Vantage Review 2024

Is Vantage regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for Australian clients and by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) for clients from other countries.
Vantage also has regulation by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which offers client protection through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). FSCS protection is not dependent upon the depositor’s place of residence, but where the bank, building society or credit union holds the deposit.

Is Vantage safe?

To be certain that a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• the background of the broker.

How you are protected

Vantage is regulated by multiple authorities, but only clients with deposits at the UK entity enjoy investor protection.

Vantage provides negative balance protection. If the balance on your account goes into negative, you will be protected. You should note that if your provider is Vantage Global Limited (Vanuatu) it is at Vantage's discretion whether they credit your account with the amount of the negative balance.

Our brokerage experts put together a comprehensive guide on the safety profile of Vantage.

Background

Australia-basedVantage was established in 2009. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.
As a negative, the brokerage is not listed on a stock exchange, it does not disclose financial information and it is difficult to ascertain its ownership background.

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Account base currencies

At Vantage, you can choose from the following 9 base currencies:

This selection is average compared to competing brokers.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you won't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Deposit fees and options

Vantage charges no deposit fees.

Although depositing is generally free of charge, there are some exceptions. When depositing funds via China Union Pay you will be charged 1.30%-2.50% of the transfer amount; deposits made via Neteller and Skrill are subject to their fee policy; and broker-to-broker transactions are subject to bank transfer fees.

Here's all you need to know about minimum deposit requirements and depositing money at Vantage.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant. You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

Vantage supports the following electronic wallets:

Vantage withdrawal fees and options

Vantage has no withdrawal fees for credit/debit cards and electronic wallets. The first international bank withdrawal each month is free of charge; all further withdrawals within the month carry a 20 currency unit fee ($20, €20, etc.).

Read our guide containing all key info on available withdrawal methods and related fees at Vantage.

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Vantage? We tested the debit card withdrawal and it took 1 business day.

How do you withdraw money from Vantage?

• Log in to the client portal.
• Click on 'Withdraw Funds'.
• Select from the drop-down menu how you funded your trading account.
• Enter the requested data (such as name, bank address and account number).
• Enter the withdrawal amount.
• Upload a copy of your bank statement (not older than 3 months).
• Click 'Submit'.

Can you open an account?

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Vantage accepts customers from all over the world with some notable exceptions, like the US.

Read our separate article on how to get your account started with Vantage.

What is the minimum deposit at Vantage?

The required Vantage minimum deposit is $50.

The $50 minimum deposit refers only to STP and ECN accounts. For a RAW ECN account the minimum deposit is $10,000.

Account types

If you want to explore the possibilities offered by Vantage, we recommend opening a demo account first. There are 3 main types of trading accounts at Vantage (STP, Raw ECN, Pro ECN), which differ in their pricing structure and the spreads provided. The key differences are shown in the following table.

In addition, you can also open swap-free or Islamic STP and ECN accounts. In the case of swap-free accounts, if you hold your leveraged position overnight, instead of overnight interest you are charged an administrative fee.
You can open corporate accounts as well. In this case, Vantage's support team will contact you with the required forms.

How to open your account

Opening an account at Vantage is an easy and fast process, the client interface is super user friendly. Follow these simple steps to open an account in under 5 minutes:

1. Click on the 'Live Account' button.
2. Enter your name, email address and phone number.
3. Provide additional personal data required and answer a few questions on your financial status and trading experience.
4. Select a trading platform, account type, and account base currency.
5. Upload a copy of your photo ID or passport ,and proof of residence (utility bill or bank statement are accepted).

Vantage provides both its own mobile trading platform and the MetaTrader 4 or 5 third-party mobile trading platforms. (Note: MetaTrader's iOS version is currently not available to download in the EU.) In this review, we tested Vantage's own mobile trading platform, which has great visual design and offers a wide variety of functionalities.
The platform is available for both iOS and Android. We tested it on both.

The mobile trading platform is available in the following languages:

• English
• French
• Chinese and Thai

You can select your preferred language under 'Settings'.
Stock index-related analyses, a newsletter, and FX TV are also available under the 'Signals' menu item.

Look and feel

We really liked the Vantage mobile app because it is user-friendly, uncomplicated, and designed with convenience in mind.

Login and security

Vantage provides a safer, two-step login for its mobile platform.

You can't log in using biometric authentication. Providing this feature would be more convenient.

Search functions

The search functions are good.

You can search by navigating the category folders.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types on the mobile trading platform:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Good 'til canceled (GTC)
• Good 'til time (GTT)

Alerts and notifications

You cannot set alerts and notifications on the Vantage mobile platform.

Our analysts personally tested Vantage's mobile trading platform; read the Vantage mobile app review for a detailed verdict on its performance and features.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Vantage doesn't have its own self-developed trading platform. It provides the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 third-party trading platforms. We reviewed MetaTrader 4.
MetaTrader 4 is available in an exceptionally large number of languages.

Look and feel

The Vantage web trading platform has great customizability.You can easily change the size and position of tabs. The platform provides 30 indicators and 24 technical analyis tools on 9 time frames. It offers one-click trading and works on more than 5 different types of internet browsers.
However, the platform feels outdated and some features are hard to find. For example, it took us a while to figure out how to add an asset to our watchlist.

Login and security

Vantage provides only a one-step login. A two-step authentication would be more secure and adding this feature should be high on any company’s list of security changes.

Search functions

The search functions are good.

Assets are grouped into categories, but we missed the usual search box where you can enter asset names or other keywords manually.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Trailing Stop
• OCO

If you are unfamiliar with some of these terms or want to learn more, read our overview of order types.

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Good 'til canceled (GTC)
• Good 'til end of the day (GTD)
• Good 'til time (GTT)

Alerts and notifications

You can set price alerts and notifications on the Vantage web trading platform.

Portfolio and fee reports

Vantage has clear fee reports.

You can easily find your profit-loss balance and the commissions you paid under the 'History' tab.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Vantage is primarily a forex broker with some CFD and cryptocurrency instruments. To learn more about CFDs, read our CFD trading tips.
Vantage has an average forex selection, but its stock CFD offering lags behind that of its main competitors. Stock CFDs typically include the largest companies listed on the UK, US, European and Australian markets. In terms ofcryptos, you can trade 34 products, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Neo, Terra and EOS.
Some stock CFDs are only available on the MetaTrader 5 platform.

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

We really liked that you can change the default leverage size of the products when trading. This is a great feature.
Changing the leverage is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. For example, instead of trading with 5:1 leverage, using 2:1 leverage in the case of stock CFDs would greatly reduce your risk. Be careful with forex and CFD trading, as the preset leverage levels are high. The leverage of US Share CFDs are 33:1 and the minimum lot size is 0.01.

Social trading, algo trading and strategies

Vantage has partnered up with multiple social trading platforms, through which you can access copy trading features, including ZuluTrade, Myfxbook, MetaTrader Signals and DupliTrade.

We recommend Vantage for forex and CFD traders familiar with the MetaTrader trading platforms.

Below you can find links to all aspects of Vantage in this comprehensive collection.

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our Vantage fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the Vantage minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your Vantage account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the Vantage account opening.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the Vantage trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the Vantage customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is Vantage legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether Vantage is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is Vantage good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on Vantage?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on Vantage guide.

I want to trade options, are they available at Vantage?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Vantage?

What is the minimum account balance at Vantage?

Check out the current account balance requirements at Vantage in our What is the minimum account balance at Vantage article.

Looking for commission and fees data for Vantage?

We collected them in Vantage commission and fees.

How do you withdraw money from Vantage?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on Vantage.