| Updated: September 17, 2025- Jump to:
- Regulations
- Trading Instruments
- Trading Platforms
- Mobile Trading Apps
- Payment Methods
- Account Types
- Support
- Conclusion
Trading 212 is a reliable fintech company based in London. It is the broker of choice for many traders thanks to its transparency, competitive spreads and broad portfolio spanning more than 1,800 financial instruments. You can trade stocks, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies and forex pairs in a trusted environment.
Instead of following the familiar route of the widely utilised MetaQuotes software, the broker has built and now uses a proprietary trading platform. The company claims to be the first broker in Europe and the United Kingdom to offer no-commission stock trading, providing millions of customers with access to the lucrative stock market.
In addition to its browser-based platform, Trading 212 is accessible on the fly via cutting-edge iOS and Android applications that have been downloaded by more than 14 million people. The company follows strict policies for negative balance protection and ensures instant execution of its clients’ orders without the risk of hidden fees.
| General Information about Trading 212 | |
|---|---|
| Min. Deposit | $30 |
| Supported Languages | Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Chinese (Mandarin) |
| Supported Currencies | United States Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona, Norwegian Krone, Australian Dollar, New Zealand Dollar, South African Rand, Mexican Peso, Danish Krone, Polish Z?oty, Hungarian Forint, Czech Koruna, Hong Kong Dollar, Russian Ruble |
Regulations
Launched in 2013, Trading 212 quickly rose to prominence by offering traders from more than 45 countries a secure and fully regulated trading environment. The company is registered in England and Wales. It is authorised to provide its services by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under licence number 609146.
Trading 212 also has a strong presence in south-eastern Europe. It has registered offices in Bulgaria, where it falls under the regulation of the local Financial Supervision Commission (registration number RG-03-0237).
The brokerage upholds all security-related requirements of its regulators. It protects customers from negative balances. The money clients deposit into their Trading 212 accounts is stored separately in segregated accounts at trusted banks.
The funds of UK customers are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Under this scheme, each investor from this jurisdiction is entitled to compensation of up to £85,000 in the event of Trading 212 declaring insolvency.
Meanwhile, Bulgarian customers’ funds are covered by the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), an independent legal entity headquartered in Sofia. Under ICF rules, each Bulgarian customer of Trading 212 may be compensated for up to 90% of their funds, with a ceiling of €20,000.
| Regulator | Licence |
|---|---|
| FSC (Bulgaria) | Yes |
| FCA (UK) | Yes |
Trading Instruments
At Trading 212, you have an immense selection of more than 1,800 instruments you can trade with, including 150 Forex currency pairs, commodities, stocks, and indices. Additionally, you can also trade with cryptocurrencies, having a choice from Litecoin, Bitcoin, Dash, Ripple, Ethereum, and more. We comprehensively cover all of these instruments below so stay with us, if willing to learn more.Forex Trading
Trading 212 boasts an impressive foreign exchange portfolio, comprising more than 150 forex currency pairs. The broker supports all major pairs, including EUR/USD, which is the most traded instrument on the platform. Minor pairs are available, as are more exotic options such as BGN/MXN, HKD/ZAR, NOK/PLN, and SEK/DKK, among many others.
Two types of spreads are offered – floating and fixed – depending on the pairs you trade. Margin requirements are set at 5% for retail traders and 1% for professionals. The forex market is, of course, open 24 hours a day during the workweek. You can go long or short on your positions and will benefit from very fast order execution on this platform.
Stock Trading
The selection of assets at Trading 212 is extensive. Clients can diversify their portfolios by trading the stocks of some of the largest companies across Europe, Asia, and the United States. Some of the notable names you can add to your watchlist include Panasonic, Apple, Amazon, Sony, Visa, and Twitter.
Minimum trade quantities vary across different stocks, and so do the margin requirements, which generally range between 5% and 20% for professional traders. Retail customers can trade stocks with a fixed margin of 20%.
Apart from spot trading in currencies, clients have the option to trade CFDs. One key difference is that there is no need to own the underlying assets to trade CFDs.
