CityIndex

Founded in 1983 in London, CityIndex maintains regulation from multiple top-tier regulators, including the UK’s FCA, ASIC of Australia, and the MAS of Singapore. CityIndex is also owned by StoneX, a Fortune-100 NASDAQ-listed company, further burnishing its credentials as a safe broker. 

Additionally, in line with regulation, all client funds are segregated from CityIndex’s operating capital, it provides traders with negative balance protection, and client funds are insured by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), compensating traders with up to 85,000 EUR in the event of liquidation.  On this basis, we consider CityIndex a safe broker for South African clients to trade with.

The account opening process at CityIndex is fast, fully digital, and hassle-free.

South African traders are eligible to open an account at CityIndex but have to follow the four-step account opening process.  CityIndex offers individual, joint, and corporate accounts, but we will focus on opening an individual account.

How to open an account at CityIndex:

1. Traders should click on the ‘Create Account’ button.

2. Traders will be directed to fill in their personal details, including name, surname, email, physical address, and date of birth. They will also be required to choose a username and password.

3. Traders will then have to detail their address details and place of birth.

4. The third step requires filling in your employment status, financial details, and trading experience.

5. The last step requires agreeing to CityIndex’s terms and conditions and verifying your identity. CityIndex requires two documents to complete your online application:

   1. Proof of Address:
      • Bank statement
      • Credit card statement
      • Utility bill such as gas, water, electric, cable, or phone. If the utility bill is in the name of a landlord, also provide a rental or lease agreement.
        
        
   2. Proof of Identity:
      • Driver’s licence
      • Machine-readable passport
      • National ID

We suggest you read CityIndex’s risk disclosure, customer agreement, and terms of business before you start trading.

Once your documents have been verified by the customer support team, you can log in and fund your account.

Compared to other similar brokers, CityIndex’s account opening process is fast, generally hassle-free, and fully digital. 

CityIndex offers over 4700 CFD trading instruments including Forex pairs, metals, indices, share CFDs, commodities, bonds, and interest rates.

While some traders will be disappointed that CityIndex does not offer crypto CFDs in South Africa, the range and depth of assets available to trade are impressive and much more than is normally seen at other similar brokers.

The trading costs on CityIndex’s live account are 5 USD, which is significantly lower than other brokers, but this is based on the minimum spread. The spread at CityIndex is variable and gets wider or tighter depending on trade volume and market volatility. 

Swap Fees

The daily financing fee will be applied to your account each day that you hold an open position (including weekend days). Financing is applied at 17:45 each day for most markets. 

CityIndex’s swap fees are based on the Interest rate benchmark plus a fee of 2.5% on a long position, and the interest rate benchmark minus a fee of 2.5% on a short position.

Unfortunately, CityIndex does not publish the swap fees on its website.

With a single registration, CityIndex clients can open both a real and a demo account, and trading is offered on CityIndex’s proprietary web trader platform and MT4. 

CityIndex’s account is suited to both beginners and more experienced traders.

Demo Account

Unfortunately, the demo account at City Index has a 12-week limit –  an unusual choice for a large broker –  and only comes with 20,000 AUD/10,000 GBP of virtual money, though we imagine the customer support team would increase this limit if it was requested. Traders can practice trading on both the MT4 and web trader platforms.

Otherwise, CityIndex’s demo account has all of the features and platform choices of the live account and is a good way to learn more about City Index as a broker.

Live Account

The live account has no minimum deposit and spreads are better than most market makers – from 0.50 pips, averaging at 0.8 pips on major pairs. 

Professional Account

Experienced traders who meet the criteria can qualify for access to higher leverage (up to 400:1) and other account features including:

• Reduced Margins: Trade with reduced margin rates and be exempt from product restrictions.
• Priority Service: Support for all your trading needs with a dedicated Client Relationship Manager.
• Loyalty Rewards: Receive exclusive hospitality invitations and rewards to recognise your loyalty.
• Account Protection: Remain eligible for protection from the FSCS and the Financial Ombudsman Service. (However, professional clients can incur losses that exceed deposits, because no negative balance protection is applied).

CityIndex offers support for one app for mobile trading on both  Android and IOS. The app allows traders to manage the accounts on the web trader platform and integrates with MT4. The mobile app features:

• Live TradingView charts, allowing you to plan your next trade with full-screen TradingView charts and 60+ technical indicators.
• Real-time price alerts, allowing traders to stay ahead of every market move with live notifications, updates, and more.
• The creation of personalised watchlists 
• Real-time news from Reuters

City Index offers two platforms – the downloadable MetaTrader 4 – and the browser-based Web Trader.  These platforms have different advantages:

• Web Trader:  This web platform offers great charting tools powered by TradingView and other trading features, but it is limited compared to the downloadable platforms.  The research portal is a nice touch, and something other platforms that are more execution-focused don’t offer. See below for more details on its features:
  • The Web trader offers 360 degree view – a brand new feature with a whole page dedicated to a single instrument. Market Information, charts, news and economic calendar can all be located in one place. 
  • Ten chart types to choose from including Point & Figure & Heikin Ashi
  • A trade ticket accessed from within the chart
  • Display multiple time frames in one chart window
  • Overlay and compare two instruments on one chart
  • 57 technical indicators and studies
  • A huge range of drawing tools and study tools
    
    
• MetaTrader 4:  This is the first choice of platform for CFD traders.  The interface looks dated and it does not offer as much customisation as some advanced traders might like. That said, it is an excellent all-rounder and offers fast trading and advanced charting tools, including Expert Advisors, automated trading support, strategy backtesting, customisable charting, indicators, and copy trading functionality. Other features of MT4 include:
  • The creation, modification, and utilisation of automated trading strategies.
  • Supports MQL4 programming language.
  • Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
  • Allows traders to develop their own custom indicators.
  • Superior charting tools in nine timeframes
  • 24 graphical objects
  • 30 built-in indicators
  • Four pending order types, including buy stop, sell stop, buy limit, and sell limit.

