Comprehensive Octa Review dedicated to traders from South Africa
Octa Review South Africa
Accepts South African Clients
Who is Octa?
Octa is a reputable online broker that offers a compelling experience to South African traders. This broker has over 13 years in the market and offers South Africans access to over 300 different market instruments. On top of that, the broker offers competitive spreads, high leverage, and user-friendly trading platforms.
In South Africa, Octa operates under the regulation of the FSCA, via their local licensed entity called Orinoco. Further, this broker supports a fairly high leverage of up to 1:1000, allowing South African traders to control relatively large positions.
The minimum deposit to start trading with Octa is a relatively low $25 which approximately converts to 454 ZAR at the time of writing this.
Octa Group is Regulated by
FSCA
Financial Sector Conduct Authority, based in South Africa, license number 51913.
MISA
Mwali International Services Authority, based in Mwali, license no T2023320.
CySEC
Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, based in Cyprus, license no 372/18.
Risk warning: Remember that forex and CFDs available at Octa are leveraged products and can result in the loss of your entire capital.
Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.
Pros
Cons
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk.
Your capital is at risk.
01
Trading Instruments on Octa
Octa offers a range of assets across various global markets, providing flexibility to South African traders. On this broker site, investors can trade over 300 different market products in 6 main asset classes. Below is a review of the various market products that South African traders have access to on Octa:
CFD assets on Octa:
- Forex—Octa provides its traders access to 35 highly volatile currency pairs, including seven major currency pairs and 28 others.
- Commodities —This broker also allows South African traders to access a variety of commodities including precious metals such as gold and silver. Other commodities available include energy products like crude oil and natural gas.
- Indices—On Octa, investors can access up to 10 of the most popular indices, including the SPX 500, NAS100, US30, and UK100.
- Stocks—Octa offers South African traders the opportunity to trade over 150 stock CFDs from 16 stock exchanges. These include the stocks of Apple, Tesla, Amazon, and other major companies from the US, UK, Europe, Japan, and even Singapore.
- Cryptocurrencies—Finally, Octa supplies South African traders with CFDs for 34 well-known cryptocurrencies. These include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and more.
Real underlying assets on Octa
- Shares—South African traders can also diversify their portfolios by trading the shares of over 100 different companies.
Available Deposit & Withdrawal Methods
Octa prioritises convenience for South African traders by supporting several payment methods, including:
Supported Platforms by Octa
Octa offers its traders three main trading platforms to use in trading. These include:
OctaTrader
02
A Review of Octa’s Trading Platforms
Given that different traders have different needs, it's always good to see a broker provide a variety of trading platforms. Octa understands this and offers its traders three main trading platforms to use.
These include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and its own OctaTrader.
All these platforms provide traders a seamless trading experience with unique features.
MetaTrader 4 is probably the most popular trading platform in the world. It delivers a user-friendly interface packed with a ton of functionality. On top of that, this trading platform comes with a variety of charting tools, 30 in-built technical indicators, and Expert Advisors for automated trading.
This platform is available for use on various devices, including Windows, macOS, Web, and mobile devices.
For a more advanced trading experience, MetaTrader 5 offers enhanced features and tools, making it an excellent choice.It offers a similarly intuitive graphical user interface, making it easy to adopt.
However, it features more technical analysis tools than MT4, more pending orders, and improved EAs for automated trading. It is also available on all kinds of devices.
Finally, the broker offers its in-house trading platform, OctaTrader. The platform adopts charting technology by TradingView, allowing investors to trade directly from OctaTrader’s charts. Further, this platform offers multiple timeframes and technical indicators, ensuring traders can perform detailed market analysis.
It also features a unique feature called Space. Space is a unique feed with trading ideas and lessons designed by Octa experts to help investors in their journey.
Screenshot taken from the official website of Octa website
Did you know?
Octa exclusively offers deposit bonuses with friendly withdrawal conditions.
03
Octa’s Spreads and Fees
When trading with a broker, understanding the fees involved is essential, as they significantly impact the overall trading experience. Octa delivers some of the lowest spreads available to traders.
It provides three main account options depending on the trading platform, which include OctaTrader, MetaTrader 5, and MetaTrader 4. All three accounts provided by Octa have floating spreads that go as low as 0.6 pips.
On another note, Octa offers trading shares as real underlying assets with a commission charged. The commission for all shares is 15 USD or 0.1% per transaction, whichever is higher. Additionally, the minimum deposit for trading shares is $10,000.
Furthermore, all accounts are swap-free, allowing Muslim traders to use them without the need to open dedicated Islamic trading accounts.
Additionally, Octa has specifically designed its trading environment to be 100% halal, adhering to the three key principles of Sharia-compliant trading: no riba, no maysir, and no gharar.
04
Education Section and Demo Account
Octa invests heavily in trader education, offering a variety of resources tailored to beginners and advanced traders. These include webinars, tutorials, video courses, and articles.
