Worked example
Practising on Dukascopy's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Dukascopy 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
Dukascopy 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. Dukascopy offers 4 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.
- StandardThe entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- ProfessionalA 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.
- CorporateA 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.
- Money managerA 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: Standard, Professional, Corporate, Money manager. Platforms listed: JForex (proprietary), MT4, MT5, Web platform, Mobile apps.
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 Dukascopy's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| FINMA · Switzerland | Dukascopy Bank SA | not verified | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
| Latvijas Banka (Bank of Latvia) · Latvia | Dukascopy Europe IBS AS | not verified | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
1 of these line is top-tier — held by Dukascopy Bank SA. If you are onboarded to a different entity than those, the protections attached to the top-tier line are not yours, however prominently the regulator's initials appear in the marketing. We could not confirm a licence number on 2 lines, which is exactly the kind of gap you should close yourself on the regulator's own register before depositing.
The record behind these numbers
- Dukascopy Bank SA was established in Geneva, Switzerland in 2004.
- Dukascopy Bank SA is regulated by FINMA both as a bank and as a securities firm.
- Dukascopy Europe IBS AS (registration no. 40003344762) is an EU investment brokerage firm regulated by Latvijas Banka.
- Dukascopy operates its own proprietary JForex platform alongside MetaTrader.
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: FINMA licence number; Latvian licence number; spreadEurusd — Dukascopy advertises variable ECN spreads 'from 0.1 pips' with commission, so no single typical figure was verified; Negative balance protection scope by entity; public listing status. 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.