USGFX Review South Africa – Unbiased Pros & Cons Revealed ( 2023 )

WHAT IS USGFX?

According to research in South Africa, USGFX (Union Standard Group) is an Australian based brokerage company with headquarters in Sydney, an office in Shanghai and a satellite office in Hong Kong that provides Forex and CFD trading solutions.

USGFX provides Interbank connectivity with the ultra-fast speeds through optical fibre connections to their servers in London and New York, resulting in a trading experience with relatively low costs and spreads.

Since USGFX knows that good education and knowledge of the market processes is the key to successful trading, they developed the unique TradersClub project that provides extensive education programmes for traders at different levels.

USGFX provides a full suite of trader support services to enable clients worldwide to trade currency pairs, indices and commodities in premium trading conditions.

SAFE OR SCAM?

One of the best benchmarks to measure the safety of a broker like USGFX, is to establish which regulating authorities are watchdogs over its actions.

USGFX is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL-302792)

As a regulated foreign exchange and CFD broker, USGFX adheres to the strict capital requirements and implements internal procedures like risk management, regular staff training, and strict accounting and auditing processes.

Client funds are held in a segregated trust account with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, separate from the company’s accounts and funds. Funds are established and monitored in strict accordance with the regulatory rules, requirements and guidelines.

These strict regulations require numerous ways to protect clients’ funds and provide healthy competition in a transparent environment, while USGFX also implemented Negative Balance Protection to give peace of mind to customers.

USGFX REVIEW OF PRO AND CONS

LEVERAGE

Leverage is a facility that enables you to get a much larger exposure to the market you are trading than the amount you deposited to open the trade. Leveraged products, such as forex trading, magnify your potential profit – but also increase your potential loss.

Leverage is expressed as a ratio, for instance 50:1, 100:1, or 500:1. Assuming that you have $1,000 in your trading account and you trade ticket sizes of 500,000 USD/JPY, your leverage will equate 500:1.

Margin is the amount of collateral to cover any credit risks that may arise during your trading operations. It is expressed as the percentage of position size (e.g. 5% or 1%), and you have to have funds in your trading account to ensure sufficient margin.

For example, on a 1% margin a position of $1,000,000 will require a deposit of $10,000. The margin level in a trading account needs to be equal or more than 100% to be able to open new trades, otherwise your trading account will be fully hedged.

Trading with USGFX gives you a choice of leverage from 1:20 to 1:500, which is considered high leverage.

ACCOUNTS

A forex account at USGFX is a trading account that you will hold and that will work similarly to your bank account, but with the difference that it is primarily issued with the purpose of trading on currencies.

Forex Islamic accounts are also known as swap-free accounts as they imply no swap or rollover interest on overnight positions, which is against Islamic faith.

Often, the number and type of accounts that a trader can open with a broker company differs depending on the country in which it operates and the regulation authorities under whose jurisdiction it falls.

In the case of USGFX there are four account types that present the diverse of needs of the traders. They can choose between a Mini Account, Account with Standard conditions, a Pro-ECN Account for professionals and VIP Accounts.

Traders can also use a demo account with $ 100 000 virtual money to practice trading or test strategies for a start. Each type of account has different benefits.

The Mini Account is the most basic account, and has a minimum deposit of $100, spreads that start at 2.8 pips and leverage of up to 1:500.

The Standard Account has a minimum deposit of $10,000.

Above the Standard Account are the Pro ECN Account and the VIP Account, both requiring a minimum deposit of $50,000.  Their spreads start at 1.5 pips and 1.3 pips respectively.  The Pro ECN account offers a leverage limit of 1:100 and the VIP account allows up to 1:500.

MARKET INSTRUMENTS

With USGFX you can trade Forex, Metal, Indices and Bitcoin.

Forex trading, currency trading, or FX trading describes the currency exchange market which refers to the global, decentralised marketplace where individuals, companies and financial institutions exchange currencies for one another at floating rates.

Equity indices, or stock indices, are actual stock market indexes which measure the value of a specific section of a stock market. They can represent a specific stock market, or they can represent a specific set of the largest companies of a nation.

The trading of gold and other precious metals, along with crude oil, copper or petroleum, are hard commodities that play a major role in the commodities market and are contract-based tradable goods.

Apart from forex trading, long-term investing in gold and other precious metals is worldwide a popular way of portfolio risk management during times of inflation or economic or political uncertainty.

FEES

Due to its global presence USGFX may offer various account types that may differ according to the regulatory entity to which it complies, therefore clients may experience different fee structures too, according to their country or place of residence.

Cost depends on different factors, like spread and margins.

The spread of a currency pair is the difference between the bid and the ask rate. A pip represents the smallest increment that an exchange rate can move. One pip is 0.01 for currency pairs with JPY as the term currency and 0.0001 for all other pairs.

Margin is the amount of money required in your account in order to open a position. Margin is calculated based on the current price of the base currency against USD, the size (volume) of the position and the leverage applied to your trading account.

USGFX spreads differs according to the account type you trade with. Traders should be aware of rollover or overnight fee as a cost, which is charged when a position is taken overnight.

DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL

Deposits or withdrawals from your trading account can be done through multiple convenient payment methods including:

• VISA
• MasterCard
• Wire Transfer
• Webmoney
• Perfect Money
• Fasapay
• Skrill
• Neteller
• POLI
• VoguePay
• Thailand Online Banking
• Malaysia Online Banking
• Indonesia Online Banking
• Vietnam Online Banking
• China UnionPay

In general, USGFX covers all deposit fees but withdrawals may incur some charges, for example, credit cards are eligible for 3.5% fee and Skrill and Neteller may add on 1.5%.

With a minimum deposit amount of $100 you may start trading with the USGFX Mini Account.

When you deposit funds, the name of the account from which you withdraw your funds must match name of your USGFX trading account. No payment via third parties are accepted due to international anti-money-laundering policies.

There are also multiple ways to withdraw funds.

Clients that have deposited funds into their trading account via a credit card may make withdrawals up to their deposit amount back to the same credit card in the first 180 days of the initial deposit.

Withdrawal of funds exceeding the initial deposit amount within the first 180 days must be made via alternative withdrawal options.

Transaction fees will be charged if the withdrawal amount is over USD $3000 by e-wallet (WebMoney, Perfect Money, FasaPay, Skrill, Neteller, VoguePay, Vietnam Online Banking).

The withdrawal process is quick and easy and are processed within 24 hours. You may withdraw your funds at any time straight from the Client Login Area.

Withdrawn funds are paid straight back to your nominated bank account or your credit card.

TRADING PLATFORMS

A forex trading platform is in essence the software provided by BI to its clients to carry out their trades.

A multi-asset trading platform is one that allows clients to trade forex but other asset classes, including CFDs on stocks, stock indices, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies as well.

The decision about which platform to choose will always depend on what a client would like to trade.

USGFX uses the reliable trading platforms MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5. Both are slightly different but offer a powerful trading experience, with the difference that MT4 is the most commonly used platform and MT5 is an advanced version.

In addition, USGFX partners with Trading Central, a leading provider of research data to give extra trading guidance.

USGFX also offers Social Trading, which allows traders with little time to monitor and stay on top of the markets, the opportunity to follow a professional trader’s strategies. These options are available from ZuluTrade and MyFXbook.

HOW TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT

The USGFX review process of opening a new account is fully digital, hassle-free and fast.

Similarly to a bank, if you want to register a forex trading account with USGFX for the first time, you will be required to go through a basic “know your customer” process.

This will allow USGFX to make sure that your submitted personal details are correct and the safety of your funds and your account details are ensured.

After the initial registration you will normally be emailed your login details that will correspond to a login on a trading platform matching your type of account.

The USGFX website gives very clear steps and instructions for how to open an account. The steps comprise mainly the supplying of personal and financial information and registering the account, a process that takes more or less four minutes.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Potential traders need to make sure the broker they choose will offer support whenever they may need it, in order to help customers easily find the exact answers to their questions and offer them the best user experience.

In the case of USGFX each investor has a personal account manager from the firm, which offers 24 hour client support from several offices around the world.

The website is available in many different languages and market tools all are available through the clear and customer friendly website. Support is also available via phone, email or live chat.

EDUCATION

Before starting to trade, potential clients of USGFX should avail themselves of all possible information and trading skills needed to be successful in the world of forex and commodity trading.

If USGFX’s website itself does not provide enough means, a trader should explore other informative websites and means to obtain that knowledge.

These educational resources are available through a trading guide, the FX Blog, USGFX’s TradersClub, webinars and seminars, forex exhibitions, forex contest, and a Frequently Asked Questions section on the website.

RESEARCH

To be able to trade with confidence and success, potential traders should do as much possible research about this kind of speculative trading before commencing, but also preceding every daring deal.

This will ensure that they don’t lose money unnecessarily but make their trade as profitable as possible. USGFX offers featured ideas, an economic calendar and a weekly market analysis.

It has teamed up with Trading Central to provide clients with the latest news and data, technical analysis and trading set ups provided by partners like Bloomberg, Dow Jones Newswire, Interactive Data Real Time Services and Thomson Reuters.

USGFX members can access Trading Central’s facilities free of charge.

AWARDS

Since being an awarded company instils extra confidence in traders, USGFX can show the following awards accumulated during its years in business:

• Best forex broker 2018
• Best forex broker in Australia 2015
• Best forex broker in Asia in 2016 2017
• Best forex broker as well as having the best trading platform by Forexawards.com for 2019.

CONCLUSION

USGFX can be summarily described as a worthwhile company for potential traders, knowing that its technological execution base brings endless possibilities for strategies and traders of any size.

USGFX offers fair options to choose trading styles and platforms that can make traders feel comfortable.

DISCLAIMER

USGFX warns all potential customers that Forex and CFDs trading always carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

Before deciding to trade the products offered by USGFX, potential traders are advised to carefully consider their investment objectives, financial situation, needs and level of experience before investing money they cannot afford to lose.

USGFX warns that margin trading involves the potential for profit as well as the risk of loss and that movements in the price of foreign exchange and commodities are very unpredictable.

Therefore USGFX cannot guarantee a maximum loss that a trader may suffer, according to research in South Africa.

Featured SA Shares Writer and Forex Analyst.