Skilling Review

Trust

Skilling Regulations

When we examine a broker’s regulations, we focus on the licenses issued to its separate entities. These entities usually work with clients from different geographic areas, which necessitates local authorities’ licensing. We rank the different types of regulations on a three-tier system, with tier-1 indicating the highest grade regulation.

This is what we found concerning Skilling’s two entities and their licenses and regulations:

• Skilling Limited is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under CIF license number 357/18. Licenses issued by CySEC represent tier-1 regulation.
• Skilling (Seychelles) Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) under license number SD042. Seychelles’ FSA is an offshore regulator, and it gets a tier-3 ranking according to our system.

We have summarised the most essential aspects of Skilling’s entities in terms of regulation and safety in the table below:

The information listed on the chart above was collected on the 28^th of March, 2022

Why Is It Important to Know Where Your Broker Subsidiary (Entity) is Regulated?

As was mentioned above, regulation and jurisdiction vary across different regions. Brokers thus apply for multiple licenses to be able to work with international clients. These discrepancies in the regulations may affect the overall safety and protection of traders, which is why they need to understand what these discrepancies entail exactly.

Here is our summary of what traders need to consider before selecting which entity to work with:

• Segregation of client funds. Client funds and company capital need to be kept in separate bank accounts for several reasons. Chiefly, this removes the risk of accounting errors and theft. Skilling’s both entities adhere to this requirement.
• Negative balance protection. Skilling will terminate any losing positions that can incur losses exceeding the account balance. Negative balance protection is crucial for margin trading, where the leverage amplifies the profits and losses.
• Compensation scheme. Skilling Limited ensures that traders’ funds are protected even if the broker becomes insolvent. Note that the Seychelles entity does not involve such a compensation scheme, which means that clients are exposed to such credit risk.
• Standard leverage. Retail traders with Skilling Limited are given a standard leverage of 1:30, while Skilling (Seychelles) Limited has a leverage of 1:500. Trade execution with the latter would entail profits or losses that are 16 times higher than the former.

Is Skilling Safe to Trade With?

Skilling’s two entities provide varying degrees of safety. Clients from countries from the European Economic Area (EEA) can enjoy the greatest degree of security offered by the company because of the CySEC regulation of Skilling Limited.

On the other hand, FSA ensures a weaker and looser regulatory framework, making Skilling Seychelles Limited less safe. The offshore regulation covers the essentials, like keeping clients’ funds in segregated accounts and ensuring negative balance protection. However, there is no compensation scheme, and the leverages on all assets are quite high. With bigger leverage, the risks faced by traders from adverse price fluctuations are heightened.

Stability and Transparency

In our tests for the Trust category, we also cover factors relating to stability and transparency. Here, we focused on how long the broker has been in business, the size of the company and how transparent they are in terms of information being readily available.

Skilling got an average score in stability and transparency because all relevant information is presented clearly and concisely on the website. The company was founded 6 years ago and employs over 70 people.

The website is well structured and easy to navigate, with most information being condensed within several major categories. Even less experienced traders can quickly navigate the site, with most things being no more than several clicks away.

In summary, our findings indicate that Skilling can be regarded as having an average level of trust and stability due to the following factors:

• Having at least one license by a top-tier regulatory body (CySEC)
• Skilling Limited adheres to the industry standards
• Has a demonstrable history of corporate growth
• The management team can be seen on the website

Fees

Regarding the spreads on a Standard account with Skilling Limited, we concluded that retail traders have to pay above-average spreads on most of the more popular trading instruments. This applies to all asset classes, ranging from Forex to stocks and indices. On the other hand, Skilling clients do not have to pay any commissions for trade execution.

With regards to non-trading costs, there is no inactivity fee, and Skilling does not charge anything for deposits or withdrawals. However, third-party fees may apply in some cases.

Skilling Trading Fees

Skilling Spreads

We tested the spreads on a Standard account with Skilling Limited during the London open at 8am UK time and just after the U.S. open at 2.45pm UK time. These are the most actively traded times. The test was conducted on the 29^th of March, 2022.

