The selection of a broker crucially impacts your profitability when trading. We have developed a platform where real traders come to share their experience with brokers they have traded with. So now on you don’t have to worry about being scammed by some shady company.
We operate our website in full transparency, we recommend reliable brokers with an excellent reputation and we honestly admit to you that we receive commissions for that from these brokers. You can find the mentioned brokers in the table below with a clickable link to their site. You don't pay anything extra, you get a reliable business partner and you help us keep the website up and running. Thank you.
| Broker | English | Min. deposit | Spread EUR/USD* | Platforms | License | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | 100 USD | 1.0 pips Spread was taken 15.11.2024 at 11:12 from the web or trading platform of Etoro. | In-house built platform | FCAASICCySec | etoro.comreview EUR/USD*: 1.0 pips Spread was taken 15.11.2024 at 11:12 from the web or trading platform of Etoro. |
 | | 0 | 0.9 pips Spread was taken 15.11.2024 at 11:12 from the web or trading platform of XTB. | In-house built platform | FCA CySec | xtb.comreview EUR/USD*: 0.9 pips Spread was taken 15.11.2024 at 11:12 from the web or trading platform of XTB. 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
 | | 100 USD | 0.8 pips Spread was taken 15.11.2024 at 11:12 from the web or trading platform of Plus500. | In-house built CFD platform | FCAASICCySec | plus500.comreview EUR/USD*: 0.8 pips Spread was taken 15.11.2024 at 11:12 from the web or trading platform of Plus500. 80% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider |
* The spread is variable for most brokers and changes depending on market volatility.
Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
How to Choose a CFD/Forex Broker
These days, you can find thousands of brokers online who try to win potential clients. Still, there are many good quality operators but even more doubtful/fraudulent ones. Below are criteria that should be considered by every trader before opening their trading account at a CFD/Forex broker.
Regulation is Essential
These days, brokers are subject to considerably high regulation. In the European Union space, every forex and CFD broker has to be granted a valid license. If a broker has a license in one of the EU member countries, they can legally operate within the whole of Europe, services should not be offered without the license.
Regulators in english speaking countries:
- British FCA (Financial Conduct Authority)
- American CFTC (Commodities and Futures Trading Commission)
- Australian ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission)
Regulations in Africa
Brokers that legally operate in South Africa are regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority regulator, but most brokers in Africa are not regulated which makes local people quite vulnerable to scams.
We highly recommend you to choose only a world-wide well-reputed broker with regulations around the world.
The Best Known Regulators in EU:
- CySec (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission)
- German BaFIN (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht)
These regulators oversee brokers and check compliance with the rules. The client can contact them with a complaint. The respective authority will conduct an investigation based on which, in certain cases, the granted license can be withdrawn.
Regulators determine the rules under which a broker can offer their services and they also check their compliance. For instance, the European Securities and Market Authority limits the leverage at CFD that a broker can offer to retail clients at a maximum of 1:30 for major currency pairs, 1:20 for minor pairs and commodities, and 1:2 for cryptocurrencies.
Trading and Withdrawal Fees
Most brokers make a profit on the spread. Spread is the difference between the exchange rates of individual pairs. Although you do not actually pay any fee for an individual trade, it is important to check the amount of these spreads beforehand. They are set in so-called “pips”. A “pip” is a ten-thousandth of a unit, which is 0,0001 of, for example, the American dollar. It seems to be a small number but this difference will show in large volumes. Even though you do not pay anything directly in the form of a fee, you “pay” in spreads for every realised trade.
In terms of withdrawals, brokers often have different pricing policies. Check-in advance how you can withdraw your invested amount in the case you want to withdraw your profits. The fee is sometimes determined as a percentage or it can be a certain minimal fixed amount.
Minimum Deposit
The limit of the minimum (one-off) deposit is important, especially in the beginning. The limitation is sometimes not set, the account can be, therefore, opened without the need for a deposit. In other cases, the amount of 100 or more dollars (alternatively the equivalent in another currency) has to be deposited before the first trade. Decide what volumes you want to trade and whether the first deposit is not too high for you.
Business Assets Offer
Most forex brokers offer standard pairs such as EUR/USD or GBP/EUR. If you want to focus on a particular “exotic” trade pair, it is important to check in advance if it is supported by the platform.
Broker Type
In the forex market, there are currently operating “Dealing Desk” (DD) or “No Dealing Desk” (NDD) brokers. The former means your broker is the market maker. In practice, it means the broker often creates a counterparty to your trade. NDD brokers forward the order to the market, usually to a group of large banks. If you choose a reliable and regulated broker, the type of broker should not influence you at all.
Broker’s Customer Support
It is important, especially for beginners, to choose a broker with proven and reliable customer support. Beforehand, you can check the website to know how to contact the operator – for example through a designated chat, email or via phone. It is important to take into account your language skills. Most operators offer customer support in English. Some websites offer 24/7 support, others work only during working days in a limited time.
Broker Platform – Try Out a Demo
One of the most common platforms is MetaTrader in versions 4 and 5, alternatively cTrader. Some brokers use their own systems. Although they are mostly intuitive, it is useful to find out whether it is possible to open a demo account on the platform. Trying out the trading is always good for your future “real” trades with actual money.
Also, check the user interface from the language perspective. These days, the most common language is English. If you do not completely master it, look for other languages which are available for you while trading.
Traders’ Experience and Reviews
The last but not least, it is advisable to look at reviews of users who are currently using the broker. You can do so on our website, under every review, you can also find the experience and rating of the broker added by other traders. If you run into a problematic website, in your own interest, do not deposit any financial assets there. Problems can sometimes arise with the withdrawal of assets to your bank account. It is necessary to take into consideration not only the broker’s behaviour in the immediate process of trading but also verify that they really pay off their clients fast and in a reliable manner.
Which Broker Would you Recommend to Me?
Choosing a broker is a considerably complex process, as you may have noticed in the section above. To make your choice easier, we have chosen a few reliable and tested brokers that can be recommended to you, so you can save time while choosing the best one. Before depositing money to the selected broker, we highly recommend to try out the demo of the trading platform. You should know what you are getting into.
Recommended Brokers for Traders from the European Union and Non-Regulated Countries*
The first choice will be certainly Etoro due to its modern trading platform. The platform is fast with a range of above-standard functions such as market analysis, tutorial videos for beginners and advanced users, push notifications when the price reaches a limit etc. The indisputable advantage of the platform is also its speed of customer support and copytrading.
Visit Etoro | Open a demo account
51% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
The second choice will be Plus500 due to its wide range of CFD assets – forex (71), shares (1400), commodities (22), indexes (33), cryptocurrencies (12) and really competitive spreads.
Visit Plus500 | Open a demo account
80% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.
Broker for Traders from Australia and New Zealand*
To traders from Australia and New Zealand, we can recommend Plus500 80% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. , which is regulated by the ASIC as well as FSP (financial regulators in these two countries).
Where can legally trade people from the USA?
Trading CFD is forbidden in the USA. If you are an American citizen, you need to be looking for a broker with CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) license such as OANDA.
* We have verified the reliability and quality of the mentioned brokers and subsequently became their website advertising partner.