Worked example
Practising on Trade.com's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Trade.com 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
Trade.com 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. Trade.com offers 0 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.
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 Trade.com's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSC Mauritius · Mauritius | Lead Capital Global Ltd | C119023948 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| CySEC · Cyprus | Trade Capital Markets (TCM) Ltd | 227/14 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| FCA · United Kingdom | Trade Capital UK (TCUK) Ltd | 738538 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself — no longer active |
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. 1 line is offshore registration; treat those as a company address rather than as supervision.
The record behind these numbers
- The current trade.com site states it is a trade name of Lead Capital Global Ltd, 'authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius (license number C119023948)', and that the company 'does not fall within the European financial regulatory framework'.
- The CySEC register lists Trade Capital Markets (TCM) Ltd, licence 227/14 issued 17/02/2014, company registration 324232, 148 Strovolos Avenue, Nicosia.
- The FCA register entry for Trade Capital UK (TCUK) Ltd (FRN 738538) states the firm 'has applied to cancel its authorisation but must still meet our standards in dealing with its obligations'.
- Trade.com's own regulation page displays two different Mauritius registration numbers for Lead Capital Global Ltd (C170738 in one block, C107110 in another).
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: founded year not verified (directories claim 1999); minDeposit, maxLeverage, spreadEurusd, platforms, accountTypes and instruments not verified from primary pages; segregatedFunds and negativeBalanceProtection not verified; Lead Capital Global's own pages show conflicting registration numbers (C170738 vs C107110); TCUK licence end date not stated on the register entry; whether CySEC-licensed TCM still serves the trade.com brand is not verified from a primary page. 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
pipdojo.com 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.