Darwinex prints a commission in the EURUSD cell, and the cell is not blank. The spreads feed behind the forex and CFDs page, retrieved 18 October 2026, carries a timestamp of 16 October 2026 at 13:53:54. On the DX platform the row shows an average spread of 0.38 pips, a commission of 2.5 per order, an investor commission of 1.0, a retail margin of 3.33 percent, a contract of 100,000 euro and a tick value of 10 USD, on MT4 and MT5.
The 1.0 beside the 2.5 is a 60 percent cut. That is what the allocation page means by wholesale brokerage, while spreads and swaps stay on the retail schedule. The execution-costs note prices the 2.5 as €2.50 an order on 100,000 euro, two orders to a trade, so the trader's round trip is €5. The book that copies the strategy is the cheaper commission, and it still owes a 1.2 percent management fee and a 20 percent performance fee the DARWIN quote does not include.
Key facts
- One standard EUR/USD lot is a €5 round turn, €2.50 on each of two orders — Darwinex execution-costs page, retrieved 18 October 2026
- The spreads feed timestamped 16 October 2026 lists EURUSD at a 0.38 pip average, commission 2.5 and investor commission 1.0 — Darwinex graphics feed, retrieved 18 October 2026
- At the ECB euro reference rate of 1.1253 on 16 October 2026, that €5 commission converts to $5.63 — Frankfurter, retrieved 18 October 2026
- Retail margin on the row is 3.33 percent, in line with the 30:1 UK and EU retail cap — Darwinex feed and regulation page, 18 October 2026
- The legal footer names Tradeslide Trading Tech Limited, company 08061368, FCA FRN 586466 — Darwinex help pages, retrieved 18 October 2026
- Companies House lists that company as active, incorporated 9 May 2012, at Acre House, 11-15 William Road, London NW1 3ER — Companies House, retrieved 18 October 2026
- A public totals endpoint returned $11,268,637.80 of performance fees, which is not an assets figure — Darwinex API, 18 October 2026
What the €5 is actually counting
The execution-costs note puts forex commission at around 0.005 percent of nominal value in the base currency. On this pair that is the €5 example, shown per order, so a round trip is two orders.
A professional client, or a DARWIN with a D-Score above 60, may get up to 40 percent off. There is no second EURUSD cell for it. Forty percent off €5 is €3, arithmetic on the cap, not a published ticket.
Spread sits on top of the commission. The EURUSD average was 0.38 pips. A 0.0001 move on 100,000 euro is 10 USD, the row's tick value, so 0.38 pips is about $3.80 on one standard lot. With the converted commission the stack is about $9.43. Swaps are extra. The note says they are not symmetrical and can change every day.
On this row the long-side swap was −8.6 USD and the short-side swap was 1.3 USD, per contract. Those are Friday's figures inside a file opened on Sunday. They are not a promise about the next session.
The bars below leave the spread off. The three peers advertise raw or Razor spreads from 0.0. A floor of zero is not an average of 0.38. IC Markets (EU) Ltd also claims an average EUR/USD spread of 0.1 pips, with no date on the sentence. Darwinex's 0.38 is a field dated 16 October 2026. The chart is commission only.
Four commission tickets, one definition
Darwinex's bar is €5 times 1.1253, the ECB reference rate Frankfurter returned for 16 October 2026. The 18th was a Sunday, so Friday's print was the latest. Unrounded, the product is $5.6265, drawn as $5.63. Only the commission is converted. The spread in pips stays off the axis.
Tickmill Europe Ltd prices the Raw account, on its EU accounts page, at $3 per lot per side, spreads from 0.0 pips, on MT4 and MT5. Round turn, that is $6.00. There is no separate EURUSD commission cell, so the $3 is the Raw account rate used here as the quoted FX ticket. CySEC authorises the firm under CIF licence 278/15. Classic, on the same page, is zero commission and wider spreads. It is not the bar.
