Rakuten Securities Review 2019

Rakuten Securities is a brokerage company founded in 1999 and is the subsidiary of Rakuten, a Japanese holding company which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Rakuten Securities has different legal entities in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Australia. In this review, we tested the Australian entity of Rakuten Securities because it is available worldwide. Each time we say Rakuten Securities, we refer to the Australian legal entity of Rakuten Securities.

The Australian legal entity is a forex and CFD broker which is considered safe because it is regulated by the top-tier ASIC and has a strong parent company.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Recommended for forex traders preferring low fees and MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

Rakuten Securities pros and cons

Rakuten Securities has low trading and non-trading fees. It has also an easy and fast account opening. The mobile platform is great. It is user-friendly and well-designed.

The product portfolio at Rakuten Securities is limited, only forex and some CFDs are offered. It has limited research tools as there are no fundamental data or news. Lastly, there is no web trading platform.

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Rakuten Securities review
Fees 4 stars

Rakuten Securities has low trading fees and low non-trading fees.

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

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo relating to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees, financing rates, and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions or spreads.
• Financing rates or overnight rates are charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than a day. A leveraged position means that you borrow money from the broker to trade.
• Non-trading fees include things like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

We also compared Rakuten Securities's fees with two Rakuten Securities alternatives we selected, IC Markets and Pepperstone. This selection is based on factors like products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc.

Let's start with the trading fees.

Trading fees

Rakuten Securities has generally low trading fees. The trading fees are built into spreads.

It is super hard to compare trading fees for forex brokers. What did we do at Brokerchooser? Instead of quoting long fee tables, we compare brokers by calculating all fees of a typical trade for two popular currency pairs:

• EURUSD
• EURGBP

A typical trade means that you buy for $20,000 using 30:1 leverage and sell it after a week.

This super catch-all benchmark includes spreads and financing costs for all brokers.

Here is the verdict. Rakuten Securities charges low fees for EURGBP, but the EURUSD fees are a bit higher.

Financing rates

Rakuten Securities has generally high financing rates.

Financing rates are charged when you hold your leveraged positions for more than a day. It can be a significant proportion of your trading costs.

Non-trading fees

Rakuten Securities has low non-trading fees. There are no inactivity, account, and withdrawal fees. It is very similar to competitors.

Rakuten Securities review
Account opening 5 stars

The account opening at Rakuten Securities is user-friendly and fully digital. It is also very fast, it took only 1 day until our account was approved.

Can you open an account?

Rakuten Securities accepts customers from all around the world. There are a few exceptions, most notables are the US and Japan.

What is the minimum deposit at Rakuten Securities?

The minimum deposit Rakuten Securities is $50. For using the copy trading service, a minimum $1,000 account balance is required.

Account types

You can choose from more account types at Rakuten Securities.

• Standard Individual: account is owned by an individual.
• Islamic Account or Swap-free Account: account is owned by a Muslim individual. At these accounts, a flat commission is charged if you hold your leveraged position overnight instead of the percentage-based financing rates.
• Corporate Account: account is owned by a legal entity

How to open your account

Rakuten Securities account opening is easy and fully digital.  The online application takes roughly 10-15 minutes and the account approval took one business day. 

The five steps of Rakuten Securities account opening:

1. Add your personal details, like your email address and date of birth
2. Add your residency and employment status
3. Complete a survey about your trading experience
4. Choose the account type, leverage, and the base currency
5. Verify your identity and residency by uploading a copy of your passport / ID, and a bank statement / utility bill. If you choose Islamic account, you have to verify your Islamic faith.

Rakuten Securities review
Deposit and withdrawal 3 stars

Rakuten Securities charges no fees for deposit and withdrawal. Besides bank transfer, you can use more electronic wallets for transferring money. On the negative side, credit/debit cards are not provided and the withdrawal is slow.

Account base currencies

At Rakuten Securities, you can choose from 4 base currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, and AUD. This variety of offer lags behind the competitors.

Why does this matter? Two things. First, if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, you won't be charged a currency conversion fee. Second, if you trade assets in the same currency as your account base currency, you will not have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on the currency conversion fees can be to open a multi-currency bank account. Revolut or Transferwise both offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. The account opening only takes a few minutes on your phone.

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Deposit fees and options

Rakuten Securities charges no deposit fees. However, international transfers might be charged by your bank.

