The LSE Directory / CFD and forex brokers
ActivTrades is a London headquartered online brokerage offering trading in forex and contracts for difference (CFDs) across global stocks, ETFs, indices, commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies, plus spread betting for UK resident clients. Clients execute through the firm's own ActivTrader platform, or through MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and TradingView, across a stated range of more than 1,500 tradable instruments. It added CFDs on major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple in December 2017, and offers leveraged trading with negative balance protection underwritten by Lloyd's of London syndicates. The firm operates as an independent CFD and forex specialist rather than a diversified investment bank, and competes chiefly on platform choice and direct regulatory reach: it runs its own proprietary platform, ActivTrader, alongside MetaTrader and TradingView, so clients are not tied to a single interface. Rather than expanding mainly through white label partners, ActivTrades has taken out its own licenses region by region, giving it direct standing under the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, Portugal's CMVM, Brazil's central bank and CVM, the Securities Commission of the Bahamas, and, since November 2024, Mauritius's Financial Services Commission. That license by license approach lets it target retail and professional traders across Europe (notably Italy and Germany), Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with client support offered in more than a dozen languages and additional client money insurance layered on top of statutory schemes such as the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme. ActivTrades was founded in 2001 in Switzerland by Alex Pusco, who remains the company's founder and chief executive; it relocated its headquarters to London in 2005. It added MetaTrader 4 in 2007 and CFDs on indices and commodities in 2008, then opened international offices in Milan in 2011 and Sofia, Bulgaria in 2012, the latter now its largest office outside London and the hub for its technical development staff. The company states it serves more than 100,000 clients across roughly 170 countries. In 2011 the FCA fined the firm 85,750 pounds for failing to adequately segregate client funds, a finding that predates its current multi-jurisdiction license structure. In November 2024 ActivTrades obtained its fifth regulatory license, from Mauritius's Financial Services Commission, and appointed Matteo Paganini, previously the group's chief compliance officer, as chief executive of the new Mauritius entity to pursue expansion into African and Asian markets.