The earlier Tickmill review is a different document. The $6.00 here is Tickmill's own accounts page on 18 October 2026.
Pepperstone Limited, company 08965105, FCA 684312, at 4th Floor, 27 Old Jewry, London EC2R 8DQ, prints a Razor table on its UK costs page for an FX lot of 100,000 base units. A USD account shows "USD 7 when position opened". A GBP account shows £4.50, and the FAQ's "from £2.25 per lot per side" is that £4.50 counted at the open. The $7.00 bar is the MetaTrader USD line.
It is not every Pepperstone platform. The same UK page prices cTrader FX at 6 USD round trip and TradingView at 7 USD. Standard accounts take no FX commission and add a 1-point mark-up. The risk warning said 73.6 percent of retail accounts lose money. Our Pepperstone review follows the Razor commission into other currencies. Today's $7.00 is the USD row, read again for this piece.
IC Markets (EU) Ltd, company HE 356877, CySEC licence 362/18, publishes an MT4 Raw Spread schedule on its EU trading-costs page. A standard lot on a USD account is USD 3.50 a side, stated as USD 7.0 round turn. Euro and sterling accounts are EUR 6.5 and GBP 5.5 round turn. The $7.00 bar is the USD MetaTrader figure.
cTrader at IC is another formula: $3 per 100,000 USD traded, per side. Their example of one EURUSD lot, at 1.3000 and 1.3100, comes out at $7.83 round turn. Those prices are the page's illustration, not Friday's ECB rate, and they are not the bar. The IC Markets review is about that gap. It was still on the EU page this session.
| Firm and entity | Schedule used | Round turn, 1 standard lot |
|---|---|---|
| Darwinex, DX feed (retail commission) | MT4/MT5, €2.50 per order | €5.00, or $5.63 at ECB 1.1253 |
| Darwinex, same row, investor commission | 1.0 per order against retail 2.5 | €2.00 if the unit matches the €5 example |
| Tickmill Europe Ltd, CySEC 278/15 | Raw, $3 per lot per side | $6.00 |
| Pepperstone Limited, FCA 684312 | Razor, MetaTrader, USD account | $7.00, charged when the position is opened |
| IC Markets (EU) Ltd, CySEC 362/18 | MT4 Raw, USD account | $7.00 |
The retail Darwinex line is the lowest of the four MetaTrader commissions, and the investor row is lower still. Neither is a full cost. At the row's $10 tick value, the 0.38 pip average is another $3.80. Pepperstone and Tickmill did not print a timestamped EURUSD average this session, so the chart stops at commission.
Three legal names, one brand
The footer on the help pages uses one formulation. The brand and the domain are commercial names of Tradeslide Trading Tech Limited, FCA FRN 586466, company 08061368; of Sapiens Markets EU Sociedad de Valores SA, CNMV number 311, CIF A10537348; and of Tradeslide Global Ltd, Seychelles FSA SD171, company 8433817-1.
The regulation page adds the addresses. Sapiens Markets EU is at Calle de Recoletos 19, Bajo, 28001 Madrid. Tradeslide Global Ltd is at Office No. A17D, Providence Complex Building, plot V16050/v16051, Providence, Cascade, Mahé. Companies House, for 08061368, shows Acre House, 11-15 William Road, London NW1 3ER, status active, incorporated 9 May 2012. It says it does not check filings for accuracy. The SIC code is 82990, other business support. The regulatory claim is the FCA number Darwinex prints, not that SIC line.
The FCA services endpoint refused this session's request for firm 586466. The FRN here is the number on Darwinex's legal footer, paired with the company number Companies House returned. It is not a fresh register extract.
Which of the three holds the contract is a choice at signup. If you are not sure which one you opened, the page's instruction is to write to info@darwinex.com. The brand on the login screen does not name the counterparty.
A licence on the marketing page and a different company on the contract is a pattern this desk keeps meeting. Darwinex at least prints all three names in the footer.
