What Is A Forex Broker

The ForexBrokers.com annual forex broker review (six years running) is the most cited in the manufacture. With over 50,000 words of research across the site, we spend hundreds of hours testing forex brokers each year. Here'due south how we test.

Are you looking to speculate that the Euro (EUR) currency will go up in value against the U.S. Dollar (USD)? To do so, yous would merchandise (or place a spread bet on) the EUR/USD currency pair, which is a forex investment. The forex market is the largest and most liquid market in the world, representing every global currency with trading conducted 24 hours a twenty-four hours, v days a week.

To trade forex, you lot demand a reputable online broker. Trading with a trusted forex broker is a crucial factor for success in international currency markets. Equally a contract for difference (CFD) trader or forex investor, you may have specific needs related to which platform, trading tools, or research requirements y'all accept. Understanding more nigh your investment manner needs can help determine which forex broker will exist best for you.

Each twelvemonth, our team here at ForexBrokers.com spends 5 months testing the biggest names in foreign exchange and assembles a guide to the best forex brokers for forex and CFDs trading. Here are our findings for 2022.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing coin speedily due to leverage. Between 65% and 82% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether y'all sympathise how CFDs work and whether you tin can afford to have the high take chances of losing your coin.

Best Forex Brokers for 2022

IG - Best overall broker, most trusted
Saxo Bank - Best web based trading platform
CMC Markets - Splendid overall, best platform technology
Interactive Brokers - Great overall, best for professionals
TD Ameritrade FX - All-time desktop platform, U.S. just
FOREX.com - Excellent all-round offering
XTB - Bully inquiry and teaching
Urban center Index - Excellent all-round offering
Swissquote - Trusted banker, best banking services

2022 Overall Ranking

Here are the Overall rankings for the 39 online brokers who participated in our 2022 Annual Review, sorted by Overall ranking.

2022 Category Winners

For the ForexBrokers.com 2022 Annual Review, all online broker participants were assessed on 113 variables across seven primary categories. four,407 data points were nerveless in total. Here's how we tested.

Alongside master categories, ForexBrokers.com ranks brokers by the most popular investor categories. Finally, each year ForexBrokers.com honors the brokerages who get above and beyond in the areas that matter most to investors.

Winner: IG

Regulated and trusted across the globe, IG offers traders the ultimate parcel of excellent trading and enquiry tools, industry-leading education, comprehensive market research, and an extensive list of tradeable products. This fantastic all-round experience makes IG the best overall broker in 2022.

Trust: Founded in 1974, IG is publicly traded (LON: IGG) and regulated in six tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a condom banker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading. All jurisdictions considered, IG ranks as the most trusted forex and CFDs broker in our 2022 Review.
Commissions: IG uses its size to provide traders with consistent pricing beyond the board — regardless of the product you trade — and shines for its active trader pricing available through its Forex Directly accounts.
Forex trading platforms: While IG also offers MetaTrader and premium MT4 add-ons from FX Bluish, just 76 tradeable instruments are bachelor. In that location'southward no question; IG'south flagship platform is the improve pick between the ii, and offers an all-encompassing range of tradeable markets.

Runner-Up: Saxo Bank

For traders who can afford the steep $2,000 minimum deposit (GBP 500 for the U.K.), Saxo Bank offers fair pricing, splendid trading platforms, phenomenal research, reliable customer service, and over twoscore,000 instruments to trade.

Trust: Founded in 1992, Saxo Bank operates multiple regulated banks and is licensed in six tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (depression-take chances) for trading forex and CFDs.
Commissions: Saxo Bank provides traders with first-class all-around pricing. For active traders (and those with large account balances), Saxo Bank offers competitive pricing in its Platinum and VIP accounts, which crave a $200,000 and $1 meg balance, respectively.
Forex trading platforms: The unabridged Saxo Trader client experience is absolutely vivid. Aslope access to forty,000 tradeable instruments, Saxo Bank'south flagship SaxoTraderGo platform is terrific, and includes everything traders require to navigate the market — and is our pick for the all-time web-based platform in 2022.

Podium finisher: CMC Markets

CMC Markets is a globally-trusted banker that delivers a terrific offer for traders thanks to notably low pricing, well-nigh x,000 tradeable instruments, and the Next Generation trading platform, which comes packed with quality inquiry and innovative features such equally its Dynamic Trading portfolio tool.

Trust: Founded in 1989, CMC Markets is publicly traded and regulated in iv tier-1 jurisdictions alongside 2 tier-2 jurisdictions, making it a safe banker (low-risk) for trading forex and CFDs.
Commissions: CMC Markets is a leader for low-price trading, offer trading costs for forex that are measurably lower than the industry average.
Forex trading platforms: TThe CMC Markets Side by side Generation platform comes with a massive selection of nearly 10,000 tradeable instruments. With its advanced tools, comprehensive market research and excellent mobile app, CMC delivers a terrific user feel.

