CapTrader Review 2021

CapTrader has low stock and ETF fees, and margin rates are also low. On the other hand, forex, options and futures fees are high.

How we ranked fees

We ranked CapTrader's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

First, let's go over some basic terms related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of CapTrader for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing the most important fees are commissions.

We also compared CapTrader's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, Saxo Bank and TradeStation Global. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of CapTrader alternatives.

To have a clear overview of CapTrader, let's start with the trading fees.

CapTrader trading fees

CapTrader trading fees are mixed. In most cases, CapTrader uses volume-tiered commission.

Stock fees and ETF fees

CapTrader charges generally low stock and ETF commissions, mostly below those of Saxo Bank but higher than TradeStation Global.

CapTrader's stock trading fee is volume-based: it is calculated either per share or as a percentage of the trade value, with a minimum and maximum. ETF fees are the same as stock fees.

If you prefer stock trading on margin, you should check CapTrader's margin rates.

Trading on margin basically means that you borrow money from your broker and can purchase more shares than you could with just the available cash in your account. You have to pay interest on this borrowed money – the interest rate is called the margin rate. It can account for a significant portion of your trading costs.

CapTrader margin rates are low.

Margin rates drop for higher debit balances, e.g. you get a discount of 50 bps for a debit balance of more than $100,000.

Forex fees

CapTrader forex fees are high, coming in well above those of Saxo Bank and TradeStation Global.

To get a clear picture of forex fees, we calculated a forex benchmark fee for major currency pairs. This catch-all benchmark includes commissions, spreads and financing costs for all brokers.

Fund fees

CapTrader's mutual fund fees are average; however, thousands of US mutual funds (including funds from Allianz, Blackrock and Schroder) may be purchased without a transaction fee.

The minimum size of initial fund orders is $3,000, while the subsequent minimum order size is $100.

When you purchase a fund that is not in the 'free-to-buy' category, a simple price structure applies that includes all regulatory and exchange fees. Mutual fund commissions charged by CapTrader are lower than TradeStation Global's, but are higher than Saxo Bank's corresponding commissions.

The fee structure is percentage-based and can have a minimum and a maximum. Note that for European mutual funds, the pricing is a bit different:

Bond fees

CapTrader has generally low bond fees. They are lower than TradeStation Global and much lower than at Saxo Bank.

CapTrader charges a volume-based bond commission with a minimum amount. 

Options fees

CapTrader options fees are high, exceeding those of its nearest competitors for most products.

You pay options fees depending on the number of contracts you trade.

Futures fees

CapTrader futures fees are high, exceeding those charged by TradeStation Global and almost matching those of Saxo Bank.

Similarly to options, you pay a commission based on the number of contracts you trade.

CFD fees

CapTrader charges high CFD trading fees. They are higher than at TradeStation Global, and mixed when compared with those of Saxo Bank.

To have a clear understanding of CFD fees, we calculated a CFD benchmark fee for the selected products. This catch-all benchmark includes commissions, spreads and financing costs for all brokers.

We calculated with 20:1 leverage for stock index CFDs and 5:1 leverage for single-stock CFDs.

In the case of stock index CFDs, all fees are incorporated into the spreads. When you trade stock CFDs at CapTrader, you pay a volume-tiered commission.

Example:
5 CFDs Germany30 (symbol: IBDE30), trading at 12,000
>5 CFDs*12,000 (price index) = €60,000
>60 000*0,01% (commission) = €6 fee

Trading index CFDs involves financing costs. For long positions, you’ll have to pay debit interest. Meanwhile, if you hold a short position, you will receive credit interest. A negative credit interest rate means that, in effect, you also pay for short positions.

Example for Europe:

100 CFDs Daimler, trading at €52
>100 CFDs*€52 (quote CFD) = €5,200
>5,200*0.1% (commission) = €5.20 fee

Example for US:

100 CFDs Apple, trading at $120
>100 CFDs*$120 (quote CFD) = $12,000
>100*$0.01 (per CFD) = $1 -> $2 minimum fee applies

Trading share CFDs involves financing costs. For long positions, you’ll have to pay debit interest. Meanwhile, if you hold a short position, you will receive credit interest. A negative credit interest rate means that, in effect, you also pay for short positions.