Skilling’s spreads are floating, meaning that the broker obtains its liquidity from external providers, such as banks and financial institutions.

This is important because spreads are likely to fluctuate as trading activity changes throughout the day. Generally, spreads tend to shoot up during the morning session and then gradually subside ahead of the American open.

Swap Fees

A swap fee is a trader’s cost for holding an open position overnight because of changing interest rates. The values listed below are for one full contract (100 000 units) of the base currency.

Swap long refers to the charge deductible or credit receivable for holding a buy position open overnight. In turn, swap short relates to the charges/credits deductible or receivable for holding a selling position open overnight.

We have documented Skilling’s swap fees in the table below:

We found Skilling’s swaps, also known as a rollover cost, to be above average when the data was collected. However, it should be remembered that those are likely to change as the underlying market uncertainty diminishes over time.

Non-Trading Fees

There are no costs for inactivity, meaning that traders should not have to pay charges for not placing any orders over an extended period of time. There are also no deposit or withdrawal fees, though traders opting for Skrill or Neteller may be liable to third-party fees.

Are Skilling’s Fees Competitive?

Based on our research, we concluded that Skilling’s fees are above the industry average. This is the consequence of several contributing factors. The chief reason is that Skilling’s floating spreads are subject to current market volatility.

When the market becomes more erratic and less predictable, prices tend to fluctuate more. This causes financial institutions to increase the rates on derivatives, which raises the costs most brokers like Skilling are being charged by their liquidity providers. In a nutshell, the competitiveness of Skilling’s spreads, in particular, is directly dependent on the underlying conditions on the market.

Beyond that, there are no trading commissions on a Standard account, and Skilling does not charge any fees for deposits or withdrawals. However, third-party fees may apply.

Platforms and Tools

Its custom-built platform is quite easy to navigate, yet its flexibility does not come at the expense of utility. Charts are integrated directly from Trading View, which ranks among the best charting websites on the web. Charts powered by TW are particularly well-suited for chart artists wanting to conduct a penetrating examination of price action from multiple angles.

Seasoned traders can also test their trading prowess on cTrader or MetaTrader4, which rank among the most popular platforms. In turn, beginners can choose Skilling’s Copy trading option, allowing them to copy the positions of other successful traders with a proven track record.

For the purpose of our review, we have used Skilling’s own in-house platform and evaluated its performance using a Standard account.

Trading on Skilling’s Own Platform

General Ease of Use

The Skilling platform’s general ease of use is bolstered by the fact that everything is ordered so neatly and has an easy-to-follow logic. Account information is presented in the top right corner, whereas additional information needed for a more comprehensive overview of your account’s performance can be found on the left side of the screen.

The instrument watchlist next to the settings menu provides easy and quick access to all your favourite trading instruments. It includes the most important information, such as bid and ask prices and the daily percentage change of an asset’s price.

The chart is clean and large enough to present a clear and concise overview of the price action. As was mentioned above, Skilling’s charts are powered by Trading View, offering some of the most sophisticated chart solutions in the industry.

The platform is equally suitable for beginner traders who want to learn about charting in an easy-to-navigate environment and more experienced traders who need various indicators and drawing tools to conduct probing technical analyses.

Charts

The charts on Skilling’s proprietary trading platform are very easy to use, informative and most importantly, they provide everything needed to conduct thorough technical analyses. Skilling’s charts are generated by Trading View, and the platform is so easy to use because of Trading View’s vast pool of tools and accessories. Here are some of the greatest advantages of Skilling’s charts:

• Chart modification options. The price action can be represented in 11 different ways. Those include the more commonly used bars and lines and the more intricate variations such as Heikin Ashi, Renko, and Kagi.
• Indicators. This is where the platform’s rich library really shines, with over 80 indicators made available to satisfy the needs of even the most unique and unconventional chart artists. Whether you prefer the essentials such as moving averages or fancy more exotic indicators like the Klinger Oscillator, Skilling’s got it.
• Drawing tools. The platform has over 70 different drawing tools, making it easy to study all types of market environments, from wide trends to narrow ranges. Some of the most popular drawing tools on the platform include the Fibonacci retracement levels, Elliott impulse waves, linear channels and more.

