The Verdict
Admiral Markets has been around for a while but it's traditionally been centred on the CFD market. However, it is now switching focus towards those wanting to invest for the longer term too. It's not quite the full package for investors yet, but it could be right for those wanting to combine investing and trading who are simply looking for a well-priced
General investment account (GIA) is an account designed to provide access to investments. You may be liable for tax on any income or capital gains earned within a general investment account but this can be a useful vehicle for anyone who has maxed out their ISA allowancegeneral investment account
.
Admiral Markets does bill itself as beginner friendly. I'm not sure I'd say beginner friendly is accurate when I compare this platform with others that are specifically targeted at those new to investing. There's still quite a lot to grapple with here, and probably too much for absolute beginners unless you're prepared for a very steep learning curve. I'd also say it's still heavily weighted towards those wanting to trade rather than investors, as there's none of the tax-efficient wrappers that investors need to make the most of their money when investing for the longer-term; there's no
Sometimes called an investment ISA, a stocks and shares ISA is an individual savings account that allows you to invest in shares, unit trusts, investment funds, and bonds. You will not need to pay tax on any income or capital gains earned on investments within an ISAstocks and shares ISA
,
Junior ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) (JISAs) are tax-free savings accounts for children under the age of 18. Only a parent can open a JISA but anyone can contribute. You can choose to save for your children through either a cash Junior ISA where you will earn interest on any cash in the account, or a stocks and shares Junior ISA where you will invest your child’s savings on their behalfJunior ISA
,
Lifetime ISAs (Individual Savings Accounts) (LISAs) are designed to help you save for your first home or retirement and come with an automatic 25% government bonus on all contributions up to the value of £4,000. There are stocks and shares LISAs - where you invest your savings - and cash LISAs - where you earn interest on your savings. You must be between 18 and 40 to open a LISA and all income, capital gains and interest earned within LISAs is tax-free, although these funds can only be used to purchase your first home or for retirement. Ensure you are familiar with the rules surrounding this account before utilising itLifetime ISA
or
A self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is a type of private pension that allows you to control the specific investments that make up your pension fundSIPP
at present.
There are also no ready-made portfolios, meaning you need to be confident enough to select and manage your own investment assets with this platform, as there's no option to pay a professional to do it on your behalf.
You'll get access to over 8,000 tradable instruments.
Saxo Markets are still market leaders here, with over 35,000 tradable instruments, but it's a decent selection that includes 4,500 stocks real stocks and 200 ETFs as well as a large selection of currency pairs and share, bond and cryptocurrency CFDs, as well as indices and commodities.
Compare that to the 17,000+ stocks available on
Interactive Brokers, and you can see the selection isn't as extensive as it's possible to find elsewhere. However, you'll find all the most commonly traded assets from the UK, US and other global markets. And Admiral Markets allows
Fractional shares are portions of shares (or ETFs) that are smaller than one whole share. They are designed to make ownership of large, expensive shares more accessible. fractional shares
to be bought and sold, meaning you can trade with as little as 1/100 of an asset’s full share or unit price - great for those with smaller budgets.
If you're an advanced trader, you'll find an excellent range of pro trading tools including MetaTrading Supreme Edition, and StereoTrader. It also offers virtual private servers and parallels, so you can take advantage of one of the MT4 and MT5 trading platforms if you use a macOS device.
On price, Admiral Markets isn't as cheap as some of the 'commission-free' platforms such as
Freetrade and
Trading 212. However, you're still getting tight spreads, low commissions, and a nice, low currency conversion fee of just 0.3% so it is possible trade cheaply. I should also stress that Admiral Markets is offering something different from the likes of Trading 212 and Freetrade, in that you're getting a more advanced platform offering, more sophisticated tools and faster execution times, and a much higher standard of customer service.
One thing that's slightly off-putting is that some of the website needs updating. The "latest" awards are all from 2019/2020, and their key facts and figures page is also from 2019. But customer service is excellent - in fact, it's one of the most attentive customer service teams I've come across in a while. If you're happy to invest within a general investment account (rather than an ISA or pension account) then there is plenty to like about Admiral Markets.
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Pros
- Trade with MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5
- Separate investment platform for longer term investors
- Fractional shares available
- Excellent research tools and trader education
- Fast execution times
- Low FX fees
- No annual account fees
- Low cost for investing in UK stocks/ETFs
- Attentive, reliable customer service team
- Easy to set-up, free demo account
- Low minimum trade: £1
Cons
- No stocks and shares ISA
- No personal pension product
- No mutual funds
- No ready-made portfolios
- Choice of stocks and ETFs is not as large as you'll find at some competitors
- No interest paid on uninvested cash
- Education is weighted towards traders with not much for investors
- Not easy to understand fees if you're an investor
Fees
As an investor, I found it hard to work out what my costs would be on Admiral Markets. There is no simple list of account fees, trading fees and/or commission for trading if you're an investor. Customer service seemed to be similarly confused when I asked for this, too.