CapTrader forex CFD commissions are the same as forex commissions. As for financing costs, for long positions, you’ll have to pay debit interest. Meanwhile, if you hold a short position, you will receive credit interest. A negative credit interest rate means that, in effect, you also pay for short positions.

Warrants and certificates fees

At CapTrader, you can also trade warrants and certificates.

Crypto fees

You can trade cryptocurrencies through futures. You can trade

• CFE Bitcoin Futures (GXBT) for €8 and 
• CME Bitcoin Futures (BRR) for €25.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading, check out our crypto blogpost.

Non-trading fees

CapTrader has average non-trading fees.

In general, there are no monthly minimum turnover fees or other running fees at CapTrader. Reverting monthly costs will only be charged if you have opted for Realtime packages (real-time course subscriptions).

An inactivity fee will only be charged if the total value of your account balance is less than $1,000 (or equivalent) and you are not trading actively. This fee is $1 per calendar month, applicable if you haven't carried out any trades in the past month.

CapTrader fees in these categories are idential to those of Saxo Bank and TrdaStation Global. 

CapTrader's account opening is fully digital, but the positives stop there, as the process is complicated, account verification takes long, and there's a steep €2,000 minimum deposit.

Can you open an account?

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CapTrader is present on every continent, so you can most likely open an account. Only countries with highly unstable political or economic backgrounds are excluded, such as North Korea.

What is the minimum deposit at CapTrader?

The required CapTrader minimum deposit is a relatively hefty €2,000 or an equivalent amount in another base currency.

Account types

CapTrader offers many account types, which differ in ownernship and the range of services provided.

Account types based on ownership

CapTrader account types fall into two big groups based on account ownership:

• accounts for individual traders and investors
• accounts for institutions

As an individual trader or investor, you can choose among many account types. A few of these, like the IRA account, are available only for US clients.

After you have selected the ownership of your account, you can choose between a cash or a margin account. The latter means your buying power can be increased through a margin loan facility.

How to open your account

The account opening process is fully digital but overly complicated. Following your online registration, account verification takes around 10 business days, which is considerably slower than the usual account verification time for most brokers.

First, you have to go through a 4-step registration process, which takes roughly an hour. We experienced a few bugs and errors throughout the process, such as disappearing information and various error messages. It was a complicated process, with often confusing and unclear messages.

During the account opening process, you have to provide some personal information and there are also questions about your trading experience.

At the end, you have to verify your identity and residency by uploading the required documents:

• Verification of identity: proof of address and an ID card or passport copy
• Verification of residency: a telephone bill (not mobile), bank statement or utility bill (electricity, gas, etc.) from the past 6 months, or a credit card statement from the past 6 weeks

This is a standard process, which in financial lingo is called a KYC (know-your-customer) process. These steps are required to make sure you are truly identifiable.

1. Introduction:

• General requirement for opening an account

2. Personal information:

• General information
• Personal details of 1st account holder
• User access for 1st account holder
• Professional details of 1st account holder
• Source of wealth of 1st account holder
• Security questions for 1st account holder

3. Financial information

• W-8 form
• Regulatory information
• Financial situation
• Investment objective
• Trading experience
• Information pursuant to German securities trading act
• Information on money laundering
• Authentication

4. Base agreement

• Basic agreement
• Disclosure of inducements
• Cancellation policy
• Basic agreements, powers, and further explanations
• Complete account opening
• Upload

By completing and signing the above, the customer gives his explicit consent and power of attorney to CapTrader to open a securities account with IB for and in the name of the customer(s) at their expense and risk, so that CapTrader, as the customer’s representative, can sign the necessary customer agreements between IB and the customer on behalf of the customer. 

CapTrader offers one free withdrawal per month and has a decent selection of account base currencies; however, it doesn't accept credit/debit cards and electronic wallets.

Account base currencies

At CapTrader, you can choose from 22 base currencies. The available base currencies are: AUD, CAD, CHF, CNH, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, INR, ILS, JPY, MXN, NOK, NZD, PLN, RUB, SEK, SGD, USD, ZAR

This is almost the same as the offer of Saxo Bank and TradeStation Global. 

