Trade Nation review – Contract for difference broker

Our Trade Nation review reveals lowest fixed spread CFD provider in Australia

Key Difference: Trade Nation is a Contract for difference (CFD) broker focusing on:

• They are the stand-out lowest fixed spread Forex & CFD brokerage firm in Australia;
• Single-currency trading accounts;
• A management team boasting 200+ years of collective industry experience; and
• Excellent customer support.

This Contract for difference broker review covers Australian-regulated CFD provider, Trade Nation. Our Trade Nation review, also covers their trading platforms, accounts, fees, charts, markets, awards and much more.

Trade Nation also offers the unique single-currency trading accounts, which means clients won’t be impacted by currency exposure.

I therefore wanted to include this Contract for difference, Australian-regulated, broker review of Trade Nation’s accounts and help illustrate who they may be most suited to.

Review Detail: Trade Nation AU Regulated CFD Broker

Trade Nation is a Contract for difference (CFD) broker focusing on low-cost fixed spreads, combined with single-currency trading accounts, a management team boasting 200+ years of collective industry experience and excellent customer support.

Company Profile

• Trade Nation was founded in 2014.
• Trade Nation is a trading name of Trade Nation Australia Pty Ltd, a financial services company registered in Australia under ACN 158 065 635, is authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), with AFSL number 422661.
  Their registered office is located on Level 17, 123 Pitt Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.
  
• Trade Nation Australia Pty Ltd, trading as “Trade Nation”, is a proprietary company limited by shares. The company is 100% owned by Finsa Investment Limited, a private limited company incorporated in the United Kingdom.
  
• Client funds are held in segregated, designated bank accounts with Westpac, a top-tier, Australian authorised deposit-taking institution. Client money is not transferred from these accounts to fund or hedge positions or for Trade Nation’s use, unless legally entitled to it (e.g. to withdraw client fees).
• A highly experienced management team that boasts well over 200 years of collective industry experience.

Account Types

Our Trade Nation review confirmed three main trading account types are available:

• Retail trader account;
• Professional trader account; and
• Demo account.

These can be opened for:

• Individual;
• Corporate; and
• Trust / SMSF accounts.

Trading accounts can be opened in the following base currencies (the currency denomination of your account):

• AUD, CHF, DKK, EUR, GBP, NOK, PLN, SEK, USD and ZAR

For their MetaTrader 4 platform (MT4), account base currencies available are:

• AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, JPY, PLN and USD

Retail Trader Account

This is the live trading account that most new traders will use, and includes access to all of their trading platforms (including MT4).

Minimum Deposit Requirement

There is no minimum deposit requirement for any Trade Nation trading platform/s.

Negative Balance Protection

Negative balance protection is an automated adjustment of the account balance to zero should it become negative after a stop-out. Trade Nation will bring your account back to zero at no extra cost, ensuring that you never lose more than your initial deposit.

Professional Trader Account

If you are an elective professional trader, the Trade Nation professional trading account (also referred to as a Wholesale Trading Account) provides some unique differences compared to the retail account. These include:

• Higher Leverage – Access leverage of up to 500:1 on selected Forex and Index products;
• Lower Margin Close Out – Margin close out will be 20% compared to 50% on a retail account;
• Attend Exclusive Events – Receive exclusive invitations to VIP private dining experiences and sporting events; and
• Your own Dedicated Account Manager – Get bespoke and personalised support for all your trading needs.

 

Pro Account Eligibility

Trade Nation Pro accounts are ONLY available to clients who meet the eligibility criteria in accordance with the “Wholesale Client” requirements under the Corporations Act. They also refer to Wholesale Clients as Professional Clients, so the terms are interchangeable but their website uses the term “Professional Clients” or “Pro clients”.

To become a Pro client (professional trader) of Trade Nation, you will need to satisfy one of the four eligibility tests:

1. Sophisticated Investor Test;
2. Wealth Test;
3. Professional Investor Test; or
4. Large Business Test.

Trade Nation Pro Account Leverage

If you qualify for a Trade Nation Pro Account, you’ll have access to the higher leverage shown in the table below, which is unavailable to retail clients.