Orders

The platform allows for the execution of the most popular order types. Market orders can be executed at the spot level for immediate entries, alternatively, long/short orders can be placed at a different price level by traders looking to gain entry only if certain conditions are met beforehand.

Traders can also enhance their positions with trailing stop orders or fixed stop losses to lessen the underlying risk. Accordingly, the inclusion of a fixed take profit order would ensure trade termination at a preferred price level.

Traders can place new orders directly from the chart, giving them greater flexibility.

Skilling Mobile App

Skilling’s mobile app retains most of the features and general feel of the platform’s desktop version. That is a major accomplishment, given that mobile apps typically struggle to illustrate complex and detailed charts on smartphones with low resolution, which usually diminishes the overall quality of the presented information.

Skilling Trader, the app’s official name, is available on the App Store and Google Play. It runs on iPhone, iPad (IOS) and Android devices. We have conducted our test on an Android device.

General Ease of Use

What we liked most about Skilling’s app is that despite limited space, it manages to represent a clear and concise picture of the market. Everything from instrument watch lists to indicators and drawing tools can be found easily and quickly. In terms of feasibility and efficiency, Skilling’s mobile app gets as close to achieving the same level of precision you might expect from the desktop version as possible.

Charts

The biggest advantage of Skilling’s app is that charts can be populated with several indicators at a time without distorting their general outlook. Trading apps typically struggle to illustrate complex and detailed charts on low-resolution smartphones, but this is not as big of an issue in this case.

Here are some of the key chart features of Skilling’s app:

• Price action. Traders can choose from 11 different ways in which to represent the price action, whether as bars or a line.
• Indicators. Similarly to the desktop version, the app also incorporates over 80 different indicators. However, it should be stated that not all of them look as good on devices with small resolution as they do on a desktop version.
• Drawing tools. The same 70 drawing tools are still available on the app, but this is the aspect in which the app is really outshined by the desktop version. Whether we are talking about drawing complex wedges or channels, having to do so on a small screen will never be as precise or accurate.

Orders

Skilling’s app is quite practical and easy to use when it comes down to order execution. Simple market orders or complex pending orders can be placed in just a few clicks. Traders can enhance them with trailing or fixed stop orders, depending on their desires and particular market conditions.

This is one aspect in which the mobile app does not lag behind the desktop version. Quite the contrary, it has one huge advantage over the latter. Traders can use the mobile app while on the go, which is particularly useful when you need to make sudden changes to your open positions or spot a good opportunity but you are not sitting in front of your computer.

Tradable Instruments

The more instruments that are made available on the platform, the greater the level of flexibility and freedom that traders can enjoy. And the extensive array of available instruments on Skilling’s Standard account ensures that retail traders have enough options to choose from as the general market conditions change.

What are CFDs?

Contracts for difference are financial derivatives that allow traders to speculate with the price of a given instrument without physical delivery. In other words, you can trade with the price of, say, gold without actually having to purchase or sell bars of gold.

In addition to this simplification, another major benefit of trading on margin with CFDs is that you can boost your market exposure with the leverage given to you by your broker. However, while the leverage multiples the profit potential of your trades, there is a parallel increase in the loss potential.

What Can You Trade with Skilling?

On a Standard Skilling account, you can choose from over 900 instruments from different asset classes. These include:

• More than 700 Stocks
  • Biggest U.S., European exchanges
• 73 Forex pairs
  • Majors, minors, and exotic
• 18 Indices
  • Including the S&P 500, Nasdaq, UK100 and others.
• 6 Commodities
  • Metals and energy
• 55+ Cryptocurrencies
  • Majors and minors

With over 700 different shares, this is the asset class with the biggest diversity on a Standard Skilling account. This is the bulk of the total tradable instruments. The broker also offers a fair amount of FX pairs and cryptos, so traders can choose from assets with varying risk/reward ratios. What is lacking is more commodities. With only 6 inclusions, Skilling traders have to settle for a few metals and one or two energy commodities.

*Details regarding the available assets are taken on the 27^th of March and are correct at the time of this review.