Instead, you speculate on the price movements of the instrument – whether it will go up or down. If the stock value moves in your chosen direction, you will profit; if it moves in the opposite direction, you will lose money.
It is important to specify that CFDs are leveraged products and, as such, can be quite risky to trade, especially if you lack previous experience.
Trading 212 has posted a disclaimer on its website warning that roughly 76% of its retail clients suffer losses as a result of trading CFDs. This is a complex instrument, so we recommend using it only if you understand how it works and can afford the associated financial risks.
Indices Trading
At Trading 212, you can trade more than 30 indices. Both major and niche markets are available, but the biggest advantage is that index trading is commission-free on the broker’s side. Spreads are mostly floating, although there are some markets where this built-in cost is fixed.
The minimum trade sizes range from 0.01 to 400 lots, depending on the instrument. The minimum margin requirement for professional traders is 0.20%, while for retail accounts it starts at zero for the US Tech 100 Index and rises to 20% for some markets.
Indices available in this category include the CAC 40, the German DAX Performance Index, the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, the Hong Kong 50 Index, the Spanish IBEX 35, the S&P 500, the Nikkei 225, the Euro Stoxx 50, and the Nasdaq 100 Index.
Commodities Trading
Both soft and hard commodities are available for trading with this broker. This category features more than twenty options, starting with soft commodities, which are grown rather than mined.
There is a decent range of base and precious metals, including copper, palladium, platinum, and silver. Gold is the most-traded asset with this broker. You can also trade natural energy sources such as natural gas and Brent oil.
Soft commodities, such as cocoa, coffee, cotton, and sugar, are another option at Trading 212. The margins for retail clients are either 5% or 10%, depending on the commodity. Professional traders benefit from margins ranging from as little as 0.33% to 5%.
| Instrument | Spread |
|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1.2 |
| GBP/USD | 1.2 |
| USD/JPY | 1.2 |
| USD/CHF | 1.2 |
| AUD/USD | 1.2 |
| EUR/CHF | 1.2 |
Trading platforms
 Platforms |
 PC / MAC |
 Smartphones |
 Tablets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web Trader |   |   | |
| Trading 212 | | |
| Trading Information | |
|---|---|
| Trading Platforms | Web Trader, Trading 212 |
| Demo Account |  |
| Hedging | |
| Scalping |  |
| Retirement Account | |
| US Traders | |
| Arabic Traders | |
Trading 212 provides clients with the flexibility to trade directly in their browsers without having to download or install any software. The broker relies on proprietary software for the execution of trades, which is a breath of fresh air given that most other brokers implement third-party software from MetaQuotes.
The proprietary browser-based platform
We tested the platform in Google Chrome, but it also works in other popular browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Explorer, Safari and Opera. We encountered no lag during testing and are pleased to report that order execution is lightning-fast.
On the left side of the interface there is a watchlist that enables you to monitor the available markets. It also displays the hottest trading signals currently favoured by other clients of the broker. If you wish, you can add customised watchlists of your own.
By opening the Instrument Details box for a specific market, you can view all the information needed to make an informed trading decision. It displays the day’s statistics and price changes over the day, week, month or year. This is also where you can check additional information about leverage, margins, spread type and swap time.
All features are clearly visible, which adds to the platform’s ease of use. Customers can choose from around ten time periods, ranging from one minute to one month. There are many useful tools for traders who prefer to implement specific strategies.
Zooming in and out is possible, as is selecting different chart types, including candlestick, Heikin-Ashi, line, area and bar formats. Numerous categories of indicators are available for technical analysis.
Some of the most popular options are Bollinger Bands, the Arnaud Legoux Moving Average, the Relative Strength Index and the Simple Moving Average. The charts are fully customisable, allowing traders to draw and insert notes.
The platform is also equipped with notifications, an economic calendar and a section for analysis and the latest financial news. On top of that, you can watch educational videos directly on the platform.
Trading 212 Android and iOS apps
Trading 212 prides itself on the excellent experience it delivers to smartphone and tablet users. The broker’s mobile app has been downloaded more than 14 million times and has over 40,000 ratings from customers, with most users reporting a positive experience on the go.
