Rakuten Securities Review 2023

Rakuten Securities trading fees

Rakuten Securities trading fees are low.

We compared Rakuten Securities's fees with those of Tickmill and Oanda, two similar brokers selected by our analysts. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. We also drew up a more detailed rundown of Rakuten Securities alternatives.

Forex fees

Rakuten Securities forex fees are generally low.

For a comprehensive comparison of forex fees charged by various brokers, use BrokerChooser's FX fee calculator.

CFD fees

Rakuten Securities has CFD trading fees.

Non-trading fees

Rakuten Securities has low non-trading fees.

There are no inactivity, account or deposit fees. 

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 You have to pay $25 for an international bank transfer and 2% of the withdrawn amount when using e-wallets like Skrill or Neteller.

How we ranked fees

We ranked Rakuten Securities's fees as low, average or high based on how they compare to those charged by all the brokers reviewed by us.

There are two basic types of broker fees:

• Trading fees are charged when you trade and may include commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, such as withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

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.

If you want to use the copy trading service, a minimum $1,000 account balance is required.

Account types

You can choose from several 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 a percentage-based financing rate.
• 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. 

Here are the five steps of opening an account at Rakuten Securities:

1. Provide your personal details, like 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 or utility bill. If you choose an Islamic account, you have to verify your Islamic faith.

Account base currencies

At Rakuten Securities, you can choose from the following 4 base currencies: USD, EUR, GBP, AUD.

This selection falls behind competing brokers. Both Tickmill and Oanda offer more base currencies.

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 won'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.

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Deposit fees and options

Rakuten Securities charges no deposit fees.

However, international transfers might carry a charge at your bank.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant. You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

There are a lot of deposit options at Rakuten Securities, including electronic wallets such as Neteller, Skrill, China UnionPay.

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.

Rakuten Securities withdrawal fees and options

Withdrawals are free within Australia, but in the case of international bank transfers there is a $25 withdrawal fee. Withdrawals through Skrill and Neteller cost 2% of the total transferred amount.

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

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.

How do you withdraw money from Rakuten Securities? Follow the steps below.

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

At Skrill and Neteller, you cannot withdraw more than you deposited via these services. For example, if you deposited $100 using them, then you can only withdraw up to $100.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

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

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

The mobile trading platform is available in several languages.

Note that changing the language is a bit tricky on Android devices, as you have to 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 you need.

Login and security

Rakuten Securities provides only a one-step login for its mobile platform. A two-step authentication would be more secure and adding this feature should be high on any company's list of security changes.

You can't log in using biometric 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 several different forex folders.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types on the mobile trading platform:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop

There are also order time limits you can use:

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

Alerts and notifications

You cannot set alerts and notifications on the Rakuten Securities mobile platform.

However, if you want to receive mobile push notifications, you need to set this on the desktop trading platform. It would be much easier if you could set these notifications within the mobile platform itself.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

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 many languages.

Look and feel

Rakuten Securities's 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 and adding this feature should be high on any company's list of security changes.

Search functions

The search functions are OK.

You can find the assets in categories. However, categorization is a bit confusing, as there are several forex categories. We also missed the usual search function where you can just type in the asset's name manually.

Placing orders

The following order types are available on the desktop platform::

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Trailing Stop

There are also order time limits you can use on the desktop platform:

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

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications on the desktop trading platform.

You can choose to recieve alerts and notifications via email, a push notification to mobile, or a notification on the desktop platform. 

To set email or mobile notifications, you have to add your email address and your mobile MetaQuotes ID (you can find it in the MT4 app's settings). You can do this by going to 'Tools' and then 'Options'.

Portfolio and fee reports

Rakuten Securities has clear fee reports.

You can easily find your profit-loss balance and see the commissions you paid. These reports can be found under the 'Account History' tab: right-click on a position, then choose 'Save as Detailed Report'.

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Rakuten Securities is a forex broker that also offers some CFDs. To learn more about CFDs read our article on CFD trading tips.

Rakuten Securities has a limited product portfolio. You can only trade forex, stock index CFDs, commodity CFDs and crypto CFDs. The broker does not offer any stock CFDs or bond CFDs. This selection compares poorly to the (also limited) product portfolios of similar competitors.

Disclaimer: 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. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

When opening your account, you can select the maximum leverage level to be either 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, you can reduce your risk by trading with only 2:1 leverage in case of stock CFDs.

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 allows you to copy others' trades.

Trading ideas

Rakuten Securities does not provide trading ideas.

Although we found some trading ideas on the website that are based on technical analysis, but to us it looked like they haven't been updated for months. In addition, the recommendations are available only for a few selected products. The fact that the research tools are on the website instead of the desktop trading platform makes usage a bit complicated.

Fundamental data

Rakuten Securities does not offer fundamental data.

Charting

Rakuten Securities has OK charting tools. You can use 31 technical indicators.

There are also 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 had a hard time finding how to remove an indicator from the chart.

News feed

There is no news feed on the desktop trading platform.

You can find daily market updates on the website, but they cover only a few products and are outdated, often several months old.

Compare research pros and cons

You can contact Rakuten Securities via:

• live chat
• phone
• email

Rakuten Securities support is slow both on live chat and by phone, and the answers we received on both channels were not relevant.

On the other hand, email customer service works well as we got quick and relevant answers.

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

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74-89% of retail CFD accounts lose money

At Rakuten Securities you can learn through the following ways:

• Demo account
• Quality educational articles

You can open a demo account by providing some personal details, and selecting the base currency, leverage and balance.

Rakuten Securities also 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

Is Rakuten Securities regulated?

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

Is Rakuten Securities safe?

To be certain that a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

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

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). Be careful, as ASIC does not require Australian brokers to provide any monetary investor protection, so not a single dime of your investment is protected! 

Rakuten Securities does provide negative balance protection however, so you will be protected from your balance going into negative, i.e you can't lose more than your deposited money.

Background

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

Rakuten Securities is owned by Rakuten, one of the largest holding companies in Japan, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This is a good sign, as listed companies are under more scrutiny than private companies and also have to release financial statements regularly and transparently.

The Rakuten holding group has a legal entity that 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's safety.

Find your safe broker

We recommend Rakuten Securities for forex traders looking for low fees and those who prefer the metatrader 4 trading platform.

Below you can find links to all aspects of Rakuten Securities in this comprehensive collection.

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our Rakuten Securities fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the Rakuten Securities minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How to start your Rakuten Securities account?

Look no further than our evaluation of the Rakuten Securities account opening.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the Rakuten Securities trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the Rakuten Securities customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is Rakuten Securities legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether Rakuten Securities is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is Rakuten Securities good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on Rakuten Securities?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on Rakuten Securities guide

I want to trade options, are they available at Rakuten Securities?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on Rakuten Securities?

What is the minimum account balance at Rakuten Securities?

Check out the current account balance requirements at Rakuten Securities in our What is the minimum account balance at Rakuten Securities article.

Looking for commission and fees data for Rakuten Securities?

We collected them in Rakuten Securities commission and fees.

How do you withdraw money from Rakuten Securities?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on Rakuten Securities.