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Another way is if you convert your funds using CapTrader's currency conversion feature, called FXCONV:

• What happens normally if you want to buy a stock that is in USD and your base currency is EUR? In a margin account, you can do this without conversion; as soon as you buy the stock, you'll have a negative account balance in USD, and your EUR will serve as collateral. However, this means that as long as you have this negative cash balance, you'll have to pay interest on it. If you want to avoid this, you can convert your money at any time using the FXCONV function.
• In this example, in the desktop TWS platform, you'd type in EUR.USD, select IDEALPRO (for a cash transaction), then go to 'Advanced' and select FXCONV as a destination, and you'd sell the amount you need.
• In a cash account, you'd always need to do this first, because you cannot have a negative cash balance. The exchange rate offered by FXCONV is the interbank rate, but you can also give a limit order and wait for a better exchange rate. CapTrader charges a commission of 0.3 basis points of the trade value, subject to a minimum charge of $3.75. This is higher than what Interactive Brokers itself charges (0.2 basis points and a minimum of $2 per trade).

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Deposit fees and options

CapTrader deposits are free of charge. However, deposit options are limited, as neither credit/debit cards nor electronic wallets can be used. This is a disadvantage compared with competitors such as Saxo Bank that do allow credit/debit card deposits.

If you reside in the US, though, you have multiple extra options, such as: 

• ACH (Automated Clearing House)
• Check
• Online bill payment
• Direct Rollover (IRA accounts only)
• Trustee-to-Trustee (IRA accounts only)

A bank transfer can take up to 2-3 business days to arrive, but in practice it is usually much faster.

You can only deposit money from sources that are in your name.

CapTrader withdrawal fees and options

The first withdrawal each month is free of charge, while subsequent withdrawals incur a fee.

Similar to deposits, you can only use bank transfer for outgoing transfers. US residents can also withdraw via ACH or check.

After your first free withdrawal each month, every additional bank withdrawal is charged as follows: €1 for SEPA withdrawals and €8 for non-SEPA withdrawals.

You can only withdraw money to accounts that are in your name.

How long does it take to withdraw money from CapTrader? We tested it and it took 2 business days. While you wait, a new feature since early 2020 lets you track your withdrawal in real-time on the Client Portal.

How do you withdraw money from CapTrader?

• First, log in to the Client Portal, then click 'Transfer & Pay' and 'Transfer funds.'
• Select the account you want to use for the transaction.
• At the top of the page, click the 'Withdraw Funds' tab. 
• Select the currency of your withdrawal, then the withdrawal method.
• Fill in the required information.
• Submit your withdrawal request. 
• You can see the status of your request in 'View Transaction History.' 

Compare to other brokers

CapTrader's WebTrader web platform is user-friendly, has a clear fee report, and is accessible via a safe two-step login process. On the negative side, it is not customizable.

When you trade online at CapTrader, you can choose between two web platforms: the Client Portal and WebTrader. In this review, we tested WebTrader.

Webtrader is available in several languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Slovakian, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

Look and feel

The CapTrader web trading platform is particularly user-friendly and intuitive. You will easily find every feature even if you have just started trading. On the negative side, it is not customizable at all.

Login and security

CapTrader provides several options for safe login:

1. You can use two-step authentication through SMS messaging.
2. CapTrader Key is a two-step authentication feature available through the IBKR Mobile app.
3. A slightly more old-fashioned way is the Secure Login System, where you get a plastic code card.

Search functions

The search function is easy to use and works better than on the desktop platform.

All you have to do is start typing the name of the asset you're looking for, and you will see a list of relevant exchanges and products. The search bar can be found in the upper-right corner. 

Placing orders

There are many order types available in the WebTrader platform:

• Limit
• Market
• Stop
• Stop Limit
• Limit-on-Close
• Market-on-Close
• Trailing Stop
• Trailing Stop Limit

To get a better understanding of these terms, read our overview of order types.

You can also use several order time limits:

• Day
• Good 'til Canceled (GTC)
• Immediate or Cancel
• Market-on-Open
• Limit-on-Open

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications, but only through the built-in chat. We think it would be better if users could set alerts at the same time as they set up their orders.