It has consistently topped the chart for the most-used trading app in the United Kingdom since 2016. The app also climbed to the number-one spot in Germany in 2017. You can download it for free from either the App Store or Google Play, and it works seamlessly on both operating systems.
The iOS app supports a wide range of languages in addition to English, including French, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Arabic and German. It is compatible with iPods and iPhones running iOS 11.0 and above.
As for the Android app, it has been optimised for version 5.0 of the operating system or later and already has more than 5 million installs from the Play Store. In either case, users enjoy competitive spreads even during news releases, user-friendly charts for technical analysis, laudable customer service and no-commission trading across a wide range of markets.
Payment methods
Trading 212 accepts a versatile selection of payment methods, including bank transfers; Visa, Maestro and Mastercard debit/credit cards; the e-wallet Skrill; Dotpay; Giropay; ePay; and Google Pay. It is worth noting that the broker does not accept cash transfers made directly to its bank account.
Card deposits are processed very quickly. If you choose this option, your Trading 212 balance will be funded within ten minutes of approval. Bank transfers are by far the least time-efficient solution because they take between two and three working days.
As for withdrawals, the waiting times are usually two to three days. There are no additional fees on Trading 212’s part if you use a credit or debit card. Customers, however, may incur extra charges from their bank.
The broker ordinarily processes withdrawals to the same payment methods clients used for deposits. Customers can open live accounts in one of three supported base currencies: USD, GBP or EUR.
| Brand | Minimum | Fees | Processing Time |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
 | $30 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| Brand | Minimum | Fees | Processing Time |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
| $1 | No Fees | 2-3 business days |
Account types
Until November 2017, Trading 212 gave its customers the option to open separate demo and live accounts. The broker then decided to remove the hassle associated with running two separate accounts. Currently, the two types are merged into one, with users able to switch back and forth between their demo and real-money accounts.
Opening a demo account takes literally seconds. Simply enter your email address and a password of your choice, and you are good to go. The demo account enables you to practise with more than 1,800 markets and comes with all the useful functionalities of the live version.
Users have access to an economic calendar, an education centre, tools for chart customisation and many useful indicators for technical analysis. The maximum leverage is 1:500.
When you are ready to switch to a live account, you will have to undergo a few routine checks to ensure you are fully aware of the risks associated with trading.
As a fully legitimate and licensed broker, Trading 212 is obliged by its regulators to verify the identity of each customer. For this purpose, live-account users are asked to provide copies of their ID cards, a process essential for their own security.
The minimum balance required to run a live account is $100, but there is no ceiling on the amounts customers can deposit. Some customers might be displeased by the lack of options where account types are concerned.
No two traders are the same. Customers differ in terms of risk tolerance, preferences and trading needs, so offering a choice of several account types with different features is definitely a plus for a brokerage company.
| Market | Leverage |
|---|---|
| Currencies | 300 |
Support
This rapidly growing broker offers support in a wide range of languages, including English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Romanian and Chinese. It also offers several communication channels you can use to get in touch with a support representative.
It is recommended to use the live-chat facility if you need urgent assistance. There, you can count on prompt, professional and adequate service. If your query does not require an immediate response, you can send it via email to info@trading212.com, although using the ready-made contact form is an alternative.
Support is also provided over the telephone. The number for clients from Bulgaria is +359 800 46049, while customers from other accepted countries can use the UK number, +44 20 3769 9897.
Conclusion
The most distinctive trait of Trading 212 is that the broker pioneered zero-commission trading in shares and ETFs across the United Kingdom and various European countries. Other than that, the company has done an excellent job of crafting a simplified proprietary platform, ensuring all clients, regardless of their background and knowledge, can enjoy a seamless trading experience.
The demo and live accounts are merged into one, which is convenient because you can switch back and forth between the two modes, especially when you are looking to try out new strategies risk-free. However, we think that a little more diversity in terms of live account types would have been great for traders with different preferences and levels of risk tolerance.