What to look for when choosing an investment platform?

🧑‍💻Choosing a trading platform can be a daunting task especially when you are running your Google search and you come across every broker claiming similar things. Some common promises are:

• ​“Trusted broker”
• “Low spreads”
• “No commissions”
• “Stable platform”
• “Award-winning broker”

At the end of the day, like most companies, brokers will use very subjective descriptions of their platform or services. In most cases upon further investigation, these promises will feel a bit ambiguous especially as you start to paint the whole picture.

In this article we will help you cut through the “noise” to help you make the most informed decision.

“Trusted broker”

Trust can be broken into two major points: regulatory oversight and transparency. Said in a different way, ensure your money is going somewhere safe where it will be protected and available when you need it.

At a minimum, a broker should be registered with a reputable regulator with a history of enforcing its rules and regulations that protect investors.

In NAGA’s case, we are regulated by CySEC - the European financial regulator is very closely aligned with ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority) standards. Under this regulation, all traders receive major benefits including participation in the investor compensation fund as well as protections against predatory trade practices. A broker without any European regulation should be approached with caution.

Additionally, NAGA’s listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as a German publicly listed company increases regulatory scrutiny and transparency. As a public German company, NAGA is closely monitored by BaFin - the German financial regulatory authority overseeing financial service and banking institutions. Thus, NAGA is obligated to publish detailed financial performance to our investors, and subsequently available to everyone to see. These financials add further transparency into NAGA’s financial performance and growth. You can simply visit our Investor Relations Page for any information regarding our financial performance

Fund segregation is another important feature with NAGA keeping client funds with closely regulated European banking institutions. By separating funds, a broker gives investors an added layer of protection. Not all brokers segregate funds and even if they do, not all of them choose reputable banks which can put your capital at unnecessary risks.

“Low spreads” / “No commissions”

Spreads and commissions relate to trading expenses.

Spread is the difference between the buy or sell price. A wider spread means a trader will pay a higher fee for that transaction than compared to a tighter spread. Spreads are paid immediately upon opening a trade, which explains why every time you trade it starts with a slight loss. This loss is the spread! In order to capture a profit on your position, the market must move in your favor more than the spread difference.

Commissions are fees that are typically charged when closing a trade. In NAGA’s case, the commissions only apply to Stock CFDs and ETFs as a result of our liquidity providers charging these trading fees. All other asset classes like real shares, forex, and commodities do not carry any commissions.

In both cases of spreads and commissions, NAGA is very competitive. Below is a table that illustrates NAGA’s spreads across key instruments and how they compare to the competition. Highlighted in blue is the best available (lowest) spread among NAGA or the competition.

Across these 18 key markets, NAGA had the most competitive spread in 15. It is important to keep in mind that NAGA’s spreads get more competitive as you upgrade your account types. For example, Crystal accounts receive the tightest spreads, which in most cases are vastly superior to the competition. However even NAGA’s entry level spreads (Iron to Gold accounts) are quite competitive when compared to the competition.

You can simply visit our Trading Fees page to review our average spreads and commissions by instrument type.

“Stable platform”

Stability of the trading platform is very important because delays or outages could negatively impact a trader’s performance. Given NAGA’s integration with MetaTrader, we are able to offer a very reliable trading environment.

MetaTrader has built a strong reputation among the trading community for being a very reliable trading environment. NAGA trader is built upon MetaTrader, meaning that reliability is transferred to both our Naga Trader platforms: web and mobile apps.

NAGA’s platform redundancies increases traders’ access to their trading accounts.
Having issues with the NAGA web trader? Switch to your NAGA app. Having issues with the NAGA app? Switch to the MetaTrader 4 application. Having issues with the MetaTrader 4 application? Switch to MetaTrader Web Trader.

“Award-winning broker”

These awards are usually provided by unknown websites or under dubious circumstances. In NAGA’s case, the accolades that we proudly display come from either reputable sources or directly from users.

Forbes, a leading financial media company, wrote a very favorable article about NAGA’s embracement of blockchain technology. Additionally Forbes featured our very own Benjamin Bilski in their 2018 30 under 30 in Europe Technology.

NAGA’s Trustpilot Review page features over 500 reviews directly from existing users, with 94% leaving “excellent” or “great” reviews. User reviews on sites like Trustpilot are worth their weight in gold, since it is very hard to manipulate or influence hundreds of reviews from real people.

Unique Service Offerings

Some brokers might have a unique feature that could improve your trading experience. These unique features are typically displayed on a broker’s website and could come in the form of education or trading signals. With NAGA, however, we don’t just have one cool feature. We actually took a whole different approach to trading with the concept of the ecosystem.

The above diagram illustrates the various cornerstones of the NAGA experience that together create tremendous value. As a social trading platform, our users are not just trading the financial markets, they are participating in a community where they can benefit from each other’s insights and shared trading capabilities. Due to the NAGA Exchange and NAGA Wallet, users can deposit, invest, store, or withdraw with cryptocurrencies. Investors can obtain a NAGA Card to seamlessly pay for everyday purchases or decide to invest their funds in dividend-paying physical shares. Although you may find brokers with one of the above features, you will struggle to find one with everything NAGA has to offer under a single profile. NAGA’s synergies are endless with your creativity being the limit of what you can accomplish.

Conclusion

In conclusion, investing your hard earned money requires extra attention not only when actually trading, but when choosing where to trade with it. Hopefully now you can make a more informed decision when choosing the right broker by understanding the background on some of the key value propositions and unique NAGA benefits and features.