Orbex, which was formerly known as AFBFx, was established in 2010 and is based in Limassol, Cyprus. The broker is regulated by CySec and registered with the supervisory bodies in 28 European countries.

Orbex customers can trade on all versions of the MT4 platform. Support is available 24/5 in most major languages. The website is easy to navigate and offers plenty of resources to help traders.

Orbex has won several awards over the years. Most recently it was awarded the FXDailyInfo Best Education Provider award in 2016 and the Best Analysis Provider award at the Saudi Money Expo in 2016.

All client trading is executed on the highly regarded MetaTrader4 (MT4) platform which offers fast execution speeds. Orbex clients can use leverage of up to 1:500 on all accounts.

Clients can enter market orders before or during financial news events but cannot enter stop orders prior to the release of financial news.

Orbex has regular promotional offers. At the time of writing this review, no bonuses were offered, however other value adding services were available to clients opening new accounts. These included access to an idea sharing, a trading system builder, and Trading Central’s trading signals.

Orbex offers four different trading accounts:

· The Classic Account has a minimum deposit of $500 and fixed spreads as low as 1.9 pips. This account cannot be used for scalping.

· The Standard Account offers variable spreads as low as 1.5 pips. The minimum deposit is $500, and this account is suitable for scalping.

· The Premium Account offers variable spreads as low as 1.21 pips. The minimum deposit is $5,000 and this account can also be used for scalping.

· The VIP Account has a minimum deposit of $25,000 and offers variable spreads as low as 0.8 pips.

All of the above accounts have a maximum leverage level of 1:500 and deposits can be made in USD, EUR, PLN, or GBP. No commission is charged on any of the accounts.

New traders should choose the Classic Account with fixed spreads, but constantly monitor the spreads on the variable accounts to get a feel for the amount of variability in pricing.

Swap free accounts that are Sharia compliant are also available to customers wanting to trade using an account that complies with Islamic religious beliefs.

Copy trading accounts are available with the same conditions as a Standard Account and a commission of $10 per trade.

Orbex does not advertise ECN accounts, though it does seem they are available upon request.

Orbex offers trading in CFDs on forex, precious metals, energy products and equity indices. At this stage individual shares are not offered.

In total 36 currency pairs are offered. These include all the major pairs, most minor pairs and a few exotic currency pairs.

CFDs on Gold, Silver and Oil are available. CFDs are also available on the following stock indices: Dow Jones 30, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, Dax 30 and FTSE 100.

Orbex is licenced and regulated as a Cyprus Investment Firm.

The firm’s CySec licence number is 124/10

The firm also falls under the legal framework of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). In addition, Orbex is registered with the supervisory authorities of 28 European countries.

Orbex’s head office is at 82nd Street, No.6, Ground Floor, 4153 Kato Polemidia Limassol, Cyprus.

Orbex offers the MT4 (MetaTrader4) platform in all of the available forms. The MT4 platforms offer a wide range of charting and analytical tools.

The MT4 Client Desktop is the standard trading platform, and the most widely used forex trading terminal in the world. The terminal comes with over 85 preinstalled indicators, as well as functionality to create custom indicators. Users can also create and back test trading strategies.

The MT4 MultiTerminal offers all of the features of the standard terminal, as well as the ability to manage multiple accounts.

MT4 Mac OS Trader allows Apple Mac users to run the same MT4 desktop on their systems. Once downloaded there is no difference between this platform and the one available to windows users.

ORBEX MT4 Web Trader is a browser-based version of the MT4 terminal. This means clients don’t have to download any software to begin trading.

The mobile site is also well laid out and easy to navigate. Customers wanting to trade on mobile devices can download MT4 apps for iOS and android devices. These apps give customers access to all the features available on the desktop platform.

Spreads for the most liquid currency pair, the EURUSD are as low as 1.9 pips for the fixed spread Classic account and go as low as 0.8 for the variable spread VIP account.

When compared to other brokers these spreads are toward the upper end of the range. At the time of writing this review the average spreads were only a little higher than those advertised.

We could find no reports or complaints of spreads widening at any time. ECN account commissions are not advertised on the website.

Orbex offers numerous methods for clients to withdraw and deposit funds.

Deposits can be made using debit and credit cards, Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney, Wire Transfer, Fasapay, K-net Payment Gateway and Zotapay. There are no processing fees for deposits, which generally take from 2 to 4 hours to process. Wire transfers take 3 to 5 business days to process.

Orbex does not charge withdrawals fees, although bank charges may apply to wire transfers. Most withdrawals take up to 24 hours, expect Zotapay, wire transfers and debit/credit cards which take 3 to 5 days.

Customer support is available 24/5 to all customers. Support can be reached by phone, email, call back and the live chat application on the website. The website is available in 14 languages, and support is provided in major languages including English, Arabic, Chinese, German, Greek, Russian and Spanish.

We did find some complaints online regarding customers struggling to reach customer support.

Orbex provides a wide range of excellent educational resources. Regular webinars are produced covering trading indicators and strategies and some news events are covered live. An extensive range of video tutorials is available for those wanting to learn how to use the MT4 platforms.

Customers can download a range of free eBooks covering everything from trading strategies to risk management. There’s also a wide range of articles and a course to help traders learn more about trading.

In addition, Orbex publishes research and trading ideas on a daily basis, as well as weekly reports. These cover both technical and fundamental analysis. Orbex TV is a YouTube channel with regular video updates.

Orbex offers more educational resources than most brokers, which makes it especially suitable for newbie traders.

Other notable value-adding features include access to the idea sharing platform, the trading system builder, Trading Central’s signals, and the VPS service to run automated strategies.

Orbex has won a number of awards over the years for education and analysis in 2016, for forecasts and strategy in 2013 and for its services in China and Arabic countries in 2011 and 2012.

We found no mention of penalties or major complaints against Orbex.

Orbex appears to have a good reputation in general. With a wide range of educational material, it is ideally suited to newbie traders, though some may find the minimum deposit requirements a little high.

The spreads on offer are at the upper end of the range which means very active traders should enquire about the ECN accounts.

Orbex is ideal for Forex traders as it offers a wide range of currency pairs. Away from forex, the product range is somewhat limited with just two metal contracts, one oil contract and five indices. Traders wanting to focus on other markets may find the range a bit limited.