Admirals Broker Review

Review By: Alan Little

Review Updated: 2021-01-18

4.6

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Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 78% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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Admirals broker features

Admirals pros and cons

Pros

• High levels of regulatory compliance and customer protection
• Excellent customer support
• Huge range of high-quality learning and research resources

Cons

• Relatively few advanced trading courses offered
• Limited social and copy-trading features

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Review Sections:

Who are FXTM?

Established in 2001 as Admirals Group, the firm has recently rebranded itself as Admirals to reflect that it now offers a broader range of financial services as well as the classic online broking service.

It’s taken the next step on its journey, having built up a strong reputation in the investment community and is one of the most well-known brands in the online trading and investment space. Since its relatively humble origins, Admirals has gone from strength to strength, and it now finds itself with a presence across the world through a network of offices. With almost two decades of experience under its belt and a client base now in the hundreds of thousands, Admirals has obviously been doing something right. What keeps customers coming back to Admirals, and how has it managed to stay so competitive despite increasing competition in the online trading and investment space?

The historical position of Admirals/Admirals was as a trading platform that enables retail investors to trade forex currency pairs and CFDs on indices, metals, energies, stocks and bonds. That part of the offering remains, but the firm demonstrated a passion for innovation even when known as Admirals. It developed and launched a range of additional trading tools and research resources that gave it the edge compared to some of its more basic competitors. Some of these features include premium analysis tools and industry-leading news resources.

The platform is well thought out. It has a professional look and feel plus intuitive functionality, which proves popular with novice traders. The happy blend of powerful software and user-friendliness has resulted in the platform winning a stack of industry awards. Admirals became a trading platform of choice for hundreds of thousands of traders worldwide. Now known as Admirals, the platform looks set to carry on letting its clients share the benefits of its pioneering attitude.

Keep reading the review for the full rundown of everything Admirals has to offer and see how it stacks up against the competition!

Admirals Fees

4

Currently, Admirals offers several different account types to users of the platform. The terms and conditions vary and depend on factors such as what trading platforms are used.

There are three main account options for those using the MetaTrader 5 platform: the Trade.MT5 account, the Invest.MT5 account, and the Zero.MT5 account. Primarily aimed at day traders the Trade.MT5 account is the most popular. It provides trading from 0.5 pips. Commissions on trades start from 0.01 USD per share, though these are only levied on single-share and ETF CFDs.

The Invest.MT5 account is aimed at longer-term investors who want to use the Admirals platform and provides trading from 0 pips, with a commission of 0.02 USD to be paid only on stock and ETF CFDs.
The Zero.MT5 account provides trading for 0 pips, though the commissions are higher on forex, metals, cash indices and energies. These range from anywhere between 0.05 and 3.0 USD.

Those using the MT4 platform can choose a Trade.MT4 account or a Zero.MT4 account. The Trade.MT4 account starts from 0.5 pips, while the Zero.MT4 account from 0 pips. Both account types will have commissions payable on specific instruments, ranging from 0.01 USD to 3.0 USD. There is also a professional-grade trading account, though this is only available to certain traders.

Generally speaking, Admirals is incredibly transparent regarding costs, fees and pricing. Information relating to fees and commissions is straightforward to find, and it never feels like Admirals is trying to hide or obscure anything. We were particularly impressed by the inclusion of a ‘Trading Calculator’, which allows users to estimate the price of a trade before committing to it. It is handy for novice traders still getting to grips with online trading.

Trading Platforms

5

Like many brokers in the sector, Admirals relies heavily on the MetaTrader suite of software and tools; there is a good reason for this. MetaTrader is by far the most well-established trading platform around and is used by most online brokers currently operating.

The two main choices available on the Admirals platform are the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms (MT4 and MT5, respectively). MT4 is well-loved by traders of all experience levels for its ease of use, intuitive functionality, and advanced trading features. It is highly customisable and incredibly robust. For these reasons, it’s the go to platform for novice and advanced traders alike.

In addition to the MT4 platform, Admirals has also begun offering users the option to download the MT5 platform. Although it is the long-awaited update to the MT4 platform, the uptake of MT5 by online brokers has been relatively slow, with few offering support for it at the time of writing. As such, we were impressed to see Admirals keeping ahead of the curve and offering support for it so early on. The MT5 platform is a refreshing update to the classic MT4 formula and is the best piece of tech for trading forex and CFDs online.

