Saxo review

How we rated Saxo's investment features

Established over 30 years ago, Saxo provides an online platform to trade stocks, shares, mutual funds, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), contracts for difference (CFDs), currencies (forex), and even ready-made portfolios – just about every type of asset you can imagine.

It’s designed for both new and experienced traders, but better suited to those who have a decent understanding of markets and asset types. By providing access to global markets with cutting edge technology and industry-leading expertise, Saxo aims to equip ordinary investors with the same tools as professional traders and fund managers.

Find out more about what it offers in our review, what you can invest in and the cacophony of fees to expect.

Hands-on test: I tried out Saxo's investing platforms

"Saxo is an interesting brokerage because it actually offers two different trading platforms (along with a third ‘pro’ version). The SaxoTraderGo platform is its classic option that comes with all the tools and in-built customisation features that more experienced traders may want to use. Then you also have the newer SaxoInvestor platform, which is designed with a simpler interface.

The concept was to provide a more straightforward investing experience for those that are focused on a long-term portfolio building and aren’t necessarily interested in trading. For what it’s worth, I think both are great and even though SaxoInvestor is the one that’s designed to be simpler, I don’t think the TraderGo platform will overwhelm investors who already have experience placing trades elsewhere."

George Sweeney, DipFA

Deputy editor

Saxo fees

*Full tier pricing below
**Prices depend on international exchange and account tier, more details below.

We weren’t fibbing when we said Saxo’s prices and fees can be quite confusing (to put it modestly). In January 2024, Saxo’s investment fees underwent a big overhaul to make things cheaper (notably the minimum trading commissions and the FX fees). The FX fee is now a flat 0.25% across all account tiers.

However, Saxo hasn’t done much to simplify the rest of the fee structure. This is the one major downside to all the investment options and global markets available. And to throw a spanner in the works of a fees table built from spanners, Saxo offers account tiers based on your portfolio size with different prices.

We’ll try and explain all of Saxo’s fees in the most straightforward way possible, but please bear with us because it would probably be easier to explain the basics of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

The first bugbear with Saxo’s fees is that they’re all in different formats, and that’s just the trading commissions! Some trades (like US assets) are arranged on a per share basis, so you pay $0.015/share ($1 minimum) when buying or selling US stocks and ETFs. The fees are slightly lower on the higher account tiers but these won’t apply to the majority of investors.

Then, for other investments, you pay a percentage fee based on the size of the trade. For example, buying or selling UK shares and ETFs incurs a 0.08% (£3 minimum) fee (with the Classic tier).

We’re also not big fans of the fact that Saxo claims to have no platform fee when it does, it just calls it a custody fee. This is 0.12% annually for most investments and 0.4% when you hold funds. Speaking of funds, this is one area that is simple because there’s no commission to buy or sell mutual funds. A rare piece of simplicity in the enigma that is Saxo’s fees.

Here are some tables breaking down the bulk of Saxo’s investing fees across the various account tiers and global exchanges for buying or selling stocks and shares or investing in ETFs:

• Classic (any size account size)

  Stock exchange country	Charge
  US	$0.015/share ($1 minimum)
  UK	0.08% (£3 minimum)
  Canada	$0.015 CAD/share (min. $5 CAD and max. $25 CAD for TSX Venture Exchange)
  Greece	0.3% (€10 minimum)
  Spain/Ireland/Austria	0.12% (€5 minimum)
  Germany/Italy/Finland	0.08% (€3 minimum)
  Denmark	0.08% (10 DKK minimum)
  Sweden	0.08% (10 SEK minimum)
  Netherlands/Belgium/Portugal/France	0.08% (€2 minimum)
  Czech	0.25% (75 CZK minimum)
  Switzerland	0.08% (3 CHF minimum)
  Poland	0.12% (10 PLN minimum)
  South Africa	0.3% (50 ZAR minimum)
  Australia	0.08% ($3 AUD minimum)
  China	0.08% (15 CNH/HKD minimum)
  Malaysia	0.2% (50 MYR minimum)
  Singapore	0.08% ($3 SGD minimum)
  Japan	0.08% (800 JPY minimum)

• Platinum (minimum £200,000 funding)