The lessons featured in this education section range from beginner lessons like platform tutorials to more advanced lessons on trading strategies. Additionally, this education section features market analytics with a dedicated segment for market news. A trading hours tool even helps traders monitor the ongoing market sessions.
On another note, Octa provides a free demo account that is valuable to both beginner and experienced traders. For beginners, they provide a risk-free environment to learn the basics of trading, test strategies, and become familiar with trading platforms without the fear of losing real money.
Experienced traders benefit from demo accounts by using them to refine advanced strategies, explore new markets, or test the features of a broker’s platform.
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk.
Your capital is at risk.
05
Octa’s Promos and Bonus
Octa offers its traders promotions and deposit bonuses designed to enhance the trading experience for its clients. These incentives provide traders with additional opportunities to grow their trading capital and explore new strategies.
One notable feature is their 50% Deposit Bonus. This bonus allows traders to boost their trading capital with additional funds proportional to their deposit amount.
There are three main steps to receive the 50% bonus. First, a trader needs to open a real trading account and then make a deposit. After that, traders need to trade the number of lots equivalent to half their trading bonus. For example, a trader who deposits $400 would need to trade at least 100 lots to receive their $200 bonus.
Another stand-out feature of Octa is its trading contests. Octa frequently organizes trading contests with attractive prize pools. The Champion MT4 Demo Contest is a monthly competition that allows participants to trade in a risk-free environment while competing for real monetary prizes.
The total prize in this contest is $1,000 which is shared between the top 5 traders in the contest.
06
Octa Copy (Octa’s Copy Trading)
Octa offers copy trading to traders which allows them to copy expert traders automatically. This can help investors save time they would otherwise use analysing the market and placing trades on their own.
Moreover, beginner traders can learn some strategies from experienced traders, while potentially making a profit.
Octa makes it easy to monitor and assess which traders to follow. Traders can view detailed trading statistics for the copied Master Traders in their Copier Area.
Better yet, they have complete control over the whole process. They can modify each trade they copy as they see fit and stop copying orders anytime.
For Master Traders (strategy providers), Octa Copy provides a system for them to potentially earn an extra income. Master Traders charge a commission to Copiers as they see fit. However, it is important to know that Octa charges a 12% commission to Master Traders for this service.
07
Octa Customer Support
Responsive customer support is very essential in a company that handles people’s money. Luckily, Octa offers its traders multiple channels through which they can contact the support team with queries and concerns.
For starters, Octa provides a live chat feature that is available to traders 24/7. This allows investors to connect with the company for quick resolutions to inquiries.
Alternatively, Octa’s customer support is available to reach via the email support@octafx.com.
This provides traders with a channel for more detailed queries and issues. On another note, Octa maintains a strong social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
This allows them to keep their clients informed about market updates, platform changes, and other relevant news.
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk.
Your capital is at risk.
08
Octa’s Leverage Review
Octa offers its traders the opportunity to control fairly large positions with leverage that goes up to 1:1000. However, leverage on this broker site depends on the asset group a client is trading. Here is a breakdown of the maximum leverage per asset class:
Forex 1:1000
Indices 1:400
Commodities 1:400
Cryptocurrencies 1:200
Stocks 1:40
Shares (No Leverage)
Octa in Head-to-head With South African Leading Competitors
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk.
Your capital is at risk.
Expert's cricital opinion
from the author of this Octa Review
Since its launch in 2011, Octa has grown to be one of the largest forex brokers in the world with over 40 million accounts opened. The broker offers a competitive trading environment for South African traders, combining low costs, advanced platforms, and comprehensive educational resources. Understandably, it is one of the most popular brokers in South Africa.
However, to fully assess the reliability of a broker, it is best to compare it with some other top brokers in the country. In this case, we will compare Octa to AvaTrade and FP Markets.
Firstly, all three brokers are regulated by the FSCA, among other regulators. Holding a license in the country a broker operates helps win the trust of traders. As such, Octa is in good standing in this category. However, Octa stands out for offering South African traders a lower entry point into trading compared to the other two brokers. It has a minimum deposit requirement of just $25, while both AvaTrade and FP Markets require a minimum deposit of $100.
Additionally, Octa features the lowest minimum spreads among the three. Octa has a minimum spread of as low as 0.6 pips, which is highly competitive. AvaTrade is second among the three brokers with a minimum spread of 0.9 pips for major currency pairs. FP Markets follows AvaTrade closely with a minimum spread of 1.0 pips. Further, all three brokers offer top-tier trading platforms as they all feature MT4 and MT5 alongside other platforms.
In terms of market products, FP Markets stands out as the best as it offers the most trading products among the three. AvaTrade is second in this category and Octa follows it. Nonetheless, all three brokers offer great diversity in terms of the global market products covered. On a positive note, Octa offers the highest maximum leverage among the three with a maximum of 1:1000. FP Markets has a maximum leverage of 1:500 while AvaTrade features a maximum leverage of 1:400.
Peter Cook Ndungo
Editor, Senior Broker Analyst
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk.
Your capital is at risk.