Portfolio and fee reports

Portfolio and fee reports are transparent. Under the 'Portfolio' tab, the platform gives a clear overview of your performance, including your historical profit/loss balance and the fees you have paid.

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CapTrader's mobile trading platform has a safe two-step login, and comes with a good search function and multiple order types. However, beginners may find it too complex.

CapTrader uses IBKR Mobile, Interactive Brokers's mobile trading platform. It is available for both iOS and Android. In this review, we tested it on iOS.

The number of available languages is almost the same as on the web trading platform; only Slovakian is not supported. This means that the app is available in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese and Turkish.

Look and feel

The mobile trading app is handier than the web platform. Still, its overall look and user-friendliness fall short of some competitors' mobile platforms. 

Login and security

You can use a two-step login, which is safer than a simple login. Furthermore, if your device has a fingerprint reader, you can also use biometric authentication for added convenience.

Search functions

The search function works well, just like on the web trading platform. You can access the search button easily from any menu.

After you have selected the product you are interested in, you will be greeted by an information and trading window, which shows

• asset market information,
• an interactive chart with technical indicators,
• related news,
• some fundamental data,
• summary of the latest analyst report,
• and the 'Buy' and 'Sell' buttons that take you to the order panel.

Placing orders

IBKR Mobile has the same order types as the web trading platform. 

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts only via the chatbot, which is not the most intuitive method.

Special feature - Chatbot

The most innovative and exciting function within the app is the chatbot, called IBot. You can use the chatbot to execute or close an order, or to get basic info quickly.

The chatbot understands basic commands, such as “apple price” or “buy 1 apple share.” On top of this, you can also search for company fundamentals, like dividend yields or P/E ratios. Some other functions, such as displaying a chart, are also available via the chatbot.

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CapTrader's desktop trading platform offers good customizability and many order types, but the search function is poor, and overall the platform is too complex for beginners.

CapTrader's desktop platform, Trader Workstation (TWS), is so advanced that even a separate review would not be able to cover all of its features. Nevertheless, we'll try to provide you with a comprehensive summary of TWS.

In the desktop trading platform, you have literally every feature you could desire. Whether you were dreaming of replicating your favorite ETF or trading with chatbots - at CapTrader, you can do both.

The desktop trading platform is available in multiple languages, but fewer than the web trading platform. For example, Dutch and Slovakian are missing.

Look and feel

In many respects, this is by far the most complex platform that we at BrokerChooser have ever reviewed. This platform is ideal for you if you consider yourself a professional user. If you are a beginner or someone who seeks long-term investments, though, you may have difficulty navigating all of TWS's features.

Despite its complexity, the platform is highly customizable; for example, you can set up your own templates and create your own watchlists. You can fix the tables with the padlock in the top right corner of the screen. If you want to move the tables, you should click the padlock again.

Login and security

TWS has the same security features as the web trading platform. You can turn on two-step authentication, which makes the platform safer to use.

Search functions

The search function is the platform's weakest feature. Search results are not structured, and it is quite difficult to filter out the product you are looking for.

In this example, we searched for RWE stock, a German energy utility. However, when we typed in "rwe," all the structured and derivative products were listed among the results as well, which made it harder to find the actual stock.

Using the chatbot can be a great substitute solution. When you search for RWE directly through this feature, it will direct you to the stock listed on the main stock exchange.

Placing orders

Trading through TWS, IKBR PRO offers many different order types.

CapTrader provides Smart Routing, a great feature that automatically detects the best possible route (i.e. exchange) for your trades. Among other brokers, TD Ameritrade also has a similar service.

If you are not familiar with the basic order types, read this overview.

Order term options also include some special types beyond the usual ones:

• Good 'til Canceled (GTC)
• Good 'til Date (GTD)
• Market-on-open (MOO)
• Limit-on-open (LOO)
• Immediate-or-cancel (IOC)
• Fill-or-Kill (FOK)
• Day 'til canceled (DTC)

Alerts and notifications

Alerts and notifications can be set in the 'Configuration' panel. You can select email, SMS or mobile pop-up notifications.

You can also set additional alerts, for example for price changes, daily profits or losses, executed trades, etc.

