Exness Review
In recent years, Exness has seen significant global expansion, establishing itself as a major forex broker offering a unique combination of account types and platforms. However, the company’s product portfolio is somewhat limited, with only a few hundred tradeable CFD symbols.
One of the main drawbacks is that Exness does not accept retail clients through its European-licensed entities based in the UK and Cyprus, meaning non-institutional clients must register through offshore entities in the Caribbean and Africa.
Investment Offerings
The range and availability of CFD products at Exness depend on the entity holding your account and the specific account type you choose. Generally, Exness offers 96 currency pairs for forex trading, 10 indices, 18 commodities, 10 cryptocurrencies, and over 90 stock CFDs.
While Exness provides fewer trading products compared to the industry average, it still offers the most popular assets that meet the majority of clients’ needs. However, if you’re looking to trade a product that Exness doesn’t offer, you’ll need to consider using a different broker.
Cryptocurrencies: Cryptocurrency trading is available at Exness through ten different CFDs, but not as the underlying assets (i.e., you cannot actually buy and hold bitcoin). You can trade Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum CFDs against the US dollar, and seven other CFDs allow you to trade bitcoin against various currencies or commodities, such as the Japanese yen or gold.
|
Feature |
Exness Details |
|
Forex Trading (Spot or CFD) |
Yes |
|
Total Tradeable Symbols |
227 |
|
Total Forex Currency Pairs |
96 |
|
US Stock Trading (Non-CFD) |
No |
|
International Stock Trading (Non-CFD) |
No |
|
Social Trading / Copy Trading |
Yes |
|
Cryptocurrencies (Physical) |
No |
|
Cryptocurrencies (Derivatives) |
Yes |
Disclaimer: Note that cryptocurrency CFDs are not available to retail traders from any UK-based brokerage or UK residents (except for professional clients).
Commissions and Fees
Exness offers a variety of account types across five main offerings: two Standard accounts and three Professional accounts. Additionally, there are two specific social trading accounts, Social Standard and Social Pro, each with unique trading conditions for those who wish to share their trading strategies for easy copying.
Trading costs vary depending on the account type you choose, as the two commission-based accounts offer lower spreads compared to the commission-free accounts. All account types use market execution, except for the Pro account, which offers both instant and market execution options.
|
Account Type |
Details |
|
Standard Cent |
Features the highest spreads, with more restrictive risk management regarding margin stop-out levels, and offers market execution. |
|
Standard |
Similar to the Standard Cent account but with slightly better spreads, less restrictive margin stop-out levels, and market execution. |
|
Pro |
Offers even lower spreads than the two commission-free accounts and allows you to switch between instant execution (dealing desk) and market execution. |
|
Zero Spread |
Charges a commission of $0.05 per trade and offers market execution with no leverage or stop-out restrictions, though margin calls are triggered at 30%. |
|
Raw |
Charges a commission of up to $7 per lot ($3.5 per side) with lower spreads and market execution, without leverage or stop-out restrictions, and a margin call trigger at 30%. |
Social Trading Accounts: Social Standard and Social Pro accounts come with specific conditions tailored for those who want to share or copy trading strategies.
Exness accepts deposits in various cryptocurrencies, which can be managed from the customer portal under the wallet section.
Active Trader Program
Exness offers a Premier Program with multiple benefits based on your lifetime deposit total and quarterly trading volume, similar to an active trader program.
While there are no discounts on spreads or commissions, there are three tiers: you qualify for Premier status if your cumulative deposits are at least $20,000 with a trading volume of $50 million or more per quarter, Elite status with at least $50,000 in deposits and $100 million in volume, and Signature status with at least $100,000 in deposits and $200 million in volume. All tiers provide priority customer support, exclusive educational content, trading analysis, and special promotions and rewards from Exness. Higher tiers also offer lifestyle benefits, such as access to unique events and experiences.
