Dukascopy Review

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Founded in 2004 in Geneva, Dukascopy Bank is a Swiss online bank providing online and mobile trading banking and financial services. Their JForex3 platform is designed for high volume traders and market professionals. They are primary owners/operators of the Swiss FX Marketplace (SWFX) ECN. Dukascopy has a division in Riga, Latvia. Both provide financial services for Switzerland and Europe.

Review Summary

Our top findings for XTB

1. Dukascopy is a regulated bank licensed through the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA – Switzerland), the Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), and the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC – EU). They are a safe (low risk) forex, cryptocurrency, and CFD broker.
2. Dukascopy’s proprietary JForex 3 platform suite provides forex traders industry-leading trading tools and market research. Clients also can use MetaTrader 4 (MT4). Both dynamic platforms have vibrant features, including extensive charting tools and automated trading capabilities. Their mobile platform is as good as market-leading platforms from IG, CMC Markets, and Saxo Bank.
3. Dukascopy offers competitive commissions and fees, outstanding platforms and tools, great research, and solid mobile and cryptocurrency trading. Their customer service is unreliable, and they have a narrow offering of tradeable markets.

While Dukascopy Bank has high trading fees (their simple product catalog discloses costs transparently), its discount trading program significantly reduces active trader costs. The JForex3 platform performs equally well as MetaTrader 4. Neither interface allows the customization required by higher-level traders. Clients are denied unique tax advantages through spread betting (Ireland and UK) as those options are not offered. Dukascopy is considered a lower risk broker. They have an overall Trust Score of 90 out of 99, are not publicly traded, and operate a bank.

Dukascopy provides the best execution and average spread capabilities. Bank ownership and extra capital/security requirements increase confidence in their systems. They have separate agreements for clients in Switzerland and those in the rest of the European Union.  Swiss Dukascopy clients receive up to CHF 100,000 (EU 93,000) of bankruptcy protection, no negative balance protection, no guaranteed stop-loss protection, and limited control over slippage inside the platform’s settings (only on the buy-side). European Union clients get EU 20,000 and negative balance protection as dictated by ESMA rules. There was a conflict-of-interest concern when Dukascopy disclosures revealed their ownership of SWSX ECN who acts as a counterparty on ALL trades.

Investment Offerings

Dukascopy’s product listing is relatively small. Forex is further limited as it is only traded through CFDs without any forward contracts, options coverage, futures, contracts, or spot markets.

Dukascopy: offers only 593 share CFDs, 60 currency pairs, 2 cryptocurrency CFDs, 24 indexes, bond, and commodity CFD, and trade 653 symbols across multiple forex and CFD trading markets. They offer cryptocurrency trading with CFDs on significant crypto assets and actual underlying (non-CFDs) across their proprietary cryptocurrency. Dukascopy Bank had more than 148 million CHF (EU 137 million) in assets on its balance sheet as of June 2019.

Dukascoin: offers CFDs on Bitcoin and Ethereum. They further embraced blockchain technology launching an ICO of their proprietary cryptocurrency Dukascoin (DUK+).

Note: Crypto CFDs are not available from any broker’s UK entity, nor to UK residents.

Commissions and Fees

Dukascopy’s trading costs are extremely competitive and near the top among forex brokers supporting automated trading and active trading programs.

Account spreads: are the same for all clients in their FX ECN account. Added commission rates vary depending on trading volume, balance, and net deposits.

Spread data: average spreads of 0.30 pips on EUR/USD, combined with a default commission rate of 0.70 pips per round turn means the all-in cost is 1 pip and compares favorably to other brokers’ commission-based pricing.

Swiss versus EU entity: traders can open the ECN account with either Dukascopy Europe or Dukascopy Bank – Switzerland. The difference between the two entities, besides regulatory jurisdictions and related investor compensation limits, is the EU entity minimum deposit is only $100. The Swiss entity requires $5,000 – unless a Swiss resident, then the minimum drops to $1,000.

Monthly classifications: traders are categorized by monthly trading volume, bottom-line equity, or net deposit with commissions and spreads. These are recalculated monthly based on specific values. If a fee conflict arises, Dukascopy Bank chooses the highest of the three fee numbers.

Commission costs: the trading fees page documents commission costs per tier. Since currencies change daily, identifying average spread fees requires clients to review a quarterly, monthly, or daily SWFX report. This information would be more beneficial if located on the trading fees page.

Withdrawals: are charged a $20 fee in addition to fees charged by other banks or credit cards. This is one of the highest withdrawal fees of any European broker. While easy to identify on the fee schedule page this information should appear on their trading fee disclosure page.

Account Types

Dukascopy Bank offers two current account types and a Forex ECN trading account.

Multi-Currency Account: is targeted at retail clients, with wealth below US $100,000.

Standard Account: is targeted at clients who intend to deposit more than US $100,000.

Forex ECN Account: Dukascopy offers an FX ECN trading account. The execution method can vary between agency and dealing desk. While spreads are the same for all clients, added commission rates vary depending on trading volume, balance, and net deposits.

Platforms & Tools

Dukascopy understands trading technology. They provide traders the tools they need to succeed. Their flagship JForex 3 platform is a desktop, web-based, and mobile platform. Some forex traders prefer MetaTrader 4 to a proprietary platform built in-house. JForex3 is highly rated across the industry.

JForex 3 desktop: has advanced charting, historical testing, hundreds of indicators, and real-time news along with embedded customer support. It is an excellent trading platform and is easy to use. Technical traders like the 24 drawing tools, 291 technical indicators (67 for the web version), and the ability to import custom indicators. Despite the robust feature set, JForex 3 lacks customization ability in essential areas such as complex watch lists, pop out charts, and personalized screens. Conditional routing is flawed and severely limited.

