 30 countries across the globe. 
• Analyst Views: Vantage offers a unique combination of quantitative technology and technical analysis expertise covering 80,000 instruments. 

Social Trading

Vantage really shines with the number of social trading platforms available, however, these are affiliate partnerships.

Vantage offers three of the most popular platforms for social trading, including Zulutrade, Duplitrade, and Myfxbook Autotrade, but these are available through affiliate partnerships.

Zulutrade Social Trading Platform

Through the ZuluTrade social trading platform, Vantage clients will gain exclusive access to a vast pool of professional traders and profitable trading systems.  ZuluTrade enables users to locate successful traders that are ranked by ZuluRank, a proprietary performance evaluation algorithm, and follow their trades which are translated into real trades in their own trading accounts.  Note that traders will have to contact Zulutrade directly to find out about the costs of using the platform.

Duplitrade

Vantage clients can diversify their portfolio by duplicating the trades of proprietary traders. When traders connect to DupliTrade, they gain access to a portfolio of hand-picked proprietary traders. Then, you simply choose the traders you want to copy based on their performance, strategy, and trading style, and their trades will be duplicated on your Vantage MT4 or MT5 account.  Note that traders have to have a minimum account balance of 2000 USD in order to access Duplitrade.

MyFxbook Autotrade

Myfxbook Autotrade is one of the most popular copy trading platforms on the market. The AutoTrade service is an online FX trade copying platform with over 90,000 FOREX traders. This service allows you to copy the trades of any system you select directly into your Vantage MetaTrader 4 account.  

One of the benefits of using the Myfxbook Autotrade copy trading platform is its functionality.  It offers multiple copy trading modes and there is no limit on the number of Strategy Providers that can be followed.  

On the whole, copy trading or social trading is useful for traders who are interested in the financial markets but lack the experience and knowledge.

Trading Tools Comparison: 

Vantage provides a good selection of market analysis materials, but these are all curated by third-party providers.  

Vantage provides research primarily from third-party content providers such as Trading Central. The broker also has some basic features, such as an economic calendar and client sentiment data. Still, Vantage lacks a variety of in-house content besides its daily videos, compared to other forex brokers.  

For those without a Pro Trader account, beginner traders can access a series of articles and videos explaining Forex trading basics, a market overview, market analysis, trading psychology, and various MetaTrader platform tutorials. Vantage also provides a library of over 130 videos as part of its Pro Trader videos. Content ranges from short introductory clips for beginners to longer advanced concepts across forex and CFD trading across various markets.  Again, one has to make an initial deposit of 1,000 USD to gain access to this material.   

Vantage also offers regular webinars – run thrice weekly – a real advantage for beginners trying to find their footing in the Forex trading space.  

Help is available 24/5 via telephone (but only via a UK telephone number), email, Telegram, and live chat.

For the purposes of this review, we found customer support via live chat extremely responsive and polite.  They were also able to answer all of our questions satisfactorily.