These may be in the form of educational resources or unique tools to support trading. That said, the core job of a forex broker is to allow you to buy and sell currency pairs. It can be hard to measure how forex etoro review well a forex broker does when you don’t know what they do.
Forex trading is popular worldwide, with more traders outside of the United States than within it. Nonetheless, the U.S. remains one of the largest financial hubs and the U.S. dollar makes up half of the most popular currency pairs. Brokers catering to U.S. traders must be regulated by the CFTC and hold membership in the National Futures Association (NFA).
– Top Choice For New Traders
Please note, however, that this plan also includes exchange, regulatory, and clearing fees. Both of Eightcap’s account types offer mid-range spreads from our testing, with average spreads of 1.51 pips for its Standard account and 0.5 pips for its RAW account. When looking at published spreads, however, Eightcap beats the industry average for both Standard (1.06 pips Vs 1.52 pips) and RAW (0.30 pips Vs 0.45 pips) accounts. CMC Markets offers Canadian traders outstanding educational resources and an excellent trading experience thanks to its learning center. Fusion Markets offers low commissions of CAD 3 per side for its questrade review ‘Zero’ Trading account. With the industry average being CAD 3.50, this is lower than the industry average in Canada.
Note also that some forex brokers require a minimum account balance, which may be more than $100. Trading platforms can either be third-party platforms like the popular MetaTrader 4, TradingView or proprietary platforms designed by the forex broker itself. Choosing the right platform matters as all have features that will appeal to different traders. While reviewing CIRO-regulated brokers, FXCM stood out for us with its selection of free trading tools with the live trading account we opened.
You can also trade future CFDs in four underlying index and commodities futures markets. We’ve tested the execution speeds of 20 top brokers and Pepperstone is one of the fastest. With execution speeds of 77ms for limit orders and 100ms for market orders, this put Pepperstone at third overall on our list. Only Fusion Markets and BlackBull Markets could boast faster execution speeds from our tests. A CIRO-regulated forex broker is a forex broker that is regulated by the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO). It is a government body that oversees forex regulation in Canada designed to protect traders in Canada when trading Forex and other CFDs.
Spreads
The app closely resembles the web version of the broker’s Next Generation platform and comes loaded with charting tools, integrated research and education, predefined watchlists, and more. CMC Markets’ excellent mobile experience has helped it earn Best in Class honors for Mobile Trading Apps in the ForexBrokers.com Annual Awards eight years in a row. FxPro is a leading CFD broker regulated by multiple authorities globally, including FCA and CySEC. It offers 2,100+ tradable instruments covering forex, stocks, indices, commodities, and cryptos. All clients benefit from order execution in under 12 milliseconds, which is substantially faster than the industry average and helps give day traders and scalpers an edge. OCTA provides an extensive range of research and educational materials useful for beginner traders who are just starting out.
– Fastest Execution Speeds
Accompanying this industry-leading CFD offering is an impressive range of tradable assets. We also made a list of a mix of local and overseas brokers on our accepting client’s comparison. Our proprietary star ranking system ensures that you will avoid scam FX brokers. The selection of top forex brokers in Canada was narrowed down to only 4 names, so forex traders won’t get overwhelmed trying to find a broker to fit their needs.
If you have experience with MetaTrader 4 or TradingView, we like that you can choose these platforms with OANDA – especially considering MetaTrader 4 allows you to automate your trades. This does not mean there aren’t investors who can make money in the forex market other ways. George Soros made over a billion dollars in a deep short against the British Pound in the 1990s.
Best for Active Traders
Using IIROC guarantees the broker complied with the requirements to operate in Canada and is part of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF). Based on our testing, TMGM offers competitive spreads across both its Classic (Standard) and Edge (RAW/ECN-style) accounts. Friedberg Direct stands out by offering you the ability to trade forex using fixed spreads (with zero commissions). We also scored Eightcap highly for its diverse range of platforms (8/10), good range of products (7/10) and useful educational resources (9/10).
- Interactive Brokers is the best broker for professional traders, offering a range of sophisticated proprietary platforms, all featuring advanced trading tools to suit experienced traders.
- AvaTrade is particularly great for copy trading, also known as social trading, which allows you to copy the real-time forex trades of other live investors.
- During our live test, I found that you can trade via the MT4 and MT5 mobile trading apps for Android and iOS devices.
Upon reviewing its legal documents, I found them to be transparent and free from significant discrepancies. I also appreciated that FxPro adheres to the most rigid safety requirements, such as having a ‘best execution policy’. You can search by broker name on this IIROC page to verify it’s properly licensed in Canada.
There are also multiple platform options for social copy trading, including DupliTrade, ZuluTrade, and the MetaTrader signals market. It is wise to steer clear of brokers that aren’t regulated by a reputable authority, as there is no legal recourse if they take your capital and handle your funds fraudulently. Choosing a regulated broker is essential to keeping your funds safe and ensuring your broker has no conflicts of interest in executing your trades.
From the app, you can trade on a wide range of currency pairs, including majors, minors, exotics, and emerging market currencies. I was surprised you are able to trade currencies such as the Colombian Peso and Ugandan Shilling which I have not seen other forex brokers offer. If you prioritize ultra-low fees, raw interbank spreads, zero commissions, and zero requotes, then you should seriously consider IC Markets. Founded in 2007, IC Markets is authorized and regulated by CySEC, ASIC, the SCB, and the FSA Seychelles and is considered the ‘go-to’ forex broker for high-frequency, high-volume forex traders seeking ultra-low fees. I tested Swissquote’s Advanced Trader platform and found it to combine the efficiency of a professional-grade platform with the easy-to-navigate layout of more conventional platforms.
This is just a hypothetical example, but hopefully, it illustrates how more can be less in trading. So it’s worthwhile evaluating the costs of a broker you consider opening an account with for yourself before doing so. And if you are still uncertain, you can always check out our database of reviews to sort out the most competitive brokers. I also discovered that all trading fees, except for the rollover, are built into the spread. Tastyfx’s floating spread starts from 0.8 pips and varies across instruments from different asset classes.
IC Markets advertises an average spread of 0.02 pips for the EURUSD and while that might seem curiously low, Ross Collins from our team from IC Markets still had the lowest spreads. His tests found IC Markets has an average spread of 0.73 pips for the same pair, higher but still the lowest spreads of the brokers we tested. One of CIRO’s main roles is to ensure that forex brokers comply to industry standards and follow regulations to safeguard Canadian investors. This keeps your trading costs consistent, which is helpful if you want to automate your trades with the MT4 platform. The flagship platform, IBKR Trader Workstation, offers a range of advanced tools, including market scanners and Level II pricing, which gives you access to liquidity providers’ order books. Beginning investors should educate themselves on the wealth of research and educational resources available through trading platforms and sites such as Investopedia.