UFX CFD Review

What is UFX?

UFX is an online straight-through-processing (STP) brokerage firm that provides customers with a trading platform for Contracts for Difference (CFD) trading. CFDs are derivative securities that allow traders to speculate on the price of assets without actually holding them in their accounts. UFX provides its customers platforms for trading forex and CFDs on indices, commodities, shares, ETFs and cryptocurrencies.

UFX is operated by Reliantco Investments Limited. The privately held firm based out of Limassol, Cyprus, was granted a license to operate in Cyprus on December 22, 2010. The firm was first established in the United Kingdom on November 30, 2013, under company number FC031723. It closed its UK presence on November 6, 2017. UFX is duly registered under the laws of the Republic of Cyprus with Registration Number HE 270726, having the necessary license and authorization by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with license number 127/10. UFX has headquarters at Reliantco Investments Limited in Limassol, Cyprus. The firm also has a branch office in the Czech Republic.

 UFX is available in most major countries including the following:

 United Kingdom , Cyprus, United Emirates, Germany, France , Russia, Turkey, Romania, Bahrain, China, Singapore, Spain, Poland, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Hungary.

 IMPORTANT: CFDs are not available in the USA due to local regulations, and regulated brokers do not accept US citizens or US residents as clients.

It is available in the following languages:

 English, Turkish, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Dutch, Swedish , Polish, Italian, Finnish, French, Japanese, Russian, Norwegian, Indonesian , Danish, German, Vietnamese, Romanian, Chinese, Hungarian, Czech, Malay.

UFX’S Global Reputation

In terms of regulatory oversight, UFX comes under the jurisdiction of the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission and is regulated under the license number 14581. UFX has earned a good reputation over the years, earning the following awards from the Financial Industry:

 2016 & 2017 – Best Forex Trading Tools – MassInsights™ Technology – UK Forex Awards

 2016 & 2017 – FX Broker of the Year – The European Global Banking and Finance Awards

 2016 – Best Trader Loyalty Programme – UFX Rewards – FX Report Awards

 2016 – Best Trading Platform – MassInsights™ Technology – FX Report Awards

Register Now

Register your UFX account through Top 10 Brokers and receive a FREE Personal Account Manager to walk you through your account setup process.

Name

Surname

Email

Phone

Trading Instruments Available on UFX

UFX offers its customers financial instruments to trade that span six categories: currencies, commodities, cryptocurrencies, futures, stocks and ETFs. These include over 484 different instruments and over 49 currency pairs.

UFX Trading Platforms

UFX traders have access to three (3) trading platforms: 

 ParagonEx Web Trader 4.0: This web-based platform was developed by UFX for trading multiple classes of assets. ParagonEx Web Trader 4.0 incorporates MassInsights™ Technology, which is a UFX’s proprietary trading technology. It provides a complete live stream of market events and aggregated trader behaviour. The idea is that traders can take the pulse of the market and see what’s moving different asset classes at any given time.

 MetaTrader4 (MT4): An industry-standard platform with advanced charting features.

 UFX Trading App: A mobile version of the UFX Web Trader platform.

Trading Accounts

UFX offers six types of live trading accounts. We think these are a bit too excessive as they may confuse traders.  We’ve tabulated the different accounts and their features:

NOTE: All accounts are denominated in US dollars.

UFX also has an option of a Demo account to help new traders familiarise themselves with the trading platform.  An added bonus is that they get a free e-book and $10,000 in virtual money.

Opening an Account

As UFX is regulated by CySEC, every new client must pass a few basic compliance checks to ensure that they understand the risks of trading and are allowed to trade. This is the process that you must follow when opening your account:

 Step 1: After you click the green “Sign Up” button the website, UFX asks you a few questions including your personal details and which type of account you want to open. Once you fill out this information, you are logged in to the trading system.

