Deriv operates under five entities:

• Deriv (V) Ltd is regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission. We rate VFSC as a Tier 3 regulator.
• Deriv (BVI) Ltd is regulated by the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission. We Rate BVI FSC as a Tier 3 regulator.
• Deriv (FX) Ltd is regulated by the Labuan Financial Services Authority (Malaysia). We rate LFSA as a Tier 2 regulator.
• Deriv Investments (Europe) Limited is regulated by the Malta Financial Services Authority. We rate MFSA as a Tier 2 regulator.
• Deriv (SVG) LLC is an unregulated entity incorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Why is It Important to Know Where Your Broker Subsidiary Is Regulated?

Each regulator has its requirements for brokers, which may differ materially. Such requirements include leverage levels and specific protections offered to investors, including negative balance protection, segregated accounts, and investor compensation funds. Traders must understand the differences between regulations to evaluate whether the broker suits their needs.

With Deriv, traders can open an account with five entities. The choice depends on the client’s location and on the instruments the client wants to deal with.

Deriv (SVG) LLC is a St. Vincent and the Grenadines entity which is not subject to regulatory oversight. Clients from the rest of the world except the EU and restricted countries such as the U.S., Canada, and Hong Kong can open accounts with this entity.

Deriv (V) Ltd is regulated by VFSC, a Tier 3 regulator. Clients in the rest of the world who wish to trade CFDs and derived indices can open accounts with this entity.

Deriv (BVI) is regulated by the BVI FSC, a Tier 3 regulator. Clients in the rest of the world who wish to trade CFDs and derived indices can open accounts with this entity.

Deriv (FX) Ltd is regulated by LFSA, a Tier 3 regulator. Clients in the rest of the world who wish to trade CFDs on forex and cryptocurrencies can open accounts with this entity.

Deriv Investments (Europe) is regulated by MFSA, a Tier 2 regulator. Clients in the European Union can open accounts with this entity.

The broker holds clients’ funds in segregated accounts, which means that clients’ money is not used for the broker’s business purposes. The use of segregated accounts boosts the safety of clients’ funds in case the broker has financial problems.

According to the General Terms of Use, negative balance protection applies according to local regulations. Negative balance protection ensures that clients cannot lose more money than they have in their accounts. The MFSA-regulated entity provides negative balance protection.

We have summarized key aspects of the broker’s entities in terms of regulation and safety in the table below:

Is Deriv Safe to Trade With?

Deriv has entities regulated by Tier 2 and Tier 3 regulators, as well as one entity that is not subject to regulatory oversight. The choice of the entity depends on the client’s location and the instruments the client wants to deal with. The entities hold clients’ funds separately from the firm’s funds. Negative balance protection is ensured by the MFSA-regulated entity.

Stability and Transparency

In our tests for the Trust category, we also cover factors relating to stability and transparency. Here, we focused on how long the broker has been in business, how big the company is, and how transparent it is in terms of information being readily available.

Founded in 1999, Deriv is not publicly traded and does not have a bank parent, which is a usual case for a broker. Deriv received a decent score for fee structure transparency, regulation protection transparency, and general transparency.

The important documents can be found in the terms and conditions section of the broker’s website. These documents include General terms of use, Trading terms, Funds & transfers, Security & privacy, Risk disclosure, as well as Additional terms for certain entities.

In order to get a complete picture of the accounts offered by the broker, the potential client should open a demo account, which contains the account information in an easy-to-grasp form. While the process of the demo account opening is very easy, the absence of an easy-to-use account comparison table on the broker’s website led to a medium score in the fees structure transparency category in our rating.

In summary, our findings indicate that Deriv can be regarded as having a decent level of trust and stability due to the following factors:

• Regulated by Tier 2 and Tier 3 regulators.
• More than 24 years in business.
• High general transparency and regulation protection transparency.

Deriv Desktop and Web Platforms

In our review, we tested the MetaTrader 5 platform analyzing charts, indicators, drawing tools, orders, and the general ease of use of the platform.

Traders should note that while Deriv provides MT5, it also has other platforms including Deriv X, Deriv EZ, SmartTrader, DTrader, Deriv GO, and DBot. The broker intends to soon introduce a copy trading tool for their clients, offering them the chance to replicate the trading strategies of successful traders.

General Ease of Use

MT5 is an advanced trading platform that could be tailored to traders’ needs. The interface is rather intuitive, although some traders may want to search for tutorials to take a deep dive into MT5’s capabilities. In general, advanced traders would have no problems with MT5, while beginners have to spend some time learning the basics of this platform.

