low
Market101 is a legally registered forex broker located in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, but not regulated by any government agency.
Market101 accepts clients from all over the world, excluding some countries where restrictions apply.
Forex broker offers the following underlying assets for trading.
| 12 Currency Pairs | Based on major and minor world currencies. |
| 4 Crypto Pairs | Based on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Litecoin. |
| 9 Indice CFDs | Based on baskets of different blue-chip stocks. |
| 2 Metal CFDs | Based on Gold and Silver. |
Market101 is a forex broker that is registered offshore in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a jurisdiction where brokers are not regulated by the government. The broker accepts clients from all over the world, including the United States.
A notable thing about Market101 is that it operates exclusively with crypto-based deposits and withdrawals, which distinguishes it from many other brokers we have reviewed here on FX-List. This is something that is sometimes seen with offshore-registered and unregulated forex brokers, although many of them still offer other options like traditional e-wallets for traders who may not be used to dealing with crypto.
At the time of writing, the cryptocurrencies accepted by Market101 include Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), USD Coin (USDC), and Tether (USDT).
Market101 brands itself as a “true ECN broker,” with ECN being short for electronic communications network. It adds on its website that it uses a “fully automated No Dealing Desk (NDD) execution model.” This means that trading here is based on commissions on all trades and fairly low spreads between buy and sell prices. This is unlike most other forex brokers, which are typically STP (straight-through processing) brokers where traders don't pay commissions but spreads are instead wider.
For Market101 traders, spreads start from 0 pips and commissions start from $3.5 per $100k lot.
One drawback worth noting about Market101 is that the selection of instruments that can be traded is rather small compared to other brokers. With just 12 forex pairs, 4 crypto pairs, a handful of stock indices and precious metals, some traders will definitely miss their favorite assets. For example, a greater selection of forex pairs, as well as at least some single stocks, would have made a difference and perhaps made Market101's offering more attractive to a greater number of traders.
What could still bring in some traders, however, is that the leverage on the trading instruments offered is pretty high with up to 1:500. This is in line with the norm among offshore-registered forex brokers, but still far above what brokers registered in places like Australia or the EU offer these days.
All of the instruments are traded on a platform known as Market101 TradeStation. This is a modern and web-based trading platform that makes trading easy, even for beginners. Still, the platform does offer the advanced functions that more experienced traders would look for, including a range of technical analysis tools and indicators. We also like the charts in the platform, which are dynamic, easy to work with, and offer a range of drawing tools for chart analysis.
For any questions during trading or the sign-up process, Market101's support team can be reached by email or live chat. The broker states on its website that the live chat is staffed by support agents between 9 am and 5 pm CEST (7 am to 3 pm UTC). In most cases, though, contacting support should not be necessary given how extensive the help section of the website is, with FAQ's covering nearly all aspects of trading.
In conclusion, we believe it's worth reminding traders that signing up with unregulated offshore forex brokers does come with certain risks. Among these risks is the potential for bankruptcy, which could lead to a complete loss of customer funds. For those comfortable with these risks, however, there are also some benefits, including high trading leverage and the ability to fund trading accounts with crypto.
