Alex Pusco (AP): It’s thrilling to be at the forefront of a fast-changing industry and to lead a team of highly skilled and motivated professionals.
The Forex market has always been welcoming to us and we’re very happy that traders recognize the value of our products and services. We continue to work tirelessly to deliver a cutting-edge offering and to bring expertise to our clients worldwide in order to help them maximize their profits.
IIM: Recently ActivTrades celebrated its 20th anniversary. How did the company change?
AP: Over the last twenty years, ActivTrades has not only grown in size (both employees and number of offices) but has also expanded the number of financial instruments and products it offers, in order to meet the ever-growing need of our clients for greater flexibility within the financial markets.
During this time, the retail foreign exchange industry has gained a lot of traction and we have noticed numerous changes in the regulatory landscape across Europe and in technological developments, including the rise of mobile trading, which have contributed to an already complex environment in which to operate.
Recently, we opened a new office in Luxembourg to answer the trading needs of our European customers after Brexit. This new entity is regulated by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF) and has already seen rapid growth.
One thing that makes me very proud is that ActivTrades is one of only a few FX brokerages that has continuously innovated and expanded throughout the years, regardless of market conditions. We have worked exceptionally hard to ensure retail, corporate and institutional clients have access to a large number of financial instruments and have the best trading tools possible.
IIM: What are some of the benefits of trading with ActivTrades?
AP: We have reduced commissions on CFDs on Shares. I believe that was a major improvement for our clients. It means there is a lower entry level for first-time traders and a reduced cost of trading. This increases the accessibility of our platforms and makes trading more attractive.
Another benefit came from our desire to invigorate traders after a turbulent 2020. Zero commission on a wide range of European, UK, and US stocks for non-leveraged retail investors has provided an excellent opportunity for clients to diversify their portfolios without additional costs.
Our clients can also now trade with fractional shares. They allow traders to build and diversify their portfolios without making large investments. I believe this will be especially suitable for retail traders looking to broaden their investment approach.
IMM: When it comes to trading conditions, what are you most proud of?
AP: We pride ourselves on offering some of the best trading conditions on the market. We have worked extremely hard to make sure our customers get fair conditions and early advantages when trading on the global markets.
We offer traders tight spreads starting from 0.5 pips. This allows clients to trade in low volatility and high liquidity environments.
The speed of execution is another vital condition for our clients. For short-term traders, latency can be an issue, because the higher it is, the more outdated the price becomes. ActivTrades offers its clients an ultra-fast average execution time of under 0.004 seconds. This also contributes to exceptionally low slippage due to the high liquidity our company possesses.
Currently our average slippage for some of the most popular trading instruments like EURUSD and GBPUSD is -0.000000002627 (Zero slipped deals: 95.59%), and -0.00000007 (Zero slipped deals: 94.89%), respectively. On average this year more than 96% of trades were executed with Zero slippage.
We are also very proud of our multilingual customer support, as well as the additional funds insurance protecting our clients’ capital up to $1,000,000.
IMM: What are the “Pullback Entry” and “Progressive Trailing Stop”?
AP: Pullback Entry gives you a dynamic entry point that allows you to enter a position at a better price when the market turns in your favour.
The Progressive Trailing Stop works a little bit differently. To maximize your profit, you need to protect it. To do that we created the Progressive Trailing Stop. This functionality allows you to set up two additional tiers which automatically adjust your Trailing Stop distance if the market reaches a defined trigger place, thus allowing you to exit at a much better price and protecting the accumulated profit.
IMM: Can you shine more light on ActivTrades’ TradingView integration?
AP: There was quite the demand amongst our clients for the powerful charting platform and social network TradingView. The new integration allows customers to benefit from an impressive list of advanced and customizable trading features and analytical tools. Traders will be able to use 12 customizable chart types and up to 8 charts in one layout. There are 25 indicators available per chart, custom timeframes, over one hundred pre-built technical indicators and more than fifty drawing tools. Our TradingView integration offers 100+ fundamental analysis tools, a dozen alert conditions on price, strategies and indicators and the ability to execute chart trading. Having an ActivTrades account also gives customers the ability to trade directly from the TradingView app.
IMM: What features and innovations are in the pipeline going forward?
AP: We’re currently working on several big projects which will be revealed over time. Currently, we are redesigning our website to be more user-friendly and overhauling our trading platform to further improve the trading experience.
IMM: How do you see the latest market developments?
AP: We have seen significant swings, offering traders massive possibilities, especially on equities and commodities. Many of our clients have been trading high-volume indices, some of which reached several peaks. Many have found positive gains in Energy commodities, which might continue to yield strong profits. I believe that these conditions will remain, offering traders a more favorable trading environment in the months ahead.
