Kawase Exchange Review | Fondex Review

Our Review Method

• 55Brokers Financial Experts with over 10 years of experience in Forex Trading check trading offerings, fees, platforms, verified regulations, contacted customer service, and placed trades to see trading conditions and give an expert opinion on Fondex

What is Fondex?

Fondex, previously known as Kawase Exchange, is a European online trading broker based in Cyprus which operates inspired by Japanese concepts such as trust, power, determination, flexibility, and simplicity. While Fondex uses years of expertise and regulated license to provide high-performance trading experience combined with the latest technologies.

Generally, TopFX is an international brokerage firm specializing in liquidity provision and regulated institutional brokerage services that began its operation in 2010 (Check TopFX broker review). The retail operation started only 5 years later, while Kawase and than Fondex launched trading in key Asian markets.

Fondex Pros and Cons

Based on our expert findings, Fondex has a good reputation and reviews from traders and is a European broker with Japanese technology. There are Powerful cTrader platform capabilities, Great copy trading options suitable for beginners, Low commission trading fees, and a Single account with transparent conditions.

On the negative side, there is no comprehensive education, no MT4 offered as alternative and Conditions vary according to regulations.

Overall Fondex Ranking

Based on our Expert finds, Fondex is considered a good broker with reliable service and very favorable trading conditions, that are suitable for beginners or experienced traders. The broker is good for technical trading through the cTrader platform with low fees and the lowest spreads. The broker offers an extensive instrument range offering the best conditions for FX and CFD trading.

• Fondex Overall Ranking is 8.1 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to over 500 brokers, see Our Ranking below compared to other industry Leading Brokers.

Fondex Alternative Brokers

However, the broker also has its disadvantages. What we found really upsetting is that the broker doesn’t offer popular MetaTrader platforms and educational resources are rather poor. Also, the broker’s instruments range is limited to FX and CFDs and there’s no 24/7 support. So it is good to check other options as well:

• FP Markets – Bets MT4 Broker
• XM – Good Range of Trading Education
• Interactive Brokers – Real Stock Trading Brokers

Awards

Its successful model of operation and delivery of trading environment has been recognized by numerous rewards and Awards from popular exhibitors or publishers. Also, what we also wanted to highlight is that Fondex clients have voted the company as number one in customer service, value for money, and overall client satisfaction proving Fonex’s good position within the proposals. Here are some of the most remarkable awards Fondex has gained:

Is Fondex safe or scam?

No, Fondex is not scam, it is considered a low-risk Forex trading broker since being headquartered in Cyprus. So traders can be assured that their funds will be safe since due to the regulation the broker has several safety programs.

Is Fondex regulated?

The company is registered under the name TopFX LTD and respectively conducts its business with imposed regulation by CySEC. Previously TopFX used the trading name Kawase and recently was rebranded to Fondex, while still remaining the regulated company also cross-border registered with 25 EU regulators to serve clients within the EEA zone.

Even though the additional entity is located in the offshore zone, recent offshores also created more strict licensing rules, while in addition to ESMA regulations Fondex is considered a safe broker to invest and trade with.

See our conclusion on Fondex Reliability:

• Our Ranked Fondex Trust Score is 8 out 0f 10 for good reputation and service over the years, the broker is highly regulated by reliable regulator ensuring fund safety.  The only point is that it holds an offshore entity as well.

Is Fondex Available In The US?

No, Fondex is not available for US clients. To operate in the US, the broker must be registered and compliant with the local financial regulator of securities (See best US Brokers), since the regulator restricts non-US brokers from trading in the UD.

How are you protected?

The CySEC has multiple requirements, that have also complied with the MiFID directive including capital adequacy, financial reporting to the regulators, and undertaking of a detailed audit, making control over Fondex activity constant and unparalleled.

• Money Protection and client safety are provided in multiple ways also, the traders’ funds are kept in world-leading banks and fully segregated, meaning are separated from the company’s activities along protected by negative balance protection.

In addition, Fondex is also a member of the ICF (Investor Compensation Fund) resolves issues in unlikely events, and compensates investors. Read more about CySEC by the link.