  Stock exchange country	Charge
  US	$0.01/share ($1 minimum)
  UK	0.05% (£3 minimum)
  Canada	$0.01 CAD/share (min. $5 CAD and max. $25 CAD for TSX Venture Exchange)
  Greece	0.25% (€10 minimum)
  Spain/Ireland/Austria	0.08% (€5 minimum)
  Germany/Italy/Finland	0.05% (€3 minimum)
  Denmark	0.05% (10 DKK minimum)
  Sweden	0.05% (10 SEK minimum)
  Netherlands/Belgium/Portugal/France	0.05% (€2 minimum)
  Czech	0.15% (75 CZK minimum)
  Switzerland	0.05% (3 CHF minimum)
  Poland	0.08% (10 PLN minimum)
  South Africa	0.25% (50 ZAR minimum)
  Australia	0.05% ($3 AUD minimum)
  China	0.05% (15 CNH/HKD minimum)
  Malaysia	0.15% (50 MYR minimum)
  Singapore	0.05% ($3 SGD minimum)
  Japan	0.05% (800 JPY minimum)

• VIP (minimum £1,000,000 funding)

  Stock exchange country	Charge
  US	$0.005/share ($1 minimum)
  UK	0.03% (£3 minimum)
  Canada	$0.005 CAD/share (min. $5 CAD and max. $25 CAD for TSX Venture Exchange)
  Greece	0.2% (€10 minimum)
  Spain/Ireland/Austria	0.05% (€5 minimum)
  Germany/Italy/Finland	0.03% (€3 minimum)
  Denmark	0.03% (10 DKK minimum)
  Sweden	0.03% (10 SEK minimum)
  Netherlands/Belgium/Portugal/France	0.03% (€2 minimum)
  Czech	0.1% (75 CZK minimum)
  Switzerland	0.03% (3 CHF minimum)
  Poland	0.05% (10 PLN minimum)
  South Africa	0.2% (50 ZAR minimum)
  Australia	0.03% ($3 AUD minimum)
  China	0.08% (15 CNH/HKD minimum)
  Malaysia	0.1% (50 MYR minimum)
  Singapore	0.03% ($3 SGD minimum)
  Japan	0.03% (800 JPY minimum)

Also, Saxo’s ability to let you deposit 18 different currencies means you can minimise the impact of currency fluctuations. However, if you want to open sub accounts in a different currency to let you switch between with ease, you’ll need to be a Platinum or VIP client.

Saxo investment choice and stocks

Saxo’s superpower is its range of assets and investments available, it’s pretty unstoppable. The only blemish in our opinion is the fact that you can’t buy or sell fractional shares.

Fractional shares aside, Saxo is hard to beat for investment choice. There are more than 23,500 investments available, over 10 asset types and you get access to more than 50 global stock exchanges.

If diversity of assets and access to stock exchanges in the farthest corners of the earth is what you’re after, you’ll find more options than you can shake a stick at with Saxo. That being said, beginners may not need such a breadth of choice. But more experienced investors and traders will have plenty to satiate your investing appetite.

There’s now no minimum funding requirement for the Classic account tier (it used to be £500) and although there’s no minimum investment required, it must be at least a full share and remember there are minimum investing commissions.

What financial instruments can I invest in with Saxo?

Is Saxo safe?

Saxo is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), so your deposits of up to £85,000 are protected should Saxo go bust.

Because Saxo is part of Saxo Bank, a publicly traded and highly-regulated bank, there’s also some additional peace of mind that you’re investing with one of the most respected names in online banking, trading and investment.

Although as always when you invest, your capital is at risk.

Saxo account types and products

Saxo has a decent range of accounts on offer, including a:

• Personal account
• Joint account
• Professional account
• Business account

The personal and joint accounts are pretty self-explanatory, they’re accounts that let you invest as an individual or with other people (first-line family members only).

The professional and business accounts require a little more explanation.

Professional account

If you’ve got appropriate experience, you might be able to classify yourself as an elective professional to waive regulatory protections that are on the standard account.

To qualify, you must meet at least 2 of the following criteria:

• Have a financial portfolio that exceeds €500,000
• Have placed at least 10 relevant trades in significant sizes over the last 4 quarters
• Work, or have worked, in the financial sector for at least 1 year

What protections are waived with the professional account?

There are protections applied to your Saxo account automatically that are in place to protect those with less experience in investing. By applying for elective professional status, you waive these protections.

• Leverage restrictions. You are able to trade with increased leverage.
• Negative balance protection. Should your account fall into a negative balance, you are obliged to make additional payments. This means that your losses can exceed your deposits.
• Product restrictions. You have no product restrictions imposed on you, as you understand the risks associated with trading complex financial products.
• Standardised risk warnings. As you already understand the risks, you may not be provided with any standardised risk warnings.

