Skilling Review 2021: Fees, Pros and Cons and Features

Established in 2016, Skilling is a new broker in the forex and CFD industry. As we encourage new players in the industry with innovative ideas, we decided to conduct a comprehensive guide about Skilling. If you’re looking to find out everything there is to know about Skilling’s markets, fees, trading platform, regulation and more, then keep reading our full Skilling review.

What is Skilling?

Formerly known as Finovel Cyprus Ltd, Skilling is a forex and CFD broker which was founded in 2016. The broker operates offices in Cyprus, Spain, and Malta and is regulated by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) the FSA.

Skilling offers a good selection of financial products compared to other forex and CFD brokers in the industry. Skilling market selection includes forex, indices, cryptos, stocks, and commodities.

Markets

Score: 7/10

Skilling offers a selection of 800 instruments categorised into forex, indices, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. Comparing to other brokers in the industry, Skilling’s offers a low number of financial assets and markets. 

Take note that stocks and ETF trading is not yet available at Skilling. Here’s the full instruments’ list at Skilling:

• Forex – 73 currency pairs
• Indices – 17 global indices
• Commodities – 5 commodities. Gold, Silver, WTI oil, Brent oil, and Natural gas.
• Cryptocurrencies – 10 crypto coins. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Monero, EOS, DASH, IOTA, and NEO.
• Stocks (shares) – 740 stocks

Special Features

Score:7/10

Skilling provides a lot of information regarding its trading features and services. Here are some of the most basic features Skilling offers traders and investors.

➡️Low Minimum Deposit

The minimum requirement to open an account at Skilling starts at 100 EUR, GBP, USD and 1000 NOK, SEK for the Standard account. The minimum deposit requirement for the premium account, which offers traders low spreads and swaps, starts at 5,000 EUR/USD/GBP or 50,000 SEK/NOK. 

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➡️Customisable Dashboard

Skilling offers a web/desktop trading platform with advanced trading and education customization

➡️Market News Notification

Skilling provides notifications alert as part of its proprietary trading platform. The notification alerts can help traders to receive relevant market news and to get notified about account limitations.

➡️BankID

Customers from Sweden and Norway can register with BankID which is an electronic identification app that prevents the registration process of submitting all required documentation.

Supported Countries

Score: 8/10

We do know that the broker is regulated by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) and FSA and supports all countries apart from the US, Afghanistan, North Korea, Australia and Japan.

We recommend checking with Skilling support their legal status in your country before you open a forex trading account.  

Languages

Score: 9/10

Skilling support is available in 7 different languages:

1. English
2. Swedish
3. German
4. Norwegian
5. Italian
6. Russian
7. Romanian

Trading Platforms

Score: 9/10

Skilling offers a proprietary trading platform available as a web-based platform, desktop and on a mobile device and is compatible on Mac and Windows. Apart from its in-house trading platform, Skilling supports the popular MetaTrader 4. Skilling provides a customizable dashboard including market news, economic calendar, and educational tools. 

Skilling trading platform is enough for basic trading and for experienced traders alike.

Skilling does not offer much information about its trading platform but provides a demo account to test the platform before opening a real trading account. 

Fees and Limits

Score: 7/10

Spreads

Skilling spreads vary depending on the account type, the Standard account or the Premium account. The broker has recently changed its pricing structure. The new spreads are extremely competitive in the industry. For example:

• EUR/USD – from 0.7 pips
• EUR/GBP – from 1.7 pips
• GBP/USD – from 1.3 pips
• USD/JPY – from 1.4 pips
• Germany – from 1.6 pips
• Bitcoin – from $40

Trading fees

The broker advertises on the website that there are no additional trading fees besides a 0.035% nominal value traded fee for Forex and Commodities on the Premium account only. .

Non-Trading fees

The broker states that a 10 EUR fee will be charged if the trader does not log into the platform for 12 months.

Deposit and Withdrawal fees

Neteller/Skrill Fee – The broker states that an additional fee will be charged for withdrawal through Neteller or Skrill. For Neteller, a 2% flat rate of the amount to be withdrawn will be charged and for Skrill, a 2.6% flat rate of the amount to be withdrawn will be charged.

Minimum Deposit

Score: 8/10

One of the advantages of Skilling is the minimum initial deposit requirement which starts at 100 EUR, GBP, USD, and 1000 NOK, SEK for the Standard account. The Pro Premium account is a VIP account and deposit requirements start at 5,000 EUR, GBP, USD, and 50,000 NOK, SEK. Take note that Skilling complies to the ESMA regulation and offers a relatively low leverage ratio of 1:30 for standard accounts, although premium accounts get 1:200.

