Tradeo Review 2024 – Broker Experiences with the Social Trading Platform

TRADEO is a provider of Social Trading, headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus. The company offers trade with Forex and some CFD's and, according to its own information, acts as an STP broker. This is quite unusual in the world of Social Trading and sparks interest among many customers. However, the offer still has some weaknesses which could serve as an exclusion criterion for some. One of the most important problems is the small and inactive community – Social Trading on TRADEO is no more than an option hardly used. Customers with an interest in TRADEO should not be irritated, though, since the broker only started in 2016 and shows great potential.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES REVEALED IN THE TRADEO EVALUATION

Table of Contents

BROKER UNDER SCRUTINY: OUR EXPERIENCES WITH TRADEO

1. Trading conditions: STP broker with low minimum deposit

• Account management: free (inactivity fee after 90 days, £15.00/month)
• Payment: € 15 minimum
• Fees for currency exchange: up to 0.5%
• Spread EUR/USD: starting from 2.7 pips
• Spread S & P 500: starting from 3.15 points
• Spread DJ30: 6.19 points
• Spread DAX30: 3.8 points
• Spread FT_UK 100: 4 points
• Spread gold: US-$ 0.49
• Spread oil: US-$ 0.05
• Spread shares: starting from 13 points

TRADEO is aimed at beginners, who may even make their first experiences with TRADEO. Accordingly, the minimum deposit of US-$ 250 is low in comparison. It is doubtful, though, that this small amount provides customers with access to a liquidity pool. In its promotional texts, the broker clearly excludes working based on the MarketMaker business model, but the information on the website is inconsistent. STP access is usually only available through higher deposits so that the broker covers his costs.

Either way, TRADEO offers variable spreads and excludes commissions. The company refrains from publishing exemplary spreads – customers with an interest in this matter must ask support for a current listing. The spreads shown above are the smallest available in the gold account in January 2017. Traders often get significantly better terms for VIP and platinum accounts, but they also have to make a much higher deposit. The VIP account requires US-$ 5,000, the platinum account even US-$ 20,000. However, they sometimes receive spreads which account for only half of the costs in the gold account.

The clear Tradeo website

TRADEO is one of the least affordable brokers, but customers need to take into account that they pay for the Social Trading function and the community as well. Sadly, the latter is still underdeveloped since the broker only started 2016 – so why pay extra for it? Plus the company does not pay commissions which could justify the spread to his top traders.

After a relatively short inactivity period of 90 days, the broker charges high inactivity fees of £15.00 per month. Even though such fees are common among brokers and will never drag the account balance into the red, this will have a negative impact on the evaluation.

The same applies to the disbursement fee which amounts to 15 euros if up to 10,000 euros are paid out. Payouts above this amount are charged with 0.15% of the payment sum. Still, this is quite common among brokers.

Mark: 2.0

2. Underlyings and trading venues on offer: only around 130 underlying assets tradable

TRADEO offers its customers a good selection of underlyings, but is still limited to the essentials – 41 currency pairs. The offer is supplemented by 69 shares from the USA and Europe. The selection is rounded off by a dozen indices and some commodities and metals.

Mark: 2.0

3. Order functions of the trading platform: on the right path

TRADEO's web trading platform is undoubtedly tailored to the needs of beginners. Simple and self-explanatory use is the main objective, not the employment of sophisticated methods to implement trading strategies. The trader is kept up-to-date by various dashboard features, showing what the community is trading or recommending. He may comment and like at any time. Or simply copy trades or implement recommendations with a mouse click. Within the Social WebTrader, only Stop Loss and Take Profit actions work. As said before, the broker is still young, the offer might be extended.

The Tradeo Social WebTrader

In addition, experienced traders have the chance to use the popular MetaTrader 4 and its familiar versatility and the extensive functionality. However, they would lose the Social Trading functions, which allow direct trading and communication. Of course, the MetaTrader is better suited for more sophisticated strategies.

Mark: 2.0

4. Analysis functions of the trading platform: charts and drawing tools

With its Web SocialTrader, TRADEO is primarily aimed at beginners who do not need extensive analysis and drawing tools. Consequently, the broker's short tutorials point out the numerous Social Trading elements, giving the trading platform and its functions only litte attention. The commercial platform is more suited for an audience which prefers not to deal with technical analysis. However, the trading platform provides useful functions and analysis tools that are sufficient for beginners.

If you want more control over the action and information displayed, use the MetaTrader 4. The display can be fine-tuned to your needs, and working with indicators and drawing tools is much easier. MetaTrader 4 enables a more sophisticated presentation. It may even make sense for beginners to start trading on MetaTrader 4 instead of using the trading platform.

The broker scores with not completely focusing on MetaTrader 4, but providing a Social WebTrader for beginners, even though the functionality could be larger.

Mark: 2.0

5. Regulation, deposit guarantee and risk limitation: typically Cypriot

The company behind TRADEO is UR Trade FIX Ltd. It is a Cypriot investment company regulated by CySEC. Cyprus' financial supervisory authority is considered to be quite reliable. However, the agency repeatedly faced accusations for licensing fraudulent brokers and thus supporting fraud. Apparently, CySEC has decided to tighten the grip. The financial regulator has imposed more frequent and higher penalties and has even withdrawn fraudulent providers' licences. Unfortunately, it does not make clear on which standards its measures are based. This change is also due to the fact that other European financial regulators complained about the CySEC and thus significantly increased the pressure. However, if you want professional traders to perceive you as a serious broker, you do not necessarily choose Cyprus as your headquarters, but you have yourself supervised within the EU by FCA, AMF or BaFin.

It goes without saying that TRADEO is a member of a deposit guarantee fund on the basis of EU directives. Up to € 20,000 per customer are secured if the company becomes insolvent.