You can use bank transfers and some electronic wallets for deposit:

• Neteller
• Skrill
• China Union Pay

If you have a bank account at a major bank in Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia, you can deposit instantly.

We tested the bank transfer deposit which took 3 business days.

You can only deposit money from accounts which are in your name.

Withdrawal fees and options

Rakuten Securities charges no withdrawal fees. Similarly to deposit, international transfers might be charged by your bank.

You can use the same methods for withdrawal than for deposit.

You can only withdraw money to accounts under your name.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Rakuten Securities? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took 4 business days.

How do you withdraw money from Rakuten Securities? You can withdraw money from Rakuten Securities by following these steps:

• Transfer from your Rakuten account, called Standard to your Rakuten wallet
• Select the withdrawal method you want to use
• Add the withdrawal amount and the reason for withdrawal
• Initiate the withdrawal

At Skrill and Neteller, you can withdraw only up to the amount you have deposited before. For example, if you deposited $100, then you can withdraw up to $100.

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Rakuten Securities review
Web trading platform

Rakuten Securities doesn't offer web trading platform, only mobile and desktop trading platform. Offering a web-based application is very common today as it is more convenient to use than desktops and accessible from all devices. We missed the web platform very much.

Rakuten Securities review
Mobile trading platform 4 stars

Rakuten Securities has a great mobile trading platform, offered by MetaTrader 4. It is well designed and user-friendly. On the flip side, it lacks the two-step login.

Rakuten Securities doesn't have an in-house developed trading platform, it uses the MetaTrader 4 platform, a third-party platform. MetaTrader 4 is available for both iOS and Android. We tested it on Android.

After you downloaded the MT4 mobile trading platform, you have to access this MT4 server: RakutenSecuritiesAustralia-live. 

The mobile trading platform is available in 21 languages. This is one of the most extensive offers.

 Look and feel

Rakuten Securities has a great mobile trading platform, we really liked its design and user-friendliness. You will easily find the features.

Login and security

Rakuten Securities provides a one-step login. A two-step authentication would be more secure.

Search functions

The search functions are good. You can search by typing the name of the product or by navigating in the categorized folders. The categorization of the assets is a bit confusing as there are more forex folders.

Placing orders

You can use the basic order types. You will not find very sophisticated orders like the "one cancels the other" order.

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Stop-loss

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

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Good 'til canceled (GTC)
• Good 'til time (GTT)

Alerts and notifications

You can't set alerts and notifications on the Rakuten Securities mobile platform. However, you can set mobile push notifications on the desktop trading platform. It would be much easier if you could set these notifications on the mobile trading platform.

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Rakuten Securities review
Desktop trading platform 3 stars

The desktop trading platform of Rakuten Securities is provided by MetaTrader. It is highly customizable, available in a lot of languages, and has a clear fee report. On the negative side, it lacks two-step login and the design is outdated.

Similarly to the mobile trading platform, the desktop trading platform is provided by MetaTrader 4, a third party.

The desktop trading platform is available in exceptionally lot languages.

Look and feel

The desktop platform has great customizability. You can easily change the size and the position of the tabs.

However, the platform feels outdated and some features are hard to find. For example, it took time until we found how we can add an asset to the watchlist.

Login and security

Similarly to the mobile trading platform, only one-step login is available. 

Search functions

The search functions are mediocre. You can find the assets in categories. However, categorization is a bit confusing as there are more forex categories.

We missed the classical magnifying search function when you can type the assets' name manually.

Placing orders

You can use the same order types and order time limits than on the mobile trading platform.

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications in the form of e-mail / push notification on mobile / notification on the desktop platform. 

To set email or mobile notifications, you have to add your email address and your mobile MetaQuotes ID (it can be found in MT4 app's settings). You can add them if you go to the Tools and then the Options.

Portfolio and fee reports

Rakuten Securities has clear portfolio and fee reports. You can easily see your profit-loss balance and the commissions you paid.

These reports can be found at the Account History tab. We didn't find a way to download them. 

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Rakuten Securities review
Markets and products 1 stars

At Rakuten Securities, you will have access only to some forex and CFDs. It lacks a lot of popular asset classes, like stock, ETF, fund, etc.

