Rakuten Securities Review 2020

Rakuten Securities has low CFD and forex trading fees. Non-trading fees are average, while a withdrawal fee is charged on international bank transfers and electronic wallets.

We ranked Rakuten Securities' 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 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 Rakuten Securities for each asset class. For example, in the case of forex and stock index trading, spreads, commissions and financing rates are the most important fees.

We also compared Rakuten Securities's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, IC Markets and Pepperstone. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Rakuten Securities alternatives.

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

Rakuten Securities trading fees

Based on our unbiased comparison we consider Rakuten Securities' trading fees to be low. 

We know it is super hard to compare trading fees for forex brokers. So how did we approach the problem of making their fees clear and comparable? We compare brokers by calculating all fees of a typical trade for selected products.

We have chosen popular instruments in each asset class usually provided by the forex brokers:

• Forex: EURUSD, GBPUSD, AUDUSD, EURCHF and EURGBP
• Stock index CFDs: SPX and EUSTX50

A typical trade means buying a leveraged product, holding it for one week and then selling. For the volume, we chose a $20,000 position for forex and a $2,000 position for stock index and stock CFD transactions. The leverage we used is

• 30:1 for forex
• 20:1 for stock index CFDs.

These catch-all benchmark fees include spreads, commissions and financing costs for all brokers. Let's see the verdict for Rakuten Securities fees.

Forex fees

Rakuten Securities forex fees are low, except EURUSD which is a bit higher.

CFD fees

Although Rakuten Securities has higher CFD fees than its closest competitors, the CFD trading fees are generally low.

Non-trading fees

Rakuten Securities has average non-trading fees. It charges no inactivity, account, and deposit fees. 

On the other hand, for international bank transfers and electronic wallets, there is a high withdrawal fee. You have to pay $25 for an international bank transfer and 2% of the withdrawn amount when using Skrill or Neteller.

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?

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

What is the minimum deposit at Rakuten Securities?

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

Account types

You can choose from numerous 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 charges no fees for deposit and the process is user-friendly, even electronic wallets are available. On the negative side, credit/debit cards are not accepted, the withdrawal is slow and can be expensive.

Account base currencies

At Rakuten Securities, you can choose from 4 base currencies. The available base currencies are: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD

IC Markets offers 10 base currencies and Pepperstone has 10 base currencies.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. First, if you fund your account in the same currency as your bank account, you are not charged a currency conversion fee. Second, if you trade assets in the same currency as your account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on the currency conversion fees is opening 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, such as Neteller, Skrill, China Union Pay for the deposit payment.  

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

We tested the bank transfer deposit which took 3 business days. You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

Rakuten Securities withdrawal fees and options

The withdrawals are free within Australia, but in case of international bank transfers the withdrawal fee is $25 , Skrill and Neteller costs 2% of the total transfered amount.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Rakuten Securities? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took more than 3 business days. 

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

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

1. Transfer from your Rakuten account, called Standard to your Rakuten wallet
2. Select the withdrawal method you want to use
3. Add the withdrawal amount and the reason for withdrawal
4. Initiate the withdrawal

At Skrill and Neteller, you can withdraw only up to the amount you have deposited before using these services. For example, if you deposited $100 through these, then you can withdraw up to $100 with them.

Compare to other brokers

Rakuten Securities doesn't offer a web trading platform, only mobile and desktop trading platforms are provided. Not providing a web trading platform is quite unusual among online brokers.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Rakuten Securities has a good 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. 

You can choose from a lot of languages on the mobile trading platform. Changing the language is a bit tricky on Android devices. You can do it only if you change the default language of your mobile.

Look and feel

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

Login and security

Rakuten Securities provides only a one-step login. A two-step login or a biometric login would be safer.

You can't use fingerprint and Face ID authentication. Providing this feature would be more convenient.

Search functions

The search functions are good. You can search by typing the name of the product or by navigating the category folders. On the other hand, the categorization of the assets is a bit confusing as there are more forex folders.

Placing orders

You will not find very sophisticated orders like the "one cancels the other" order. The following order types are available:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop

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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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

The desktop trading platform of Rakuten Securities is provided by MetaTrader. It is highly customizable, has a clear fee report and you can set price alerts. On the other hand, 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.

MetaTrader 4 is available in an exceptionally large number of languages:

Look and feel

Rakuten Securities' desktop trading 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 some time until we found how to add an asset to the watchlist.

Login and security

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

Search functions

The search functions are OK. You can find the assets in categories. However, categorization is a bit confusing as there are more forex categories. We also missed the usual 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. Nevertheless we didn't find a way to download them.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

At Rakuten Securities you will only have access to some forex pairs and CFDs. It lacks a lot of popular asset classes, like stocks, ETFs, funds, 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. 74-89% 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.

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

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 cannot change the default leverage level of the products. We think this is an important negative factor, as you should be able to change the leverage according to your preferences. Changing the leverage manually is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. For example, instead of trading with 5:1 leverage, only trade with 2:1 leverage in case of stock CFDs. If you look at competitors you'll find that this is the same at Pepperstone, while at IC Markets you can change the leverage levels. 

Be careful with forex and CFD trading since the preset leverage levels are high.

Social trading

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

The research tools of Rakuten Securities could be significantly better: some technical analysis-based trading ideas are available but many of these are outdated. Fundamental data is also missing and the news feed is low quality.

Trading ideas

Rakuten Securities provides trading ideas on the website based on technical analysis, however these haven't been updated for several months. In addition, the recommendations are available only for a few selected products and not for all of them. The fact that the research tools are on the website instead of the desktop trading platform makes the usage a bit complicated.

Fundamental data

Rakuten Securities does not offer fundamental data.

Charting

Just like the desktop trading platform, the charting tools are OK, but not outstanding. 

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 and are outdated, they haven't been updated since months.

Compare research pros and cons

Rakuten Securities customer service gives fast and relevant answers through email. On the other hand their live chat and telephone support is both slow and the answers we got were irrelevant. In addition we miss the 24/7 customer service availability.

You can contact Rakuten Securities via:

• live chat
• phone
• email

Rakuten Securities has a slow live chat and phone support and we recieved irrelevant answers through both channels. On the other hand, email customer service works well as we got quick and relevant answers.

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

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Rakuten Securities offers only a demo account as an educational tool. Articles, instructional videos or other material are not available.

At Rakuten Securities you can open a demo account by adding some personal details, selecting the base currency, leverage and balance.

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

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Rakuten Securities is regulated by a top-tier financial authority and its mother company is listed on a stock exchange. On the other hand, it does not provide investor protection and negative balance protection.

Is Rakuten Securities regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by one of the top-tier regulators, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Is Rakuten Securities safe?

To be certain, we highly advise to check two facts:

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

How you are protected

The investor protection amount differs from entity to entity and can be very different across locations. Rakuten Securities is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). As ASIC does not require the Australian brokers to provide any monetary investor protection, not a single dime of your investment is protected! 

At the same time, Rakuten Securities does not provide negative balance protection either, so you can lose more than your deposited money.

Background

On the other hand, the background of the broker matters as a strong parent company reduces the chance the company goes bust, and we have good news in respect. 

Rakuten Securities is owned by Rakuten, one of the largest holding companies 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 and also have to release financial statements regularly and transparently.

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

Rakuten Securities was established in 1999. The longer track record a broker has, 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 good signs for Rakuten Securities' safety.

Find your safe broker

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 other hand, Rakuten Securities offers only forex and some CFDs. The customer service is poor and we also missed the web trading platform.

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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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money