Headway

Trust

Headway Regulators

In our reviews, we examine the regulatory status of each entity operated by a broker. This allows us to compare the different levels of client protection. We rank regulators using a three-tier system, where Tier-1 licensing reflects the highest level of regulation.

Here are my findings on Headway’s only entity:

• Jarocel Pty Ltd is authorized and regulated by the South Africa Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FCSA), registration number 2021/883863/07. We rate FSCA as a Tier 2 regulator.

Understanding the Regulatory Protections of Your Account

Brokers operate multiple entities to serve clients globally, yet regulatory protections vary by jurisdiction. Some regulators enforce strict financial standards, while others are more lenient. Traders should understand the protection offered by the entity where they intend to open an account.

• Segregation of client funds. Keeping client funds in segregated bank accounts from the ones used for the broker’s corporate capital negates the risk of accounting errors and helps protect clients from fraud. As an FSCA-regulated broker, Headway segregates client funds.
• Negative balance protection. This safety mechanism removes the risk of trading losses exceeding the account balance. In other words, the losses you incur from trading are capped at the amount you have put in your trading account. This is especially important in volatile markets. Headway provides negative balance protection.
• Compensation scheme. A compensation scheme protects retail traders against the broker’s liabilities in the unlikely event that the company becomes insolvent. There is no compensation scheme or insurance covering Headway client accounts.
• Maximum leverage. Capping the maximum leverage restricts the extent of market exposure to retail traders. The higher the leverage, the higher the potential profits and potential losses. Headway offers an extreme level of leverage, as high as 1:unlimited, but this only applies to account balances of $1,000 or less.

Stability and Transparency

In our tests for the Trust category, we also cover factors relating to stability and transparency. Here, we focus on the broker’s length of service, size, and transparency in terms of readily available information.

Founded in 2022, Headway has a short operating history. The company’s LinkedIn page lists the number of employees as 51-200, reflecting a small-sized brokerage firm.

While reviewing the website (hw.online) and social media presence, I judged that Headway has a fair level of transparency relating to its fees and regulatory status, as well as the overall background of the company. Information and materials like legal documents were relatively easy to find, and some of them are also translated into 9 local languages..

The company’s regulatory status can be viewed in the website’s footer. Information relating to trading costs can be found on the Account Types page. The nitty gritty account-related details can be found in the legal documents on the About Us page.

Is Headway Safe to Trade With?

To summarize, my findings led to a relatively low trust score due to the following factors:

• Only one regulator (FSCA)
• Short operating history
• No compensation fund in the event of broker insolvency

Among the positive points supporting Headway:

• Negative balance protection
• Segregated funds
• Overall transparency

Fees

Trading Fees

Headway Spreads

I tested the spreads at Headway during the London open and just after the New York open on 16 December 2024. At these times, the market is typically highly liquid with the tightest spreads.

My tests showed a mixed picture. Spreads are competitive in the popular EUR/USD pair, shares, indices, and Bitcoin. Meanwhile, I found room for improvement in some assets among minor forex pairs and commodities.

Swap Fees

The table below shows the Swap Long (the cost/credit of holding a buy position overnight) and the Swap Short (the cost/credit of maintaining a sell position overnight) for one full-sized contract.

A full-sized contract is 100,000 units of the base currency (the first currency quoted in the pair). I recorded the data on 28 October 2024.

The values listed below are for one full contract (100,000 units) of the base currency.

My tests indicated that Headway’s swap fees are standard for the industry.

Non-Trading Fees

Headway does not charge any account maintenance or inactivity fees. Additionally, the broker covers all the handling fees for deposits and withdrawals.

Are Headway Fees Competitive?

Overall, I rate the fees at Headway as mixed for the following reasons:

• Tight spreads in major forex pairs, indices, shares, and crypto
  Wide spreads in some commodities and minor forex pairs
• Average swap fees
• No inactivity fees
• Raw spreads account with tighter spreads is available

Platform and Tools

MetaTrader 5 Desktop

In my live tests, I used the MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform. It is available in 52 languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese, and provides popular features such as:

• Alerts: This feature updates traders when an instrument reaches a specific price level.
• Watchlists: Traders can create a list of their favorite instruments and follow live quotes in a market watch panel.
• One-Click Trading: This feature allows traders to execute orders with a single click and no secondary confirmation. This feature enables traders to operate faster and is especially useful for short-term traders.
• Trading from the Chart: MT5 also allows users the convenience of trading directly from the chart.

The MarketWatch panel enables traders to stay on top of their favorite instruments at a glance.

The Toolbox panel allows traders to track their open positions, market exposure, trade history, and profit/loss figures in real time.