Best Forex Trading Platforms

Of the 39 brokers that we evaluated for our 2022 annual review, the following forex brokers delivered the best trading platform experience:

Saxo Banking concern - Best VIP client experience
IG - Most trusted, great for beginners
CMC Markets - All-time platform technology
Interactive Brokers - All-time for professionals
TD Ameritrade FX - Best desktop platform (U.S. only)
FXCM - Great for algorithmic traders

Which broker is the best for forex?

IG takes showtime identify in our 2022 Almanac Review equally the best forex broker, with 100 bachelor currency pairs and the power to trade CFDs and forex options, traders have plenty of choices. IG is the only broker that is regulated in both Switzerland and the U.S., in addition to nearly a dozen global licenses — making IG one of the most trusted brokers.

What does a forex broker do?

A forex broker is a visitor that is licensed (or considered exempt) by a national regulator to grant you — equally a retail or professional person client — the ability to buy or sell strange currencies, by way of an online trading platform or over the phone (known in the manufacture every bit vox broking). A forex broker may offer you the underlying currency, or a not-deliverable spot contract or derivative such as a contract for difference, or CFD, depending on any relevant state-specific regulatory restrictions. It's important to simply apply brokers that are properly regulated to reduce your risk of being scammed.

Exercise I need a banker for forex?

Yes, to merchandise forex you'll demand to use a forex broker. You lot'll demand to open an business relationship and deposit enough collateral (margin) to enable you to identify orders with your broker to buy or sell forex.

The forex broker's job is to execute your orders — either internally by acting as the chief to your trade (market maker execution), or past sending your orders to another market thus acting equally your amanuensis (bureau execution).

Your broker should be a trustworthy 1, regulated and properly licensed in the aforementioned country you reside or in a major financial center. Learn about our Trust Score for brokers.

Are forex brokers reliable?

The most trustworthy brokers are also reliable. Reliability depends on which broker you choose, and can vary beyond brokers. You lot must exist able to rely on your banker to safeguard the money in your brokerage account.

There are other trust factors to consider how undecayed a broker is, such every bit ensuring information technology has acceptable fiscal operating capital, how long it's been in operation, and whether it holds proper regulatory licenses in the countries where it operates to help ensure compliance with local laws.

Who is the biggest forex broker in the earth?

IC Markets is the largest forex broker by trading volume, with over $774 billion in forex trading volume in the third quarter of 2021 alone, according to data compiled by Finance Magnates.

Note: The largest broker may vary depending on the time period used to measure out size. But common to the biggest brokers is that they accept the almost assets under direction, the largest number of clients, and greatest market place capitalization (valuation for public companies). All are important factors to consider when gauging the size of a forex broker.

What are the top ten forex brokers?

Here are the top ten brokers by forex and CFD trading book co-ordinate to information compiled past Finance Magnates during the 3rd quarter of 2021 (data excludes Nippon due to the abnormally loftier trading volumes known to come up from Japanese brokers):

Exness
IC Markets
IG
Plus500
Saxo Bank
CMC Markets
TMGM
FXCM
Proceeds Capital
Pepperstone

Which forex broker has the best platform?

CMC Market place's Next Generation platform comes with a massive selection of nearly ten,000 tradeable instruments. It delivers a terrific user experience, as well every bit advanced tools, comprehensive market research, and an excellent mobile app. Hands down, the CMC Markets Next Generation trading platform is a market leader that volition impress even the pickiest of traders. The new Dynamic Trading tool allows you to place multiple trades simultaneously, which was a nice innovation by CMC Markets this year.

CMC Markets Next Generation Platform light theme.

CMC Markets Next Generation Platform low-cal theme

If you're a item fan of mobile platforms, run into our picks for best forex trading apps here.

Is $100 plenty for forex?

Yes, $100 can exist plenty to merchandise forex and exam a trading strategy. Information technology's non a lot of money, so the potential run a risk/reward volition be limited. Even so, trading with a small amount of risk capital can permit you test a new investment methodology, or allow beginners new to forex trading learn past trial and error.

Trading forex with such a small-scale corporeality of capital letter will severely hamper your bottom line merely tin can exist a great way to learn with less risk. For example, if you open the smallest merchandise size for forex — such as 1,000 units of the EUR/USD pair — and the price is 1.1224, your broker may crave a thirty:1 margin requirement. That three.33% of the resulting $1,122.4 trade value would stop up equally $37.41 in collateral, which would go frozen upon opening the trade. This would simply leave $62.41 available (and this calculation doesn't fifty-fifty include the cost of the spread).

Which forex broker charges the lowest fees?

When information technology comes to pricing — commission plus spread — Tickmill offers the most competitive all-in costs, especially for active and VIP traders, who have access to pricing that is among the lowest in the industry. Using typical spread data listed past Tickmill for its Pro account offering of 0.xiii pips for the EUR/USD, the all-in cost equates to 0.53 pips when factoring in the RT commission equivalent of 0.four pips.