Customer Support

Skilling Customer Support Test

We completed our customer support test on the 27^th of March at 09 am CET. The live chat was accessed via the ‘About’ section on Skilling’s main page, which is a bit confusing because there is another category called ‘Help Centre’. The latter would have been a more logical choice, but this is not a major issue.

We asked whether Skilling offered swap-free accounts, also known as Islamic accounts, and an answer was provided within seconds. We were also given a link with additional information, which shows that their staff is knowledgeable and helpful.

Deposit and Withdrawal

Skilling Deposit and Withdrawal Methods

As is pointed out on Skilling’s payment methods page, all deposits are instant, whereas all withdrawals take up to one business day to complete. There are no fees for deposits or withdrawals, however, clients using Skrill and Neteller may be charged up to 2.9% by the payment processing provider. In terms of base currency options, Trustly offers the greatest diversity.

Account Types and Terms

Account creation is easy and takes only minutes to complete. Skilling asks for your TAX ID/TIN information almost immediately, which, though uncommon for most brokers, demonstrates the company’s adherence to financial regulations.

With a minimum starting deposit of 100 EUR, Skilling’s Standard account is more suitable for novice and small retail traders. And with spreads starting from 0.7 pips, their costs will be low to average. More experienced traders wanting to trade higher volumes, in contrast, may find the Premium or MT4 Premium accounts more desirable. Against a minimum starting deposit of 5000 EUR, they will benefit from spreads starting from 0.1 pips. However, they will also be liable to certain commissions per traded volume.

Why is Choosing the Right Account Type Important?

The account type you choose is vitally important for several reasons. First and foremost, trading is a numbers game. The lower trading and non-trading costs you are being charged, the higher your net profits will be. This should come as no surprise, but there are other important points to consider. For instance, the number of available instruments on the platform will determine the level of flexibility and freedom you will enjoy.

What Account Types does Skilling Offer?

In terms of practicality, we have determined that the Standard account, on average, offers the greatest level of flexibility and efficiency against the lowest possible cost. That is so because there are no commissions on it, similarly to a regular MT4 account. But unlike the latter, it offers a much greater variety of trading instruments. Also, Skilling’s own platform is easier to use than MetaTrader 4.

Even though a Standard account has higher spreads than a Premium account, it compensates with lower minimum deposit requirements, making it more accessible to a greater number of traders. It should also be stated that while the maximum leverage on all account types is 1:200, this is exclusively for professional traders. Unless clients request to be classified as such, retail traders will be given a leverage of 1:30. Skilling also offers an unleveraged crypto trading account.

Skilling also offers swap-free accounts, also known as Islamic accounts, and social trading. The latter option is suitable for seasoned traders who may want to profit by making their trading systems available to others. Additionally, it is very popular among newbies who want to copy the trades executed by the most successful traders on the platform.

What is CFD Leverage?

In a nutshell, leverage is the determinant of your overall market exposure. When you trade Contracts for Difference or CFDs, you are trading on margin provided by your broker. Essentially, the broker lends you margin via the leverage so that you can open bigger positions. The leverage multiplies the profits you generate from your winning trades. Accordingly, the losses you incur from your losing trades are also multiplied by the same margin.

Suppose you are to open a Skilling Premium account with a 5000 EUR deposit. If you are categorised as a retail trader, your leverage will be 1:30. Hence, your total market exposure will be 30 times higher or equal to 150 000 EUR. Professional traders get a maximum leverage of 1:200, making their market exposure on a 5000 EUR account equal 1 000 000 EUR.

Your leverage can be your best friend or worst enemy on the market, depending on how cautiously and responsibly you use it. Traders should always beware that the bigger the leverage, the bigger the impact of smaller changes in the price on their account balances.

Skilling Account Opening Process

Account creation is a fairly simple process taking less than 10 minutes. These are the essential steps you need to take along the way:

• Step 1 – While on the main page, click on the ‘Sign Up’ button in the top right corner. You will have to fill in personal information such as your name, address and personal tax or identity numbers.
• Step 2 – You will also have to state your employment history and trading and investing experience. This is done to qualify you either as a retail or professional trader.
• Step 3 – Before the account creation process can be completed, you will be asked several questions, such as ‘what is leverage’, to confirm your knowledge level.
• Step 4 – A confirmation email will then be sent to your address. You need to click on it and verify your email address, allowing you to log in to your account. Once you do that, you will be asked to complete the verification process. You will need to submit a photo of your Passport, personal ID card or driver’s license.