Rakuten Securities is a forex broker with some CFDs. To learn more on CFDs read our CFD trading tips.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Rakuten Securities has a limited product portfolio. You can trade only with forex, stock index CFDs and commodity CFDs. It lacks stock CFDs, bond CFDs, and crypto CFDs. This offer lags behind even the competitors' limited product portfolios.

At the account opening, you can select the maximum levels of leverages: 100:1 or 400:1. These maximum levels are much higher than in the EU since Rakuten Securities is regulated in Australia.

You can't change the default leverage level of the products. It is the same at Pepperstone, while at IC Markets you can change the levels. We think this is something you should be in control of.

Copy Trading

Rakuten Securities offers a social trading service through MyFXBook, a third-party service provider. This service makes you available to copy others' trades.

Rakuten Securities review
Research 2 stars

The research tools of Rakuten Securities can be improved. Only a few analytic tools are offered, fundamental data is missing, and a lot of research tools are not integrated with the trading platforms. As a plus, there are technical analysis-based recommendations.

Most research tools can be found on the website, not on the desktop trading platform. This makes it a bit complicated.

The research tools on the website are in English, while research tools on the desktop trading platform are in the language you choose.

Recommendations

There are recommendations on the website provided by Autochartist, a third party. These recommendations are based on technical analysis.  

We didn't like that the recommendations are only for a few selected product and not for all products.

Fundamental data

There is no fundamental data at Rakuten Securities.

Charting

Just like the desktop trading platform, the charting tools are mediocre. 

You can use 31 technical indicators and other editor tools, like trendlines or Fibonacci retracement. On the negative side, the design is outdated and some features are hard to use. For example, we hardly found how we could remove an indicator from the chart.

News feed

The news is missing on the desktop trading platform.

You can find daily market updates on the website, but they cover only a few products.

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Rakuten Securities review
Customer service 2 stars

Rakuten Securities customer service is hard to reach, they don't answer on live chat and telephone. As a plus, the email support gives fast and relevant answers.

You can contact Rakuten Securities via:

• live chat
• telephone
• email

We tested three times the live chat, but we haven't received an answer any of the time. Two times the agent immediately connected and we got an automatic welcome message, but after we didn't receive any answer to our questions. At the third time, we could only leave a message because the agent was not available at that time.

At the telephone, we called Rakuten Securities three times, but nobody picked the phone up.

Email customer service works well. We got answers within a day and the answers were relevant.

We missed 24/7 availability. We also missed the information in what time zone the customer service is available.

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Rakuten Securities review
Education 2 stars

Rakuten Securities offers only a demo account as an educational tool.

When you register the demo account, you have to add some personal details and select the base currency, leverage, and balance.

Rakuten Securities has a Learn section on its website, but there is no content uploaded yet.

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Rakuten Securities review
Safety

Rakuten Securities is regulated by the top-tier Australian regulator, ASIC. In addition, its parent company is listed on a stock exchange. However, it does not provide investor protection and negative balance protection.

Is Rakuten Securities regulated? Yes, it is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Rakuten Securities was founded in 1999. Is Rakuten Securities safe? To be certain, it is best to check two things: how you are protected if something goes wrong and what the background of the broker is.

How you are protected

Rakuten Securities provides its services through its Australian legal entity. This is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). This matters since ASIC does not require the Australian brokers to provide any monetary investor protection. 

Rakuten Securities does not provide negative balance protection either.

Background

The background of the broker matters as a strong parent company reduces the chance the company goes bust. Rakuten Securities is owned by Rakuten, a Japanese holding company.

Rakuten is one of the largest company in Japan and it is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. It is a good sign as listed companies are under more scrutiny than private companies.

Rakuten holding group has is a legal entity which holds a banking license, called Rakuten Bank. This is also a great sign for safety because companies with banking license are subjects to tougher regulations than brokers.

Rakuten Securities' foundation dates back to 1999. The longer the track record of a broker, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

Being regulated by the ASIC and having a strong parent company are all great signs for Rakuten Securities's safety.

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Rakuten Securities review
Bottom line

Rakuten Securities has low fees are and the account opening is fast and easy. The mobile platform is user-friendly and well-designed.

On the negative side, Rakuten Securities offers only forex and some CFDs. The research tools are limited and no web trading platform is offered.

Feel free to try Rakuten Securities as you will have an account within a day and there is no inactivity fee. 

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