MT5 Desktop Charts

Charting features are robust. MetaTrader 5 offers:

• 38 Technical Indicators: These include classic trend indicators, volume indicators, and oscillators.
• 44 Analytical Objects: These include lines, channels, Gann, and Fibonacci tools. 21 Time Frames. Traders can choose from many time frames, from one minute to one month.
• 3 Chart Types: Traders can use Bar Charts, Japanese Candlestick Charts, and Line Charts. MetaTrader is also popular due to its copy trading and automated trading features.
• Trading Signals: Signals in MetaTrader 5 allow users to copy other traders’ activity in real time.
• Automated Trading: MetaTrader 5 allows users to develop, test, and apply Expert Advisors (EAs) – programs that monitor and trade markets using algorithms.

MT5 Desktop Orders

MetaTrader 5 delivers when it comes to the range of available order types. The platform offers the following:

• Market Order: Traders use market orders to buy or sell an instrument at the best current price.
• Limit Order: Traders use limit orders to buy or sell an instrument at a specified price or better.
• Stop-Loss Order: Traders use stop-loss orders to buy or sell an instrument when its price reaches a specified level.
• Stop-Limit Order: Traders can manage risk more precisely with stop-limit orders, which combine the features of a stop-loss with those of a limit order.
• Trailing-Stop Order: Traders use trailing stop-loss orders as a stop-loss order at a defined percentage or dollar amount away from an instrument’s current market price. This order type allows traders to secure profits when they are in a winning trade while not having to exit the position.

MT5 Desktop: My Key Takeaways

The MetaTrader 5 desktop platform is one of the most feature-rich and popular retail trading platforms. However, it may present a steep learning curve for beginners. MT5 offers a greater number of technical indicators, graphical objects, and analytical objects than MT4. It also has great additional features like an economic calendar and market depth (DOM).

MetaTrader 5 WebTrader

From the client portal, traders can easily access the MetaTrader 5 WebTrader platform. The MT5 web platform differs greatly from the desktop and has a more user-friendly interface.

It allows you to trade without any additional software – only an internet connection is required. The Web Platform allows users to trade directly from any browser and operating system.

Popular features of the WebTrader platform include:

• One-click trading
• Trading from the chart
• Watchlists with real-time quotes
• Trade History
• Advanced charting

Watchlists provide real-time updates for a selected list of instruments.

MT5 WebTrader Charts

Charting via the WebTrader platform is outstanding. Traders can make use of:

• 31 Technical Indicators: These include classic trend indicators, volume indicators, and oscillators.
• 4 Analytical Objects: These include trend lines, regression channels, Gann, and Fibonacci tools.
• 9 Time Frames: Traders can choose from nine time frames, from one minute to one month.
• 3 Chart Types: Traders can use Bar Charts, Japanese Candlestick Charts, and Line Charts.

One of my favorite features of the MT5 WebTrader platform is the ability to overlay economic events on your chart. This allows you to easily stay on top of key market-moving data so that a major economic release will never surprise you.

MT5 WebTrader Orders

The WebTrader platform provides standard order types, including market orders, limit orders, and stop loss orders. Time-in-force conditions like Good-Til-Canceled (GTC) or a specified date can be applied to pending orders.

The MT5 web platform is well-designed and intuitive and more suitable for casual traders.

MetaTrader 5 Mobile App

Headway offers the MetaTrader 5 mobile app for mobile trading, which is available for Android and iOS. The app offers popular features such as alerts, one-click trading, and trading from the chart.

The MT5 mobile app also provides many order types, including pending and stop orders. However, trailing stop-loss orders are only available from the desktop. To change the language of the MT5 app, you must change the language for your entire phone.

MT5 App: My Key Takeaways

Overall, the MetaTrader 5 app offers an above-average range of features, and I rate it as a well-designed app. I appreciated the wide selection of technical indicators and the option of trading from the chart for fast order entry on the move.

Headway Mobile App

The Headway mobile app is available for Android and iOS and offers features like copy trading, live chat support, and deposits and withdrawals while you are on the go. You can also log in to MT5 mobile from within the Headway app and trade both live and demo accounts. I rate the app as intuitive and beginner-friendly.

Copy Trading

The Headway copy trading platform can be accessed from the client portal, and users can easily register as investors or traders.

Here’s how it works: a trader publishes a live account, also called a strategy, sets a commission for copying, and trades according to their plan. Investors are users who copy the strategy, pay a commission, and make or lose money based on its outcome.

When browsing strategies to copy, traders can view metrics like percentage gain or loss, win rate, and the number of copying investors. Strategies can also be filtered by platform (MT4 or MT5), risk level, and commission. I rate the platform as intuitive, but I noted that the number of available strategies is still relatively limited.

