For those new to forex trading, a forex broker is a company that provides you with a trading account and platform for trading online. Anyone can open an account and trade forex currencies, CFD’s on stocks, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, energies and more. You can see a selection of my best forex brokers if you like.
The majority of forex brokers will provide clients with the popular and widely used MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform free of charge for desktop, web and mobile devices. MetaTrader 4 is well known for its intuitive interface and abundance of trading tools. Its user friendliness makes it a popular choice for beginners whilst it has plenty of advanced functionality to satisfy the needs of most seasoned traders.
You can choose to open a demo account if you wish to practice your trading strategies with virtual funds until you feel confident enough to open a real account. This is common practice amongst new traders as it enables them to familiarise themselves with the trading platform and how trading online works.
Brokers charge a fee for using their services. This can include a spread and commission on each trade you place with them. It is generally considered that the lower the spread and commission, the cheaper your trading costs can be.
In addition to broker fees, there are other factors worth considering such as the regulation, account funding options, minimum deposit, leverage, educational resources, trading tools, market analysis and customer service.
Whilst there are many forex brokers to choose from, I would personally choose a regulated and established brokerage that has tight spreads, competitive commissions with plenty of liquidity providers (LP’s) for reliable execution speeds at the best possible prices. I would also opt for a regulated broker to help give me peace of mind that my funds should be safe in the case something should go wrong.
Hankotrade is a retail trading broker that operates the ECN/STP execution model, passing clients’ orders directly to the liquidity providers without a dealing desk intervention. They offer multiple financial instruments across different asset classes, including forex, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, for trading online through the user-friendly MetaTrader trading platforms for ..Read More
LMFX is an established Forex and CFD broker that provides online trading services to retail and institutional clients across the globe. The broker offers a great range of trading instruments in various markets for you to trade via the user-friendly MetaTrader 4 platform, including Forex, Commodities, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals ..Read More
IC Markets are one of my favourite forex brokers that allow you to open a trading account to trade and invest in Forex, Stocks, Cryptos, Commodities, Indices, Bonds, Precious Metals and Energies. They have an impressive selection of more than 1,780 trading instruments that you can buy and sell on ..Read More
AvaTrade is a multiple award-winning forex broker that has some of the most competitive trading conditions that I have seen from any online broker, including tight spreads, rapid trade execution speeds, thousands of tradeable instruments with plenty of forex currency pairs (50+ majors / exotics), stocks and even 24/7 cryptocurrency ..Read More
Founded in 1974, IG are one of the biggest online brokers in the world and have won multiple awards over the years for their excellent trading and investing products and services. IG offer over 17,000 tradable products across multiple asset classes, such as forex, indices, stocks, commodities, bonds, metals, energies, ..Read More
TMGM is a regulated online broker that combines a transparent trading environment with the best pricing for clients to trade a huge selection of 12,000+ financial instruments across multiple asset classes including Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities and Cryptos. You get access to the powerful yet user-friendly MetaTrader and IRESS Viewpoint ..Read More
RockGlobal (Previously Rockfort Markets) is an online trading broker based in New Zealand, which offers a great range of financial instruments including shares, options, indices, forex, ETFs, CFDs, and futures for online trading. This regulated broker provides clients with the powerful and user-friendly MetaTrader 4 and Trader Workstation trading platforms, ..Read More
Operating from Seychelles, Exclusive Markets is an online trading broker with over 30,000 financial instruments across different asset classes — forex, metals, commodities, indices, stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies — for trading through the advanced MT5 trading platform. The broker provides traders with favourable trading conditions, such as competitive commission fees, ..Read More