Traders should pay attention to the fact that TRADEO does not relieve them from margin calls. Nor does the broker offer guaranteed Stop Loss orders. Beginners should first explore the demo account in order to become aware of the risk.

Mark: 1.5

6. Automated Trading: Social Trading under construction

TRADEO wants to be a Social Trading provider and offers numerous functions. Customers can contact each other and publish and discuss their opinions and recommendations.

It is also possible to copy other customers' trades. TRADEO offers two different variants. Either the trader copies trades with a fixed position size – or sets the desired size as basis which is then used with the lever of the copied trader to replicate the dealer's strategy.

Even though TRADEO offers a very good approach, the entire Social Trading platform suffers from the fact that it does not have enough active and capable members – but this is likely to change as the broker only started in the autumn of 2016 and needs to be considered a newcomer. Comments are rarely made by the community and there are hardly any traders copied by more than two others. At the same time, the company does not pay or certify the traders who offer their services for copying – despite the low spreads. Understandably, TRADEO is hardly appealing to professionals. At the same time, copiers are at risk to follow inexperienced traders who are unable to keep their good results over a longer period of time.

Tradeo Trading App – available for iOS and Android

The limits of TRADEO's Social Trading functions can by no means be explored. Customers can hardly assess the quality of the recommendations showing on their dashboards – and there is so little competition among the top traders that it would be difficult to find suitable strategies for copying. Again, traders should bear in mind that the broker is still young and needs to find its spot in the market. More activity in the community can be expected if TRADEO continues to exploit its potential.

Mark: 2.0

7. Account opening and minimum deposit: a matter of minutes

Registering with TRADEO is done in seconds. It only takes name, e-mail address, cell phone number and password. After the quick procedure, new customers can delve into what the broker has to offer without further delay.

However, an actual application requires further data. If you want to deposit real money, you have to give the usual details and state your address and place of birth, your birthday and other personal data.

The company is unusually strict in terms of finalizing legitimacy. Many competitors ask for this only when a customer wants to have money paid out for the first time. TRADEO is different. Even before the deposit is made, the customer is strongly encouraged to submit the necessary documents. If the customer fails to do so, he may deposit a maximum of € 2,000. In addition, he must legitimise himself within the next two weeks. Otherwise, the broker will remit the capital already paid, but minus the payment fees. To carry out the legitimation, customers must submit a colour scan of a valid ID card and a utility invoice – if they pay by credit card, a copy of the credit card needs to be handed in as well.

If you want to make real money experiences with TRADEO, you have several options to deposit your assets – conventional bank transfer and credit card on the one hand and Neteller, Skrill, Paysafecard and even PayPal on the other.

You may also use a demo account for a first trade test without risk. It will be virtually credited with US-$ 50,000 and will provide the most authentic trading experience possible given that no real money is at play.

Mark: 1.0

8. The broker among his competitors: still relatively unknown

While competing big Social Trading platforms become popular through their community and numerous top traders, TRADEO does not have enough customers to actually establish a competitive offer. Nevertheless, the other players have started out small, too – TRADEO has the potential to grow.

Those who register on the trading platform will quickly find that there are few comments and traders that are actually active. The provider focuses on England, Cyprus and Israel.

At the moment, the company does not have bigger partners. TRADEO does neither sponsor sport teams, nor does he have celebrity donors. The Social Trading platform does not even cooperate with financial institutions or brokers to profit from synergy effects.

Mark: 2.0

9. Additional services and new customer offers: customers recruit customers

Unfortunately, even offers for new customers are not attractive enough to change the total amount of traders, even though bonuses should not be the all-important criterion when choosing a broker. TRADEO does not grant a welcome bonus. In the past, the company made offers such as Amazon vouchers.

The only bonus currently available is granted when customers recruit new customers. Recruiters can be rewarded with up to US-$ 150. But this amount applies only when the new customer deposits at least US-$ 1,000 or trades 6 lots. If the recruited customer deposits only US-$ 499, the recruiting customer earns merely US-$ 25. It is possible to recruit several customers.

As a supplier for new traders, the company should provide extensive learning materials. Consequently, TRADEO offers a learning academy and thus proves to be customer-friendly. The company offers video tutorials in English language – supplementary webinars are published on YouTube after they have happened on the trading platform.

Mark: 1.5

10. Website: lack in transparency

Unfortunately, TRADEO does not value transparency as much as advertised. On the website, necessary information is often hard to find. If you are in need of it, you need to turn to customer support, which is offered in English only.

In addition, TRADEO's website is not well-structured – and some bits of information are not stored where customers are most likely to search for them. The website sure makes a good first impression, but still requires improvement.

The support can be reached in a number of ways

Mark: 2.0

CONCLUSION OF THE TRADEO TEST

TRADEO wants to be a Social Trading platform and STP broker and offers its services in the area of Forex and CFD's. However, the broker is still quite new in the market, so the performance in both areas leaves a lot to desire. Nevertheless, TRADEO clearly has potential and can therefore look forward to a positive assessment in our test. For an outstanding Social Trading network, the community is currently still far too inactive, traders are almost not remunerated and not certified. To be a good STP broker, it takes lower spreads and a larger offer. Moreover, professional or at least advanced traders expect more options from a provider. However, the company does not provide services in the area of VPS or automated trading. Even though there is still room for improvement in many areas, the company has provided a training area from the start, is regulated by CySEC and proves to be quite beginner-friendly.

Despite some good approaches, TRADEO is not the yet market leader. Given its short time in the market, TRADEO's potential is promising, maybe the offer will be expanded and the community will become more lively.

Our TRADEO rating as a test score: 1,8

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