XTB Reviewed: You Next Broker? (2024)

author-profile-picture
Nishadh Mohammed updated on 28 February 2023

verified information

verificator-profile-picture-profile-picture

Information verified by  Adeline Harmant

Our articles are written by experts in their fields (finance, trading, insurance etc.) whose signatures you will see at the beginning and at the end of each article. They are also systematically reviewed and corrected before each publication, and updated regularly.

Discover the methodology

With so many brokerages to choose from for trading, how can you determine which one is right for you? This article examines one such broker, XTB.

XTB is a global trading brokerage company which has emerged in the global market. Founded by veteran financial experts, the company boasts low fees, high-leverage options and good customer service. You can use XTB in Canada despite it not being in based here.

Are you curious about if this is the broker for your investing? Are you looking to find out more about investing with the platform with some of the lowest fees? If so, this review is perfect for you.

XTB Key takeaways

  • Leveraging as high as 30 to 1. However most of their commodities are only has high as 20 to 1.
  • 24 hour customer support 6 days a week Sunday to Friday.
  • Over 5,000 financial instruments to choose from
  • A safety and security focused market.

Our XTB review: a leading European broker with a wide range of products

XTB is a Polish-based online broker with offices all over the globe. A robust and experienced company which has lead XTB to become a market leader in trading platforms. XTB is driven by the values of Technology, Trust and Support.

XTB offers a number of financial instruments from which to trade, these include:

  • Forex
  • Indexes
  • Commodities
  • Stocks
  • ETFs
  • CDFs
  • Cryptocurrencies (Standard account – not available on Swap Free)

XTB allows you to trade more than 5,700 financial instruments for your trading needs. Most of these are available on the standard account.

XTB offers a simple and easy-to-use navigating trading platform that you can use to start trading. It advertises a variety of financial instruments to trade with, low fees and high leveraging options as high as 30 to 1. In brief, our XTB broker review of XTB’s online platform is that it is powerful, easy to use, quick to navigate and worth considering. While it offer a number of features to ensure your security and have a variety of financial instruments to use and choose from. However, it lacks some educational materials besides how-to articles and a demo account and no social trading which may be an issue for some potential traders.

The XTB Demo Account is good for both new traders and experienced traders alike. The Standard Account offers competitive fees and no minimum deposit- as well as a Swap Free account with some slightly better rates.

However, the educational materials beyond a demo account and some articles to read in English to learn how to trade mean that there is somewhat of a learning curve. With that said, XTB is a very good all-around trading service platform.

Pros

  • Good educational materials
  • The 24 hour customer service anywhere in the world
  • Over 5,700 financial instruments to invest with
  • Champions is security and safety
  • Leveraging options of 30 to 1 allowed

Cons

  • Additional educational material would be helpful
  • The website is not easy to navigate or find information on different account types.
BrokerCharacteristicsOur review
logo xtb
Assets available : CFDs* (stocks, ETFs, forex, indices, cryptos, commodities)

Trading Software : Xstation 5, MT4
Good selection of trading features and tools
Over 200 lessons available on the XTB Trading Academy
Fast, easy and free deposit, withdrawal and account creation
Fairly high conversion fees
Inactivity fees
About XTB

What account types are available through XTB?

XTB offers three accounts to choose from, the Standard, the Demo and The Swap Free.

  • The Demo is your standard platform account to try out the software and interface of trading with XTB. It's a great way for a first-time trader or veteran trader looking for a new platform to join. For more information, scroll below for how to sign up for the demo account.
  • The Standard: account is your mainstay trading account which includes a minimum spread of 0.5 and Forex, Commodities, Indices, Cryptos, Stock CFDs, ETF and CFDs. XTB crypto fees are low. The fees are normally built into the spreads.
  • Pro: XTB also offers a slightly different version of their standard account called the swap-free account. Its main difference is that there are no cryptocurrencies in this account, with a minimum spread of 0.7 instead of 0.5. XTB crypto fees are non-existent here because crypto is not offered on Swap Free.

XTB offers two platforms for traders to use and trade with for their main trading platforms in addition to several copy trading services which you can choose from.

  • Xstation5 - The standard account to trade on your desktop and internet server.
  • Xstationmobile - The best way to use track your investment on the go.

These services are available for XTB’s standard account and XTBs Swap Free. A version of these services is also available on the Demo Account as well.

Want to compare XTB to the alternatives?

Compare the Best Online Brokers in Canada

Start investing today

How to open an XTB Standard Account

To open a standard XTB account, simply follow these steps.

Step 1: Go to the home page of the XTB.com website and click create account on the top right corner of the page.

xtb form.

