RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
FXTrading is an Australian forex and CFD broker, offering three account types, including an Islamic one, with a leverage as high as 500:1 and the MetaTrader4 platform. The good news here is that FXTrading is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and that makes the broker completely reliable.
Honestly, however, we were not impressed by the choice of trading instruments. FXTrading offers just 28 forex pairs, with the Chinese Yuan the only exotic currency in the list. Apart form that on their trading platform we came across CFDs on 9 indices, silver, gold and oil – that is all, no CFDs on stocks, no commodities or crypto coins.
FXTrading trading conditions
FXTrading says that spreads with their Standard Account start at 1 pip, but when we tried the platform with a demo account, the benchmark EURUSD spread floated around 1,2 pips. Still, most traders would consider such spread attractive as it is below 1,5 pips, which is accepted as an upper limit with such accounts.
And while the trading conditions with the Islamic account mirror those of the Standard Account, with the Pro Account spreads are advertised to star around zero. Again, when tested with a demo account the EURUSD Pro Account spread was a bit higher – 0,2 pips, which is also acceptable even with the trading commission the broker takes with that account – 7 USD per traded lot, which basically adds another 0,7 pips to the spread.
As for the margin trading FXTrading offers its clients the opportunity to trade with a leverage as high as 500:1 Have in mind that not long ago the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) caped the maximum leverage allowed with forex transactions on the European market at 1:30, while similar restrictions are already in place on markets like the US and Japan. That leaves Australia the only regulatory hub that still allows trading with higher leverage.
FXTrading trading platforms
FXTrading supports the MetaTrader4 and that is another good news. The platform is the best known trading solution on the market. Light and intuitive, with a simple layout and excellent charting tools, MT4 is a platform of choice for beginner and professional traders alike. On top of that MT4 features lots of customizable market indicators and trading bots, which are designed to help you run automated trading sessions.
FXTrading regulation & safety of funds
As we noted FXTrading, owned and operated by Intelligent Financial Markets Pty Ltd, is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC), which along the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is among the most respected and reliable financial authorities in the industry.
Among other requirements all ASIC regulated brokers are obliged to maintain at all times a minimum operational capital of at least 1 000 000 AUD, to keep all clients money in a segregated, protected form creditors, trust account, to file regular reports to allow external audits and to provide a negative balance protection to all traders.
FXTrading deposit/withdrawal methods and fees
Most brokers accept payments with major credit or debit cards like VISA and MasterCard, popular e-wallets like Neteller, Skrill and PayPal, as well as bank wire and even Bitcoins. Also popular with Australian brokers in particular is a local payment method called POLi, where as a customer you do not have to pay a fee for using it. Unfortunately FXTrading do not tell us in the resume on their website what trading methods do they accept.
Otherwise the minimum deposit requirement to start trading with FXTrading is 200 USD, while for the premium FXT Pro Account the minimum investment is 1000 USD.