GCI Financial Overview |
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Founded | 2002 |
Platform | ACT Trader |
Minimum account size | $500 |
Minimum lot size | 0.01 |
Tradable assets | 283 |
Maximum margin | 1:400 |
Spread on EUR/USD | 1 pip |
Payment methods | WireTransfer, Visa, Mastercard, Moneybookers, Skrill, CashU, Perfect Money |
Demo account | $50,000 in virtual account |
Accepts US traders | No |
Regulated | IFSC |
Support | Email, Live Chat, Phone, Fax |
Website | www.gcitrading.com |
Pros
- Regulated by IFSC
- Diverse range of assets
- Stable trading platform
- Reliable support team
Cons
- US traders not accepted
- Limited demo account
- Minimum account size is too high
GCI Financial was founded 2002 which means that they have been in the business for more than a decade. This company claims to offer an advanced trading platform that has a wide array of products for increased profitability. Although these promises seem to be tempting, the question is, are these promises really true?
Platform
GCI Financial offers ActTrader and MetaTrader platforms which are both very stable. I highly appreciate that they’ve tried to offer something completely new to the public and the end result is a platform that is quite easy to navigate and understand most especially for novice traders.
For this reason GCI Financial’splatform gets a score of 9/10 points on our charts.
Design
GCI Financial was a bit boring when it comes to the layout and design of their trading platform. They claim to offer a very modern and sleek design but in reality it wasn’t as contemporary although it was as fluid as they promised. Browsing through the trading instruments and various sections doesn’t take a lot of getting used to and even placing a trade was pretty easy.
This warrants GCI Financial with a Design score of 3/5.
Minimum Deposit
The minimum deposit at GCI Financial is $500 which is higher than the standard deposit requirement of most forex brokers. This is definitely bad news for newbie traders because they will be required to fork out a considerably high amount in order to open an account and be able to trade.
For such a high minimum deposit requirement, GCI Financial gets a score of 1/5.
Minimum Lot Size
GCI Financial’s minimum size is 0.01which isa tad higher than the standard range. That means the risks are a bit increased so this may disappoint investors who want to start out with a very lowlot size.
For this reason I am giving this broker a Minimum Lot Size Score of 2/5.
Tradable Assets
Having a broker that provides a wide range of assets allows you to increase your chances of making a profit and fortunately, GCI Financial has a total of 283 tradable assets to offer. Such a number will certainly give you more opportunities to find an asset which you are most comfortable to place your investments and convert them into sizable revenues.
For this reason, GCI Financial gets a Tradable assets score of 5/5.
Payouts
The primary reason why forex trading has gained so much popularity is because the profits are promising. This explains why it is important to know the pip value for it whichwill determine the possible returns for every successful trade and the higher the number, the better the yields, GCI Financial’s spread on the EUR/USD currency pair is just 1 pip which was a bit disappointing as other brokers can give double of what they can offer.
This disappointment warrants this broker a Payouts score of 5/10.
Withdrawal Time
A lot of forex traders usually complain about the deferrals in their withdrawals with extended waiting times reaching almost a month. With GCI Financial, cashing out is a bit tedious because customers need to print a form, fill it out together with a signature and then return it back to them via fax or email before they start processing the request which usually takes 2 business days. Although the processing time is quite fast, the method of cashing out is quite a disadvantage and takes a lot of effort.
For this reason this broker gets a Withdrawal Time score of 5/10.
Deposit and Withdrawal Methods
Adding funds to a GCI Financial account can be done using bank wire transfer, credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and many more), Moneybookers, cashU, Perfect Money or check. It’s quite impressive that they covered almost all the possible payment options which is an advantage for all types of traders since they don’t need to worry how to transfer funds to their account.
This merits GCI Financial a Deposit and Withdrawal Methods score of 5/5.
Customer Support
One of the primary factors that must be included in choosing a broker is the quality of support that they provide. It is very important that their support team is capable of answering customer queries and providing immediate assistance when issues arise. Another issue is the handling time which usually takes long which really frustrates a lot of traders.
With GCI Financial, contacting their support team can be done via phone, chat, fax or email. The live chat was the one I presumed to be the easiest since I was already online and it was quite indeed fast as it only took less than 30 seconds before I was able to start a chat session with a person named Roger. I must say, he was very helpful and very quick in responding to my queries.
For this reason, I am giving this broker a Support score of 11/15.
Quoting Accuracy
The accuracy of the quotes that are provided by your broker must also be checked because this will have an impact on the success of your trades. Delayed and rigged quotes certainly won’t give you any profits no matter how good or effective your strategy is, so it is very important for you to verify if the prices that are shown on their platform are synchronized with the real-time market quotes. As for GCI Financial, there weren’t any re-quotes and closing most of the deals was very fluid as it didn’t experience any lags.
This warrants GCI Financial a Quote Accuracy Score of 10/10.
Reputation
GCI Financial has been in operation since 2002 and has a good standing in the market as proven by the user comments which are generally positive. They are highly regarded by many traders as a reputable Forex and CFD broker with reliable services.
For these good feedbacks I am giving GCI Financial a Reputation score of 19/20.
Conclusion 7.5/10GCI Financial has been in the forex trading industry for more than decade but there does not seem to be much improvement with their platform although the quality of support that they provide is certainly impressive and worth mentioning. Their range of trading instruments and the assets may be good but the spreads are not that enticing and falls within the midrange. Overall, GCI Financial scored moderately well on our key parameters. We highly recommend that you sign-up with much more stable brands such as Plus500 or eToro as an alternative so you can continue with your trading activities. |