Step 2: Enter your email and your details including your nationality and place of residence.

  • At this point it will also ask you about your tax residency and if you pay taxes to the US. This is important if you are an American citizen living abroad.
  • At this point it will also ask you about your tax residency and if you pay taxes to the US. This is important if you are an American citizen living abroad.
  • On the next page, there will be a short survey to gauge your financial experience with investing, this may effect how you are allowed to invest depending on your familiarity with investing.

Step 3: Once your application has been approved you can deposit funds through XTB's secure process and start trading!

How can I open a Demo account with XTB?

An XTB demo account is easy to sign up for. However, when looking on XTB’s website it can be hard to find where to sign up

  1. To open a demo account, go to https://www.xtb.com/en/demo-account
  2. Fill in your user details. They will want an email and phone number.
  3. That’s it! You now have four free weeks of no-risk simulated trading up to 100,000 USD with customer support from Sunday to Friday.

The XTB demo account lasts for four weeks and is a comprehensive detailed oriented program that gives you a great understanding of how XTB’s trading platforms work. If you are a trader looking to get your feet wet and want to try the XTB demo account before getting an XTB brokerage account then the demo is a great place to start.

xstation format

What fees does XTB charge?

XTB touts on its website that they offer some of the lowest fees of any platform for trading. There are no commissions with the exception of CDFs and ETFs as well as for spreads and depositing with some types of financial software for making deposits.

The costs of fees that XTB charges can be broken down into the following.

  • The spread: a Spread is the difference between the value of what is being bought and is the main opening cost of a transaction.
  • The Swap: If you hold your position on an instrument then you may be charged a fee.
  • Account type: Some of XTBs accounts offer built-in fees such as their Basic and Standard fees built into the spreads. The Pro account offers more options but slightly higher fees
  • Deposit: Free with a bank transfer and with debit cards with Pounds/Euros
  • Withdrawal:Most withdrawals are free of charge unless they are small withdrawals below a certain limit.

For comparison, these are very reasonable fees. At the moment there are so many trading platforms that the competition for users is very cut-throat. In our XTB broker review their fees are reasonable for the many options you can use. That being said, there are some low-fee alternatives, including Fusion Markets and Wealthsimple.

XTB allows the trading of most traditional forms of investment material at a high level. These include:

  • Forex
  • Equity Indices
  • Precious Metals
  • Stocks
  • Crypto
  • Energy

These are all available on other trading platforms. What gives XTB an advantage for the prospective trader is its low fees and high-leverage options.

To break it down further, XTB provides the following trading options for these categories.

  • Forex: XTB offers the following benefits including low spreads as low as 0.1 pip. For those of you who are unaware a pip is the cost of the difference between the currencies exchanged. XTB has 48 currency pairs to choose from in a safe secure online application that allows fast deposits and withdrawals Monday through Friday 24 hours a day. If you only want to purchase in small batches, XTB offers micro-lot trading as well.
  • Indices: XTB indices offer more than 20 Indices from global marketplaces with leveraging of up to 20 to 1. XTB attempts to make the indices and their rollovers as visible as possible on their trading platforms as well.
  • Commodities: you can trade all the popular commodities like gold silver and oil 24 hours a day on your pc, tablet or smartphone. If you need to leverage, XTB offers a leveraging option on commodities of 20 to 1.
  • Stocks: XTB also has a number of great stock options, with more than 1800 global stock CDFs where you can take a short position if you needed. You can also buy on a margin of 5 to 1 on a well designed stock platform. More importantly, XTB offers 0% commission.
  • ETFs: XTB offers 0% commissions on ETFs with no trading limits. There are more than 100 ETF CDFs with an ETF scanner built into the platform allowing you to find the best potential investments. Traders can take a short position with a margin of 5 to 1. All and all whatever you are interested in investing with, XTB offers a great variety of financial instruments and commodities to choose from.

How do I make a deposit with XTB?

Making your XTB minimum deposit is simple. Here's how:

  1. Go onto the XTB homepage after singing up for an account.
  2. Scroll your mouse over to the top left corner of the homepage
  3. Fill in your details that verify your residence and account information. You will need to upload a photo ID. These can be a valid government ID such as a passport, a residence permit, or a drivers license.
  4. Once you have done that, fill in your information verifying your address.

That’s it! You have filled in your account details!

You can deposit into your account bank transfers, credit and debit cards, Skrill and Neteller. There is a 2 percent fee on depositing with Skrill and a 1 percent fee when depositing with Neteller.

Can I automate trading with XTB?

At the moment, XTB is not offering copy trading on their platform, but it could be offered in the future.

If you are interested in learning more about copy trading, click here.

