Worked example
Practising on Xtrade's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Xtrade 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
Xtrade 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. Xtrade 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 Xtrade's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| FSC Bulgaria · Bulgaria | Up Trend Ltd | RG-03-110 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| FSC Belize · Belize | Xtrade International Ltd | 4705379 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| FSA Seychelles · Seychelles | WizBrokers Limited | SD203 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| FSCA · South Africa | Peak Wealth PTY Ltd | FSP44681 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| Offshore Finance Authority of Anjouan (Comoros) · Anjouan, Union of Comoros | Blacsley Como Ltd | L15808/BC | 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. 3 lines are offshore registrations; treat those as a company address rather than as supervision.
The record behind these numbers
- ASIC cancelled the AFS licence of XTradeau Pty Limited (media release 24-122mr, 2024) after an investigation found vulnerable clients were encouraged to trade CFDs they could not afford; an AAT stay application filed 29 April 2024 was refused. Source: ASIC media release 24-122mr (asic.gov.au/aboutasic/media-centre/media-releases).
- xtrade.com's own licences page names Up Trend Ltd (UIC 121527003, Sofia) as licensed by Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission under licence RG-03-110, operating as an EU investment intermediary under MiFID II.
- The same page states the Seychelles entity WizBrokers Limited (company registration 8436587-1, FSA licence SD203) does not offer services to residents of the USA, Canada, Iran, North Korea, Europe and the UK.
- The FSA Seychelles securities-dealer register lists WizBrokers Limited, trade name Xtrade, registered at Azores Building, Ile du Port, Mahe.
- Loss-rate warnings on xtrade.com state 83.5%-85.5% of retail investor CFD accounts lose money depending on the regional entity.
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: founded: founding year not verified from a primary source; minDeposit: not verified from an account-spec page (footer '$0.00 register' treated as marketing); maxLeverage: not verified from a legal/account page; spreadEurusd: not verified; accountTypes: not verified from a spec page; segregatedFunds / negativeBalanceProtection: client agreement PDFs not extracted; publiclyListed: no listing status verified; hq: brand-wide HQ not established; Sofia address is the EU entity's registered office. Confidence in this file overall: high. 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.