The regulation table is the useful part. Darwinex Global, the Seychelles firm, is listed as available worldwide, with maximum leverage 200:1, bank and card payments, and MT4 and MT5. Deposit protection is marked absent. Negative-balance protection is marked absent. Investment in DARWINs is marked absent.
Darwinex EU, the CNMV firm, cites a MiFID II passport. Retail leverage is 30:1, professional clients may be assessed up to 200:1, and the compensation mark is €100,000 under FOGAIN. Darwinex UK adds card and Skrill to the bank line, keeps the 30:1 retail cap, and marks FSCS cover up to £85,000. Both mark negative-balance protection and DARWIN investment as present.
The spreads file agrees on the margin split. On the DX platform, EURUSD carries a retail margin of 3.33. On DX_GLOBAL the same pair still shows commission 2.5, investor commission 1.0 and an average spread of 0.38, and the retail-margin field is empty. The 0.5 percent margin is on both files. Half a percent is 200:1, the Global and professional cap.
One line on the forex page is easy to miss. Forex and CFD accounts are not available for new retail clients residing in Spain. The EU entity's office is in Madrid. A new retail client who lives there does not get the CFD account.
The book that copies you is priced apart
The forex page describes a broker that also wants the strategy turned into a DARWIN other people can allocate to. The investment-conditions page is where that second business sends its bill. Investing in DARWINs is not available to Darwinex Global clients. The Seychelles contract can be a trading account. On this page it is not an allocation account.
DARWIN forex orders get the wholesale rate, up to 60 percent cheaper than retail. The intro says "whole brokerage fees". The section under it says "wholesale". The feed is clearer. Investor commission on EURUSD is 1.0 where retail is 2.5. If 2.5 per order is the €2.50 in the worked example, 1.0 is €1 and the investor round trip is €2. Spreads and swaps do not change.
The management fee is 1.2 percent a year on invested equity, charged as 1/261 of that rate each business day on average equity, weighted by time open. The page's example treats 4,000 of equity held for 12 hours as 2,000 of average daily equity. Nothing is charged after more than four weeks with no market exposure.
The performance fee is 20 percent of third-party profit on a high-water mark. Of that, 15 goes to the provider and 5 to Darwinex. The quarter starts with the first allocation to that DARWIN in a portfolio. A mid-quarter close crystallises the fee so far. Later allocations in the same portfolio do not reset the quarter. A client may hold up to five portfolios, each with its own mark. The DARWIN quote includes brokerage and leaves both fees out.
Minimum allocation is 200 units of the wallet currency, then steps of 25, up to 100,000. The exchange is shut from 16:59 to 17:05 New York, and at 16:55 on Friday. Portfolio exposure can be raised to three times cash, and the page says that switch cannot be turned off. The stop-out is per DARWIN, at 90 percent of the client's own money.
The application page sets the first deposit at 500 euro, pounds or dollars for an individual or joint account, and 10,000 for a corporate account. The wallet currency is chosen once. Later trading accounts and DARWIN accounts stay in it. There is no swap-free account.
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Juan Colón, co-founder and chief executive, told Finance Magnates on 18 April 2023: "Darwinex Zero is not a prop trading platform, but the talent scout to our regulated asset management sisters." He also said Zero "takes neither customer monies nor provides investment advice", which is why he put that activity outside the regulated perimeter. The €5 ticket belongs to the regulated trading account, not to Zero.
An older line, in a FinanceFeeds piece dated 22 August 2016, has him saying: "All we do is provide outstanding execution, customer service and a differentiated product." The growth rate in the next sentence is a 2016 figure, and this review will not repeat it as current.
The loss warning on the help pages is 55 percent of retail accounts. The public endpoint returned 55.35 the same day. Pepperstone's UK page and the two CySEC pages were in the seventies. Those percentages are not a safety ranking. The performance-fee endpoint returned 11,268,637.80 US dollars, a cumulative fee total, not assets under management.