Portfolio and fee reports

Portfolio and fee reports on the CapTrader desktop platform are really transparent, just like on the web platform.

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Through CapTrader, you can access an extremely wide range of markets, and virtually all product types imaginable.

CapTrader has a great selection of products, including an exceptional range of ETFs and bonds. It also offers a couple of more exotic assets, like warrants and structured products. It only lags behind its competitors in terms of its FX pair and CFD selections.

CapTarder provides access to roughly 150 exchanges worldwide, including with its alternative services, such as Interactive Advisors. This is an asset management service that is a mix of robo-advisory and social trading.

Stocks and ETFs

CapTrader lets you access more stock markets than its competitors. This includes major stock markets such as the NASDAQ, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE), as well as minor ones such as the Warsaw Stock Exchange or Mexican markets. In addition to regular stocks, penny stocks are also available.

Besides stocks, you can also trade more than 13,000 ETFs at CapTrader. This is considered an extensive selection compared with competitors such as Saxo Bank.

In 2020, CapTrader introduced a feature whereby you can buy and sell fractional shares of stock, which allows traders to invest only small amounts and still have a diversified portfolio. This is also useful if you want to keep things simple, as you can choose to invest a specific amount (for example a round number like $100) and the system will buy the exact fraction of shares needed to fill this purchase order, without you having to calculate this by hand.

Forex

CapTrader provides a vast selection of more than 100 currency pairs; only Saxo Bank offers more.

Funds

Through CapTrader, you have access to more than 250 fund providers, including big names like BlackRock or Vanguard. This selection far exceeds that of close competitors such as Saxo Bank.

Bonds

CapTrader grants you access to a massive number of bonds. Out of all government and corporate bonds available at CapTrader, 1.4 million are so-called municipal bonds: these are fixed income investments issued by local US governments, cities, states or counties, but they are tradable only by US residents. The table below does not include municipal bonds in the overall number of bonds, but even so, the figure is still higher than at competing brokers.

Options

As with other product types, CapTrader offers an extremely wide range of options markets. You can access the biggest ones, like the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) or the CME Group, as well as smaller markets, such as the Korea Stock Exchange (KSE) or the Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MEXDER).

Futures

CapTrader offers an extensive selection of futures products and markets. There are 32 markets available at the time of writing, which is more than what most competitors provide. Similarly to options, you will find both major and minor markets.

CFDs

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 59.5% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Compared to other products and competitors, IB offers an average range of CFDs, mainly stock and stock index CFDs.

Cryptos

At CapTrader, you can trade Bitcoin and Ethereum ETNs and Bitcoin Futures:

• Bitcoin and Ethereum ETNs are traded on the Stockholm Stock Exchange and the US OTC (Pink) markets
• Bitcoin Index is available on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and on the CME Group and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)
• Bitcoin futures are available on the CME Group and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE)

If you want to know more about crypto investing, we recommend our crypto article.

The crypto selection of CapTrader matches that of its competitors.

Please note that the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned the sale of crypto-derivatives to UK retail clients from 6 January 2021.

Asset management service

CapTrader has its own asset management service, which allows you to copy professional portfolio managers, letting you automatically make trades as professionals do.

You can choose from many portfolio managers to find the one that fits you best, with real-time information on portfolio performance available.

The minimum investment depends on the portfolio you want to invest in: the lowest investment amount starts at $10,000.

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CapTrader has almost limitless research possibilities, but the user interface is overly complicated, hard to follow and not very well designed.

The quality of the research available at CapTrader is good and you can always choose from various third-party providers as well.

Recommendations

On the CapTrader platform, you can view recommendations provided by third parties. These research tools are mostly free, but for some of them you have to pay.

Several prominent news sources, such as Thomson Reuters, Morningstar and Dow Jones, are available for free.

As of January 2020, CapTrader incorporated two new recommendation tools, Validea and TheLeadingEDGE. These provide real-time analysis, in-depth reports and model portfolios for a monthly subscription. You can enable these features via your Client Portal: to do so, select 'Menu' - 'Settings' - 'User Settings' and then 'Research Subscriptions'.

Trading ideas

CapTrader provides trading ideas. The trading signals contain possible entry and exit points, which you can combine with your own risk and money management strategy.

