BDSwiss Review

Is BDSwiss Safe?

Central to the trust we have in BDSwiss is the international regulation from two respected regulators. BDSwiss has been regulated by CySEC (license 199/13) since 2013 and the FCA (license 607761) since 2013, and annual audits will guarantee that BDSwiss is compliant with the laws to protect client funds.

BDSwiss has garnered a lot of industry praise recently, in March 2019 the company won the Best Trading Conditions 2019 award from World Finance and followed up in October by winning the Best Forex Trade Execution 2019 award at the Global Forex Awards 2019.  These recent awards are in addition to the Best Trading App Award and Most Reliable Broker Award (Mobile Star Awards 2018).

BDSwiss also maintains a transparent complaints process which works to classify the complaint correctly, have the complaint managed by the Head of Support, and kept on record for five years.

Trading Conditions

BDSwiss has the appearance of a traditional broker, but with an ECN/STP business model. Each of the live account options shows unique qualities, including an interesting subscription-based account service which we have not seen elsewhere. BDSwiss claims that 95% of the trades are executed with STP execution which is completely void of conflict of interest.

Account Types

BDSwiss recently added a third live account in addition to the demo account, to attract a professional audience of traders. All accounts offer an Islamic Swap-free option, hedging, basic education material and leverage of up to 1:500 (depending on your country of residence). The accounts available are:

Demo Account

The demo account is a USD 10,000 live market playground to practice your trading and analysis. The demo account never expires to offer a full evaluation of BDSwiss and their trading platforms.

Basic Account: There is no minimum account deposit for the basic account, but traders are encouraged to deposit at least $100. The basic account offers leverage of up to 1:400 and an average spread on EURUSD of 1.5 pips.

Raw Spread Account: The RAW Spread Account resembles a professional account you would get from a traditional ECN broker setup, the main difference here being that BDSwiss is experimenting with a subscription-based account. Rather than pay commission on your trades, there are three subscription tiers:

• Raw Trial, which allows you trade up to 50,000 USD for the cost of 1 USD pcm (only major pairs are available to trade) 
• Raw Grow, which allows you to trade up to 1,000,000 USD for the cost of 29 USD pcm (minor and some exotics are available to trade with this level of service)
• Raw Pro, which allows you to trade up to 3,000,000 USD for the cost of 79 USD pcm. This level of service also comes with a free VPS. Be aware that if you go over the 3,000,000 USD trading limit, a commission of 4 USD per lot will apply.

All three tiers have the same very low spreads (down to 0 on major pairs at times), but none have MT5 support so traders are restricted to Forex and gold pairs. Because of the nature of this account, an Islamic (swap-free) option is not available.

Black Account: The minimum deposit for the Black Account is 10,000 USD with an average spread on EURUSD at 1.1 pips. The main difference with the Black Account is the number of trading and educational tools you get free access to; these include AutoChartist, 1 on 1 Forex education and real-time trading alerts.

Spreads and Commissions

Spreads change based on account type where EURUSD spread range from 0.4 pips to 1.5 pips. A commission is only charged Raw spreads account trades, which is dependent on the amount traded.

Deposit & Withdrawal fees

BDSwiss does not charge for making deposits to a live trading account. BDSwiss can charge for withdrawals.

• A fixed fee of 10 EUR (or equivalent) for bank wire withdrawals below 100 EUR (or equivalent)
• For international payments, the minimum withdrawal amount is 50
  EUR (or equivalent) after the deduction of fees. For amounts that remain below the required 50 EUR, an alternative withdrawal method can be used.
• For Single Euro Payments Area bank transfers a minimum amount of 5 EUR (or equivalent) after deduction of the fees.
• For all other withdrawals amounting to 20 EUR or less, BDSwiss reserves the right to charge a fixed withdrawal fee of 10 EUR (or equivalent).

BDSwiss for Beginners

BDSwiss offers mainstream platform options, educational material and market analysis for their clients, which all combine for solid onboarding process. While MT4 is not the best choice of beginner-friendly software, the mobile application does make it easier to get going by simplifying some of the user interfaces and limiting the advanced options that continually get in the way with MT4.

Educational Material

BDSwiss offers a small but novel library of content in their trading academy for traders looking for a structured way for skill progression. It is split up into sections of the beginner, intermediate and advanced trader.

Perhaps the better, and more advanced educational material from BDSwiss comes in the form of strategy webinars that are broadcast weekly in English and German. Webinars are free to non-clients, and only require signing for webinars up to participate.

Webinars are added to the video library which combines them with a set of other educational videos about key trading aspects and market analysis.

Analysis Material

Research and analysis at BDSwiss is detailed and well-structured. Financial commentary is split into five sections: Market Preview, Technical Analysis, Daily Videos, Weekly Outlook and Special Reports. Webinars are also conducted on an almost daily basis in a range of languages.

All analytical material, including webinars and forecasting reports, are available free of charge and most of the video content is uploaded to YouTube. The quality of the analysis is very high and will be of value to both technical and fundamental traders. Watching these videos gives traders an insight into how to approach researching marketing opportunities as well as trader psychology. We particularly recommend the Daily Market Preview, conducted by BDSwiss’ Head of Investment Research, Marshall Gittler.

Customer support

24/5 customer support is available by telephone and email, but no live chat. Local telephone numbers are available around the world, and shorten the response times as emails can go for hours without a response.

BDSwiss Trading Platform

BDSwiss supports MT4 and the Webtrader platform exclusively, where they have made some minor modifications intended to improve the BDSwiss trading experience.

MT4 is the industry standard platform, in part because of the amount of publicly available educational documentation and user guides. It is little changed from when it was introduced in 2005 and continues to offer, live news feeds directly on the platform, free preprogrammed analytical tools, charting and analysis, daily account statements and account equity data including floating profit and loss.

The MT4 desktop client is compatible with BDSwiss Web Trader and award-winning mobile apps which are proprietary and maintained by the broker.

BDSwiss Mobile Trading Apps

The award-winning mobile application from BDSwiss is an improvement on the standard MT4 application and sets BDSwiss apart from other brokers trying to offer a mobile solution using the Metatrade suite. It is designed to be compatible and sync with your desktop MT4 application.

The mobile app offers basic trading, research, and account management functionality. Traders can open/close/edit positions, add stops to open positions and delete working orders. Research and analysis are available on real-time charts, and automated alerts are used to identify trading opportunities.

Evaluation Method

We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process that includes a detailed breakdown of the BDSwiss offering. Central to that process is the evaluation of the reliability of the broker, the platform offering of the broker and the trading conditions offered to clients, which are summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.

Risk Statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. BDSwiss would like you to know that: Trading in Forex/ CFDs and Other Derivatives is highly speculative and carries a high level of risk. 78.3% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Overview

BDSwiss is a well-regulated ECN/STP broker with the account offering of a traditional robust brokerage. Supporting a single desktop MT4 platform choice linked with an award-winning proprietary mobile application, BDSwiss should satisfy the trader looking for a responsible broker strengthened by a foundation of trust and simplicity, united with access to quality market analysis.