While lifestyle benefits can be valuable depending on your preferences, some traders may prefer trading cost discounts. Additionally, educational content should ideally be free to all traders, regardless of any associated costs.
|
Minimum Deposit |
$10 |
|
Average EUR/USD Spread – Standard |
Not specified |
|
Total Cost EUR/USD – Active Trading |
Not specified |
|
Active Trader or VIP Discounts |
No |
|
ACH or SEPA Transfers |
No |
|
PayPal (Deposit/Withdrawal) |
No |
|
Skrill (Deposit/Withdrawal) |
Yes |
|
Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) |
Yes |
|
Bank Transfer (Deposit/Withdrawal) |
Yes |
Mobile Trading Apps
In addition to the full MetaTrader suite, including MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), Exness offers a leading mobile trading app, Exness Trade, available for both Android and iOS devices.
Exness Trade App: The Exness Trade app is available on the App Store for Apple iOS devices and on Google Play for Android. This mobile app closely mirrors the web platform, providing a good balance of trading features, charting tools, and market analysis.
MetaTrader Apps: The MT4 and MT5 mobile apps are available for Android on Google Play Store and for iOS devices on the Apple App Store. For more details, you can refer to the comprehensive guide on MetaTrader.
Social Trading App: The Exness Social Trading app is specifically designed to support the three social trading accounts at Exness. It is available for Android devices on Google Play Store. However, due to regional restrictions, I was unable to test the app (even when using a VPN). For more information, see my overview of the web app version below.
Overall, Exness has made steady progress in improving the Exness Trade and Social Trading apps, introducing several useful features and enhancements for a better trading experience. However, the Exness Trade mobile app still has some ground to cover to match the top brokers in mobile trading.
|
App |
Availability |
Features |
|
Exness Trade App |
iOS (App Store), Android (Google Play) |
Trading features, charting tools, market analysis |
|
MetaTrader 4 & 5 Apps |
iOS (App Store), Android (Google Play) |
Full MetaTrader functionalities |
|
Social Trading App |
Android (Google Play) |
Supports Exness social trading accounts |
Mobile App Features
|
Feature |
Availability |
|
Android App |
Yes |
|
Apple iOS App |
Yes |
|
Mobile Alerts – Basic Fields |
Yes |
|
Watchlist – Total Fields |
7 |
|
Sync Watchlist |
No |
|
Charts – Indicators/Studies (Total) |
106 |
|
Charts – Drawing Tools (Total) |
87 |
|
Mobile Charting – Trendline Drawing |
Yes |
|
Mobile Charting – Multiple Timeframes |
Yes |
|
Mobile Economic Calendar |
Yes |
Other Trading Platforms
In addition to offering MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), Exness also provides a web-based Terminal platform featuring powerful charting tools and various order types within a minimalist design.
MetaTrader: Both MT4 and MT5 at Exness are straightforward and user-friendly platforms—exactly what you would expect. The main differences for traders lie in the range of available markets and the trading costs (spreads plus any commissions), depending on the account type you choose.
Exness Terminal: The flagship trading platform at Exness is the web-based Terminal, which features a sleek design with TradingView charts. For instance, while many top platforms allow you to drag to modify stop-loss and limit orders for an open position, the Terminal lets you do this even before trading, along with modifying open positions after trading. Trading Central is integrated into the watchlist and charts, with directional arrows indicating potential trade signals.
Exness Terminal Charts: The charts in the Terminal resemble TradingView and include two subtle but valuable features: integrated analysis from Trading Central and an economic event calendar.
The event flags on the Exness Terminal charts can be clicked to display detailed information about the event. To view Trading Central analysis, you need to click on the arrows within green or red squares, which opens the analysis in a floating window. Overall, these are great enhancements to the robust charts, which come loaded with over 100 indicators and nearly as many drawing tools.
Exness Social Trading: The web-based social trading platform provides details such as maximum drawdown, monthly profit, and a simple performance metric called the Trade Reliability Score, which averages safety scores and the Value at Risk (VaR) of each provider.
These performance metrics are common among the best social trading platforms, and it’s great to see them included in Exness’s Social Trading platform. However, additional filters and settings could be helpful for sorting through the 3,288 available providers. For example, while it’s easy to find the most copied providers and “best” strategies, finding the least copied or worst-performing providers is more challenging, potentially leading to database bias when sorting providers.
