Key to Markets Review

Review

Key to Markets Limited, founded in the year 2010 in the United Kingdom, is a regulated Forex and CFD broker headquartered in London, with a whole owned subsidiary branch in New Zealand. They state that they operate an ECN (electronic communications network) model, without any dealing desk interference, although they do offer an account with only floating spread with no commissions. A wide range of over 130 assets for trading are offered, in over 100 Forex currency pairs, 16 major stock market indices, 13 major commodities including softs and energies, and 1 fixed income instrument.

Accounts

Traders are offered the choice of two different trading account types to choose from, one of which offers fixed commissions plus a floating spread, the other one offers a floating spread plus a fixed extra spread as an effective commission. Maximum leverage offered on all accounts is a very high 500 to 1. The minimum trade size for Forex is 1 microlot (0.01 full lots), and the minimum deposit for any account type is $100.

The two trading account types offered are the ECN MT4 Standard Account and the ECN MT4 Pro Account. There is another account offered which pays interest, which all trading account holders can transfer unused margin to, called the KEY TO SAVINGS account. At the time of writing this pays an annualized interest of 0.50%.

The ECN MT4 Standard Account charges a floating, variable spread plus a de facto commission of one extra pip which is fixed. The other one charges the same variable, floating spread with a commission of €6 or $8 per full lot on a “round trip” (in and out).

Key to Markets offers a VPS (Virtual Private Server) for traders who trade a minimum of 50 full lots per month. Traders who meet this and certain other qualifying conditions are eligible to receive a credit of $35 per month.

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

 

Features

The most notable feature of Key to Markets worth emphasizing is that they offer decent liquidity (using several different interbank liquidity providers for a smooth flow and few restrictions on trading, on a wide range of markets. Hedging and scalping are allowed.

Key to Markets offers no choice of trading platforms: the well-known and popular MetaTrader 4 platform is offered in all its several device formats.

Key to Markets keep things relatively simple, so you won’t find many of the bells and whistles that are often touted within the industry. Instead, they emphasize their goals as offering high liquidity, low spreads, and a great service. The transparency comes in the form of both honesty and the no dealing desk, ECN prices that are offered for trading.

Education

Key to Markets has an educational offering on their web blog offering a range of daily and weekly market analysis, and current, up-to date news items covering major market developments in near-real time. There is also a series of tutorials which explains in detail how to operate the trading platform offered, MetaTrader 4.

Bonuses and Promotions

No bonuses and promotions are offered as this is not allowed under governing U.K. brokerage regulations.

Deposits/Withdrawals

Depositing funds into a Key to Markets account is an easy and secure process. Funding can be done using credit cards, or wire transfer, as well as the electronic payment methods Neteller and Skrill. Withdrawals can be made through Neteller, Skrill, and Wire Transfer.

Key to Markets does not impose any minimum requirements on deposits or withdrawals, but the channels themselves may do so. Note that Neteller and Skrill both charge a 1% withdrawal fee. All deposit methods charge a 2.5% deposit fee.

Customer Support

Customer support is based in London, offering support from 9am to 6pm local time while markets are open from Monday morning in Australia to Friday evening in New York.

Conclusion

Key to Markets has a well-rounded and well-regulated offering for traders looking to trade using spot and CFD instruments through a wide range of assets, particularly Forex currency pairs and global equity indices, but notably also a selection of individual major equities and commodities, including softs. 

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Features

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

• Very competitive spreads
• A choice between commission as fixed spread or as a fixed cash amount per lot.
• A very wide range of instruments available for trading: all the major and minor Forex currency pairs up to a total of one hundred pairs and crosses, as well as several exotics; also, a good range of global equity indices, plus several major commodities including some softs.
• An offering of the most popular trading platform in the industry, MetaTrader4.
• A free educational package.

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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.

API FIX

Key to Markets offers the possibility to link directly to its price data feed through the FIX Application Programming Interface, which can be of interest to advanced developers, quant traders, and users of “black boxes”. Users must deposit a minimum of €500 to be eligible and trade at least 500 full lots round trip per month or alternatively pay a fee of €500 per month for any month when this minimum quantity is not reached. Robust integration and light protocol can ensure lower latencies and improved fill rates.

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