To be fair, this is often the case when investing on a platform that's been set up for traders: it's rare to get the same simple messaging as investment-focused platforms because trading platforms are also offering more complex instruments with more complex pricing structures. My ideal solution would be a separate, simple pricing structure for those who wish to invest in stocks/EFTs/funds, that lays out clearly the only costs you need to know about if you don't (yet) intend to get involved with leverage, CFDs, forex, and so on. The trading platform XTB does this well.
That said, Admiral Markets does come out as a very low-cost platform in certain circumstances if you're an investor and trading costs are also competitive. There are no annual account fees to pay. You'll also get one commission-free trade per day as an investor. After that, you'll need to check the specific asset for the commission that is applied, but it's generally very low - 0.1% - 0.15% of the trade value. There are commission fee minimums - £1 on all those I tested. If you find your commission value raised to £1 on a low-value trade, however, that's still less than you'd pay with many other investment providers. It's a flat fee of £5.00 per trade at AJ Bell, for example, and £11.95 per trade at Hargreaves Lansdown.
If you buy a non-UK asset, you'll also need to factor in a currency conversion fee (FX fee). The 0.3% fee that Admiral Markets charges for currency conversion is one of the lowest FX fees in the UK market. That's a real plus for those wanting to buy and sell non-GBP assets.
If you want to trade more complex instruments, spreads and commissions are not the lowest in the market, but are typically competitive.
For additional analysis of fees and how Admiral Markets compares to other platforms, click 'read more' below.
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Pros
- No annual account fees
- One commission-free trade per day
- Commission for buying/selling stocks is low
- Tight spreads and competitive commissions for traders
- Excellent, low 0.3% currency conversion fee
- Can be exceptionally cheap for investing in UK stocks
- Fractional shares available
Cons
- It's possible to find other providers who are cheaper
- No interest paid on uninvested cash
- Minimum deposit is £250
Trading Platform
In the online portal, it's simple to carry out most account management functions and you can also get real-time market news, technical analysis, global sentiment and access to tools such as an investment calculator within the portal. So there's plenty to get your teeth into.
You have the option to choose to 'Invest' or 'Trade' within the Admiral Markets portal. And this is also where you can download or use the browser to trade in MetaTrader 4 or 5. Investors might find that they are not sure where to turn with so many options, however. The simplest option if your aim is long-term investing, is the 'Invest' interface.
When it comes to trading, Admiral Markets clients have access to an impressive range of trading interfaces and tools - something that will benefit advanced traders the most. On offer is some of the most sophisticated trading and investing software available on the market, with a choice of MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms, and powerful add-ons such as MetaTrader Supreme Edition and StereoTrader.
There are some nice features such as news sentiment scores, potential upsides and analyst ratings within the stock screener page, so no need to use a third party provider for your stock analysis. You get reliability too with Admiral Markets as it's a Straight Through Processing (STP) provider, meaning ultra-fast market execution.
And if you want to 'try before you buy', it's easy to set up a demo account which comes with EUR 50,000 of funds. You'll only get 30 days initially to use this demo account however, although I was told this trial period can be extended if you make a request through your account manager. Both MetaTrader 4 and 5 are available in the demo account so it's a good way to familiarise yourself with MetaTrader without risking real funds if it's something you've not used before. One note though, the demo account doesn't give you all the features of a live account, and you won't get live pricing on stocks, so it's not a perfect replication.
Pros
- Admiral Markets 'Invest' platform
- MetaTrader 4 and 5
- Desktop, browser and mobile app trading options
- Real-time news, investor sentiment and analyst ratings all within page
- Consistent and reliable trading experiences
- MetaTrader 4 and 5 can both be tested in a free demo account
- Ultra-fast trade execution times
- Clear design and good user experience
- Negative balance protection policy for peace of mind
Cons
- The number of options available could feel confusing for investing beginners
- 15 minute delay on stocks pricing in demo account and some other features disabled
Account Opening
Opening an account with Admiral Markets is straightforward and can be done entirely online.
Depositing funds is free. Admiral Markets does not allow direct cash transfers to and from bank accounts so you will need to use one of the other accepted methods instead. They include bank wire transfers, Paypal, and Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards, however, so there are still plenty of options. You can even deposit via Klarna, although exercise caution using credit to fund your investing as investing involves risk, including the risk that you may lose your initial deposit and have no means of making credit repayments.