Account Types

Score: 8/10

Skilling offers two types of account, the Standard account and the Pro Premium account. Here are some differences between the two accounts:

The broker is also offering the cTrader account upon request which shares the same data as the Standard and Premium account, allowing traders to trade through one of the best trading platforms in the market. 

Skilling offers a leverage ratio of 1:30 for both account types based on the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) regulation requirements.

How to Sign Up to Skilling

Opening an account with Skilling is a simple process as there is no need to download the platform, you can trade on your browser. Follow the next steps:

1. Click the sign-up button at the top-right corner of your screen. Fill in your email, password and desired currency.
2. Now you can enter the demo account with 10,000 USD as virtual money. Note that you can finish your registration and start trading the real account or complete your registration process at a later time.
3. Once you are ready to deposit funds you can click the deposit button and transfer funds via one of Skilling payment methods.
4. Now, you have to submit all the required documentation.  For those who are located in Sweden or Norway you can register with BankID (desktop and mobile). Otherwise, you need to submit identification documents.
5. Start trading

How to Configure Your Skilling Account

Skilling offers only one trading platform, its in-house platform. once you registered and logged in to the dashboard, you can start setting up your all the necessary tools. Skilling provides the Trade Assistant feature which is a simple guide to help you place your first trade.

Skilling trading platform is easy-to-use and all you have to do before you start trading is setting up your preferred watchlist (choose the custom watchlist), set up the trading charts with candlesticks and insert technical indicators.

Next, you have to learn the order box and how to insert an order to buy/sell as well as to insert a stop-loss/take-profit orders.

Remember that you can use Skilling demo account before you open a live account. It’s important you test the platform before you use it in the real market as Skilling trading platform is an in-house development.

Security and Regulation

Score: 7/10

Regulation

Skilling is regulated by one regulator in Cyprus, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) which allows the broker to operate in many European countries. According to CyCES website, the broker is indeed regulated. In addition, the broker allows traders leverage of 1:30 which implies that Skilling complies with the European Securities and Markets Authority(ESMA).

Skilling is also regulated by the FSA (Seychelles).

Skilling is a regulated forex and CFD, however, you must check the regulation in your area and the protection liability for traders. 

Security

In terms of security features, Skilling does mention on its website any security features that might protect traders. Take note that most brokers offer security tools to protect traders’ account.

Deposit and Withdrawal Process

Score : 7/10

Payment options

Funding your Skilling trading account can be made anytime by clicking the deposit button. First, you need to submit all the documentation. Skilling offers several methods to fund your account with no fee charge. Those include: 

Credit card – Visa and MasterCard.

Electronic payments – Neteller, Skrill, Trustly, Klarna and Swish.

Wire transfer – SEB and the bank of Cyprus

Withdrawal process

Skilling allows traders one free withdrawal per month. The minimum amount you can withdraw is €50. Based on information on Skilling’s website, all payment methods are valid to withdraw your funds.

Education and resources

Score: 9/10

Skilling offers a trading academy in the trading platform dashboard which includes six different online trading courses: About the markets (5 lessons), trading basics (16 lessons), fundamental analysis (2 lessons), technical analysis basics (7 lessons), technical analysis intermediate (15 lessons), technical analysis advanced (7 lessons). Note that you can use Skilling education material without the requirement of opening a live account.

Customer Service

Score: 7/10

Skilling support desk is available via email, phone, and live chat on fixed hours. The support desk is available Monday to Friday, between 7 am – 9 pm CET which might be a problem for those who trade on different hours.  The live chat representatives respond quickly and provide answers and assistance. 

Mobile App

Score: 9/10

Skilling offers traders an easy-to-use trading platform from your mobile device (Android, Windows and iOs devices). However, Skilling does not offer a mobile app, only a web-based platform which can be an obstacle for some traders. 

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

Skilling is a new European broker regulated by CySEC and FSA which has developed a user-friendly trading platform and support a substantial amount of financial products. The broker provides a simple sign-up, live chat and easy-to-use mobile app.

It’s also compatible with MetaTrader 4 platform (MT4), which is what almost 80% of forex brokers use because of its rich functionality, which is another bonus.

FAQs

A-Z of Forex Brokers