Demo Account

Trade Nation does offer a demo trading account, however, it is not immediately clear on their website how to open it. Instead of having an option for a demo account and a separate option to open a live account, Trade Nation streamline the process. To get started, you just have to create an account on Trade Nation, and automatically, you will have a demo account.

The demo account functions under real-time market conditions, but with a virtual balance (rather than live funds).

To transition to a live trading account, you simply need to make an initial deposit and provide your proof of identity and residence (this is standard Know your customer requirements of all online brokers regulated in Australia).

Trade Nation Single Currency CFD Trading

Trade Nation are one of the first in the world to offer this unique product. The benefits of single currency CFDs include:

• No converting profit or loss from a foreign currency to your base currency;
• No swap or currency conversion fees; and
• Traders know their exact dollar risk amount in their base currency without performing additional calculations.

To enable Single Currency CFDs, simply go to your Account Summary section and add an account type. Select TN Trader Single Currency Trading. It really is this easy!

Trade Nation AU Electronic trading platform

Trade Nation AU offers four excellent platforms for Forex and CFD traders… the incredibly easy-to-use TN Trader, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and TradingView. For Copy trading, they offer the TradeCopier platform.

TN Trader CFD Platform

TN Trader is Trade Nation’s easy-to-use, web-based (with mobile app) CFD trading platform, and it is compatible with TradingView charts (so you can trade directly from TradingView charts with this account).

This account offers very tight fixed spreads, 24/5 over all of their Index, Forex, Commodities, Stocks and Cryptocurrency CFDs.

Single Currency CFDs are also available on this account, if you wish to activate this option.

Overall, this is an incredibly easy-to-use web-based platform that comes with mobile apps, TradingView charts, institutionally tight fixed spreads and no commission fees.

MT4 Trading Platform

TradeNation second platform is MetaTrader 4 (MT4), arguably the world’s most popular trading platform.
Their offering comes with a comprehensive set of features, including Expert Advisors (EAs).

Tight variable spreads are combined with incredibly low commission of $1.50 per side (for a full lot) across foreign exchange, commodities and indices.

TradingView

In 2024, Trade Nation commenced its partnership with TradingView – the world’s leading charting and social trading platform.

The robust and easy-to-use TradingView platform is designed for both beginners and experienced traders to access real-time data and share trading ideas.

TradingView is used by over 60 million traders worldwide and is an excellent addition to the range of trading platforms they offer.

Markets to Trade

Trade Nation’s great range of CFD instruments includes:

Forex (Foreign Exchange)

30+ Currency pairs, including all major pairs and a large selection of minor currencies.

See the table below for full details…

Indices

41 Global stock indices (Cash and Futures) including:

• Australia 200 (SPI Direct Future and Rolling Cash)
• Dollar Index
• Europe 50
• France 40
• Germany 30
• Hong Kong 50
• Japan 225
• South Africa 40
• Spain 35
• Switzerland 20
• UK 100
• US 500
• US 2000
• US Tech 100
• Wall Street 30
• Volatility Index (VIXX)

See the table below for a full list of Global Index CFDs available…

Metals and Commodities

• 7 Metals;
• 5 Energy CFDs – including Brent Crude (Spot and Futures), US Light Crude (Spot and Futures) and Natural Gas;
• 8 Soft Commodities;

Bonds

• BOBL – Future
• BUND – Future
• UK LONG GILT – Future
• US T-NOTE 10 YEAR – Future

Shares

• Huge number of Share CFDs from Australia and global Stock exchanges. This includes ALL Australian and European shares, plus all shares in the UK 100 and US and US Minis share CFD.

