Investous Review 2026

Investous at a glance

Last verified: 2026-08-01. The €500 figure shown near the button is our recommended starting budget, not a real minimum — the true minimum deposit is €250.

Regulation & safety

Investous operates under Enforcement action (FCA / CySEC — F1Markets Ltd) and scores 1/5 on our regulation and safety scale. That is at the lighter end of our set, so you should weigh the higher counterparty risk carefully before funding a large balance. Client funds are not segregated, and negative balance protection is not offered.

Fees & spreads

The typical EUR/USD spread at Investous is 1.9 pips, and commission is zero per lot. That is wider than the sharpest brokers in our set, so active, high-volume traders may pay more here. With no per-lot commission, the spread is effectively your whole cost to trade.

Platforms

Investous offers WebTrader, Proprietary across 3 asset classes (Forex, CFDs, Indices). The proprietary platform adds a more modern, app-first alternative to MetaTrader. Maximum retail leverage is 1:300.

Account & minimum deposit

The real minimum first deposit at Investous is €250, a little higher than the cheapest brokers we track. A free demo account is available. While you can open with the minimum, we suggest budgeting around €500 so you have room to manage risk sensibly rather than trading a tiny, easily-wiped balance.

Deposits & withdrawals

Investous typically processes withdrawals in 12 business days, which is on the slower side, so plan ahead if you need funds quickly. Actual arrival depends on your payment method and bank. Its 2.2/5 Trustpilot rating across 260 reviews gives a rough external read on how smoothly customers say payouts and support work.

The regulatory decisions on record

In its 1 June 2020 enforcement, the FCA named F1Markets Ltd — trading as Investous, StrattonMarkets and Europrime — among four Cypriot firms selling high-risk CFDs to UK consumers using unauthorised celebrity endorsements. The FCA published a First Supervisory Notice for F1Markets Ltd and required the firms to stop selling CFDs to UK customers, close positions, and return UK customers’ money.

CySEC, acting on FCA-supplied information, partially suspended F1Markets Ltd: it could only continue serving existing non-UK-resident clients, was prohibited from promoting services or taking new clients, and was explicitly barred from serving existing or new UK-resident clients.

As with every entry in this dataset, we assert only what the FCA and CySEC published. Those decisions are the fact; nothing here goes beyond them.

The pattern the regulators described

The FCA’s account of the four-firm case applies to F1Markets as one of the group: consumers given insufficient information, pressured into larger CFD positions, sometimes encouraged to take out credit, charged undisclosed fees, and not paid money owed. The multiple trading names (Investous, StrattonMarkets, Europrime) illustrate a common tactic — one authorised entity fronting several consumer-facing brands.

For a newcomer, multiple brand names running off a single legal entity are a reason to slow down and verify the underlying company, not a sign of scale or legitimacy. The protections you rely on attach to the entity and its authorisation status, which here was restricted by CySEC and curtailed in the UK by the FCA.

Our engine scores Investous in the lowest credibility band accordingly — no feature slot, no affiliate link.

How to verify

Read the FCA press release of 1 June 2020 and the First Supervisory Notice for F1Markets Ltd, both public on fca.org.uk, alongside CySEC’s suspension decision. Search “F1Markets” as well as the brand names “Investous”, “StrattonMarkets” and “Europrime” so a rebrand cannot hide the history.

More broadly: always map the consumer brand to its legal entity and check that entity on the home regulator’s register and on IOSCO I-SCAN before depositing.

One entity, many brand names

A striking detail of the F1Markets case is that a single legal entity fronted three consumer brands — Investous, StrattonMarkets and Europrime. This is a common structure, and it is worth understanding because it defeats the naive check of “does this brand have complaints?” A clean-looking brand can sit on an entity with a serious enforcement record, and a fresh brand can be spun up overnight.

The restriction CySEC imposed — allowing only existing non-UK clients and barring new business and UK residents — attaches to the entity, F1Markets Ltd, not to any one of its brands. So does the FCA’s action. That is why the durable protection is to trace every consumer brand back to its authorised entity and check that entity’s current standing.

For a beginner, treat multiple sibling brands running off one company as a prompt for caution rather than a sign of a big, trustworthy operation. Ask which legal entity you are actually contracting with, and verify it.

What “passporting” meant and why its removal mattered

To understand the Investous action you need to understand passporting. Under the EU single market, a firm authorised in one member state — Cyprus, in F1Markets’ case — could “passport” its services into other member states, including the UK, without a separate local licence. It is an efficiency mechanism that assumes the home regulator’s supervision travels with the firm.

The problem the FCA identified was that this assumption broke down: a Cyprus-authorised firm was selling high-risk CFDs to UK consumers with unauthorised celebrity endorsements and failing to pay money owed. Because the firm was passporting rather than UK-authorised, the FCA’s ordinary tools were limited — so it reached for the unprecedented step of removing passporting rights, effectively ejecting the firm from the UK market.

For a consumer, the lesson is subtle but important: “regulated in the EU” is not the same as “regulated and well-supervised for you, here, now.” Passporting could put a lightly supervised firm in front of you with a veneer of EU respectability. Always confirm authorisation and standing in your own jurisdiction, for the specific entity.

The honest verdict

Investous / F1Markets Ltd was subject to FCA action and CySEC partial suspension in 2020. We include it only for transparency, in the lowest credibility band, with no affiliate relationship.

Beginners should choose a currently authorised broker verifiable on their regulator’s register. Even there, CFDs carry a high risk of loss and most retail clients lose money — avoiding a firm with this enforcement history is the minimum bar.

Who Investous is for

Investous suits traders who value its promotions and account flexibility, especially with 12 business days withdrawals and a €250 entry point. It is a weaker fit for anyone who prioritises top-tier regulation above all else — its light oversight is the main trade-off to accept.

Neutral score breakdown

Sub-scores are computed only from objective data — affiliation and bonuses are never inputs. See our methodology.

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