Beginner traders should go through various chart options, indicators, drawing tools, and orders. Also, they may need to learn how to create their watchlists and manage their trading positions. Nevertheless, this work requires some time and effort, traders who invest in that ultimately receive a powerful tool that helps achieve better trading results.

Charts

MT5 offers 97 indicators and 21 timeframes, which is more than enough to customize your charts and adjust them to your needs.

Trend indicators, oscillators, volumes, Bill Williams indicators, and custom indicators help to design the chart you need.

Available timeframes range from 1 minute to 1 month so they provide the trader with an opportunity to take a look at short-term developments and significant multi-month trends.

MT5 also supports objects:

• lines
• channels
• Gann tools
• Fibonacci tools
• Elliott tools
• shapes

Many traders use these popular tools to make decisions, so their presence is a must for any reputable trading platform.

Each chart could be displayed as a bar, a candlestick, and a line. Candlesticks are generally the most popular among traders as they suggest plenty of various patterns that are used for making trading decisions. Although, other types of charts also have their fans.

MT5 charts are accessible even to novice traders but they also offer enough options for experts.

Orders

MT5 offers all main order types including:

• Market order. This order is used to buy or sell the instrument at the current market price. It is used when the trader needs to establish a position in the fastest possible way. The main downside of the market order is the necessity to pay a spread, which is a difference between the bid price and the ask price.
• Limit orders. This order is used to buy or sell the instrument at a pre-set price or better. A limit order is used when the trader wants to get a specific entry point and is unwilling to pay the current market prices.
• Stop-loss orders. Stop-loss orders are used to get you out of the position when the price is moving in the wrong way. The order is triggered when the price reaches a specified point.
• Stop limit orders. This is a stop-loss order which puts a limit order instead of a market order when it is triggered. This is a dangerous way to get out of the position and it should be used only by experienced traders.
• Trailing stop orders. This order allows you to set a stop order that will move if your open position trends in the right direction. This order is used to protect your profits in case the market direction reverses.

Different expiration types are available for all pending orders, including GTC (good-till-cancel), Today, Specified, and Specified Day.

Deriv MT5 Mobile App

In this review, we have tested the Deriv MetaTrader 5 Mobile App for Android.

General Ease of Use

The MT5 mobile app for Android is rather easy to use. It provides charts, quotes, account balance info, economic calendar, news, and other tools giving traders an opportunity to make informed trading decisions.

Charts

MT5 mobile app offers:

• 30 technical indicators
• 24 drawing tools
• 9 timeframes
• 3 chart types

This selection of options is sufficient for mobile-based trading. Typically, the mobile app is used when the trader does not have access to the desktop platform but needs to monitor the market and open positions. While the app is helpful in certain circumstances, it is not as efficient as the desktop platform, which remains the primary solution for traders who require fast and active trading capabilities.

Orders

In an MT5 mobile app, you can set market orders, limit orders, and stop orders. Trailing stops are not available on mobile trading terminals.

Tradable Instruments

In its Financial Account Deriv provides access to 38 forex pairs, 13 commodities, 60 stocks, 31 ETFs, 11 indices and 43 cryptocurrencies. Traders should note that Deriv also offers options and multipliers in other accounts.

The number of available indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies is high. The number of available forex pairs is medium, while the number of stocks is low.

What are CFDs?

CFDs (Contracts for Differences) are financial instruments that enable traders to speculate on securities without possessing the underlying assets. The key advantage of CFDs is the access to significant leverage, which is typically not available when trading other instruments. In this light, CFDs are very popular in short-term trading.

What Can You Trade with Deriv?

• 38 forex pairs. The list includes popular forex pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/CAD.
• 13 commodities. WTI Oil, Brent Oil, Gold, Silver, and other commodities are available for trading.
• 60 stocks. Traders can speculate on the popular stocks from the U.S. and Europe.
• 31 ETFs. The list includes popular names like ARKK, DIA, and GLD.
• 11 indices. Dow Jones, DAX, Nikkei 225, and other major indices are available for trading.
• 43 cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, and other cryptos are on the list.

In its Financial Account, Deriv offers forex pairs, commodities, indices, stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. The number of available commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies is high. The number of available forex pairs is medium, while the number of stocks is low.

However, during our test, the customer support team didn’t answer one of the requested questions.

Deriv Customer Support Test

We have contacted customer support via online chat asking about account types and swap rates. The support team responded quickly and provided the necessary info on the types of accounts available at Deriv. However, the question on swap rates was not answered after many rounds of back-and-forth conversations between us and various support team members, which had a negative impact on the score.