Cryptocurrency

• 9 Cryptocurrency CFDs – Trade Nation Cryptocurrency offerings include Bitcoin, Cardano, Dash, EOS, Ether (Ethereum), Litecoin, NEO, Stella and TRON. These crypto CFDs are all based on the rolling spot price.
  Trading is offered with no commission and margin requirement of 30%. However, as always I advise you to fully understand the high risks of combining both leverage and the volatility of the crypto / blockchain markets before trading Cryptocurrency CFDs.

Trade Nation Account Funding Options

• Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) via Bank
• Debit and Credit card (Visa and MasterCard)
• POLi
• Skrill (Visa and Mastercard)
• International Bank Transfers

Trade Nation do not charge any internal fees for Domestic Bank Transfers. However, please note that International Bank Transfers may attract a fee up to $20 from TradeNation broker.

Trading Education Offered

When reviewing the educational content offered, there is load of material in the LEARN section of their site, with a Knowledge base hosting e-books, trading articles etc; plus a Market analysis section.

Broker Awards

In addition, our review found that Trade Nation has been recognised for excellence in their trading platform, fees and technology. Some of these recent awards include:

• Best in class – Ease of use 2025 Award – ForexBrokers
• Best in class – Commission and Fees 2025 Award – ForexBrokers
• Best Trading Platform 2024 – Global Forex
• Most Reliable Tech 2024 – TradingView

Trade Nation Review Summary

The review of Trade Nation Australia (formerly TradeDirect365) has shown that they are a strong challenger brand to the established CFD providers, offering Australian Contract for difference (CFD) traders a better choice, lower costs, and more efficient CFD trading.

They are the stand-out, lowest fixed spread Forex & CFD brokerage firm in Australia.

In an industry where obscure fees (eg inactivity fees), exorbitant overnight raising of margin requirements and manipulation of prices can be the norm, Trade Nation is certainly one that bucks the trend!     

Why consider Trade Nation for CFD Trading?

Trade Nation AU hold all client funds on trust with Westpac (a tier 1 AA rated Australian bank), on a fully segregated basis and does not use client funds for hedging purposes.

Transparent cost with 24 hour fixed spreads – which means that whatever the CFD market is doing, your bid-ask spreads don’t change.

MT4 platform option now available with institutional FX spreads and some of the lowest European index spreads available anywhere! This is a fantastic feature mix and is certainly cheaper than their competitors (those trading the DAX and FTSE index MUST check out Trade Nation’s fixed spread rates on these very popular indices).

The TN Trader web trading platform was designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind, while not losing functionality.

Opening a trading account with Trade Nation is very easy. It literally takes a couple of minutes, and they won’t make you jump through a whole lot of hoops to do it. Opening a demo account is simply 1 click, it couldn’t be any easier.

No minimum amount required to open an account

Licensed CFD and FOREX broker in Australia. Trade Nation is a trading name of Trade Nation Australia Pty Ltd, a financial services company registered in Australia under ACN 158 065 635, which is authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), with Australian financial services licence (AFSL) number 422661. Their offices are located in Sydney, Australia.

 

Standout Pricing & Features

Trade Nation offers an excellent range of features, both in terms of price and trading options, for ASX CFD, Forex, and Index traders.

• Lowest ASX share CFD commission at only $5 or just 0.07% once trade value above $7,150
  This is 30% cheaper than IG Markets, which is listed as Australia’s largest CFD provider
• ALL listed ASX share CFDs (over 500) can be traded short.
• Lower margin requirements on all ASX CFDS starting from just 5% and the highest margin rate at only 30%.
• ASX Data fee is AU$27.50 per calendar month. This data fee is fully rebated if you make 4 single leg trades (or 2 round turn trades) on any ASX share CFD within a calendar month.
• Web platform has tight 24hr fixed spreads, with NO commission, on FOREX (eg fixed 0.4 pip AUD/USD)
• Some of the best spreads I’ve ever seen on a variety of instruments, such as Germany 40 fixed at 0.9 point, UK 100 fixed at 0.6 point and, FX ECN spreads from 0.1 pip with a commission of just 30 cents per mini contract ($10,000) or $3 per full size FX contract ($100,000)! Micro lots also available.