Leverage

Leverage is the mechanism by which you may trade a large amount of money, due to leverage capability to magnify your initial trading size. For example, if your trading account has a 1:30 leverage, assume that you have $1000 in your account, meaning 1:30 leverage allows you to trade a $30,000 position.

Fondex Leverage may magnify your trading exposure, yet the probability of profits or losses increases simultaneously, which makes it essential to learn how to use leverage smartly.

• Retail trader leverage goes to 1:30 for major currencies, 1:20 for minor ones, and 1:10 for commodities.
• Fondex enables you to trade with leverage up to 1:500 for Professional clients
• International traders entitle for 1:500 for major currency pairs

Account types

Fondex does not offer different account types and built its proposal into a Fondex single account to suit different trading styles or volumes with spreads from 0 pips. Also for Muslim traders, there is an option to trade via a Swap-free account.

Fondex Instruments

Based on our findings, Fondex delivers more than 1000 Markets to trade, so international traders gain access to the world’s premier liquidity providers and global exchanges through sources of proprietary aggregator engines with the best possible pricing from tier-1 grade banks. The range of trading markets includes most traded instruments making Fondex FX, Shares, iShares, Powershares ETFs, Indices, Metals, and Commodity Broker.

• Fondex Markets Range Score is 8.3 out 0f 10 for wide trading instrument selection, yet the only gap the broker offers mainly CFDs and Forex Instruments, and availability of assets as well as conditions vary based on entity

Fees

Fondex fees use proprietary price aggregation with the unique identification of the price on interval of more than 50 times per second to identify the lowest available quote for an instrument, thus Fondex spreads are raw with trading charges entirely commission-based. Overall, the broker doesn’t charge deposit-withdrawal fees and has low non-trading fees.

• Fondex Fees are ranked low with an overall rating of 8.4 out of 10 based on our testing and compared to over 500 other brokers. Fees might be different based on entity offering, see our findings of fees and pricing in the table below 

Fondex Spreads

Fondex spreads as mentioned are raw spreads with an additional commission charge of 2.5$ per side and 100k$ traded, which makes it a pretty good choice for active traders and beginners as well. For 100 Shares and ETFs, there is a commission of 1$ per side, which is also very low compared to similar brokers and market proposals.

• Fondex Spreads are ranked low with an overall rating of 8.9 out of 10 based on our testing comparison to other brokers. We found Fondex offering raw spreads for forex majors which is a great plus, especially for beginners and spreads for other instruments are very attractive too. See our table of spreads below in comparison with other brokers in the industry

Fondex rollover

Also, always consider Fondex rollover or overnight fee as a cost, charged on the positions held longer than a day and determined by the direction you trade and is differential between bids. Holding costs are based on many factors and most often positive swaps are paid on buy positions.

The Fondex Swap-free account also offers access to traders of Islamic belief to enter the trading process with no swap charges or spread widening. In order to apply for this account, you should proceed with a form that requires proof of faith to complete the process.

Deposit and Withdrawal Methods

Deposit or withdrawal of funds is directly available from Fondex cTrader which bypasses the client area making it a convenient process, while the transactions will be performed by the desired method.

• Fondex Funding Methods we ranked Excellent with an overall rating of 8.3 out of 10. The broker doesn’t have a minimum deposit requirement, yet Fees are either none or very small also allowing to benefit from various account-based currencies, yet deposit options vary on each entity

Here are some good and negative points for Fondex funding methods found:

Deposit methods

The available methods including

• Card Payments,
• Bank Transfers,
• UnionPay,
• Qiwi,
• WebMoney,
• Skrill,
• Neteller,
• Yandex money.

However, some payment methods are available only in specific countries and will only appear if the deposit window is launched from a specific region.

Is there a Minimum Deposit to start trading with Fondex?

Fondex minimum deposit is 0$, however, the recommended amount that allows you to engage in live trading at the beginning is set to 200 units of your chosen currency USD200, GBP200, etc. Which is a reasonable amount for any size of trader, along with Fondex one account offering with no differences on the account you trade.