Users report that withdrawals are usually completed quickly and easily without problems. You get one free withdrawal per month, which is great. However, fees for any other withdrawals after that are pretty steep at £10 per request if you want a bank wire transfer or 1% of the request value (£1 minimum) if you use any other method.
Pros
- One fee-free withdrawal of funds per month
- Can deposit funds into your account via bank transfer, debit/credit card, PayPal and Klarna
- Can fund your account in a choice of base currencies (EUR, USD, GBP, CHF)
- £1 minimum deposit to invest (£250 min to trade)
Cons
- Cannot fund your account with a cash deposit from a bank
- After one free withdrawal per month, you'll be charged £10 / 1% fee (dependent on withdrawal method)
- Using credit to fund trading is very risky
Research
One of the benefits of investing on a platform originally built for traders is that you will get access to a top tier range research tools and features, if you want to use them. In the Invest platform on Admiral Markets, you'll get past performance data, charting tools, analysis, a range of metrics and fundamentals plus in-screen market sentiment and analyst forecast ratings.
However, you can also access MetaTrader 4/5 where you'll have at your disposal dozens of technical analysis tools such as indicators which help identify potential price patterns and signals.
Pros
- Stock screener
- Customisable charts
- Analyst ratings and forecasts
- Stock/ETF past performance data
- Economic calendar
- Access to MetaTrader 4/5 with top tier research and analysis tools
Cons
- Not suited to absolute investing beginners
Safety
Admiral Markets has a global presence, with clients in over 100 countries, and it has been around for a while (since 2001 - it has been operating in the UK market since 2012), so it has proved itself a reliable platform over many years.
It is regulated in various countries around the world, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) here in the UK. Clients are also afforded Financial Services Compensation Scheme protection for up to £85,000 per account holder on eligible deposits.
Admiral Markets also promises that client funds are always available to them and are held in the most reputable Tier 1 banks in segregated accounts separately from their own company funds, in accordance with FCA rules. This ensures that clients’ funds are identifiable and available at all times and cannot be used by Admiral Markets for any purpose, or to pay back general creditors of the firm, if the company becomes insolvent.
Pros
- Authorised and regulated by the FCA
- FSCS protected
- Two-factor authentication used for additional account security
- Separation of client and company funds
Education
Education for traders is excellent. Admiral Markets provides learning opportunities via curated online courses, seminars, webinars, trading podcasts, Ebooks, video tutorials and educational articles. You can also keep up-to-date with daily investment news and analysis.
More is needed for investors, however, as there's nowhere near as much on the topics that are likely to be relevant to investors such as the tax benefits of ISAs, investing for retirement, or long-term investment strategies, as there currently is for day traders. Some of the terminology used on the site needs to be simplified for investors, too. For example, pricing in 'GBX' rather than writing the amount in pence, is confusing if you're an investor and you're not familiar with trading abbreviations.
Pros
- Online trading courses
- Trading podcasts
- Investment calculator, compound interest calculator, and ISA calculator
Cons
- Education specifically aimed at investors is lacking
- Trading terminology is confusing for new investors
Customer Service
There are three ways to contact Admiral Markets if you need help: telephone, email or live chat. If you're a customer, you can also contact customer support from within your client dashboard.
Via telephone, I found a very attentive customer service department and, in fact, not long after registering for my demo account, I received a phone from them asking if I had any questions and checking that I understood trading risks, which was impressive. There was no hard sell, and I was given an account manager should I have any further questions. My account manager was great, replying to any questions I emailed immediately.
I tried the live chat for an out-of-hours query and was told the AI assistant couldn't answer my question so had to wait until the following day for a human to come back with an answer. I received a satisfactory and comprehensive reply, however, within four business hours.
When I checked customer review sites, my experience seemed commonplace. Admiral Group has a 'Great' rating on Trustpilot, with 77% of customers giving it a 5-star rating at the time of my review.
All platforms have some unhappy customers, but Admiral Markets has more enthusiastically positive reviews than I'm used to seeing. The following is an example of customer opinion:
"Admirals is one of the most reliable and consistent brokers in the market today. I have been trading with Admirals for over 3 years now. I have been satisfied with the trading conditions in FX and US indices. Deposit and withdrawal procedures are streamlined and very easy and quick. Trading execution, spreads, price quotes and stability has been very good. They assigned an account manager who has been amazing and always ready to help out. They provide useful tools from fundamentals to market updates on a daily basis. I highly recommend this broker for its very good performance."
Pros
- Attentive customer service
- Available by phone, email and live chat
- Account manager assigned to all customers providing a direct line for queries
- 'Great' rating on Trustpilot
Cons
- No weekend phone/email support
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Disclosure 
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Verdict 
Fees: 
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Trading Platform: 
Account Opening: 
Research: 
Safety: 
Education: 
Customer Service: 
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