XTB Customer Service

When looking at the customer service department, user experience has in general been very positive. Generally, user reviews have been positive.

That being said, they do not have a phone number or physical presence in Canada. If you contact them for customer support you will be speaking to agents outside the country.

XTB offers customer support in English at six days a week 24 hours a day Sunday to Friday.

An important note to keep in mind is that XTB directs English-speaking users in Canada to XTB UK. French-speakers are directed to XTB's French branch.

Their main English language customer service however is based in the UK with the following information.

XTB Customer SupportDetails
Customer Service
Account Opening
+44 2036953085
Office
+44 2036953085
Address
Level 9, One Canada Square,
Canary Wharf, E14 5AA, London,
United Kingdom
Contact XTB Customer Support

What alternatives are there to XTB?

While XTB might be worth considering, there are a number of other platforms to consider. If you are new to day trading, consider reading our reviews of some of Canada's other leading trading platforms.

Qtrade: The best for beginners

Qtrade Direct Investing is our top choice for both beginners and experienced investors. It has comprehensive services and is affordable and easy to use. Qtrade boasts strong partnerships with wealth management firms, insurance companies, credit unions, digital banks and more. The platform's intuitive planning tools and calculators empower you to assess your net worth and develop an investment plan. Find the right investments for your portfolio and reach your financial goals. Get analysts' evaluations as well as fundamental analyses of company performance. With all these tools at your disposal, you can select your investments with confidence.

QtradeAbout
Who is Qtrade for?
Beginner, intermediate or expert users
Available securities
  • Stock
  • ETFs
  • Mutual funds
  • Bonds
  • GICs
  • Options
Accounts
  • Cash accounts
  • TFSA
  • RRSP
  • RRIF
  • Margin Accounts
  • LIRA and LRSP
  • LIF
Platforms
  • Qtrade online investing
  • Qtrade Direct Investing for iOS
  • Qtrade Direct Investing for Android
About Qtrade

Questrade: The best for low fees

Questrade is a well-established Canadian brokerage. It was named number one in the J.D. Power 2020 Canada Self-Directed Investor Satisfaction Study. Independently-minded investors can build their own portfolios with a self-managed account to save on fees. For everyone else, pre-designed QuestWealth portfolios are curated and managed by experts to help you meet your financial goals faster.

QuestradeAbout
Who is Questrade for?
Beginner, intermediate or expert users
Available securities
  • Stock
  • ETFs
  • Mutual funds
  • Bonds
  • GICs
  • Options
  • CFCs
  • Forex
  • And more
Accounts
  • Cash accounts
  • TFSA
  • RRSP
  • RIF
  • RESP
  • Margin Accounts
  • Individual or Joint Forex & CFDs
Platforms
  • QuestradeTrading online platform
  • Questrade Mobile App for iOS
  • Questrade Mobile App for Android
About Questrade

Wealthsimple: One of Canada’s most popular choices

Wealthsimple is a solid choice for starting investors. In fact, it is one of Canada’s most popular online brokerages. It can be as hands-on or hands-off as users like, which makes it a match for both beginners and advanced investors. Choose a portfolio type based on risk level, how much personal trading you want to do and your values. It also provides access to financial planners to help users learn as they invest. Unlike many Canadian brokers, Wealthsimple also lets you purchase and hold cryptocurrency.

WealthsimpleAbout
Who is Wealthsimple for?
Beginner, intermediate or expert users
Available securities
  • Stock
  • ETFs
  • Mutual funds
  • GICs
  • Cryptocurrency
  • And more
Accounts
  • Cash accounts
  • TFSA
  • RRSP
  • LIRA
  • Crypto
  • RESP
Platforms
  • Wealthsimple Trade online platform
  • Wealthsimple Invest online platform
  • iOS apps: Wealthsimple, Wealthsimple Cash, Wealthsimple invest
  • Android: Wealthsimple, Wealthsimple Cash, Wealthsimple invest
About Wealthsimple

Want to compare more before making a choice? It's easy.

Compare the Best Online Brokers in Canada

Start investing today
Did you like this article?
author-profile-picture/
Nishadh Mohammed
hellosafe-logo
hellosafe-logo

Nishadh Mohammed is a seasoned news editor and financial writer, working with HelloSafe since May 2023. Nishadh has developed expertise in financial markets, insurance, and investment products, with a deep understanding of the Canadian financial landscape. He has honed his SEO skills and content marketing strategies while writing for Canadian publishing houses. Armed with a master's in Business Analytics and extensive journalistic experience, Nishadh uniquely combines data proficiency and thorough research to deliver comprehensive and accessible information.

Ask a question, an expert will respond
Your name is required
Comment's content is required.