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As a trusted multi-asset broker regulated in several major financial centers, XTB provides a well-rounded, competitive offering. Highlights include outstanding customer service and the xStation 5 trading platform, which delivers a great experience.
Top Takeaways for 2020
After spending five months testing 30 of the best forex brokers for our 4th Annual Review, here are our top findings on XTB:
Founded in 2002, XTB is publicly-traded and regulated in one tier-1 jurisdiction, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading.
XTB’s xStation platform suite provides excellent usability and offers a robust selection of trading tools and research. Also, thanks to a more extensive range of CFDs, XTB is a viable option for cryptocurrency trading.
XTB provides outstanding customer service. In 2020, XTB finished 1st place (out of 22) in our national testing from locations across the United Kingdom.
Overall Summary
FeatureXTBOverall 4.5 Stars Trust Score92Offering of Investments 4 Stars Commissions & Fees 4 Stars Platform & Tools 4 Stars Research 4.5 Stars Mobile Trading 4 Stars Customer Service 4.5 Stars Education 4 Stars
Is XTB Safe?
XTB is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 92 out of 99. XTB is a publicly traded company that is authorised by one tier-1 regulator (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). XTB is authorised by the following tier-1 regulator: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more about Trust Score.
Trust Comparison
FeatureXTBYear Founded2002Publicly Traded (Listed) Yes Bank No Tier-1 Licenses1Tier-2 Licenses1Tier-3 Licenses1Trust Score92
Offering of Investments
XTB provides traders access to CFDs on 1703 stocks, 103 ETFs, 21 commodities, 42 indices, 25 cryptocurrencies, and 49 forex pairs. Furthermore, the broker also provides nearly 2100 cash equities (i.e., non-leveraged), including 150 ETFs, as part of its securities offering. The following table summarizes the different investment products available to XTB clients.
FeatureXTBForex: Spot Trading Yes Currency Pairs (Total Forex pairs)49CFDs – Total Offered1894Social Trading / Copy-Trading Yes Cryptocurrency traded as actual No Cryptocurrency traded as CFD Yes
Commissions & Fees
XTB offers a Standard (for UK and Ireland residents only) and a commission-based Pro account. Each account comes with its own execution method and spread model, in terms of commissions and fees. Overall, spreads are competitive. Regardless of the account type used, traders can use either the xStation 5 platform or MT4.
Spreads: XTB lists target spreads on the EUR/USD for its various account types, which include two pips for the Basic account, 0.9 pips on MT4, 0.7 pips for the standard account, and 0.3 pips for the commission-based Pro account, as of October 2019. My choice would be the standard account with an average spread of 0.78 pips during Q3 2019 for the EUR/USD pair at XTB. Standard vs. Pro: With minimum deposits at XTB that start at 250 base currency (i.e., £250, €250, or $250), the Pro account is the most competitive option in terms of lower spreads. It has a commission of £2.5, €3.5, or $4 per side on standard lots (100k), depending on the currency of the denominated account.
Designated professionals: For active traders (and those in the EU who meet the definition of elective professionals), XTB will rebate a portion of the spread (from 10% to 30%) back to you when you reach certain volume thresholds.
Active trader discounts: Five discount tiers that are tied to volume, starting from over 50 lots per month, to more than 1000 at the highest level, in terms of monthly volume requirements. This active trader program is known as XTB’s lower spread group and helps the company compete with brokers such as FXCM and FOREX.com that have active trader offerings or liquidity rebates from CMC Markets.
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FeatureXTBMinimum Initial Deposit$0.00Average Spread EUR/USD – Standard0.78 (as of Q3 19)All-in Cost EUR/USD – Active0.78 (as of Q3 19)Active Trader or VIP Discounts Yes
Platforms & Tools
XTB’s flagship platform offering, xStation 5, delivers a great experience for web, mobile, tablet, and even iOS and Android smartwatches. Tool highlights include heat mapping (view top movers by color), sentiment analysis (see which percentage of XTB clients are long or short), and trader statistics (view trade-by-trade results, win/loss ratio by long or short, performance by traded market, and more).
xStation 5 Web: The web-based version of xStation 5 is HTML 5 based, providing forex and CFD traders a very modern, clean design. A unique feature with charting, charts include a countdown timer showing the remaining time left in each candlestick, and right-clicking within a chart reveals an extensive list of drop-down items for fast access to trading and analysis. In total, 29 drawing tools and 34 technical indicators are available.
