The Top 10 Forex Brokers for Beginners
Trading with the right forex broker is critical to success in the international currency markets. As a currency investor, you may have specific platform, tool, or research needs that should be met. Understanding your investment style can help determine which FX broker may serve as the best forex broker for you.
Our team here at ForexBrokers.com has assembled a quick guide to some of the top online forex brokers. In each individual FX broker summary, we highlight where each broker stands overall and against its competitors.
This review will surface the most important features and/or benefits of selecting one forex broker over another, including discounted commissions, differences in trading account requirements, available research tools and trading platforms, as well as the quality of customer support.
- Best FX Brokers for Forex Trading
Here’s a breakdown of some of the best foreign exchange brokers available for online fx trading.
- Saxo Bank logo Saxo Bank – 5 Stars
Saxo Bank finished 1st in our 2018 Annual Review of 43 brokers. Its competitive pricing, access to a wide range of markets, multiple regulatory licenses, and innovative trading platforms provide forex traders around the glove an all-around excellent offering.
- IG logo IG – 5 Stars
Rated as our Most Trusted Broker of 2018, IG Received 5 Stars and second overall in our 2018 Review. IG also finished #1 for Offering of Investments (5 Stars) and Education (4.5 Stars). In total, IG placed Best in Class for seven of the eight review categories.
- CMC Markets logo CMC Markets – 4.5 Stars
CMC Markets finished #1 for Commission & Fees as well as Active Trading and provides traders access to the most currency pairs of any fx broker.
- Forex.com logo Forex.com – 4.5 Stars
FOREX.com earned 4.5 stars Overall and finished Best in Class in seven main categories. The firm’s parent company, GAIN Capital, remains one of the largest forex brokers in the United States and caters to global forex traders of all experience levels.
- Interactive Brokers logo Interactive Brokers – 4.5 Stars
Ranked #1 for Professional traders, Interactive Brokers is known for its diverse offering of investments. Founded nearly 40 years ago, clients can trade on more than 120 market centers in 26 different countries, and deal in forex, CFDs, stocks, options, ETFs, futures, bonds, and more.
- TD Ameritrade logo TD Ameritrade – 4.5 Stars
Available to US residents for forex trading, TD Ameritrade ranked #1 for Customer Service and Platform Technology in our 2018 Review. The broker’s thinkorswim platform provides one of the most powerful charting applications, offering nearly 400 technical indicators.
- IG logo Dukascopy – 4.5 Stars
Dukascopy Bank boasts the most robust offering of desktop and mobile platforms, helping it finish #1 for Platform & Tools and #1 for Mobile Trading. Dukascopy also finished Best in Class for Commission & Fees, Research, Social Copy Trading, and Active Trading.
- Choosing the Best Forex Brokerage
Here are some of the most important factors to keep in mind when choosing the best online forex brokerage for currency trading.
- Regulation: Not all regulatory jurisdictions and licenses are created equal for international forex and CFD Brokers. Investors should know which country their broker is based in and which country’s laws apply to their account. To avoid fraud, it is critical to use a broker that is well-known and well-regulated. To quickly identify brokers you can trust, reference the Trust Score we provide on each broker’s review page.
- Company Policies and History: As part of every investors due diligence process, steps to help ensure account security should include verifying a firm’s regulatory licenses and its legal obligations in safeguarding client monies. It’s also important to review the customer agreements, read up on the company’s history, and make sure their primary offices are located in a well-respected country, if not your own.
- Range of Markets Offered: It’s always important to determine which markets or individual trading products (currency pair or stock symbol) you want to trade, then check to make sure they are offered. Also check to make sure the products you want to trade are available in your region. See section, “Best offering of Currency Pairs, CFDs” below.
- FX Trading Tools & Platforms: Which platforms and trading tools are available for the products you are considering? Are compatible with your web browser, computer operating system, or mobile smartphone, or any other devices you are planning to use for trading? See section, “Best Forex Trading Platform” below.
- FX Analysis and Global Market Research: Available research tools for scanning, analyzing, and overall conducting technical and fundamental analysis will vary from broker to broker. See section, “FX Research” below.
- Forex spreads, commissions, and overall trading costs: For forex trading, spreads and any round-turn commissions will make up the all-in cost to complete (open/close) each trade. The same generally applies to CFDs, in terms of bid/ask spreads plus any per trade commission. See section, “Lowest Trading Costs” below.
- Order Execution: Available execution methods can depend on whether the broker is a principal dealer acting as a market-maker, and/or if they are an agency-only broker relying on third-party dealers (liquidity providers). Other execution methods, policies, conditions, or available order types can vary (including premium or free trade protection tools such as guaranteed stop-loss orders, fill-or-kill or fill with within a maximum deviation range) can vary from broker to broker.
- Order Type and Execution: Some execution methods or order-types may incur negative or positive slippage. This means orders will fill but the fill price could be better or worse than requested. Since each broker is different, some firms may re-quote an order with a new price for you to accept (or reject) in the case the price has changed.
- Customer Service: Customer service is important. The scope and quality of support can be a major differentiator across online FX brokerages, ranging from the speed and overall quality of assistance to the availability across global trading hours and international markets. See section, “Customer Service” below.
- Education: Currency trading can be complex. Even seasoned investors are constantly learning to expand their breadth of currency markets. The disparity between currency brokers that provide thorough, high quality education, and those who do not is vast. See section, “Education” below.