IkkoTrader Review
| Broker | IkkoTrader |
|---|---|
| US Traders Accepted | |
| Company Name | GEOtradex |
| Headquarters | Nicosia, Cyprus |
| Regulation | No |
| Bonus Type | Match bonus |
| Bonus Size | 90% |
| Max Payout | 85% |
| Out-of-Money Reward | 10% |
| Trading Platform | SpotOption |
| Deposit Options | Credit/debit cards, wire transfer, CashU |
| Deposit Currencies | US Dollar, British Pound, Euro |
| Minimum Deposit | $200 |
| Minimum Trade | $5 |
| Maximum Trade | $1,500 |
| Online Since | 2009 |
| Trading Instruments | Currencies, commodities, stocks, indices. |
| Number of Trading Instruments | 55 |
| Binary Option Types | Call/Put, Options Builder, One Touch, 60 Seconds |
| Customer Support Types | Live chat, telephone, email |
| Education Offered | Glossary, FAQ, basic how-to pages |
| Tools Offered | Double up, rollover, analysis via phone or email for Gold, Black or Infinity account holders |
| Commission | $25 withdrawal fee on wire transfer. The minimum withdrawal amount is $100. |
| Awards | Award of the Best Broker of Binary Options 2011 by Forex Pour Elle |
| Languages | English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, German, Portugeuse |
| Demo Account | No |
IkkoTrader ceased operating as a binary option broker. It is out of business now. The review presented here is no longer applicable.
IkkoTrader is a binary options website which has been operating since 2009. We’ve found several different company names listed for the site, implying it has changed hands at least a few times. The most likely owner at this time is ChargeXP Investments Ltd., a Nicosia, Cyprus-based company which owns many binary options websites. We’ve sent an email to confirm this and will append to this review once there is a confirmation. IkkoTrader, like most ChargeXP sites, takes USA traders, and features are otherwise quite similar to other sites owned by the company. Unlike some other ChargeXP sites, this one does offer mobile trading.
Opening Your Account on IkkoTrader
When you get started with IkkoTrader, you can register for free and then deposit money when you’re ready. There is no demo account or any free trial offer, so when you deposit, you’ll need to be ready to trade live. The three currencies available to you are British Pounds, US Dollars, and Euros, and you can deposit using credit card, wire transfer, or CashU. Please note however that once you deposit, you cannot withdraw less than $100 or equivalent from your account. There is no mention of any fees save for $25 any time you do a withdrawal using wire transfer, so we don’t believe you can access your money at all unless you have that much to withdraw. So use caution when deciding to deposit with this company since your money may get stuck.
The minimum deposit for IkkoTrader is $200 or equivalent. That means if you blow half your account, you may have a hard time withdrawing your remaining money. While there is no demo account, we’re happy to see that if you have an iPhone, you can trade from your mobile device. The platform which the site uses is powered by SpotOption, which is among the most familiar and easy to use trading platforms available to binary options traders.
There are some substantial leverage style bonuses available to new traders. It’s a little hard to find them at first, but look under “Our Trader Packs” on their site and you’ll see the different “Packs,” along with the bonuses you can receive for investing different amounts. You can get a match bonus as high as 90% when you make your initial deposit. You’ll find five different tiers of accounts, labeled Silver, Gold, Gold +, Black, and Infinity. There are benefits which kick in as you deposit more money, including weekly or daily analysis via email, and at the top level daily personal advice via email. Black and Infinity account holders can receive analysis via telephone weekly or at any time, and faster withdrawals are available at higher account levels. There is also interest offered to account holders starting at the Gold level, which is a pretty cool feature we’ve never seen before. It’s nice to see a broker acknowledging that it’s actually borrowing your money when you invest.
Along with these bonuses and benefits, you’ll find a Promotions section on the site which introduces you to the company’s many other promotions. These promotions include seasonal and progressive bonus offers, as well as benefits for spreading the word about the company on Facebook or through other referrals.
Trading Features on IkkoTrader
There are 55 assets you can trade on IkkoTrader, including currencies, commodities, stocks, and indices. There are many ways you can trade. Along with the basic Call/Put binary trades, you can also do One Touch trades or 60 Seconds trades. Options Builder allows you to set your own expiry time. There is a feature called Open Platform which has more advanced graphing than you see on the other displays, but it’s still not ideal for planning trades if you’re a serious professional. For that you’ll want to get some other charting software which gives you more control. Trades start out at $5 for 60 Seconds trades. The maximum trade size is pretty limiting, being only $1,500, so IkkoTrader won’t be suitable for traders who have larger accounts and want to make more money, although rollover and double up are both available to increase the amount of your investment.
Resources and Customer Service
There isn’t much in the way of resources on the website. There is a glossary, FAQ, and some basic how-to pages, but that’s pretty much everything. There is additional market analysis available at the different account tiers, as we discussed before, including advice by phone at any time for Infinity account holders.
As far as getting a hold of customer service, that seems to be a bit challenging. They can be reached via telephone or email, or apparently live chat, but during standard market hours on a weekday, we found the live chat helpdesk unstaffed, so we had to send an email with our questions. There are some information gaps on the website, and in particular it’s difficult to find solid information about the company itself. The Terms and Conditions lists a company which we can’t find any information about anywhere on the net, but the main consensus does seem to be that this is a ChargeXP site.
Do We Recommend IkkoTrader?
As of this point, we do see some promising features on IkkoTrader, but we can’t give them a solid recommendation until the confusion about the company is cleared up. ChargeXP owns a number of trading sites, some better than others. The main appeal of their sites seems to be that they accept USA traders. This site does as well, but it’s good to know exactly who you’re dealing with, and information is sparse and conflicting right now. As far as features go, their maximum trade size limits them to traders with smaller accounts, but they do have some nice bonuses and benefits. There are a lot of promotions which come and go as well as the initial match bonuses. IkkoTrader doesn’t really stand out from other brokers we’ve reviewed however, and you’d probably do better looking into another ChargeXP site like GeoTradex, or a different company altogether.