A 3.7, and what would move it
The rating on this review is 3.7 out of 5. It scores the contract and the ticket. It is not a view on the euro.
What holds the score up is a commission you can find. €5 round turn matches the feed, and the investor column matches the 60 percent sentence. Two of the three entities come with a compensation scheme and negative-balance protection. The comparison page does not pretend the Seychelles firm is the same product. Companies House shows the UK company active. The deposit floor, the lack of a swap-free account, and the Spain block on new retail CFD clients are printed before anyone funds.
What holds it down is the contract. Three parties under one brand is a real chance of funding the wrong firm, and the remedy on the page is an email. The FCA register did not confirm FRN 586466 in this session. Global clients miss the FSCS mark, miss negative-balance protection, and cannot allocate to DARWINs. The retail ticket is €5 plus a 0.38 pip average worth about $3.80, before a swap that can move daily. An investor who stops at the wholesale commission still owes 1.2 percent a year and 20 percent of new profit.
A higher score would need the entity named beside the deposit, a register extract that matches FRN 586466, and one timestamp on both the spread and the commission. A lower score would follow if the €5 example and the feed diverged, or if a UK or EU client landed with the Seychelles firm while the footer led with the FCA number. None of that is a reason to open or close an account.
For a trader who wants a published euro commission and a route to third-party capital on the UK or Spanish manager, the pages are unusually explicit. For anyone shopping one entity and a zero commission, this is the wrong shop. The $5.63 bar is the cheap end of four MetaTrader commissions, and it is still not the full ticket.
Questions the pages actually answer
Who holds the Darwinex client contract?
Whichever of three companies the signup selects. Tradeslide Trading Tech Limited is the FCA firm, FRN 586466, company 08061368. Sapiens Markets EU Sociedad de Valores SA is the CNMV firm, number 311. Tradeslide Global Ltd is the Seychelles firm, FSA SD171. The regulation page says the choice is made when the account is opened, and that a client who is unsure should email info@darwinex.com.
What does one standard EUR/USD lot cost in commission?
The execution-costs page prices it at €5 round turn, because the table's 2.5 is per order and a trade is two orders on 100,000 euro. The feed retrieved on 18 October 2026, timestamped 16 October, still showed 2.5 in the EURUSD commission field. At the ECB rate of 1.1253 that is $5.63, before the 0.38 pip average spread.
Do investors pay the same commission?
No. The same EURUSD row prints an investor commission of 1.0 against the retail 2.5, a 60 percent cut, which is what the allocation page calls wholesale brokerage. Spreads and swaps are unchanged. On top of that, investors pay 1.2 percent a year and a 20 percent performance fee, split 15 percent to the provider and 5 percent to Darwinex. Global clients cannot invest in DARWINs.
Is FRN 586466 confirmed on the FCA register?
Not in this session. The FCA services endpoint refused the request. The number used here is the one printed on Darwinex's legal footer, next to company 08061368. Companies House returned that company as active at Acre House, 11-15 William Road, London NW1 3ER. A footer plus a company record is not a register extract.
Can a new retail client in Spain open a forex account?
The forex and CFDs page says those accounts are not available for new retail clients residing in Spain. The EU entity's registered office is still Calle de Recoletos 19 in Madrid, and the regulation page still describes a MiFID passport. The restriction is about new retail CFD access, not about the company having vanished.
Why is the rating 3.7 rather than a round 4?
The commission is published and the entity table is unusually frank about what the Seychelles firm does not offer. Those are the marks in favour. The marks against are the three-way contract, the register gap this session, the Spain retail block, and a ticket that is €5 plus a spread rather than the zero a raw-spread advert implies. 3.7 is that balance. It is not a view on the next move in the euro.
This is analysis of published schedules and legal pages, not advice and not an instruction to open an account or to trade. Contracts for difference and margin forex can lose capital, including more than the deposit where negative-balance protection does not apply. Figures were retrieved on 18 October 2026 and can change without the notice a review will see. The 3.7 rating is an editorial score.