Is Webull Legal in Philippines? Is it Safe?
Reliability is the key criterion for choosing any broker. If you have doubts about the reliability of a company, it is not recommended to work with it. Traders from Philippines often ask “Is Webull safe? Does the company operate legally in the territory of the country, can it be trusted?" Traders Union analysts have prepared a detailed analysis, where we will see whether Webull is legal in Philippines and whether you can work with this broker.
Short summary about the broker Webull
Webull is an American broker-dealer headquartered in New York City and is a FINRA (CRD#: 289063/SEC#: 8-69978), SIPC, NYSE, and NASDAQ member. The company was incorporated in May 2017, and in January 2018 it was already registered with the SEC and CFTC. It is part of Webull Financial LLC and is licensed to carry out brokerage activities in all 50 US states. The broker offers a wide range of stock market assets, futures, professional analytics and an intuitive trading platform with a variety of technical and fundamental analysis tools.
| 💰 Account currency: | USD |
| 🚀 Minimum deposit: | From $1 |
| ⚖️ Leverage: | 1:2 for overnight trades, 1:4 for intraday trades |
| 💱 Spread: | No |
| 🔧 Instruments: | Stocks, options, futures, ETFs, ADRs, cryptocurrencies |
| 💹 Margin Call / Stop Out: | No |
Pros and cons of Webull
👍 Advantages of trading with Webull:
•Zero commission when trading stocks, options, and ETFs.
•No minimum deposit requirements for brokerage and retirement (IRA) accounts.
•Access to professional intelligent analytics and trading tools.
👎 Disadvantages of Webull:
•There is no support for trading in mutual funds, futures, bonds or stocks of the OTC markets.
•It doesn’t provide an opportunity to make transactions with currency pairs.
•Cryptocurrency trading is available only in mobile applications.
•Replenish your account from $2,000 to trade with favorable leverage.
What information should a broker disclose?
Only the broker that discloses all legal information can be considered reliable. You need to take notice of this factor when choosing the company.
The official website of the broker should contain the following information:
-
The name of the legal entity.
-
Country of registration.
-
Number of the registration certificate.
-
Legal address, factual addresses of the offices of the broker.
-
License to conduct financial activity.
The information must be published either in a special section on the website of the broker or in the disclaimer. Make sure to check it.
The official website of the broker must also provide internal regulatory documents. Before you start working with a company, review Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, Risks Notice, and other documents.
Is Webull legal in Philippines? Broker’s license
Security (Protection for Investors)
Webull Financial LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The company is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq.
The brokerage is insured. Coverage limits protect securities and funds up to $37.5 million for securities of any client and up to $900,000 for a trader's funds with an active account at Webull. However, cryptocurrency trading is offered through an account with Apex Crypto, which is not a registered broker-dealer or FINRA member, so digital currency assets are not insured.
👍 Advantages
- The broker is insured.
- You can file a complaint with the body that controls the broker’s activities
👎 Disadvantages
- The insurance does not apply to cryptocurrencies
- Time consuming period to open an account and for verification
- Limited choice of payment systems following the requirements of regulators
Brokers that are similar to Webull
In addition to license and reliability, you also need to take notice of the trading conditions of brokers. This is important both for beginners and experienced traders, as the demands of the clients with different experience differ. Traders Union analysts have prepared a comparison table of Webull with similar brokers.
Comparison of Webull with other Brokers
| Webull | eToro | Revolut | eOption | Saxo Bank | Robinhood | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Account currency |
USD |
USD |
USD |
USD |
USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, HKD, etc. |
USD, EUR |
Minimum deposit |
From $1 |
$100 |
From $1 |
Cash account — from $1 Margin account — from $2000 |
1 unit of base currency |
$1 (Cash account, Crypto account), $2,000 (Margin account) |
Leverage |
1:2 for overnight trades, 1:4 for intraday trades |
1:30 |
1:1 |
Floating |
Up to 1:30 for Forex |
Floating |
Spread |
No |
From 2 pips |
£2.99 —£12.99 |
No |
No |
Zero fees on cryptocurrencies, stocks, ETFs and options |
Instruments |
Stocks, options, futures, ETFs, ADRs, cryptocurrencies |
Stocks, ETFs, stock indices |
Shares, fractional shares, crypto, XAU, XAG, XPT |
Options, stocks, fixed income, ETFs, listed bonds |
Stocks, ETFs, ETNs, ETCs, bonds, options, futures, mutual funds, and leveraged instruments for CFDs and Forex |
Equities, ETFs, exchange-traded options, cryptocurrencies, American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), OTC instruments, gold, futures |
Margin Call / Stop Out |
No |
No |
No |
No |
100%/75% |
No |
Webull is a trading and investing broker focused on experienced market participants.