Business account

Saxo’s corporate account gives you access to the same instruments as the personal account, but you also get dedicated one-on-one support from one of its expert account managers.

You must already have a corporate bank account and deposit at least £100,000. You’ll also need to provide the following documents:

• Memorandum and Article of Association
• Certificate of Incorporation
• Proof of the company’s business address if different to its registered address (e.g. a company bank statement or utility bill less than three months old and issued in the company’s name)
• Latest financial statement
• Group structure diagram (for entities within complex group structures only)

You also need copies of these documents for each beneficial owner with a 25% or greater company holding and each company director:

• Passport
• Proof of residency

Tax-efficient accounts with Saxo

On top of the various account types, Saxo also offers 2 tax-efficient accounts:

• Stocks and shares ISA. A tax-efficient way to invest, protecting most of your returns from tax and each year you can invest up to your annual allowance (£20,000 for the 2023/2024 tax year).
• Self-invested personal pension (SIPP). Allows you to invest for retirement. It’s designed for investors who want full control over their pension investment strategy — you have the flexibility to choose what your pension is invested in.

You’re also able to use a general investment account (GIA) but you may be subject to dividend or capital gains tax (CGT).

Saxo ease of use

Saxo scored fairly well in our ease of use assessment. We like that there are a few ways to reach the customer support team and most reviewers on the App Store and Google Play speak positively about the platform and you can invest using either the mobile or desktop app.

On the App Store, Saxo scores 4.5 out of 5, and on Google Play it scores a slightly lower 4.6 out of 5 (as of January 2024).

Although we like the fact that you can invest using either the mobile or desktop app, we don’t think Saxo’s overall interface is the best. Unless you’re an experienced investor, you’ll probably find the platform quite difficult to navigate and use. Even those with investing experience will probably need to take some time to get comfortable with.

Saxo customer reviews

Trustpilot reviewers gave Saxo UK a solid 4 out of 5 “great” rating (as of September 2024).

Saxo tools, resources and features

As Saxo is built for sophisticated traders and investors (very fancy), there are plenty of trading tools and analysis features available – along with a bunch of learning resources.

The only thing lacking with Saxo is some form of social investing aspect to discuss investments or copy trades. It is worth having some understanding of the trading platforms Saxo lets you invest with.

Saxo trading platforms

Saxo is unique in that it has a few different platforms to trade with — these offer different tools for different types of investors. The platforms are called SaxoTraderGO and SaxoTraderPro, and the most recent edition designed with simplicity in mind – SaxoInvestor.

SaxoInvestor is for beginners or those looking to keep things simple, SaxoTraderGod is for intermediate investors and traders, and SaxoTraderPro is for those with plenty of experience under their belt. We’ve detailed some of the features of each account below.

SaxoInvestor

SaxoInvest is suitable for beginner investors and those using more simple investing strategies, with features such as:

• User-friendly mobile investing platform with a simple and clean interface
• Access to stragithforward assets like stocks, ETFs, bonds and funds
• Curated stock lists along with the ability to explore market trends and view analyst insights from Morningstar

SaxoTraderGO

SaxoTraderGO is suitable for investors on the go. Some features include:

• Cross-device use – use your mobile, tablet and laptop
• Stay up to date with access to a news feed, market data, economic releases and live charting
• A fast, reliable and intuitive interface that allows for simple and quick trades

SaxoTraderPro

SaxoTraderPro is designed for professional investors. Some benefits include:

• Turns your desktop into a sophisticated trading environment
• Customise your trading environment to make it right for your needs
• Advanced charts, technical indicators, instrument views and in-chart annotations

Saxo account tiers

There are three account tiers, each with benefits. You are placed into a tier based on how much funding is in your account.

Who might Saxo suit?

This platform is going to be best-suited for those who want a huge selection of investments and global markets at their fingertips. This isn’t the most straightforward or cheapest place to invest, but that’s the trade-off for access to a professional trading platform and a wide array of investments from all over the world.

If you don’t think that sounds like it would suit you, why not compare share trading platforms to find the right fit to match your style.

Frequently asked questions

• Is Saxo legit?

  Yes, Saxo is a well-respected global investing platform, created by a regulated Danish bank, Saxo Bank.

• Is it safe to trade on Saxo?

  Yes, in our analysis, we found Saxo scored highly in terms of safety and security features. However, it’s still important to understand the risks of trading and investing.

• Is Saxo a good broker?

  We think Saxo has plenty to offer, especially since it recently reduced many of its investing commissions. However, Saxo still has a complex fee structure that may not suit all types of investors.