Methodology: To assess brokers, we have into consideration how much beginners, average traders, and even more seasoned traders would pay, looking at boilerplate spreads for standard forex contracts (100,000 units) as well as mini accounts (10,000 units) and micro accounts (1,000 units), where applicable. We then calculate the all-in cost by including any round-turn commission that is added to prevailing spreads.

Which forex banker offers the nigh CFDs?

IG offers the almost tradeable CFDs in the manufacture, 19,537. CFDs, or "contracts for difference," enable traders to speculate whether the price of a stock, forex pair, market index, or commodity will go up or down without taking ownership of the underlying asset.

Which forex banker offers the well-nigh currency pairs?

Alongside nearly 10,000 CFDs, CMC Markets offers the most tradeable currency pairs, with 158 pairs that can be quoted both ways (i.e. EUR/USD or USD/EUR), which comes to a total of 316 pairs.

Which forex broker is best for professionals?

As a highly-trusted and regulated global brand, Interactive Brokers (IBKR) provides everything professional traders might need, from avant-garde trading tools and platform features to competitive pricing across a broad variety of markets, as well as connectivity to over 130 global exchanges. In add-on to competitive spreads and low commission-based pricing for forex, Interactive Brokers provides more than third-party research than whatsoever other broker.

Interactive Brokers continues to introduce its platform offering, such every bit with its new Impact app for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, alongside the related Touch on dashboard available in its Trader Workstation (TWS) desktop and WebTrader platforms.

Professional customer status: In today's highly regulated forex world, traders who want to maximize their margin leverage must apply and obtain ESMA's professional person client status with their broker. Traders designated as Professionals in the EU practise not receive negative residual protection and other consumer prophylactic mechanisms such equally eligibility for bounty schemes in the result of a broker's insolvency.

Methodology: We broke down each forex banker'southward active trading program to assess brokers for professional person trading, comparing available rebates, tiers, and all-in costs. Alongside pricing, each broker's trading platform was tested for the availability of advanced trading tools oft used past professionals.

How do I choose a forex banker?

Here are three of the most important factors to go on in mind when choosing an online broker for forex trading.

First, make sure your banker is properly licensed and regulated. The safety of your deposit is always the superlative priority.
Next, compare the business relationship offerings, trading platforms, tools, and investment research provided by each broker.
Finally, read detailed forex banker reviews to compare pricing and product offerings (e.grand., number of forex pairs and CFDs available to trade) to detect what is most of import to your forex trading and investment needs.

How do I know if my forex broker is regulated?

It is crucial to employ a well-known, properly regulated broker to avoid forex scams. To check if your forex broker is regulated, kickoff identify the registration number from the disclosure text at the bottom of the broker's homepage. Next, look up the firm on the regulator's website to validate the registration number; to help traders, we track, rate, and rank forex brokers across over 20 international regulators, and you can find their websites here. If the broker is not regulated in your country, do more than enquiry.

What's the difference between a dealing-desk-bound and an agency broker?

If a forex broker is operating as a dealer, also known equally dealing-desk, they volition be on the other side of their client'due south trades. If a forex banker is not on the other side of their client's trades, they volition be acting as an agent (agency broker) past routing the trade on to another dealer.

There are as well hybrid-desks, which may operate as a dealing-desk and bureau. Lastly, matched-principals are dealers who immediately hedge their trades to remove any potential conflict of involvement.

How practice I calculate forex trading costs?

For forex and CFDs trading, the all-in cost to complete (open or shut) each merchandise consists of the spread, plus any round-turn commissions. There may besides be overnight financing charges, known as carrying costs, which can be either a net debit (loss) or a net credit (refund). To keep trading costs low, focus on trading the major forex pairs such as the EUR/USD, which offer the most liquidity, and thus the tightest spreads (lowest costs).

Methodology

For our 2022 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 39 international forex brokers over a 5-month time menstruum resulting in over 50,000 words of published research. We reviewed the following brokers: ACY Securities, Admiral Markets, AvaTrade, BDSwiss, BlackBull Markets, Capital.com, Metropolis Alphabetize, CMC Markets, Eightcap, eToro, FinecoBank, Forex.com, FP Markets, FXCM, FxPro, HotForex, HYCM, IC Markets, IG, Interactive Brokers, LegacyFX, Moneta Markets, OANDA, OctaFX, Pepperstone, Plus500, Saxo Banking concern, Swissquote, TD Ameritrade, Tickmill, TMGM, TopFX, Trade360, Trading 212, Trade Nation, Vantage, VT Markets, XM Group, and XTB.

Each broker was graded on 113 different variables, including our proprietary Trust Score algorithm. This innovative scoring system ranks the level of trustworthiness for each broker based on factors such equally licenses, regulation and corporate structure. Read near our Trust Score hither.

As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data contour, which we hand-checked for accuracy.

Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .one% each year, providing site visitors with quality information they can trust. Acquire more about how we examination.