Should You Trust Trade Nation? 

Trade Nation seems to have an impressive array of licenses–except one (more on this later). It also has offices in several countries. This global reach may be impressive to some investors, but critics may think that Trade Nation is overextending its reach. 

Trade Nation seems to be a legitimate broker. They certainly aren’t a classic scam broker. However, there are some shady aspects to Trade Nation that should give investors pause for thought before opening an account. We’ll discuss the issues here.

What Is Trade Nation? 

Trade Nation was founded in 2014 and offers a wide variety of trading instruments for forex and CFD traders. It was originally operating under the brand name of Core Spreads, but the name was changed to Trade Nation in 2019. 

This broker has offices in UK, South Africa, Australia and the Bahamas. It has licenses from financial regulators in all of these countries. However, we wonder why Trade Nation would get an offshore license when it has three reliable ones?mWe will give a speculative answer to this question later in the review. 

Positives Regarding Trade Nation

Trade Nation offers free deposits and withdrawals, fixed spreads, and solid educational tools. Trade Nation has three very reliable licenses (and one questionable one). Since it is regulated, it offers negative balance protection and other features, but unfortunately, these features aren’t offered to all of its customers. 

There Are Issues with Trade Nation

TradeNation seems like a respectable, regulated broker. It is certainly regulated, but there are still some issues with Trade Nation:

• Holds a Questionable Offshore License
• High forex fees
• Doesn’t Offer All Customers the Same Level of Protection
• Excessive Leverage for Some Users
• Some Verified Customer Complaints

These are all problems that should be taken seriously. 

Holds a Questionable Offshore License

What’s a broker with licenses from the top financial regulators in the world doing with a fourth offshore license? The Bahamas may be a nice place to take a vacation, but it is known as a haven for scam brokers that want to escape real licensing and oversight. 

So what’s the answer to this question? It seems that Trade Nation wants to have it both ways. In Europe and Australia, it’s the clean-cut, respectable broker that offers modest leverage, negative balance protection, and other services. 

However, with other clients, they play fast and loose with the rules. They could say they are obeying the terms of their license if it’s from the lax Bahamas authorities. However, it’s clear that, since they have more stringent licenses, this broker knows better and it is intentionally offering a double standard. This is ethically dubious and hazardous for some customers. 

High Forex Fees

Although Trade Nation may seem like a bargain in other respects and has fixed spreads, its forex fees are high. This may not be good news for forex traders looking for cost-effective trading. 

Doesn’t Offer All Customers the Same Level of Protection

As mentioned above, since Trade Nation doesn’t have the same quality of licenses, it can offer some customers full protection and can lure others with high leverage and other gimmicks.

 It’s kind of like a guy at the market owning two different scales–one the real one for when the mayor wants to buy cold cuts and a trick scale to pull a fast one on the commoners. This isn’t a good policy. 

Excessive Leverage for Some Users

Although we often run into other brokers who apply this double standard with different licensing, it should be noted that Trade Nation doesn’t have leverage in the stratosphere for some traders. However, i’s high-end leverage is 1:200, still higher than what EU regulators regard as safe. 

Leverage can be used to attract and trap traders. It encourages them to try to make more money by trading on the margin with money they don’t have. It’s an easy way for novice traders to end up indebted to brokers, and give up any hope of withdrawing their funds. 

Some Verified Customer Complaints

We’ve seen brokers similar to Trade Nation with a whole slew of complaints. We have to admit there is just a trickle in the case of Trade Nation. However, we’ve heard a few of these firsthand and they are troubling. 

Some customers expressed despair at not being able to withdraw their money or with the quality of customer service. We don’t know whether these are isolated incidents or a general trend. Still, given Trade Nation’s double standard of regulation, we are more likely to take the complaints we do hear seriously. 

Is Trade Nation Worth the Risk?

We’ve reviewed Trade Nation and shared what we’ve discovered about this broker. The rest is up to you. We’ve heard people say that Trade Nation is fine and that they’ve done well with it. Others complain that they can’t withdraw money or that they have been locked out of their accounts suddenly and can’t get a refund.

What’s the truth? Basically, Trade Nation has strong licenses and clearly isn’t a typical scam broker. However, there are a few things that make it seem a bit shady—its a contradictory approach to licensing and services is one thing. 

We would suggest instead finding a broker that has one or two outstanding licenses and sticks to those principles. However, if you feel Trade Nation is worth the risk, we can’t stop you. 

If Youve Lost Money to Trade Nation or Another Broker, Talk to Broker Complaint Registry

We create these reviews to warn consumers about brokers and schemes that may be fraudulent. If you have an account with this broker close it and request a withdrawal. If you are not given your money back, contact Broker Complaint Registry right away. We will consult with you, work to track down your funds and create investigative reports, and will assist with fund recovery efforts.