Step 2: You then can go to the drop-down menu on the right side of the screen to provide UFX with the information they need to verify your identity. You’ll need to answer a few basic compliance questions to confirm how much trading experience you have, so it’s best to put aside at least 10 minutes or so to complete the account opening process

Step 3: To pass their identity verification, you will need to upload these documents or fax, scan and email them to UFX: 

-A copy of your passport or another government-issued identification document

– A copy of a bill or statement (e.g. telephone bill or bank statement) on which your current residential address is clearly printed.

– A copy of both sides of your credit card.

Step 4:  The UFX compliance team checks all documents submitted for review and will notify you immediately if any document is missing, unreadable or unsuitable.

NOTE: While you might be able to explore UFX’s platform straight away, it’s important to note that you won’t be able to make any trades until you pass compliance, which can take up to several days, depending on your situation.

Making Deposits and Withdrawals

Once your account has been successfully verified and you’re ready to start trading, you can deposit and withdraw funds with UFX using one of several different methods: 

MasterCard, iDEAL, Visa, Skrill , Neteller,  SOFORT, ELV,  Giropay, Visa Electron Maestro ,Diners Club,  Local Bank Transfer, Neosurf, China Union Pay, CashU, Qiwi , WebMoney, POLi, Paysafecard, Bitcoin.

-UFX does not charge fees on deposits. The broker does not accept third-party deposits. If the initial deposit was made via credit card, UFX can only send a withdrawal to the credit card used to make the original payment. If the initial deposit was made via bank wire transfer, UFX can only send a withdrawal to the account from which the initial transfer originated.

-UFX offers leverage of up to 400:1 for many products. Each CFD also has specific UFX margin requirements that traders must maintain. You can see your free margin available to trade with on the UFX platform. Traders who fall below the UFX margin requirements risk receiving a margin call and having their position closed prematurely.

-To withdraw funds from your UFX account, you sign into your trading account, click on the profile avatar in the top right corner and choose “Withdraw Funds” from the drop-down menu. UFX will only process and transfer funds via the payment method you used to make your deposit

-There is no withdrawal fee however, UFX requires withdrawal amounts to be more than $25 and less than the free balance you have in your account. 

-Withdrawals take 3 to 10 business days to process.

Summary of Spreads and Fees

Spreads

UFX receives its compensation in the form of the market spreads on each instrument. The broker is an STP (Straight-Through-Processing) broker, meaning it doesn’t take the opposite side of its customers’ trades. Instead, it hedges the trades it makes with its customers immediately in the marketplace. UFX offer fixed and stable spreads. The spreads for trading vary by the particular financial instruments being traded and the platform for trading

The commissions and spreads displayed below are based on the minimum spreads listed on UFX’s website.

Traders should contact Customer Support for custom spreads. Some currencies and commodities may not be available in certain regions. Although it is uncommon, UFX spreads can vary during extreme trading conditions or during non-trading hours. If you attempt to trade under these conditions, UFX will inform you on the platform of the relevant spreads.

Fees

∙ Commissions: UFX does not charge commissions on trades, only the spread for each instrument.

 ∙ Money transfers: UFX does not charge fees for money transfers. 

∙ Maintenance fees: UFX does not charge regular maintenance fees, but it does reserve the right to charge a US$50 fee on open accounts once every three months.

 ∙ Inactivity fees: UFX reserves the right to charge an inactivation fee of US$50 when a client account has been inactive for a period of three months (and provided that the client has at least US$50 in their account).

∙ Overnight financing charges: This overnight fee (or credit) is either added to or subtracted from a trader’s account when a position remains open past a certain period olf time. Traders can obtain information on overnight funding rates at the Trading Conditions section of the UFX website.

 ∙ Slippage: UFX advises that slippage is a normal market practice and a regular feature of the foreign exchange markets under conditions such as illiquidity and volatility due to news announcements, economic events and market openings. Therefore, trading according to news cannot be guaranteed. ∙ Deposit fees: UFX does not charge deposit fees 

∙ Withdrawal fees: UFX does not charge withdrawal fees but your bank may impose transfer fees. 