eToro is an international broker for trading and investing in assets, copying trades of experienced market players and earning income on offering your own successful strategy. The activities of eToro are controlled by European financial regulators: CySEC and FCA. The broker offers its clients the opportunity to trade indices with a maximum leverage of 1:20 and ETF instruments with a leverage of 1:5. Size of leverage in eToro can also vary depending on the regulation of the division of the broker you work with.
Revolut provides its clients access to shares of international and American companies, cryptocurrencies, and metals. For investors, Revolut offers a social trading program. Revolut's copy trading platform is trendy among investors because it has a forum for traders to communicate with each other in real-time. Also, various charts and indicators are available in the Revolut trading platform for technical analysis. Revolut is a company actively developing and plans to make all of its services available to foreign citizens. Fractional share trading offered by the broker allows beginners to learn trading without high financial risks.
eOption is regulated by the following financial institutions: FINRA and SIPC. The next trading instruments are available to the clients of the company: stocks, options, ETFs, bonds, as well as fixed-income instruments. eOption fees are lower than those of competitors. In addition, a section with professional analytics is available on the official website of the broker. The eOption broker is a regulated broker focused on active US traders who prefer to trade options.
Saxo Bank focuses on providing access to trading in various markets that include stocks, bonds, Forex, futures, and options, as well as to mutual funds and ETFs. Moreover, it offers portfolio management tools and analytical data for traders and investors.
Robinhood is well-suited for beginner investors seeking a simple and affordable way to engage with financial markets. However, potential users should be aware of the platform's limitations and consider them carefully in light of their individual investment goals and region of residence
Conclusions
Traders Union showed that Webull is indeed very reliable and legal in Philippines. The company holds all necessary licenses to conduct financial activity; it complies with all key requirements of the regulator. Legality of the broker’s operation in the country is one of the key criteria for choosing the company for trading. It is important to take this into consideration, as well as the trading conditions. In this case, we can say that the broker meets all the reliability requirements.
FAQ
Can I work with a broker who does not hold the license?
Trading with a broker without the license involves high risks. The license guarantees that the company performs its obligations. Working with a broker without the license creates a risk of manipulations with quotes, failure to pay, and other schemes.
Where can I complain if a broker with a license violated its obligations?
If a broker allows a violation of the conditions, you can appeal to the authority that issued the license and to the court.
How do I choose the best broker in Philippines for beginners?
Novice traders need to consider the brokers with licenses issued in Philippines or other European Union countries, availability of a demo account or cent account, the level of commissions and fees and minimum deposit, as well as educational materials.
Related Articles
Team that worked on the article
Mikhail Vnuchkov joined Traders Union as an author in 2020. He began his professional career as a journalist-observer at a small online financial publication, where he covered global economic events and discussed their impact on the segment of financial investment, including investor income. With five years of experience in finance, Mikhail joined Traders Union team, where he is in charge of forming the pool of latest news for traders, who trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, Forex instruments and fixed income.
Olga Shendetskaya has been a part of the Traders Union team as an author, editor and proofreader since 2017. Since 2020, Shendetskaya has been the assistant chief editor of the website of Traders Union, an international association of traders. She has over 10 years of experience of working with economic and financial texts. In the period of 2017-2020, Olga has worked as a journalist and editor of laftNews news agency, economic and financial news sections. At the moment, Olga is a part of the team of top industry experts involved in creation of educational articles in finance and investment, overseeing their writing and publication on the Traders Union website.