GoldExchange.EU is an European e-gold and e-bullion exchange service. It started operation in April 2007 with low rates and fast service. I have used them more than 20 times and exchanged several thousands dollars worth of ecurrencies successfully. The only concern I could have with them is the fact they are very new. However the very low fees allow me to send small amounts at one time without paying bank taxes.

Buying Ecurrency

GoldExchange.EU sells ecurrencies for bank wire. The steps you need to perform are simple:

1. Fill the Buy e-currency form on the site.
2. Send the wire to the given bank details
3. Receive ecurrency straight to your e-gold or e-bullion account

The fees for buying ecurrency are 1.9% with 3.50 EUR set as minimum. There are no bank fees upon receipt.

Selling Ecurrency

You can sell your e-gold or e-bullion to GoldExchange.EU in three ways:

• Selling for bank wire. This is the best method to out-exchange your e-currency especially if you live in the European Union. There are no bank fees for EU citizens so all you need to pay is 1.9% fee for e-bullion and 3.5% for e-gold. For international clients there is additional $20 bank fee.
• Selling for PayPay. PayPay is a Paypal-like service especially popular in Czech republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. It can be used from any other country with international bank transfers.
• Selling for Company Check. This option is available only for US customers and there are no other fees except the 3.5% fee.

The Service

My impressions about GoldExchange.EU‘s service are very good. Usually the buy/sell orders are executed in a matter of several hours. As I am in EU, I usually get my wires for 3 business days.

In case of trouble their support is highly responsive and friendly. There is ICQ, Skype and Phone in case you need instant contact, but their email responses are almost instant in the EU day hours anyway.

Any troubles?

So far none. The service is working great and always on time. I wish they could offer debit cards too. The international clients should be wary of eventual extra charges applied from intermediate banks.

GoldExchange.EU is still a relatively new service so I hope we can expect future developments from them.

If you are one of the many traders who prefer trading thru their web browsers instead of downloading trading platforms (although download option is also available), you will like Finotec. The company is established in 1998 and since 2001 is offering real-time Internet trading in currencies, commodities, CFDs and Options.

You an either use their Java based online interface which works in Internet Explorer or download the 10 MB large platform for Windows XP.

Available currencies, Leverage and Spread

There are 13 major and 19 cross currency pairs for the Forex traders. The maximum leverage is 200:1 with 0.5% margin. The standard spread on the most popular pairs is 3 pips.

Trading commodities includes crude oil, gold and silver and CFDs with a margin requirement of up to 5% – among the lowest available on the market. The minimum size of a transaction is fixed at 100,000 (1 standard lot) increments of the base currency or the reference currency’s equivalent.

Account Types

If you are a complete beginner it is highly recommended to start with a Demo account. Trading in Demo account is free and you can test your skills, strategies or just luck with $10,000 virtual.

The beginner to intermediate traders will feel best with the Mini account. It requires only $200 minimum deposit. The Mini Trading Platform provides live charts with tools like RSI and Moving Average.

If you are already an experienced trader, you’d better get all the benefits of the Finotec Trading Platform. In this case you have to deposit $10,000 and open a Standard Account. The Finotec Trading Platform provides live charts with tools like RSI and Moving Average. It also provides real time account equity.

The Online Java Platform

The Platform is available for all the account types and does not require installation. I had no success running it in Firefox, but in Internet Explorer it works just fine.

In addition to all the standard tools allowing you to trade all the currencies, options, equity and commodities, in the platform there are daily and weekly analysis issued by Finotec experts. You can also get SMS alerts and use their wireless trading capabilities. Directly from the platform you can request live support on the chat.

Overal Impressions Of The Service

There were some boring technical issues while I was getting my first impressions. The registration form displays an error “Please type in English” each time when I was trying to use Tab for moving to the next field. As already said the Java platform does not run in my Firefox browser. My affiliate interface was not accessible in the first day I got registered.

However for all these problems the support is very helpful and always willing to provide friendly service. A big plus for these who don’t speak English well is that the site and the support can be provided in several languages – currently Chinese, French, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, Polish, German and Portuguese.

I like very much the fact that Finotec is not only a forex trading platform – even if you don’t plan to trade seriously commodities, it’s pretty nice to be able to test few strategies while doing your forex trading.