Why is Demo Account Important?

The demo account is essentially a broker’s business card. It allows potential clients to test the broker’s services in a safe environment. You can try out the platform’s features, the speed and accuracy of trade execution, and other important aspects of the broker’s services.

The demo account is also an indispensable learning tool for beginner and advanced traders alike. The former can use it to hone their skills without the risk of losing money, whereas the latter can use a demo account to polish their skills and improve the parameters of their trading strategies.

Skilling Supported Countries

Traders from countries that are members of the European Economic Area (EEA) can use Skilling Limited. Overseas clients can go for Skilling (Seychelles) Limited, which, however, does not have a tier-1 regulation.

Research

While there are interesting opinion pieces, which are important for traders using fundamental analysis, those are not enough to represent a detailed picture of the current market sentiment. There are no market breakdowns and news of basic economic developments. There is also no video content or an economic calendar. However, skilling offers webinars in Spanish.

Research Tools

Skilling offers three main types of research tools. Those can be accessed via the ‘Trading Articles’ section on the website:

• Market insights. Those can also be described as trading analyses. They include basic fundamental information about a given financial instrument, supported by a chart outlining a potential trading setup. These are quite informative regarding the key support and resistance levels that traders need to watch out for.
• Trading articles. Skilling’s opinion pieces represent a more abstract take on current events. While these materials do not necessarily provide a lot of practical information about potential trading opportunities, we found them to be quite useful as they represent original takes on current market developments.
• Company news. These concern Skilling clients directly but do not have any implications for the wider market.

Education

On Skilling’s website, the educational section is called Skilling Academy. Click on the ‘Trading’ option on the main page to access it. It consists of 5 related educational categories, each comprised of several lessons. The first category examines the basics of the Fundamental analysis. The next three sections provide a multi-layered study of the basics of technical analysis. The last section is a broad overview of all.

Each lesson is focused on a particular topic, such as how to use moving averages, Ichimoku Clouds, or simply providing a quick rundown of the most important economic terms in trading. The lessons have an easy-to-follow structure, though their scope is rather narrow, so we deemed them unsuitable for beginners.

Skilling’s educational materials are more of a glossary underpinning the most important trading concepts rather than a probing study delving deep into the intricacies of trading. Even still, more advanced traders can find utility in them. For instance, they can use them as a reference to trading particulars, such as how to calculate Fibonacci retracement levels or to implement the Average Directional Index (ADX).

The Bottom Line

Skilling Limited is licensed by CySEC, ensuring that the entity complies with the strictest regulatory frameworks. Traders from countries that are members of the EEA can feel safe with the broker. However, its other entity – Skilling (Seychelles) Limited – has a much looser licensing, being regulated by the FSA. This means that overseas traders may not enjoy the same level of protection, such as from the Investors Compensation Fund (ICF), for example.

With over 900 trading instruments on a Skilling Standard account, traders can enjoy considerable freedom of choice, perfectly complemented by the professional platforms available to them. These two aspects are undoubtedly the biggest advantages of working with Skilling.

The downside to that is the overall high trading costs. Despite the lack of commissions on a Standard account, the spreads are above average compared to the broader industry. The limited amount of research and educational materials represent another drawback of working with Skilling.

Experienced traders are likely to benefit more from working with Skilling than beginners. They can use the hundreds of FX pairs and stocks on a Standard account to diversify their positions and enjoy great freedom of choice. And Skilling’s platforms, rich in indicators and drawing tools, will undoubtedly cater to the needs of even the most sophisticated chart artists out there.

Novice traders can still enjoy these advantages, but they will not be able to learn a great deal about the nature of trading from Skilling’s inadequate educational and research materials. On the other hand, beginners may enjoy Skilling’s social trading option, allowing them to copy the trades of the most successful traders.

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