Admirals also offer some other tools from the MetaTrader suite. These include MetaTrader’s ‘Supreme Edition’ and the ‘WebTrader’ platform. The Supreme Edition of MetaTrader is, essentially, an add-on that can be downloaded for either MT4 or MT5. It provides some of the most advanced tools to traders. In particular, the Supreme Edition significantly beefs up the technical analysis tools and adds in some useful widgets. It also makes several user-interface adjustments to improve the trading experience.

The new Stereo Trader platform complements a range of trading strategies and is designed to support more active traders. The multi-functional trading panel matches the functionality of the MetaTrader dashboard, and users can take order building and risk management to a higher level. It’s a powerful piece of kit that is free to Admirals’ account holders who operate balances of €2,000 or more.

Mobile Trading App

4

The new Admirals Trading app fills a gap in the broker’s offering. The broker may have been late to the party, but now the app has been launched, it can take advantage of all the recent technological advances. Full mobile trading support is also provided through both the MT4 and MT5 platforms, which have dedicated mobile apps. These mobile apps come in both Android and iOS versions and do an excellent job scaling down the MetaTrader trading experience for a format with less screen real estate.

The MetaTrader WebTrader platform can also be accessed through mobile devices, an excellent option if users don’t want to download a dedicated app.

Generally speaking, the experience of trading through the MT4 and MT5 apps is pretty good. Although it doesn’t offer the same functionality level as the dedicated desktop version, users can nevertheless keep an eye on their accounts, monitor their trades, and execute trading strategies with relative ease.

Market Research

5

One of the areas where Admirals performs the strongest is the variety and quality of the educational, learning and research resources it makes available to users of the platform.

Admirals has a wide range of learning materials on offer, including the usual resources such as webinars, eBooks, articles, trading guides and lectures. While these are all of high quality, we were most impressed by the online courses. The online courses provide fully guided programmes that help users learn the ins and outs of trading. They have been put together by a team of highly experienced trading professionals and are the perfect way for users to get started on their trading journey.

Although aimed primarily at the novice trader just getting started, the courses were of such depth and quality that we would recommend them to beginner traders and more experienced traders looking to brush up on some fundamentals. Best of all, these courses are entirely free!

Another aspect of the research and learning resources on offer that we appreciated was how they are divided up into beginner, intermediate and advanced skill levels.

Admirals has several research-specific resources on offer. These can be found in the ‘Analytics’ section of the website and include news feeds for undertaking fundamental analysis, a well-resourced economic calendar, a dedicated ‘Trader’s Blog’ with all the latest industry news, and technical analysis resources for all the number crunchers out there! We were particularly impressed by the ‘Market Sentiment’ section, which allows users to tap into the beating pulse of the forex market in a visual-heavy breakdown.

The premium analytics resources offered are delivered through a partnership with Dow Jones, Trading Central and Acuity, which helps to add to the professional feel of trading on the Admiral Markets platform.

Customer Service

5

Admirals has a well-staffed customer service team to address any queries users might have with their accounts.

As a broker with a global network of offices and an international client base, Admirals is a multilingual broker, with customer support offered in several languages. Queries can be directed to the customer support team via email, phone or a live-chat feature directly through the website. Urgent questions are best directed through the live-chat box, as this seemed to have the quickest response times overall.

Another feature that we were pleased to see was remote support for the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms. Often, online brokers are pretty slow to provide direct help for the MetaTrader software, so it is good to see Admirals supporting its clients in this way.

Address: Admirals is: 37th Floor, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5AB, United KingdomAdmiral Markets Cyprus Ltd is: Dramas 2, 1st floor, 1077 Nicosia, CyprusFirst floor, Time Centre Building, Eritrea Street, Um Uthaina, Amman, Jordan1/17 Castlereagh Street Sydney NSW 2000. Unit OG/N1, 33 Scott Street, Waverley, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2090Maakri tn 19/1 Tallinn, 10145 Estonia

Phone: +44 20 8157 7344

Email: global@admiralmarkets.com

Risk Disclaimer

Risk warning: Trading Forex (foreign exchange) or CFDs (contracts for difference) on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you may sustain a loss equal to or greater than your entire investment. Therefore, you should not invest or risk money that you cannot afford to lose. Before using Admiral Markets UK Ltd, Admiral Markets Cyprus Ltd, Admiral Markets AS Jordan Ltd, Admiral Markets Pty Ltd and Admirals SA (PTY) Ltd services, please acknowledge all of the risks associated with trading.

Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 78% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.