Friedberg Direct Review

Review

Friedberg Direct

Friedberg Direct is part of the Friedberg Group, one of Canada’s oldest brokerages in stocks, commodities, and Forex. The group was founded in 1971, at the dawn of the modern retail brokerage industry. Due to regulatory issues, Forex / CFD broker AvaTrade has withdrawn from the Canadian market, redirecting  its potential Canadian resident clients to Friedberg Direct, who offer a very similar service to what AvaTrade was providing in trading in Forex currency pairs, major stock indices, and major commodities, powered by the same technology and on near-identical terms.

Friedberg Direct is a Forex / CFD broker headquartered and regulated in Canada by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. They state that they operate a no dealing desk model, without any dealing desk interference. A relatively wide range of assets for trading are offered, in all the major and minor Forex currency pairs, 11 major stock indices, a few major commodities (gold, silver, copper, natural gas, and crude oil), and even Treasury Bunds.

One of the most attractive features of an account with Friedberg Direct is that it is insured by the CIPF (Canadian Investor Protection Fund) for up to CAD 1 million.

Accounts

There is no significant choice of account types with Friedberg Direct, just a variety of legal structures (individual, partnership, corporate etc.). An account requires a minimum deposit of $100. An average spread of 0.2 pips is offered on the benchmark EUR/USD currency pair, plus a commission of CAD 10 per lot traded round trip. This equals an effective spread plus commission of 1 pip, which is very competitive.

Maximum leverage offered is just a fraction under 20 to 1, equal to a minimum margin requirement of 5.2%. The minimum trade size for Forex is 1 microlot (0.01 full lots).

There is a choice between several trading platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 or AvaTrade’s Webtrader. These are the most popular, widely used and respected trading platforms in use within the retail Forex / CFD brokerage industry.

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

Features

Friedberg Direct’s pricing model allows traders to easily scalp the market, while providing increased execution benefits to stop and limit orders. In addition, Friedberg Direct clients benefit from no re-quotes, fast, efficient and transparent execution, with no restrictions.

The most notable feature of Fridberg Direct worth emphasizing is that they offer excellent liquidity, very competitive spreads, and few restrictions on trading, on a wide range of markets. Scalping is allowed, and automated trading is possible. They are highly regulated and offer a relatively safe environment for traders, subject to the conservative margin requirements imposed by Canadian regulation.

Friedberg Direct prides themselves on selling their reputation and execution ability, so you won’t find many of the bells and whistles that are often touted within the industry. Instead, they emphasize their goals simply. Transparency comes from their no dealing desk mode. We are not certain how rigorous the no dealing desk approach is in reality, but the regime of spreads / commissions is very competitive and is hard to beat for the major Forex pairs at the retail level anywhere.

Education

Friedberg Direct, in conjunction with AvaTrade, offers a wealth of educational opportunities, including nearly a dozen trading guides for beginners and tutorials for how to take advantage of different order types. An explanation of economic indicators is also available.

Traders with Friedberg Direct using AvaTrade's platform can also take advantage of copy trading services, which will enable traders to follow others, with more experience, and to hopefully learn from others and achieve higher profitability.

Deposits/Withdrawals

Depositing funds into a Friedberg Direct account is an easy and secure process. Funding can be done using credit cards, debit cards, or wire transfer.

Friedberg Direct has a minimum requirement on deposits or withdrawals of CAD 50.

A maximum of $10,000 per calendar month may be deposited by credit and/or debit card.

Customer Support

Customer support is based in Toronto, Canada, offering 24-hour support while markets are open from Monday morning in Australia to Friday evening in New York.

Conclusion

Friedberg Direct has a well-rounded and professional offering for traders looking to trade using spot and CFD instruments through a reasonably wide range of assets, particularly Forex currency pairs and global equity indices, but notably also major commodities such as metals and energies. Fans of no-nonsense trading looking for a confident, established broker may find their offer especially interesting, and quite possibly attractive enough to open an account. The offering is a nice synergy between the technology and resources of AvaTrade, with the reputation and reputation of one of Canada’s oldest and most reputable broker – accounts are fully owned through Friedberg Direct, not AvaTrade.

Most importantly of all, the spreads and commissions offered are be extremely competitive.

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Features

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

• Extremely competitive spreads / commissions.
• Deposit insurance of up to CAD 1 million for all clients.
• The possibility to trade with any of the most popular trading platforms in the industry, MetaTrader 4, Meta Trader 5, or WebTrader.
• 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 major commodities.
• Regulated by a major industry center (Canada, by IIROC) which is generally regarded as one of the toughest, most pro-client regulators in the world.
• Scalping, hedging, and automated trading are allowed.

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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.

The platform is available as both downloadable and installable software, or as a web-based service.

MetaTrader 5

Released in 2010, MetaTrader 5 is no longer a newcomer to the online trading arena. It has, in fact, been embraced by thousands of traders of multiple assets who wanted to connect better to a centralized trading exchange. It should be noted that MetaTrader 5 automatically aggregates all trader positions, which means that it cannot accommodate hedging.

AvaTradeGO

If you’re looking for a mobile trading app, AvaTradeGO might be just what you need. The app allows you to connect to global markets and live feeds within seconds. A user-friendly interface and easy accessibility makes this app suitable for traders throughout Canada who want to access the global markets from anywhere. The app also integrates social trends from other traders directly into the platform so that you can see what other traders are doing to get inspiration for your next position.

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User Reviews

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