Fundamental data

CapTrader provides a broad selection of fundamental data on all of its platforms. These include income statements for the past six years, a dividend calendar and peer group companies, among others.

Charting

The charting features are almost endless at CapTrader. There are 120 technical indicators available; however, similar to the rest of the platforms, the charting tool is not very user-friendly.

Other special technical tools include:

• Stock/ETF benchmarker: helps you to compare your stock or portfolio to a selected benchmark
• Mutual fund and ETF replicator
• Volatility lab
• Option probability lab: a group of option analysis functions
• VaR, Sharpe: portfolio performance analyzers

News feed

You have access to:

• News
• Daily summaries
• Multiple economic calendars

CapTrader has its own news domain called 'Traders' Insight'. It also channels integrated third-party news and recommendations to the desktop platform.

Upon entering the platform, you can read daily summaries of the markets through 'Daily Lineup'. This feature keeps you informed about the latest news and analyst recommendations. There is also an earnings calendar and an economic event calendar, which are helpful shortcuts to start off your day.

Compare research pros and cons

CapTrader has good customer service, giving fast and relevant responses via the usual channels as well as an automated 'IBot'. However, most options are not available 24/7.

You can contact CapTrader via:

• Live chat
• Phone
• Email

CapTrader phone support was fast, and we got relevant and detailed answers. 

CapTrader has a fast live chat. The relevancy of the answers was satisfactory.

When reaching out to customer support via email, we received quick and relevant answers.

The only thing we missed was 24/7 availability.

In addition to these traditional channels, a relatively unique and innovative way to engage with CapTrader is via the IBot chatbot in the mobile app, which is capable of understanding simple commands.

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CapTrader offers a handful of educational materials and tools, though some of these are only available in German. You can also test the waters with a demo account.

At CapTrader, you can learn in the following ways:

• Paper trading (demo) account
• Online courses
• Webinars
• Educational videos
• Platform tutorial videos
• Downloadable e-book in German

Although we checked the English version of the Education page, some videos were available in German only. We also found several broken links.

Once you set up a trading account, you can also open a Paper Trading Account. This is a demo account: all paper accounts start with $1,000,000 in virtual money, which you can use to experiment with CapTrader's platforms and trading services. We think this is the best way to learn how a trading platform works.

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As an introducing broker of IB, CapTrader is covered by top-tier regulators, and most clients enjoy strong protection. However, there is no banking background of IB or CapTrader. Also, CapTrader itself is not publicly listed, meaning less transparency.

Is CapTrader regulated?

CapTrader is registered with the German Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). CapTrader serves as an introducing broker to Interactive Brokers (IB). This means that your cash and assets are held with IB.

Interactive Brokers' Ireland-base entity is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, while the UK-based entity regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Is CapTrader safe?

To make sure whether a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

Interactive Brokers is the contracting partner that processes and transacts orders via the trading platform. The investor protection amount and the regulating authority differ from entity to entity.

* If you are from the UK, the regulator and the protection amount also depends on what you are trading:

• If you trade forex, CFDs, non-US stock index options or futures, you are protected by the FCA, up to £85,000. 
• If you trade stocks, bonds, funds or US stock index options, you are covered by the US investor protection scheme, i.e. $500,000 with a cash limit of $250,000.

CapTrader provides negative balance protection for forex spot and CFD trading, but only for retail clients from the European Union. Professional and non-EU clients are not covered by any negative balance protection.

Background

CapTrader was established in 1997. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

While Interactive Brokers is listed on the NASDAQ, CapTrader itself is not listed, meaning that it is not required to publish financial information.

Find your safe broker

CapTrader is a global stockbroker for investors and traders, providing direct access to more than 1.2 million financial instruments in 33 countries. We recommend this broker mainly for advanced traders.

On the plus side, CapTrader has low stock and ETF fees, a vast range of available markets and products, and diverse research tools.

There are some drawbacks, though. It charges high forex fees, and the account opening process is complicated. The desktop platform is complex and might be hard to get a handle on, especially for beginners.

If you have experience navigating complex platforms and enjoy transparent, low-cost trading, CapTrader could be a great fit for you.

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