BCR – Review

cfds.thebcr.com in brief

BCR is a trading name of BCR Co Pty Ltd, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The company provides online trading in currency pairs, commodities, indices, cryptocurrencies, and shares through the industry standard trading terminal – MetaTrader 4 (MT4). The leverage can be up to 1:200 and you can start trading with as low as USD300. Clients should not be concerned with latency and slippage, BCR claims.

Regulation

Things like where and by whom the company is regulated are the first ones you should check. BCR Co Pty Ltd is regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) under company number 1975046 and license number SIBA/L/19/122. The company explains that all client money is segregated from the company money and is held in a segregated bank account. BCR has chosen a Tier 1 international bank to provide our banking and deposit services (BCR does not reveal its name). Keep in mind, however, that the company has only offshore regulation.

Account Types

There are three types of live accounts and the main differences are the offered spread and the minimum required deposit.

Standard account – The minimum required deposit is USD300, spreads are variable and start from 1.7 pips for major currency pairs. Trading is commission free and the leverage can be up to 1:200.

Alpha account – You must invest at least USD500 to open it. Spreads are raw (close to zero) at the expense of a commission of AUD9 / USD8 / GBP6 / EUR7 per round turn. The leverage can be up to 1:200.

Swap-Free account – The minimum required deposit is USD300. Spreads and commissions can be the same as for Standard or Alpha accounts.

Market Maker or STP Brokerage

The Product Guide text shows that BCR acts as the counterparty to every transaction and in the capacity of principal with respect to the client’s transaction. For every transaction BCR may choose to hedge your trade immediately with a liquidity provider or BCR may choose to take the other side of your trade. BCR acts as the market maker. BCR may derive prices from its liquidity providers but the client’s trades may or may not be hedged back to back with the liquidity provider. Being a market maker involves a conflict of interest because when the company executes orders, it keeps the risk to itself. Every loss for customers is a profit for the company.

It is also written that the stop loss order is designed to automatically close some of your open positions at the best available price once a certain price is reached. Please note that your stop loss order may be executed at a price different from the one at which it was originally placed. This means that stop loss orders are not guaranteed and will be filled at the first available market price.

BRC also warns that there are times when, due to an increase in volatility or volume, orders may be subject to slippage. This most commonly occurs during fundamental news events or gapping in underlying markets.

The same document warns that a negative balance may occur when a price gap occurs before a stop out is executed, thus resulting in a negative account balance. BCR reserves the right to pursue these negative balances at its discretion. In other words, you are not covered by the Negative Balance Protection and in the end, you may owe money to this company.

Fees

Apart from all the usual fees, such as spreads and rollovers, the company may charge some other fees. BCR will charge a monthly fee for any accounts which have not had activity for 13 consecutive months. Activity means no new trades placed or rollovers on existing open positions. The monthly inactive account fee is USD10 per calendar month. This means that the first possible account maintenance fee (for inactive accounts) would be debited from your account 13 months from the last activity. This fee will not be applied to accounts whose balance is less than the fee amount. In those cases, BCR will charge the amount which would zero out the balance on the account.

In addition, you will be charged another fee for a dormant account that has had no deposits for opened positions for three (3) months. The fee will be equal to the lesser of 50 units of the currency in which your account is denominated or the remaining balance in your account.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits can be accomplished by bank transfer, credit/debit cards or by e-wallets such as Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, etc. The company does not charge fees on deposits. However, when depositing funds by domestic/international wire, debit/credit cards and/or through a transaction processing service, you may be subject to external charges charged by your bank(s)/intermediary bank(s)/card issuer(s)/payment services provider(s) and/or transaction processing service(s) including but not limited to international transaction fees, currency conversion fees and/or transaction processing fees, BCR warns. The minimum deposit for use of the company’s online system is USD100 / AUD150.

Withdrawals can be made in the same ways as deposits – bank transfer, credit/debit cards or by e-wallets. BCR does not charge a deposit fee, but there is an administrative fee for withdrawing funds from your account. It is USD25 for domestic payments and USD40 for international payments. The company does not charge a fee for Electronic Fund Transfers for Australian residents.

BCR does not charge a fee for credit card deposit or withdrawal transactions. If you do not wish to close your account, you will need to maintain a minimum balance of USD100.

Credit card deposits may require up to 1-2 business days to be credited to your account. Funds deposited via credit card are eligible for withdrawal only after 30 business days from date of deposit.

Trading Platforms

You can trade via the well-known MetaTrader 4 (MT4) terminal. MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is one of the most popular and awarded trading platforms worldwide, applied by over 300 brokerage companies worldwide for their trading services and operations. It is used by millions of traders and investors globally. MT4 allows you to use automated programs called Expert Advisors (EAs), which analyze the markets and trade on your behalf. You can even build your own EAs. The terminal is available as a desktop version and as a mobile application for iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Assets

Currency pairs – 37 major, minor, and exotic currency pairs can be traded. The spread for the major currency pairs starts at 1.7 pip in the Standard account and is close to zero in the Alpha account. The leverage for forex can be up to 1:200.

Indices – You can trade 12 of the major and minor global indices, such as DAX30, ASX200, CAC40, etc. The minimum spread for the DAX30 starts at 2 points.

Commodities – 6 of the most traded commodities are available – Gold, Silver, Oil, Brent, and Natural Gas. The average spread for the Gold is USD0.45 and for the Oil is USD0.056.

Shares – CFDs on 31 global shares can be traded including Apple, Coca Cola, etc. You will be charged a commission of USD20 per 100 traded shares.

Cryptocurrencies – You can trade CFDs on Bitcoin and Ethereum. The average spread for Bitcoin is USD20.

Education

There is a section called Trading Resources where you can find latest market news, some educational materials about the CFDs trading and the platform. A glossary with explanations of financial terms is also available. 

Summary

BCR has only offshore regulation in the British Virgin Islands. It acts as a market maker, so the general conflict of interest exists. You can trade currency pairs, commodities, indices, shares and cryptocurrencies through the MT4 terminal, which can be downloaded for PC and as a mobile app. You can deposit by bank wire, debit/credit cards, and e-wallets. Live trading can be started with as low as USD300. The spreads are variable and the Alpha account offers raw spreads at the expense of a commission for a certain amount.