One benefit of brokers offering a third-party platform such as MT4 is that traders can take their own customised versions of these platforms with them should they choose to migrate to another broker.  

A well-regulated CFD provider, CityIndex ensures that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed. As such, all non-profit funds are returned to the original deposit source. No matter your deposit method, the withdrawal of all profits must be made by bank transfer to a bank account in your name.

Deposits and withdrawals can be made securely at CityIndex using major debit cards and credit cards (including Visa, Maestro, and MasterCard), bank wire transfer, and PayPal. CityIndex does not charge deposit or withdrawal fees, and while most deposits are processed instantly, withdrawals can take up to 48 hours.

CityIndex has a very limited number of base currencies compared to other brokers.

At CityIndex, you can only choose from three base currencies: USD, GBP, and EUR. This is extremely limited compared to most other international brokers operating in South Africa.

However, CityIndex does not support accounts denominated in ZAR, which means that traders from South Africa will have to pay conversion fees on all deposits and withdrawals. Conversion fees can make trading expensive, and affect profitability.

In this case, it is better for traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month) to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

CityIndex’s trading tools include technical and fundamental analysis by Trading Central, advanced charting powered by TradingView, Reuter’s News, and SMART Signals.

Trading Central

Trading Central is available to clients who register a live account.  A third-party tool, Trading Central’s professional analysts use the most advanced technical analysis tools in the industry to curate relevant information. This tool essentially supports traders without the technical know-how in making trading decisions.  Trading Central is one of the most popular trading tools available and provides excellent market analysis, and CityIndex does well to offer this service to its clients. 

TradingView

TradingView is free of charge for traders who open a live account.  It is an excellent tool for researching, charting, and screening any instrument.  Additional features of CityIndex’s TradingView tool include:

• 65+ technical indicators
• Over 100,000 custom user-built indicators and scripts
• Synchronised layout for multiple charts

SMART Signals

SMART Signals is an algorithm that automatically monitors 36 major global markets across thousands of price data points to highlight potential trading opportunities. Once it has identified a price pattern which has shown historical success in a given market, it will then show them through the SMART Signals dashboard. Each signal represents a short-term potential trade in 4-, 6-, 8- or 12-hour timeframes and comes complete with an auto-populated trade ticket with suggested take profit and stop-loss levels.  Traders should note that signal trades will not automatically close at the end of the signal period.

Reuter‘s News

Real-time financial news, data, and market reports provided by Reuters are delivered directly into all our trading platforms and apps to keep you up to date with the latest news stories. Reuter’s provides some of the best market analysis materials around, and CityIndex does well to offer this service to its clients. 

CityIndex’s market analysis materials are detailed and well-structured, and much better than what is usually available at other brokers. 

Research and analysis materials at CItyIndex are detailed and well-structured. Financial commentary is split into five sections: Latest Research, Market Insights, Trade Ideas, Week Ahead Report, and an Economic Calendar. Webinars are also conducted frequently.

Under the Market News & Analysis tab, you will find a section devoted to daily research and fundamental analysis of news events. This is updated frequently by a small team of City Index analysts and covers all the asset classes tradeable at City Index. Articles can be filtered by topic, author, and asset class so finding relevant Forex news and analysis is not difficult. 

CityIndex’s market analysis is curated by a team of renowned markets analysts and professional traders that provide 24/5 market news coverage and actionable financial commentary.  Recognised by the global industry community, its Research Team is frequently featured in world-leading publications.

The educational material offered at City Index is good for a broker of its size and type. It provides a wide range of learning materials in both written and video formats. Under the Training tab on the website, you will find three sections:

• Enhance your trading skills: This section links to short, detailed courses for both beginners and more experienced traders on Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis, Trading Strategy and Risk Management – there is also a decent video library covering common Forex topics.
• Trading strategies: This section covers Trading strategies, Optimizing Your Trade Entry, Planning Your Trade Exit, Running Profits, and Options Trading Strategies. It also offers a more in-depth multimedia course called Introduction to Trading, which is useful for beginners who want to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
• Introduction to Trading: This section covers how to trade on CFDs, how to place your first trade, and managing your risk. 
• Webinars: City Index also hosts webinars, though not frequently and you will need to be an active customer in order to register for them. An archive of previous webinars is available on the site. 

They were able to answer our questions without hesitation and provided extra reading material where appropriate. 

Customer support is complemented by an extensive FAQ section covering account management, platform tutorials, funding and withdrawals, financial terms, and the costs of trading.