Investment Platforms

Saxo review

7

(our review)

In our latest review, Saxo scores an 7. Since May 2024, the fees have been lowered and are now competitive. The company offers a good selection, along with a user-friendly app and dashboard. Saxo operates worldwide and has more than one million customers.

Contents:

What defines Saxo?

saxo logoAt Saxo, you can invest on your own or have a portfolio manager invest for you. If you choose to invest yourself, the platform functions as an execution-only service. It does not provide advice and expects you to make all investment decisions independently.

According to Saxo, more than one million investors were using the platform at the beginning of 2024. On average, they invest nearly 100.000 euros, bringing Saxo’s total managed assets to almost 100 billion euros. The platform is most often compared to eToro, DEGIRO and Trade Republic.

User-friendliness

Saxo offers a complete range of services and has developed a user-friendly app and website. Experienced investors appreciate the options and stock trading features. Many also value the available analyses, which are also useful for passive investors.

The platform makes it easy to review the performance of both your portfolio and individual stocks through graphs. You can set specific data points and track developments over time, allowing you to quickly compare your results with indices like the Stoxx Europe 600, the S&P 500, or other markets.

Returns on stocks and other investments in a graph

Price alerts

In addition to reviewing price trends, Saxo allows you to easily set price alerts. You can also add a personal note to the alert, which will appear when the price is reached. This is useful for preparing analyses in advance for future buys or sells.

Saxo also sends a weekly email with the top rising and falling investments. This is ideal for passive investors who want to keep an overview of their performance. The list only includes positions without an expiration date, so options are not included.

Investment offering

With Saxo Investor, the platform provides a full range of investment products. It grants access to more than fifty exchanges, where you can trade stocks, options, ETFs, investment funds, futures, bonds, and turbo certificates. According to Saxo, the broker offers over 72.000 financial products.

Most investors use the platform for self-directed investing, choosing their own investments. European and American stocks are particularly popular. Saxo also has a large number of investors trading options, though this requires passing a knowledge and experience test.

saxo order options

Trading options, futures, and turbos

Saxo Bank also offers riskier products like turbo certificates and futures. These are complex instruments that require knowledge, experience, and usually a high risk tolerance. Forty-nine percent of retail investors, which includes most private investors, lose money when trading turbo certificates on Saxo.

For active traders, Saxo provides SaxoTraderGo and SaxoTraderPro, which support algorithmic orders and one-click trading. These platforms also include an options matrix and advanced charting tools, useful for professional traders working with multiple screens. For private investors, the regular options of Saxo Investor usually already meets their needs.

Separate child, dollar, and euro investment accounts

Saxo sets itself apart by allowing users to open multiple accounts, including in different currencies. For example, if you receive dividends from American stocks or ETFs, you can open a separate dollar account. This lets you reinvest in dollar-denominated assets without conversion fees.

Additionally, Saxo makes it easy to open an extra account for a child, a business, or a joint account.

Auto invest

If you want to invest regularly according to a predefined plan or schedule, Saxo offers the convenient Auto Invest feature. This allows you to automatically buy stocks, investment funds, or ETFs. A wide range of investment themes is available, and there are no transaction fees for this type of investing.

Costs: depends on package and platform

Saxo offers different pricing packages, which may differ per country. As of May 2024, fees have been reduced. We signed up as Dutch private investors making only a few trades per week. For us, the Green package with the Saxo Investor platform was the most logical choice.

The fees what we had to pay with our plan were a monthly fee of 0.01 percent of our portfolio value, capped at 40 euros. This amount is refunded the following month as transaction fee credit, valid for one month. After that, transaction fees apply:

  • Euronext stocks: from 2 euros (0.08 percent of the transaction value, with a minimum of two and a maximum of one hundred fifty euros)
  • US stocks: from 1 dollar (0.08 percent of the transaction value, with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 150 dollars)
  • Euronext ETFs: from 2 euros (0.08 percent of the transaction value, with a range of 2 to 150 euros)
  • Investment funds: from 8 euros (0.15 percent of the transaction value, between 8 and 150 euros)
  • Options: 0.75 euros or dollars per contract

Overview of Saxo Bank's trading fees and commissions in Europe

Rates for Classic, Platinum en VIP

The rates mentioned above apply to our Bronze status, which Saxo uses in the Netherlands. Internationally, Saxo refers to these as Classic, Platinum, and VIP. We fall under the Classic subscription, which has no minimum balance requirement.

If your total assets, including investments and cash, exceed 200,000 euros at the end of the day, you qualify for Platinum status. If your assets go above a million euros, your account is upgraded to VIP status.

Platinum and VIP accounts benefit from lower fees. Instead of paying 0.08 percent for European or United States stocks, Platinum status lowers the rate to 0.05 percent, while VIP status reduces it further to 0.03 percent. If your total assets decrease, you keep the lower rates for the current month and the following two months.

Reliability

Saxo holds a BBB credit rating from S&P. The bank is partly owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. Limited, a Chinese company holding 49.88 percent of Saxo’s shares. The remaining shares are mainly owned by CEO Kim Fournais and Sampo Plc, a Scandinavian organization.

Saxo Bank is a reliable financial institution with its own IBAN. Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) – as Saxo is a Danish bank. It is also registered with the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and the Dutch Central Bank (DNB).

Review score: 7

In our latest review, Saxo received a score of 7. It is a solid broker for trading stocks, ETFs, and options. The app and platform are user-friendly, and the investment offering is extensive. The ability to open multiple accounts is a key advantage, and we see the Auto Invest feature as a plus.

Additionally, we at Investment Platforms.EU appreciate how Saxo displays and compares stock prices. We use this feature frequently, which contributes to Saxo’s strong user experience. As of May 2024, its fees have become more competitive.

Disadvantages of Saxo are that it is a rather traditional broker and does not offer partial shares or exchange-traded funds. For these options, Trade Republic is a better choice. Also, it does not allow direct trading in cryptocurrencies like eToro. However, you can invest in cryptocurrencies through connected exchange-traded fund providers.

Another disadvantage is that Saxo is largely Chinese. In our review, we did not see this as very important, but some investors do not like this idea. Saxo also only offers interest on cash that is not invested if the balance is at least 100.000 euros. If earning good interest on unused money is important, Freedom24 may be a better choice.

Dirkjan

Dirkjan

Owner of Eurolutions and actively involved as a business angel and investor in real estate, stocks, and crowdfunding projects.

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