Headway Execution Model

Market execution is applied for all trading instruments, and client orders are executed at the current price within fractions of a second. As a CFD broker, Headway operates under the Principle Model of brokerage, which means it is the counterparty to all client trades.

Tradable Instruments

I rate the range of tradable instruments as mostly average for the industry. Among indices, it includes a wide range of Indonesian sectors.

Crypto is an area of strength, with Bitcoin offered against various currencies and metals, for example, BTC/THB (Bitcoin vs. Thai Baht) and BTC/XAG (Bitcoin vs. Silver). The range of commodities could be improved by adding agricultural instruments like soybeans and coffee.

What Are CFDs?

A Contract for Difference (CFD) is an agreement specifying that the buyer must pay the seller the difference between an asset’s current value and its value at the time the contract was initiated. Like futures and other derivative financial instruments, CFDs allow traders to speculate on price movements without owning the underlying asset.

What Can You Trade with Headway?

To better illustrate the range of instruments available at Headway, the following tables show samples from various asset classes:

Headway Instruments: My Key Takeaways

Headway offers a diverse range of global markets, but there is certainly room to deepen the offering and add additional assets like bonds. In my opinion, the range of instruments is especially good for crypto enthusiasts and Indonesian traders, with the wide range of local sector indices available.

Customer Support

Support is a key component of a broker’s offering – whether you are a new trader looking for guidance on how to use the platform or an experienced trader who needs help fast to exit their positions in the event of a technical glitch.

Headway Customer Support Test

I tested support at Headway via live chat and email, with multiple inquiries over 2 weeks. Agents could answer basic questions like whether there is an inactivity fee but were unfamiliar with CFD industry themes like segregated funds.

With live chat, you must enter your name and email before reaching an operator, but after doing so, I found that you can quickly reach a live agent. Chat support’s response time was better than average for the industry, and I received replies to emails within 24 hours.

While Headway lacks phone support, you can contact its customer service via WhatsApp and Telegram.

Deposit and Withdrawal

Headway Deposit Methods

Deposits are quick and easy, with no fees applied.

Headway Withdrawal Methods

Withdrawals are also processed fast, and while crypto and Perfect Money do not incur a fee, clients should be conscious of the withdrawal fee via credit card.

Account Types and Terms

Headway Account Opening Process

To register for an account, clients must simply provide their name and email and create a password. Once this is done, clients can access the client portal and set up live and demo accounts.

To make a deposit via credit card, clients must verify their identity with a national ID and list their date of birth and address.

Headway Account Types and Their Benefits

The Cent account allows beginners to get started with as little as $1 and trade in relatively low-risk micro lots. The Standard Account reflects all costs in the spread, while the Pro account offers lower costs with raw spreads from 0.0 pips plus a commission, making it the best fit for experienced, active traders.

Demo Account

Headway offers free demo accounts that can be used via MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms.

Demo accounts are especially important for beginners as they allow them to practice their strategies and get comfortable with the trading platform without risking real money.

The demo account features live quotes and simulates live market conditions in assets like CFDs on forex, commodities, indices, shares, and crypto. Once users are up to speed on a demo, they can easily switch to a live account.

Islamic Account

Headway offers a swap-free account that adheres to the principles of Sharia law.

What Is CFD Leverage?

One of the reasons that traders are attracted to the forex and CFD markets is the high degree of available leverage. Leverage is the use of borrowed funds to increase the size of your trading positions beyond what would be possible using only the cash in your account.

The maximum leverage at headway is 1:Unlimited for accounts of up to $1,000. This means that with an account of $1,000 or less, you can control an unlimited size of positions in the market. This presents an extremely high level of risk.

Leverage is often described as a ‘double-edged sword’ as it can hurt you as much as it helps you. Traders should keep in mind that it can amplify both their profits and their losses.

Leverage varies by asset class, as illustrated in the following table:

It’s important to note that Headway reserves the right to change the leverage of a client’s account at any time, as outlined below:

Headway Restricted Countries

Headway Inc. does not offer its services to residents of countries that were, are, or will be blacklisted by the FATF.

Research

The Forex News section covers central bank policy and provides forecasts based on different interest rate scenarios and how they may impact the market.

Headway also provides interesting coverage of the crypto markets, including analysis of fundamental themes such as the potential impact of U.S. elections on cryptocurrency regulation.

Headway Research: My Key Takeaways

My assessment showed that Headway provides a limited range of research materials and could improve by offering more coverage of major news events and a higher volume of analysis reports.

Education