MetaTrader: While xStation 5 is the primary reason for choosing XTB to begin with, XTB does also offer the full MetaTrader 4 suite. Since xStation 5 does not support automated trading, MT4 must be used.
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Research
XTB offers a diverse range of research across its platforms and websites. Beyond streaming headlines from top-tier news providers, an economic calendar, and in-house staff that publish technical and fundamental analysis, a premium service (formerly known as TRADEBEAT) is offered that provides market sentiment, exclusive strategies, educational resources, and trade recommendations for subscribers.
Helping to boost its ranking as a multi-asset broker in this category, XTB provides a stock screener that lets you filter basic fields to sort through over 1700 tradable single-stock CFDs, a useful research tool for scanning symbols to trade. Alongside a screener, signals included within the news panel include price analyses from Thomson Reuters, Barclays, Citi Group, and others.
Combined with other premium tools such as the heatmap and market sentiment, XTB’s research tools are diverse and comparable to research offerings from other multi-asset brokers, such as IG and Saxo Bank.
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Mobile Trading
The xStation mobile app from XTB provides traders a cleanly designed app that is easy to use and includes live chat support. That said, there is room for further innovation in what is already a good foundation for its mobile app.
As far as features go, research within the xStation mobile app is formidable. Top movers, market sentiment analysis, and a news calendar with click-to-expand charts are all available. Drawbacks include watch list updates do not sync with the web platform and despite a cleanly built charting package, which includes drawing tools in horizontal mode, charts contain only ten indicators.
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Customer Service
To score Customer Service, ForexBrokers.com partnered with customer experience research group Customerwise to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the UK. For our 2020 Review, 330 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks.
Results
Average Connection Time:
Average Net Promoter Score: 9.1 / 10
Average Professionalism Score: 9.7 / 10
Overall Score: 9.40 / 10
Ranking: 1
st (22 brokers)
Final Thoughts
A diverse selection of tradable securities, outstanding customer service, and a unique proprietary trading platform suite, xStation 5, summarizes the highlights of XTB’s all-around competitive offering. Its weak spot is its mobile app, which even then still meets the industry standard as far as features go. XTB continued its multi-year winning streak finishing Best in Class across two categories, including Crypto Trading, and Customer Service (1st place) in 2020.
About XTB
Founded in Poland in 2002, XTB has grown to become a well-known forex and CFDs broker, serving over 230,000 clients globally as of its 2019 Half-Year (HY) report. XTB was listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2016 after a successful initial public offering that valued the company at nearly $350 million. As of October 2019, the market capitalization of the company’s shares (WSE: XTB.PL) stood at $96.63m, converted from Polish Zloty to US Dollars. XTB maintains offices in over a dozen countries across Europe and is licensed by numerous regulators, including the UK’s FCA, Poland’s KNF, Germany’s BaFIN, Spain’s CNMV, France’s AMF, Cyprus’ CySEC, and Belize’s FSC.
XTB Trading Features
FeatureXTBVirtual Trading (Demo) Yes Proprietary Platform Yes Desktop Platform (Windows) Yes Web Platform Yes Social Trading / Copy-Trading Yes MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Yes MetaTrader 5 (MT5) No cTrader No Charting – Indicators / Studies (Total)51Charting – Drawing Tools (Total)31Charting – Trade From Chart Yes Watchlists – Total Fields7Order Type – Trailing Stop Yes
XTB Research Features
FeatureXTBDaily Market Commentary Yes Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) Yes Weekly Webinars No AutoChartist No Trading Central (Recognia) No Delkos Research No Social Sentiment – Currency Pairs Yes Economic Calendar Yes
XTB Mobile App Features
FeatureXTBAndroid App Yes Apple iOS App Yes Trading – Forex Yes Trading – CFDs Yes Alerts – Basic Fields Yes Watch List Yes Watch List Syncing No Charting – Indicators / Studies30Charting – Draw Trend Lines Yes Charting – Trend Lines Moveable Yes Charting – Multiple Time Frames Yes Charting – Drawings Autosave No Forex Calendar Yes
2020 Review Methodology
For our 2020 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 30 international forex brokers over a five month time period. Each broker was graded on 105 different variables and, in total, over 50,000 words of research were produced.
While encouraged, broker participation was optional. Each broker had the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile and provide executive time (live in person or over the web) for an annual update meeting.
All data submitted by brokers is hand-checked for accuracy. Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than 1% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.
Forex Risk Disclaimer
“There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses.” Learn more.
About the author: Steven Hatzakis
Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
