General
Features
Pros
- FCA regulated
- Trade 5,000 markets
- Excellent Spread Betting
- Super customer support
Cons
- No Metatrader 5 support
OvalX Review
With its roots reaching back to 1965, OvalX is one of the oldest and best-established online brokerages offering spread betting and CFD trading. The operation started out dealing in mortgage bonds and later expanded into stocks and financial derivatives.
The retail derivatives trading side of the brokerage took off in 2002. First called TradIndex, it underwent a rebranding process and came out of it as OvalX. According to its official website, OvalX offers:
- Telephone trading
- The electronic trading of financial derivatives
- Top-notch execution
Unlike many of its competitors, OvalX has built its operation around its proprietary trading platform. Developers of the award-winning platform constitute the core of the OvalX team. Professional traders and market analysts also belong in this team, as do the OvalX support staff members.
Why would you want to trade with OvalX?
Besides being a trusted and regulated trading destination, OvalX offers a handful of unique perks to its clients.
- OvalX is a boutique broker, meaning that its primary focus is on offering a tailor-made, highly personalized service to its clients. This way, the broker can deliver expert support to beginners, high-volume traders, and expert analysts alike.
- The broker brings award-winning technology to bear on desktop PCs as well as mobile devices. In 2020, it picked up the Best Mobile App award from Shares and the Best Forex Trading Support Award at the 2020 Global Forex Awards.
- In addition to the scores of awards it possesses, the broker has been around for more than half a century. Its longevity alone lends it weight, credibility, and legitimacy.
- The tradable asset selection of OvalX is outstanding. The broker offers access to more than 5,000 markets, covering indices, Forex pairs, shares, and commodities.
Having expanded its services beyond the UK, OvalX has secured additional regulatory coverage through CySEC. Its CySEC license means that the operation is MiFID II-compliant, and, thus, free to offer trading services in scores of countries.
Monecor Europe Ltd. is the corporate side of the European-facing branch of the operation. Monecor is a registered company, and it is licensed by Cyprus’ CySEC, under license number 096/08.
Monecor London Ltd. carries the UK side of the OvalX brand. It is licensed by the UK’s FCA, under license number 124721.
OvalX has recently acquired a FSCA license in South Africa. Which means it is now officially authorised as a local Financial Service Provider. The FSCA is responsible for market conduct regulation and supervision and aims to enhance the efficiency and integrity of financial markets, protecting traders by promoting fair treatment from financial institutions.
What do users say about OvalX’s services?
Most people who have had to deal with OvalX and its support staff have appreciated the experience. This explains why the overwhelming majority of user feedback available online is positive.
- Customer service is the focus of most positive user reviews. The support staff knows its business, and it spares no resources to help. They will help with the account setup, which can be quite tedious, as well as deposit/withdrawal issues, etc. The consistency of the support has not gone unnoticed either.
- Many users have grown fond of the broker’s webinars. Delivered in plain language, these valuable bits of online trading education have won a surprising number of fans.
- The trading platforms have garnered a few accolades from uses as well. They cover a wide range of needs, and they cater well for all comers.
- Some clients have pointed out the market selection of the broker as their favorite element of the offer.
- The transparency of the broker’s spread-betting offer has attracted many UK-based traders. Unlike its competitors, OvalX is upfront about its trading conditions and execution mechanisms.
For a broker that has been around for more than 50 years, OvalX has received remarkably little flak from the trading community. Negative user reviews are few and far between, and many of them are fake. Spammers try to hook readers by leaving fake negative reviews and peddling the services of shady funds-recovery companies.
- Some users have complained about the alleged unresponsiveness of the OvalX support staff.
- Others say that they deposited with the broker and were not able to recover their monies.
- There are always traders who feel that the broker rigs the system against them.
- Some potential OvalX clients had problems with the account-opening/verification procedure.
OvalX Platform and Tools
The centerpiece of the OvalX platform offer is OvalX TraderPro, the proprietary platform of the broker.
The award-winning platform offers multiple charting tools and the possibility to split them. It features several chart types, and drawing tools, together with more than 60 technical indicators.
The platform allows traders to trade directly from the chart. Right-clicking opens a trade ticket. From there, you are only a couple of clicks away from launching your trade.
ETX TraderPro also allows traders to set stops and limits, managing their risk dynamically. In addition to supporting these options, the broker also offers detailed education on how traders can best manage their risk.
TraderPro allows a high degree of personalization. Traders can set personalized watchlists and drag and drop charts to create a unique workspace. The platform supports up to 10 such workspaces.
Besides TraderPro and its mobile versions, the broker also supports the popular MT4 trading platform. MT4 is well-known throughout the trading community. Offering unparalleled charting, with OvalX, it also offers outstanding execution speeds of 30 milliseconds or less.
The broker is responsible for the price feeds on its MT4 platform. MT4 allows clients to trade micro-lots and hedge. OvalX’s version of the platform also supports Expert Advisors for automated trading. To take full advantage of the capabilities of these advanced auto-traders, the broker also offers access to Virtual Private Servers, so traders can keep their EAs running around the clock.
Commissions and Fees
The broker has built its fees into the spread. OvalX’s trading conditions are among the best in online trading.
There are two account types, depending on the trading platform one uses. Both account types charge reasonable spreads and offer good trading conditions.
On popular FX pairs such as the EUR/USD, spreads start from 0.7 pips. On commodities, spreads start from 3 pips, while on equities, the spreads start from just 0.08 pips.
Bear in mind that OvalX features variable spreads. The mentioned spreads are median values. The size of the actual spread depends on market conditions, liquidity, and other variables.
Research and Education
The education section of the broker is one of its strengths. Traders love it as it offers helpful, well-structured information. In addition to a fully-fledged Trading Academy, the broker offers platform guides, eBooks, several asset-specific trading guides, and webinars.
The Trading Academy is an interactive solution for delivering trading-specific knowledge. ETX’s experts and webinar hosts provide detailed information on market analysis and trading opportunities, risk management, trading psychology, and more.
The webinar section is bustling with fresh content. Webinars feature well-structured, easily digestible information.
Asset-specific trading guides come in video format. They feature bite-size videos introducing traders to the optimal trading of FX pairs, indices, commodities, etc.
The eBooks cover a wide range of topics, from the history of bitcoin to technical and fundamental analysis techniques.
Customer Service
The OvalX website features a live chat section, where traders can request assistance instantly.
In addition to that, those interested can also contact the broker through phone (0800 138 4582 for the UK and +357 (0) 22 000 580 for international clients) and email (enquiries@ovalx.com and newaccounts@ovalx.com).
Mobile
The TraderPro app comes in mobile versions for Android and iOS devices. These apps support all the functionalities of the desktop app. They feature interactive charts, watchlists, and price alerts.
The apps are very compact and only take a few seconds to download and install. They are available for free in the App Store and Play Store.
In addition to the mobile versions of its proprietary trading platform, OvalX also offers mobile versions of MT4. These apps deliver all the perks and features of the desktop app, allowing traders to perform analysis and trade on the go.
Conclusion
OvalX is a reputable, trusted destination for the online trading of CFDs and spread betting. Although some users have complained about the brokerage, its reputation is stellar.
It offers a great selection of tradable markets and trading platforms. Its support is outstanding, and its trading conditions are more than decent. Its spread betting feature is transparent and, therefore, more attractive for traders than its competitors’ spread betting deals.
OvalX offers personalized support and a superb education section bustling with new content and useful information.