Core Spreads Review

Review

Core Spreads, founded in 2014, is a spread-betting and CFD broker headquartered and regulated in the United Kingdom. They state that they operate a STP (straight through processing) back office model. They offer the opportunity to trade by way of spread-betting, which can be very advantageous for U.K. taxpayers as profits generated by spread-betting are not subject to capital gains tax (CGT) in the U.K. at the time of writing this review. A wide range of assets for trading are offered, in Forex currency pairs, 11 major stock indices, and a few commodities (gold, silver, and crude oil), plus a selection of major British, European, and American individual stocks/shares, with the latter three categories wrapped as CFDs (Contracts for Difference).  

Accounts

Although there are two account types to choose from with Core Spreads, the trading conditions are the practically the same for both. The difference lies in whether a spread-betting account using the custom CoreTrader platform is opened, or a regular account using the MetaTrader 4 platform. Core Spreads pride themselves on a no gimmicks approach when it comes to their core offering. Technically, there is no minimum deposit, but clients will need to deposit at least $10 to cover the minimum margin required for the smallest trade. Spreads are competitive, with Core Spreads claiming a fixed spread-betting offering of 0.7 pips on the benchmark EUR/USD currency pair, which rises to a floating spread plus commission of approximately 1.2 pips when this is traded as a CFD.

A maximum leverage of 200 to 1 may be used on the broker’s proprietary platform, and the minimum trade size for Forex is 1 microlot (0.01 full lots). Leverage of 100 to 1 is available on the MT4 platform. 

A demo account is available, as is typical with nearly all spot Forex and CFD brokers.

A wide range of over 30 Forex currency pairs, 11 major stock indices, 4 commodities (gold, silver, and both WTI and Brent crude oil), plus a selection of major British, European, and American individual stocks/shares are offered for trading.

Features

The most notable features of Core Spreads worth emphasizing is that they offer decent liquidity, competitive spreads, and few restrictions on trading, on a wide range of markets including individual stocks and shares. Although scalping is not allowed, automated trading is possible when using the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

Core Spreads offers a choice between two trading platforms: the well-known and popular MetaTrader 4 platform, or their custom platform CoreTrader. Expert Advisors can be run through the MetaTrader 4 platform. CoreTrader can be used as a spread betting platform and has garnered some positive reviews from users.

Core Spreads pride themselves on keeping things simple, so you won’t find many of the bells and whistles that are often touted within the industry. Instead, they emphasize their goals modestly as offering a great service in three key areas: cost of trading, platform technology, and dedicated customer service. We find this a refreshing approach, and consider any broker that has gone through the very onerous process of securing approval from U.K. regulators to be worth taking seriously.

Education

Core Spreads has no educational offering. We see nothing wrong with this, as a massive range of high-quality trading education can be found for free on the internet, so what is the point in putting together a half-baked educational offering as too many brokers do? It is also worth questioning whether most brokers, generating a majority of their income from their client’s losing trades, are in a strong position to be “educating” their clients.

Bonuses and Promotions

The only bonuses and promotions on offer at the time of writing are a welcome bonus giving a 50% spread rebate at the end of the first month after opening an account on the CoreTrader platform, and a loyalty bonus linked to volume offering a maximum 25% of spreads and commission paid as a rebate. Interestingly, the loyalty bonus is linked to twitter and Facebook activity, as well as trading volume.

Deposits/Withdrawals

Depositing funds into a Core Spreads account is an easy and secure process. Funding can be done using credit cards, debit cards, or wire transfer. Withdrawals can be made using the same available mechanisms.

Core Spreads do not impose any minimums requirements on deposits or withdrawals, but the channels themselves may do so.

Customer Support

Customer support is based in London, offering 24-hour support while markets are open from Monday morning in Australia to Friday evening in New York. Support staff are fluent in other languages besides English.

Conclusion

Core Spreads has a well-rounded and professional offering for traders looking to trade using spread betting through a wide range of assets, particularly Forex currency pairs and global equity indices, but notably also a selection of individual major stocks and shares. Fans of no-nonsense trading looking for a confident and no-frills broker may find their offer especially interesting, and quite possibly attractive enough to open an account.

Most importantly of all, the spreads and commissions offered seem to be truly competitive.

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Features

In terms of features, the stand-out strengths of this broker’s offerings are:

• A choice between spread-betting and regular account types, with spread-betting providing possible freedom from taxes on profits to U.K. capital gains tax (CGT) payers.
• Competitive spreads.
• An option to trade with the most popular trading platform in the industry, MetaTrader 4
• A wide range of instruments available for trading: all the major and minor Forex currency pairs, as well as several exotics; also, a good range of global equity indices, plus several commodities, and a selection of stocks and shares offered on leading global equity markets.
• Regulated by a very major industry center (United Kingdom) which includes deposit insurance of up to GBP 50,000 per client.

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Platforms

MetaTrader4

The MetaTrader 4 is an independent trading platform, developed for trading FX, commodities and other products and is one of the most advanced and easy platforms to use. It remains the gold standard of trading platforms.

In addition to the wide range of markets available to trade, the MT4 platform provides traders with a multilingual interface, instant execution, built in help guides for MT4 and MetaQuotes Language 4, a complete technical analysis package including a wide range of in-built indicators and charting tools, various custom indicators and time periods and more.

Automated trading is also offered through the MetaTrader 4 platform where traders can create and test their automated trading strategies by using the MetaEditor, Strategy Tester and Compiler tools within the MT4 platform.

With this automated trading system clients may create Expert Advisors, software programs enabling traders to constantly monitor the markets. Custom Indicators help traders to predict future price movements by analyzing past and current price information. And the Scripts feature gives traders the opportunity to set up an automatic repetition of specific operations such as closing all positions with a single keystroke.

MetaTrader Mobile

The MetaTrader 4 and platform apps can be used on iPhones, iPads, Multi-Terminal, and all Android devices.

CoreTrader Platform & App

Core Spreads’ custom platform allows you to quickly access the world's markets, execute your trades, research your chosen market with advanced technical analysis, using a comprehensive suite of risk management tools.

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User Reviews

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