Executing Trades

-UFX allows you to execute a minimum trade of $125. This may vary depending on the account you open. The maximum trade requirements vary depending on the trader and the instrument. As UFX offer STP execution, you can expect tighter spreads with more transparency over the price you‘re paying to execute your trades.

-As a market maker, UFX may have lower entry requirements compared to an ECN broker who benefits from a higher volume of trades and typically has larger capital and minimum trade requirements. Market makers typically have a lower minimum deposit, smaller minimum trade requirements and no commission on trades.

-As with most brokers, margin requirements do vary depending on the trader, accounts and instruments. You can see the latest margin requirements on their website.

-UFX also offers a number of useful risk management features, such as stop losses (with trailing stops), limit orders negative balance protection price alerts and much more.

Features of the UFX Paragonex Web Trader 4.0 Platform

Interface and overall functionality: 

The UFX proprietary ParagonEx web-based trading platform has a different look than most other trading platforms.

The main screen is organized with the grouping of instruments you can trade on the platform in the middle of the screen, the MassInsights™ Technology tools on the right of the screen and then two drop-down menus on the top left of the screen and an additional drop-down menu under your avatar on the right side of the screen. The drop-down menu on the top left allows you to sort the instruments by asset class, while the menu next to it allows sorting by most popular, alphabetically, by daily change and by volatility.

The main screen seems a little clunky and busy. We think most traders would prefer having the traditional list of instruments on the left side of the screen and the ability to sort and organize this list as needed. Ultimately, a lot of screen real estate gets occupied by all of these instruments. Traders looking to focus on a smaller handful of instruments would probably prefer to have more screen real estate devoted to multiple charts or news feeds. Each instrument is laid out with the name on the top. Traders can click on the star icon and add an instrument to favourites. There is functionality for setting alerts and a chart icon in the middle of each box.

Charting functionality: The number of technical indicators and drawing tools is adequate.

Trader’s sentiments tool: Can be found on the right side of the platform and contains the timeline of insights generated by the MassInsights™ Technology tools. 

Marketing events calendar: The UFX platform comes with a well-designed marketing events calendar.

Account trading history: When you open the Trading History section of the site, you get a screen with access to closed orders, closed positions, a statement and an account summary. To access each of these you have to set the date parameters using a calendar icon. It’s not clear where UFX lists open orders for traders.

Another great feature of the UFX platform is the educational resources:

Daily Market Review & Financial Analysis: This section of the site summarizes the main developments across the asset classes traded on the platform. The analysis has an almost exclusive focus on technical factors moving the various markets.

Economic Calendar: A review of key upcoming events and announcements that have the potential to move markets.

Customer support: Customer support at UFX is available 24/5 through live chat, web contact form and the telephone. In terms of localized telephone support, UFX has a support representative in 23 different countries.

Reliability and Additional Protections

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is the financial regulatory agency of Cyprus. Cyprus is a European Union member and is a financial services industry hub. Customers in countries regulated by CySEC are eligible for compensation of up to €20,000 if UFX fails. UFX is a trade name of Reliantco Investments Limited, which is authorized and regulated by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC License no. 127/10). 

Client funds at UFX are held in segregated accounts at top-tier banks. 

In addition, UFX uses Verisign SSL technology and layered backup systems in secure data centres in separate locations. As a result, UFX is able to secure customers’ personal information at all times.

Final Thoughts on the Platform

The UFX Platform is a good platform which offers a great variety of trading instruments. Traders can trade in Currency pairs, commodities, ETFs, market indices and stocks. There are 60+ currency pairs, 7 types of market indices, 10 ETF funds, 29 types of stocks and 7 types of commodities. 

We did however find the ParagonEx Web Trader 4.0 interface to be a bit clunky and not too user-friendly. The number of account options is also a bit excessive.

Account opening, deposits and withdrawals processes are fairly easy and convenient and the question of reliability still stands out for us. Besides being an award winning platform, UFX has had its fair share of troubles with CySEC and we advise investors to research the platform carefully before opening an account. 

[ls_content_block id=”109329″]

CFD Glossary