Written by ForexBrokers.com
In this head to head comparison of ThinkMarkets vs Trade Nation, we will compare the trading platforms, mobile apps, range of investments, costs, market research, and more. Let's dive in.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 51% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation are both online brokers established in the past decade, with ThinkMarkets founded in 2010 and Trade Nation in 2014. Neither broker is a bank or publicly traded. When evaluating the level of trust, ThinkMarkets holds a significant edge with a higher Trust Score of 92 out of 99, ranking them as highly trusted. In contrast, Trade Nation scores 85, placing them in the trusted category according to ForexBrokers.com. This higher rating aligns with ThinkMarkets' coverage of five Tier-1 licenses, compared to Trade Nation's two.
Beyond Tier-1, ThinkMarkets also carries two Tier-2 licenses while Trade Nation has one, further adding to their trust credentials. Both firms offer a reliable background for investors, yet ThinkMarkets' higher rating and broader regulatory coverage make it a more attractive option for individuals seeking confidence in their online broker.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2010 | 2014 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No |
| Bank | No | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 5 | 2 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 2 | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 3 | 2 |
ThinkMarkets, rated 4 out of 5 stars for commissions and fees, offers a straightforward approach. However, specific average spread data isn't readily available, making direct comparisons less precise. Despite this, ThinkMarkets remains a popular choice, though it ranks 48th out of 62 brokers in the commissions and fees category according to ForexBrokers.com.
Trade Nation stands out with a 5-star rating for its competitive fee structure, ranking 7th among 62 brokers in the commissions and fees category on ForexBrokers.com. It provides a unique fixed-spread pricing model for its proprietary platform, offering transparency and predictability for traders. For instance, the EUR/USD pair has a fixed spread of 0.6 pips, although this can widen to 1.4 pips during the daily rollover period, resulting in an average of about 1 pip.
Trade Nation also offers three primary account types, including two MetaTrader accounts and its proprietary TN Trader account. While the MetaTrader accounts offer both commission-based and commission-free options, the TN Trader account tends to have the lowest spreads when considering overall costs. This fixed-spread model generally offers more stability compared to the variable pricing most brokers provide, solidifying Trade Nation's competitive edge in commission and fee arrangements.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $50 | $0 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.1 | 0.6 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | N/A | 0.6 |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | No |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | No |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | No |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers.
When comparing ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation in terms of their available investments, several key differences become apparent. Both brokers offer forex trading as CFDs or spot contracts, including access to 46 currency pairs. ThinkMarkets provides clients with a broader selection of over 4,000 tradeable symbols, whereas Trade Nation offers around 1,000. An important distinction is that ThinkMarkets allows trading of exchange-listed securities on international exchanges, which offers further investment opportunities like the ability to buy shares of Vodafone on the London Stock Exchange. On the other hand, Trade Nation does not offer this option.
Both brokers support copy trading and offer cryptocurrency derivatives, but neither allows for the purchase of actual cryptocurrencies. Despite some similarities, ThinkMarkets is favored in terms of the range of available investments, receiving a rating of 4.5 stars and ranking 21st out of 62 brokers. Trade Nation, meanwhile, is rated slightly lower with 3.5 stars and holds the 38th position. These rankings highlight ThinkMarkets' more expansive offerings, especially for those interested in a wider variety of international securities.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 4000 | 1000 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 46 | 46 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | No |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes | Yes |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Dive deeper: Best Copy Trading Platforms.
Both ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation provide a comprehensive suite of trading platforms and tools designed for ease and accessibility. Each broker offers a free virtual demo account, enabling users to engage in simulated trading. They both offer proprietary platforms for traders seeking unique, in-house platforms. With options for Windows-based desktop downloads and web-based trading, ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation cater to diverse trading preferences. While they both support popular platforms like MetaTrader 4 (MT4), only ThinkMarkets offers MetaTrader 5 (MT5). Neither broker currently supports third-party services such as DupliTrade or ZuluTrade, but they both offer the ability to engage in copy trading.
ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation are closely matched, though they have distinct advantages. ThinkMarkets allows users to trade directly from a stock chart and access 15 drawing tools, while Trade Nation offers a wider selection with 39 drawing tools. ThinkMarkets provides 15 watch list columns compared to Trade Nation's 14. Ratings reflect their competitive standing; both earn 4 stars for their trading platforms and tools. However, ThinkMarkets secures a higher overall rank at #28, compared to Trade Nation's #44, according to ForexBrokers.com. Ultimately, these platforms cater well to traders looking for versatile and efficient trading experiences.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | No |
| DupliTrade | No | No |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 | 115 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 | 39 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | No |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 15 | 14 |
Dive deeper: Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers, Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers.
When it comes to mobile trading apps, both ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation offer comprehensive platforms for traders using iPhones and Android devices. Users of both apps benefit from the ability to set stock and forex price alerts, create watchlists with real-time quotes, and utilize various technical features such as drawing trendlines and viewing multiple timeframes on their charts. However, a significant difference lies in watchlist symbol syncing. While Trade Nation synchronizes watchlists across devices, ThinkMarkets does not provide this feature, which may affect traders who frequently switch between their mobile app and online account.
Charting tools are essential for in-depth market analysis, and here both brokers deliver strong offerings. ThinkMarkets provides 94 technical studies, while Trade Nation surpasses it slightly with 99. Notably, both platforms automatically save chart drawings, enhancing user convenience. Ratings for both apps are tied at four stars out of five, reflecting generally favorable user experiences. Nonetheless, ForexBrokers.com ranks ThinkMarkets higher at #20 compared to Trade Nation’s ranking of #45, which might sway traders looking for a highly regarded mobile trading experience.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlist Syncing | No | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 94 | 99 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Trading Apps.
ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation both excel in providing essential daily market commentary and forex news from top-tier sources like Bloomberg and Reuters, ensuring traders stay informed. While neither broker offers advanced tools from Autochartist or Trading Central for technical and fundamental analysis, both provide sentiment-based trading tools. These tools offer insight into market trends by revealing long or short position ratios across various currency pairs. Additionally, ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation both feature research tools from Acuity Trading, enhancing their analytical offerings. However, ThinkMarkets distinguishes itself by offering a comprehensive economic calendar with global news events, a feature absent in Trade Nation's offerings.
Despite these differences, both ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation receive a rating of 3.5 stars for research quality. ThinkMarkets, ranked 50th out of 62 brokers by ForexBrokers.com in the Research category, lags slightly behind Trade Nation, which holds a more favorable position at 42nd. This ranking reflects their competitive nature and similar offerings across various research tools, although Trade Nation's lack of an economic calendar may impact traders looking for complete global insights.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | Yes |
| Autochartist | No | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | No |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | Yes |
| TipRanks | No | No |
| Signal Centre (Acuity Trading) | Yes | Yes |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | No |
Dive deeper: Best Brokers for Forex Research.
When examining the educational offerings for beginners provided by ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation, both platforms deliver a selection of resources designed to help newcomers learn about forex and CFDs. Each offers over ten educational pieces, including articles, videos, and archived webinars. ThinkMarkets stands out by hosting monthly online educational webinars, whereas Trade Nation does not offer live webinar sessions. Additionally, ThinkMarkets provides a searchable archive of these recorded webinars for convenient on-demand learning, which is not available through Trade Nation.
Both ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation provide more than ten beginner-focused educational videos, along with advanced videos for experienced traders, ensuring a breadth of content for various learning stages. They also have an investor dictionary with over 50 terms for those who want to solidify their trading vocabulary. Despite both receiving a 3.5-star rating for education, Trade Nation slightly edges out ThinkMarkets in ForexBrokers.com's rankings, placing 41st compared to ThinkMarkets' 52nd out of 62 brokers evaluated. This suggests that while both brokers offer substantial educational value, Trade Nation may be considered slightly more competitive by some analysts in the educational sphere.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes | No |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Brokers for Beginners.
After testing 62 of the best forex brokers, our research and account testing finds that ThinkMarkets is better than Trade Nation. ThinkMarkets finished with an overall rank of #27, while Trade Nation finished with an overall rank of #34.
ThinkMarkets has multiple regulatory license and offers a proprietary trading platform, as well as the entire MetaTrader suite. The broker has made progress in key areas, such as research and education, and the range of markets available, although trails behind the best brokers in these categories.
| Feature |
ThinkMarkets
|
Trade Nation
|
|---|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
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| Trust Score | 92 | 85 |
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Both ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation do not provide the option to purchase actual delivered cryptocurrency, offering instead the ability to trade in cryptocurrency derivatives.
Both ThinkMarkets and Trade Nation provide Skrill, Visa or Mastercard, and bank wire options for depositing or withdrawing funds, but they do not support ACH, SEPA, or PayPal transfers.
Please note:
We review each broker’s overall global offering – a “Yes” checkmark in our Compare Tool does not guarantee the availability of any specific features in your country of residence. To verify the availability of any features within your country of residence, please contact the broker directly.
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0 of 5| Overall Rating | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
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| Trust Score | 92 | 85 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | Trade Nation Review |
| Broker Screenshots | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
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| Regulation | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust Score | 92 | 85 | |
| Year Founded | 2010 | 2014 | |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No | |
| Bank | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | Yes | No | |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 5 | 2 | |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 2 | 1 | |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 | |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 3 | 2 |
| Tier-1 Licenses (Highly Trusted) | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia (ASIC Authorised) | Yes | Yes | |
| Canada (CIRO Authorised) | No | No | |
| Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Japan (SFC Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| Singapore (MAS Authorised) | No | No | |
| Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) | Yes | Yes | |
| USA (CFTC Authorized) | No | No | |
| New Zealand (FMA Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | Yes | No |
| Tier-2 Licenses (Trusted) | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya (CMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| Israel (ISA Authorised) | No | No | |
| South Africa (FSCA Authorised) | Yes | Yes | |
| UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| India (SEBI Authorised) | No | No | |
| Jordan (JSC Authorised) | No | No |
| Investments | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 4000 | 1000 | |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 46 | 46 | |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No | |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | No | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No | |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes | Yes | |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
| Cost | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.1 | 0.6 | |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | N/A | 0.6 | |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | No | |
| Inactivity Fee | Yes | No | |
| Execution: Agency Broker | Yes | No | |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes | Yes |
| Funding | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $50 | $0 | |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | No | |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes | |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | No |
| Trading Platforms | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proprietary Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes | |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | No | |
| cTrader | No | No | |
| DupliTrade | No | No | |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Trading Tools | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes | |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 15 | 14 | |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 | 115 | |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 | 39 | |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | No | |
| Charts can be saved | Yes | No |
| Mobile Trading | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlist Syncing | No | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 94 | 99 | |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes | No |
| Research | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes | |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | Yes | |
| Autochartist | No | No | |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | No | |
| TipRanks | No | No | |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | Yes | |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | No |
| Education | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Client Webinars | Yes | No | |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes | No | |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes | |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes | Yes | |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | Yes |
| Major Forex Pairs | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/JPY | Yes | Yes | |
| EUR/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CHF | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CAD | Yes | Yes | |
| NZD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| AUD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| Review | Trade Nation Review |
| Overall | ThinkMarkets | Trade Nation | |
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| Trust Score | 92 | 85 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | Trade Nation Review |
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