Fondex minimum deposit vs other brokers

	Fondex	Most Other Brokers
Minimum Deposit	$0	$500

Withdrawals

Fondex does not charge deposit fees, yet check carefully with your payment provider in case any fees will be waived from their side. However, the withdrawals will incur an additional processing fee that is divided by the payment method, Fondex withdrawal options Cards and Online Transfers will add on a 3% fee, and Bank Wire Transfer costs 0.9% for transfers in Euro.

Trading Platforms

We found that Fondex offers its proprietary trading platform offering truly bank-grade trading conditions along with fast execution through a depth of market and direct connection to banks with its NDD model.

The proprietary platform is actually one of the greatest advantages of Fondex, its previously known Kawase cTrader Broker and now Fondex cTrader was built as a DMA platform with execution always defined by speed and high characteristics directly connected to the market with no bridge technology. Thus you are gaining access to trade on the same level as the institutional clients do, which is of course a fantastic opportunity.

• Fondex Platforms are ranked with an overall rating of 7 out of 10 compared to over 500 other brokers. The broker offers a great proprietary platform with add-ons and sophisticated features as well as offers a cTrader platform for professional technical traders. However, the lack of MetaTrader platforms which are the most popular ones is a major drawback

Trading Platform Comparison to Other Brokers:

Web Platform

The platform delivers extremely unparalleled transparency with a detailed order, deal, and position timeline, live order book values, and 50 fields of position details.

Desktop platform

Fondex cTrader scales to various devices through Desktop, Web, and Mobile versions making the performance accessible to almost everything with Live market sentiment Charting tools, trading history and session info, and on-server trailing stops.

Mirror trading

Furthermore, the cTrader enhances the offering with mirror trading and algorithmic trading through cMirror and cAlgo. Alongside the cMirror was developed to allow mirroring of 1000+ strategies from top traders that increases significantly the possibilities to trade with ease and convenience.

Therefore, you may become either a signal provider and earn a commission or automate your trading positions through a follow of a strategy and all that is available through one account feature.

Can I copy trade with Fondex?

Yes, Fondex allows traders to copy trades through cTrader platform. The platform gives access to hundreds of strategies for more than 600 instruments across 7 asset classes.

Customer Support

What is more, Fondex customer support service proved its proficiency and is among the leading positions, providing multilingual support and fast response with a Live chat option Along with its competitive trading conditions Fondex support team can guide you through the account opening, trading process, and at any stage.

There is an international phone line and email support, so overall Fondex traders are covered with professional service any trader may need, which is definitely a big plus.

• Customer Support in Fondex is ranked Excellent with an overall rating of 9.8 out of 10 based on our testing. We got some of the fastest and most knowledgeable responses compared to other brokers,  the main point is that it isn’t 24/7

See our find and Ranking on Customer Service Quality:

Education

So the last point in our Fondex Review is education materials, and here we saw that broker provides education articles for numerous topics along with Forex News and recent market updates. However, that is all that education is limited for, so if you are a very beginner you better sign in for a good educational course with webinars and seminars through a third-party provider if you still wish to trade with Fondex.

Research tools, yet, are very advanced and at the professional level since Fondex cTrader supports various tools and enlarging capabilities with good analysis features.

• Fondex Education ranked with an overall rating of 8 out of 10 based on our research. The broker provides good educational articles but the resources overall are limited. Yet, it offers highly sophisticated research tools via cTrader platform

Fondex Review Conclusion

The Fondex review presents a company brokerage, previously known as Kawase Exchange which relied on its liquidity provision and institution brokerage expertise to deliver a competitive offering to retail clients. The direct access to the market based on exceptional technology solutions while the proprietary platform connected directly to the Banks generates consistency for active traders with various benefits upon the trading size reach and comprehensive trading tools.

Based on Our findings and Financial Expert Opinion Fondex  is Good for:

• Beginning Traders
• Professional Traders
• Technical Trading
• EAs running
• Copy Trading
• Scalping / Hedging Startegies
• For cTrader Platform
• Currency Trading and CFD Trading
• Suitable for a Variety of Trading Strategies
• CFD Share Trading