The Exness Social Trading service has potential but needs some key improvements, including the ability to moderate claims made by providers that stricter regulators might not endorse. For example, I found strategies named “Risk Free Forex” and “Forex safe 2,” which are misleading—forex trading always involves high risk. The provider of “Forex safe 2” describes the strategy as “forex safe advantage second very safe welcome everyone,” yet it had a maximum drawdown of -42.81% at one point, despite showing an overall profit of 35% as of July 8, 2024, with an average Trade Reliability Score of 61 out of 100, according to Exness.
|
Feature |
Availability |
|
Virtual (Demo) Trading |
Yes |
|
Proprietary Platform |
Yes |
|
Desktop Platform (Windows) |
Yes |
|
Web Platform |
Yes |
|
Social Trading / Copy Trading |
Yes |
|
MetaTrader 4 (MT4) |
Yes |
|
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) |
Yes |
|
Dual Trading |
No |
|
ZuluTrade |
No |
|
Charts – Indicators/Studies (Total) |
106 |
|
Charts – Drawing Tools (Total) |
87 |
|
Charts – Trading from Charts |
Yes |
|
Watchlist – Total Fields |
7 |
Market Research
Exness has long partnered with Trading Central to complement its in-house research services, which include both fundamental and technical market analysis videos. Additionally, headlines from FXStreet are streamed directly into the Exness MetaTrader platform suite.
Video Content: Beyond third-party video content and articles, Exness provides weekly market outlooks featuring commentary from in-house analysts. These videos are also available on Exness’s official YouTube channel.
Education
While Exness may not stand out in the education category, the company has a solid foundation and potential for improvement. They offer a mix of quality articles and videos, though the scope of each content type is somewhat limited when it comes to educating clients.
Team Pro: Exness features a group of nearly a dozen traders known as “Team Pro,” who share their methodologies in an educational style that aims to engage Exness clients. While I appreciated much of the content, which is well-curated, there seems to be an element of promotion rather than pure education. This promotional aspect—perhaps coincidentally—is that you can follow and copy some of the live trading positions of these Team Pro traders through Exness’s social trading platform.
Despite the promotional tone, I found much of the content from Team Pro to be valuable, although a few claims appeared to be somewhat imbalanced. It’s important to note that some of these traders claim to be full-time professionals willing to share their experiences with Exness clients. While this could be a mutually beneficial relationship for the broker, the educators, and the traders, clients should be aware of potential conflicts of interest.
Potentially Misleading Claims: One example of a potentially misleading or imbalanced claim made by Team Pro is the suggestion that Exness is the only broker that allows you to specify your risk or profit by pips or percentage directly from the trading ticket on their platform. The truth is that many brokers have offered such basic features on their platforms for years. Another claim I encountered was that Exness’s negative balance protection prevents your account from going into the red, although this can indeed happen if a significant market gap or unusual volatility occurs. Even if Exness is willing to reset a customer’s account to zero, this assertion assumes that Exness will always have the capital to do so, which may not always be the case. Despite these concerns, Exness can still be an excellent choice for both beginners and more experienced traders.
Overall: Some of Exness’s content is positioned to be relevant to current events, such as “Japan’s Economic Growth and How to Trade JPY in 2024,” but this type of content can also be evergreen, retaining its relevance years later. Overall, the educational content is mixed with other blog content that includes research. While there is a filter to switch between them, it would be great to see a dedicated educational portal or academy section where Exness could expand on related content, as it still lags behind the best brokers in this category.
Final Thoughts
Exness is a viable choice if you reside outside the United States, the UK, and the EU. Despite its limited product range, Exness offers a variety of account types, a full MetaTrader suite, and a simple Web Terminal platform with innovative features for both dynamic and beginner traders.
Exness has refined its business model by leveraging its network of affiliates and clients to encourage more experienced traders to guide a community of less experienced and intermediate investors while also marketing to new customers. I appreciate much of the content from Team Pro and believe there is value in what Exness is doing with them in terms of education and marketing. However, there are still challenges to overcome, including some practices that may not be permissible in more tightly regulated jurisdictions.
While Exness is a reliable broker, its retail clients are placed under less stringent jurisdictions where certain business practices can be more easily conducted in a looser regulatory environment. Nevertheless, I’m pleased to see Exness continue to obtain new licenses globally, which contributes to enhancing the company’s trust score.
Exness is one of the largest forex brokers globally by trading volume, handling trillions of dollars in transactions. If the company continues to grow, I would like to see it start accepting retail clients in its Tier 1 jurisdictions, which would make it more competitive with other reputable brokers.