MetaTrader 4: offers slightly more customizability but with fewer currency pairs available and charges higher commissions.

Algorithmic trading: JForex 3 makes algorithmic and automated strategies available for traders through JForex and FIX APIs. Historical backtesting is supported by both MT4 and JForex. Though there is no local VPS (virtual private server), Dukascopy offers VPN hosting via monthly subscription. This lets traders access cloud storage to run trading systems on a 24-hour basis. Dukascopy provides its own app store with hundreds of apps that traders can use with the JForex 3 platform suite.

Advanced features: Institutions, professionals, and active traders can use many products that allow for DMA (direct market access) as well as advanced charting software. In addition to the industry common ‘close all’ button, Dukascopy offers a ‘cancel all’ button. This conveniently and quickly cancels all orders. This is something you typically see with high-frequency traders and normally available only via API.

Direct copy trading: not supported by JForex which causes clients to use other platforms. While Dukascopy has a community site, it focuses mostly on non-financial information and is not useful for research, sentiment, or strategy development.

Mobile Trading

Dukascopy’s JForex3 Mobile Trader app for iOS and Android versions of JForex have well-organized menus and allow easy synchronization between platforms. It is among the best in the industry with several premium features including integrated market signals and patterns alongside a pivot point tool. There are fewer charting features than the desktop experience and offers limited customization.

Charting: JForex Trader offers robust charting tools with several customizable parameters and alerts can easily be added from the same screen. Charting options include a list of 46 technical indicators, above the industry average for mobile trading.

Advanced features: the app includes level-two quotes and related order types, including conditional and bid-offer orders when placing a trade. Strategies can also be selected from within the mobile app including those created by Dukascopy community members.

Research: the mobile app has an impressive range of research tools. They include pre-defined screens and a customizable view of marker movers adaptable across time frames from hourly to monthly. There is a pattern-recognition tool for trading ideas, organized neatly next to the other research categories.

Research

Dukascopy delivers an outstanding research experience for traders. They have a diverse range of research tools for desktop, web, and mobile-led by their TV network Dukascopy TV.

Research tools: they stream Reuters and MarketPulse market live news, maintain a live economic calendar (with consensus forecasts, market sentiment indicators, technical pattern analysis), and an automated trading system within their research charting experience.

Dukascopy TV: a powerful financial research tool. This professional TV studio in Geneva broadcasts news from in-house reporters who conduct interviews and market analysis This dedicated search tool has well-organized menus and a comprehensive video archive containing hundreds of clips. Their content is professionally created and educational. This benefits all clients, regardless of their skillset. It is frequently updated and accessible on the web and mobile apps in text and video form. The sheer size may overwhelm some clients as social sentiment reviews, real-time news, dozens of technically oriented trading ideas, and tick data are continuously available and continuously updated by knowledgeable in-house analysts.

Education

Educational material is embedded inside of the FAQ section, research content, and video sections of the website. It is possible to find the necessary information and newer traders may be frustrated and discouraged when seeking to build their skill sets.

Customer Service

Dukascopy provides industry-standard 24/5, Monday-Friday support to both current and prospective clients via live chat and phone. Clients can send in questions via email or the website online form submission. Live chat inquiries are answered quickly and the active social media presence, along with a dedicated support forum for Forex and automated trading, is helpful for new traders.

Customerwise conducted 229 phone customer service tests over six weeks in 2019.

Banking

Dukascopy Bank is a Swiss online bank providing online and mobile trading banking and financial services.

Closing Argument

Dukascopy is an excellent choice geared toward high volume traders and market professionals who want generous discount programs and extensive research materials. They offer unique platform tools through their proprietary JForex3 and MT4 web, desktop, and mobile platforms. Dukascopy offers competitive rates for active traders and their research tools are among the best in the industry. Drawbacks include a narrow trading catalog, weak customer service, and a limited/hard-to-find set of education resources. Nonetheless, Dukascopy is among the highest-rated forex brokers in the industry.

While Dukascopy Bank has high trading fees (their simple product catalog discloses costs transparently), its discount trading program significantly reduces active trader costs. They are licensed through the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA – Switzerland), the Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), and the Financial and Capital Market Commission (FCMC – EU). They are a safe (low risk) forex, cryptocurrency, and CFD broker. They are primary owners/operators of the Swiss FX Marketplace (SWFX) ECN. Dukascopy has a division in Riga, Latvia. Both provide financial services for Switzerland and Europe.

About Dukascopy Bank

In 1998, mathematician Dr. Andre Duka founded Dukascopy Trading Technologies Corp in 1998. This led to the development of the Dukascopy trading platform in 1999. Together with his partner, Veronika Makarova they founded Dukascopy in 2004 as a Swiss brokerage house in Geneva. They developed the Swiss FX Marketplace in 2006 and acquired a Swiss banking license in 2010, launching Dukascopy Bank.

The Dukascopy group is highly profitable and employs 260+ staff, serving 200,000+ customers, and handling US $56 billion monthly in trade volume.

Stefan Grasic

Stefan Grasic (Dipl.-Jur) is the owner of Business24-7 and has considerable experience in the financial and investment niche, but also enjoys writing articles for the general readership. Stefan is an active stock, CFD, crypto and general investment researcher, advising blockchain companies such as Blockbird, GoCrypto, Hive Terminal at their start up level. Stefan began trading in 2010 as a college student. Money was tight,…

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