Worked example
Practising on Deriv's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Deriv publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
Deriv does not publish a EUR/USD spread we were able to verify, so there is no honest arithmetic to do on this page. Do not substitute a number you read on a comparison site: an unverified spread quietly becomes an unverified cost, and then an unverified plan. Use one of the other examples on the practice index for this exercise and come back to this file for the account ladder below.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. Deriv offers 2 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
- DemoThe entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- StandardA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
Account names as published: Demo, Standard. Platforms listed: Deriv Trader, Deriv MT5, Deriv cTrader, Deriv X, Deriv Bot.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are Deriv's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| MFSA · Malta | Deriv Investments (Europe) Limited | Company No. C 70156 (Investment Services Act licence) | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| BVI FSC · British Virgin Islands | Deriv (BVI) Ltd | not verified | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| CIMA · Cayman Islands | Deriv Investments (Cayman) Limited | Registration No. 406695 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| FSC Mauritius · Mauritius | Deriv (Mauritius) Ltd | Company No. 209524 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| VFSC · Vanuatu | Deriv (V) Ltd | Company No. 014556 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| Labuan FSA · Malaysia (Labuan) | Deriv (FX) Ltd | Company No. LL13394 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| None (SVG FSA does not regulate forex) · Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Deriv (SVG) LLC | Company No. 273 LLC 2020 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
No top-tier line appears on this file. That does not make the firm illegitimate, but it does mean the compensation-scheme and capital-rule protections a beginner usually assumes are present are not evidenced here. 6 lines are offshore registrations; treat those as a company address rather than as supervision. We could not confirm a licence number on 1 line, which is exactly the kind of gap you should close yourself on the regulator's own register before depositing.
The record behind these numbers
- Deriv states the group has served traders since 1999 and lists its subsidiaries and their registrations on its regulatory page.
- Deriv Investments (Europe) Limited (C 70156) is licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority under the Investment Services Act.
- Deriv (SVG) LLC is registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, whose FSA does not license or supervise forex and CFD trading.
- Deriv Investments (Europe) Limited's UK FCA entry (reference 700094) shows status Cancelled since 13 November 2022 (https://register.fca.org.uk/s/firm?id=001b000000p2GpEAAU).
- The MFSA published a warning about a clone entity using the Deriv Investments name and the domain derivinvestment.com (https://www.mfsa.mt/news-item/mfsa-warning-deriv-investment-clone/).
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: headquarters; MFSA licence reference number; BVI, Cayman, Mauritius, Vanuatu and Labuan licence numbers (only company registration numbers are published); minimum deposit; maximum leverage; EUR/USD spread; segregated funds; negative balance protection. Confidence in this file overall: medium. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
PipMentor does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.