MSN Trader – Powered by Saxo Bank – Now Live!

MSN Trader is now live! According to the web site it's "The Investor Platform of the Future". Despite the slightly confusing initial publicity, from 12:00 GMT today there have been over 160 currency pairs available for trading on MSN Trader, as long as you are a UK resident.

Here are some forex specific basic facts and figures:

• Fixed spreads – 2 on EUR/USD, 3 on USD/JPY, 4 on Cable, 26 on USD/DKK
• A dealing desk
• Leverage – 200:1 on the majors, 100:1 on others
• Minimum order size – 1,000 BUT see below
• Commission – Zero on orders over 100,000. Minimum charge of $10 in and out on smaller orders
• Minimum deposit – £1,000

There is a 20 day demo account available. Currently after signing up you see a Saxo Bank branded screen:

MSN Trader Demo Account Launch Day Platforms

Next I fired up the WebTrader option, and an MSN Trader branded screen opened up:

MSN Trader initial layout

You can see straight away that MSN Trader is not primarily targeted at forex traders. Instead you get a combination of UK and US equities by default. Even if you click on the FX/Futures tab:

MSN Trader FX and Futures layout

you see Corn futures rather than Cable. However after a few more clicks you can get yourself setup looking at a 5 minute chart of GBP/USD and you're ready to trade, which I did:

MSN Trader layout for trading Cable

Note that whilst it's possible to trade 1,000 units (i.e. a micro order in MetaTrader speak), such small orders attract an additional $10 commission on top of the spread. Both in and out!

There you have the basics of trading forex on MSN trader. More from us soon on the educational materials, the tools, and all those other asset classes, including FX Options!