Dukascopy Review 2024 - Is it a Scam? Fees, leverage, minimum deposit

Dukascopy is a brand and trading platform for Forex, CFD and Binary Options trading. Swiss Dukascopy Bank SA, founded at the end of 2004, is a fully licensed bank with headquarters in Geneva/Switzerland and an office in Zurich. However, non-Swiss customers trade through the Latvian company Dukascopy Europe IBS AS, based in Riga, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dukascopy Bank SA.

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Dukascopy Bank SA has offices in Moscow, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur.

Dukaskopy Bank SA, the contractual partner responsible for Swiss clients, is regulated by the competent federal supervisory authority FINMA (Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers) and is a member of the Swiss Deposit Protection Fund with a maximum compensation payment in the event of insolvency of up to CHF 100,000 per client as a result of its capacity as a bank. Dukascopy Bank SA is primarily aimed at institutional clients, but also accepts Swiss private clients and non-Swiss private clients with a minimum deposit of EUR 5,000. The services provided by Dukascopy Bank SA are geared more towards institutional clients and investments of EUR 50,000 or more.

Dukaskopy Europe IBS AS is a financial service provider or investment broker based in Riga/Latvia, which is the contractual partner for German clients with a deposit of less than EUR 5,000, and is subject to EU regulation by the state supervisory authority FKTK (Financial Capital Market Commission). The Latvian Deposit Protection Fund, on the other hand, compensates up to 90% of customer deposits and up to EUR 20,000 in the event of insolvency of domestic banks, as is the case with EU regulated online brokers in Cyprus, for example.

In this respect, Dukascopy is to be classified as a reputable company in this respect, but the two different contracting parties are to be considered as online brokers with the aforementioned differences in terms of regulation and deposit insurance.

There is NO visible risk information about trading in leverage products or binary options on the Dukascopy website.

Dukascopy's very extensive, German-speaking entrance website appears initially confusing and overloaded due to the variety of topics and the design. It is tedious to actually remove the oversized chat window on the current page in spite of closing and actively rejecting the chat.

Some of the content is translated into German in a very unprofessional way, such as the company information or the other headings under "About", and in general hardly understandable due to the composition of the sentence. Especially for beginners the explanations to many details such as the very special account types, trading possibilities, conditions etc. should be difficult to understand.

The ". EU" button in the upper right-hand corner leads to the Dukascopy Europe IBS AS website and registration is only possible via this link. All in all, the website is completely illogical and difficult to navigate. Legal documents such as the terms of use are only available in English at Dukascopy Europe IBS AS.

A free demo account is available at Dukascopy, independent of opening a live account, for both Forex/CFD and binary options trading. However, with a selectable virtual credit balance of between 1,000 EUR and 1 million EUR, the demo version is only available for 14 days. Definitely too short if the trader is not a full-time tester and needs to simulate new strategies at a later date in order to expand and optimize his trading opportunities.

The comparatively costly opening of an account at Dukascopy Bank SA is likely to be a deterrent. After filling in the electronic registration form, a printout of the account opening application form is required, which must be sent to Dukascopy in its original form by post, as well as the completed commercial agreement and the form with the bank details of the Live Account applicant. In addition, a simple copy of the passport or passport is not sufficient, but must be officially certified/notarized, e. g. by a local municipality and must also be sent to Dukascopy in the original. In addition, a copy of a confirmation of enrolment no later than 3 months old is required, as well as a business card, if available.

With Dukascopy Europe IBS AS it is possible to register via a simplified online procedure, i. e. the above-mentioned documents can be sent without being authenticated and electronically in copy, whereby the transmission of a copy of the utility invoice (electricity, water or gas supplier) is sufficient instead of a confirmation of registration.

After making a deposit, the Live Account holder will receive the login data. The two different companies also have different deposit limits for deposits. Be sure to check the terms and conditions before opening an account.

The search for the actual registration function was also extremely difficult. On the website of Dukascopy it is not clear that there is no bridge to Dukascopy Europe IBS AS. It was necessary to contact us via live chat to identify the inconspicuous ". EU" button in the upper right corner as a page break to Dukascopy Europe. Unfortunately, this website is just as unclear as the ". CH" page on which the Internet user is initially located.

Deposits at Dukascopy Europe IBS AS are made by credit card, e. g. Visa, Visa Electron or Mastercard, Maestro (EC-card) or bank transfer. Swiss Dukascopy Bank SA only accepts payments by bank transfer.

Dukascopy Europe IBS AS requires a minimum deposit of 100 EUR for all account and trading methods, Dukascopy Bank SA requires a minimum deposit of 5,000 EUR for customers residing outside Switzerland. Please note the above-mentioned information on the individual deposit limits and conditions for deposits.

The account can be managed in EUR, USD or GBP. At Dukascopy Bank AG, a number of other currencies are also available. As usual, it is not possible to change the currency after opening an account.

For fees, Dukascopy only makes inaccurate statements and only states that they may occur, but not for what.

When depositing to an account, regardless of the payment method used, the trader must be the account holder of Dukascopy, as with all online brokers, in accordance with the applicable anti-money laundering guidelines.

Payments can be made at Dukascopy Europe to the corresponding credit card or to a bank account (15 EUR fee). The bank account must be in the name of the trading account holder and will be indicated at the time of registration. In accordance with the anti-money laundering guidelines, payments via third parties are also not possible for all online brokers, neither for deposits nor withdrawals.

Dukascopy obviously does not offer a real education section. In our review, no events were currently available under Webinars in any language. Also descriptive learning materials for the Forex and CFD as well as binary options trading, as offered by many other professional forex and CFD brokers and also suitable for beginners, are unfortunately searched for in vain at Dukascopy. Overall, the educational offer is not convincing.

In addition to news, technical indicators, signals and many daily reports, market information is also available in the form of videos on Dukascopy TV.

Instead of a well-founded education section, Dukascopy Bank SA works with a whole range of marketing tools, some of which have nothing to do with trading, such as a model contest, fashion designer, extreme sports and poker competitions. This seems somewhat strange in connection with a reputable trading platform, which is aimed primarily at institutional clients and the Swiss bank background.

Apart from the fact that only put and call options are possible for binary options, only about 20 currency pairs and shares can currently be traded. Indices and commodities are not available for binary options trading. Certainly not an attractive offer for the binary options trader.

Dukascopy has several trading platforms, including the JForex trading platform, optimized for Forex trading, a web-based as well as a Java-based trading platform and the binary options platform for binary options trading. Mobile trading is also possible for iOS and Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry users do not have mobile trading facilities.

Dukascopy has a rather complicated cost structure for forex and CFD trading. Although the spreads are quite favourable, they are compensated by comparatively high commissions, which are graduated according to the level of the net capital contribution and the trading volume.

New customers receive a 10% bonus (up to a deposit of EUR 50,000) on their first deposit. For referrals to friendships, bonuses of EUR 50 per person are granted.

For self-trader the refund of 20% of trading fees is possible to apply within 30 days after the last deposit (trading fee discount).

The German-speaking support is available via live chat, Skype, email or by phone under a Latvian landline number. In our live chat test there was no German-speaking conversation partner available, there was a reference to the use of the email addresses in English.

For mobile trading, Dukascopy offers the corresponding apps for IOS and Android. The apps are downloaded from the broker's website in the Apple or Google Play Store.

As an EU regulated online broker based in Riga/Latvia (Dukascopy Europe IBS AS) and in Switzerland licensed and regulated bank or domestic securities dealer (Dukascopy Bank SA) based in Geneva, Dukascopy initially makes an organised impression. Unfortunately, the website is so confusing and unclearly structured as well as its contents, so that this broker is unsuitable for beginners and advanced users, who do not move on professional level and are looking for a clear and transparent trading environment. Dukascopy loses itself in endless details and complicated contexts.

The numerous, up-to-date market information and research, which are very versatile and available in good quality for non-customers, are positive.

All in all, Dukascopy has aroused high expectations, but is simply too extensive and complicated in terms of conditions and numerous restrictions, so that these have not been met. Only institutional traders and other trading professionals are likely to find a professional trading environment at Dukascopy Bank SA and the associated high level of investment.

For the pure binary option trader, there are only two tradable asset classes available, only 20 currency pairs and shares. For the other trading types forex and CFD, there is a complicated cost structure with high commissions despite or due to favourable spreads.

Beginners and advanced learners will find an extensive training package, e. g. at CMC Markets and JFD Brokers, GKFX also offers numerous webinars. The Shaw Academy is recommended for those who would like to acquire a comprehensive and well-founded basic knowledge of online trading. Heavy-Trader.com also offers professionally conducted seminars.

As a non-institutional trader, you can hide an account with Dukascopy Bank SA, since you are already a customer of the Latvian Dukascopy Europe IBS AS and are under 5.If you would like to make a deposit of EUR 000, we recommend numerous other EU regulated forex and CFD brokers, which are far more customer-oriented, especially IG, XTB, ETX Capital, STO (AFX Capital) and Plus500, in terms of service and performance for beginners and advanced users.

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