Forex.com Broker Review

Is Forex.com Safe?

Australian clients can only open an account through Forex.com’s sister company, CityIndex.

Forex.com maintains regulation from several top-tier regulators, including the UK’s FCA, Australia’s ASIC, the MAS of Singapore.  It is also regulated by IIROC of Canada, the CFTC and NFA of the US, CySEC of Cyprus, and CIMA of the Cayman Islands. 

Although global traders will be trading Forex.com’s Cayman-Islands-based subsidiary, which has less regulatory supervision than Forex.com’s companies based in the UK or Australia, it segregates its client funds from company funds and provides all traders with negative balance protection. On this basis, we consider Forex.com a safe broker for clients to trade with. Click here for more details on Forex.com’s safety and regulation.

Scroll for more details

Trading Fees

Forex.com’s trading fees are average compared to other brokers.

Forex.com offers four trading accounts, three of which have a minimum deposit requirement of 100 AUD, and the DMA account with a minimum account balance requirement of 25 000 USD. Trading is offered on the Forex.com platform and MT5 (click here for more on Forex.com’s trading platforms).  

The Standard and MT5 accounts have trading costs included in the spread, while the Commission and DMA accounts offer tighter spreads in exchange for a commission per lot. For more on Forex.com’s account types, click here.

Forex.com’s fee structure is transparent, and it publishes all spread and commission costs associated with each account.  Additionally, it publishes both the live and typical spreads on its website.

Forex.com’s accounts were assessed to compare the costs to those of other brokers. The costs were evaluated based on the trading fees on one lot (100 000 USD) on the EUR/USD, including the spread and commission. 

When making this calculation, we use one lot of EUR/USD as a benchmark as it is the most commonly traded currency pair and it usually has the tightest spread. 

Trading Cost Formula: Spread x Trade Size + Commission = Cost in Secondary Currency (USD):

Scroll for more details

As per the table above, the Standard Account and MT5 account’s fees are built into their spreads, so there are no extra costs, except for the interest fees charged on positions held overnight. It’s worth noting that while the average spread on the EUR/USD is 1.3 pips for these Accounts, spreads are variable at Forex.com and the EUR/USD can sometimes be as low as 0.70 pips. The Commission account offers much tighter spreads in exchange for a commission per lot traded, and with a trading cost of 7 USD, it is Forex.com’s lowest cost CFD account. 

The DMA account is a Direct Market Access Account for serious traders looking for deep liquidity and the control to take advantage of rapid price opportunities. Forex.com charges no spread mark-up, which means that spreads are often around the 0 pip (EUR/USD) mark. It does, however, charge a commission based on trading volume. See below for more details:

Overall, Forex.com’s fees are average compared to other broker’s on its commission-free accounts, but lower than other brokers on its Commission and DMA Accounts – most other brokers have an average trading cost of 9 USD per lot of EUR/USD traded.

Non-trading Fees

Forex.com’s non-trading fees are average compared to other brokers.

Some of the most overlooked trading costs are the non-trading fees that are charged by brokers.  These fees can significantly affect your profitability and so should be carefully scrutinised.  

Forex.com does not charge account or fees for making a deposit into your trading account.  It also does not charge fees for withdrawing funds using credit cards or debit cards or using electronic wallets. However, Forex.com charges an inactivity fee of 15 USD (15 base currency equivalent, or 1500 JPY) per month if there is no trading activity or no open positions for a period of 12 months or more, which is relatively expensive.

Opening an Account at Forex.com

Forex.com’s account-opening process is seamless and hassle-free compared to other market makers.

Australian residents are not eligible to open an account at Forex.com, only at its sister company, CityIndex. 

The account opening process is fully digital and fast – most traders will have an account open within one day. 

How to open an account at Forex.com:

1. On the front page of the website, traders can click on a button marked “Open an Account”

2. Traders will be directed to a page that requires them to choose their preferred trading account (Standard, MT5, Commission, or DMA Account).

3. Once traders have selected their account, they will be required to enter all their personal data.

4. The next step requires filling in your physical address details, country of residence, tax information, and identity number.

5. Traders will then have to detail their trading experience, including their financial status, and their trading history. Traders can also choose their preferred base currency (EUR, USD, or GBP).

6. Before submitting this information, traders are required to agree with all Forex.com’s Terms and Conditions, and privacy policy.

7. As part of the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, newly registered users are required to provide confirmation of residence (e.g. a valid utility bill dated within the last 6 months), as well as proof of identity such as a valid passport, or another form of officially issued photo ID.

The verification process can take a few days, and you will be notified once your account is verified. You can also follow your verification status on the Forex.com platform. 

Compared to other brokers, Forex.com’s account opening process is fast, fully digital, and hassle-free.

Forex.com Accounts

Forex.com has an average number of trading accounts compared to other brokers and its accounts are suited to both beginners and more experienced traders. 

Forex.com offers four account types – a Standard and MT5 Account with no commission and wider spreads, a Commission Account which charges a commission per lot traded but has much tighter spreads, and a Direct Market Access Account. 

Forex.com’s account types are suited to both beginner and experienced traders alike. Beginner traders are inexperienced traders who have never traded before, or who have been trading for less than a year.  Beginner traders often do not want to risk trading large sums of money and generally will not be able to trade full-time during the workweek. The Standard, MT5, and Commission accounts all have a reasonable minimum deposit requirement of 100 AUD, making them accessible to beginner traders. 

Experienced traders tend to prefer accounts with higher minimum deposits and tighter spreads. The DMA Account has a minimum deposit requirement of 25,000 USD, spreads that start at 0 pips on the EUR/USD, and commissions that decrease with increasing trade volumes. 

In 2011, Forex.com was the first broker to introduce an Execution Scorecard and today remains the only US-based broker to disclose execution quality. The most recent data shows that Forex.com’s average execution speed is 0.04 seconds and 99.79% of trades are executed in under 1 second. This is exceptionally fast in the Forex industry and is a real benefit to scalpers and algorithmic traders.

Alongside Forex, Forex.com also offers trading on indices, shares, commodities, precious metals, cryptocurrencies, and oil. Cryptocurrencies available to trade are Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, and Ethereum.

Hedging and scalping are unlocked on all accounts, but Forex.com does not offer copy trading or algorithmic trading.  Maximum leverage differs according to the trading platform, market, asset class, and position size. Smaller trades on major pairs will generally be offered 200:1 leverage, but leverage can be increased by contacting Forex.com customer support.

Account Types

Scroll for more details

Standard/MT5 Accounts: The Standard and MT5 Accounts have a minimum deposit of 100 AUD, variable spreads (as low as 0.70 pips on the EUR/USD, but more typically around 1.3 pips), and no commission. The Standard Account is available on the Forex.com platform and MT4. As the name implies, the MT5 Account is only available on MT5 and gives you trading access to over 90 currency pairs, 8 crypto pairs, and hundreds of equity, index, and commodity CFDs.

Commission Account: The Commission Account also has a minimum deposit of 100 AUD and variable spreads, but also charges a commission of 5 USD per lot traded. Spreads on the EUR/USD can be as low as 0.2 pips with this account. The Commission Account is only available on the Forex.com platform.

Direct Market Access Account: The DMA Account is specifically for high-volume traders and requires an account balance of 25,000 USD. This account is commission-based only, with no mark-up on the spread. As the name suggests, this is a market execution account and uses STP execution methods with no broker intervention. This account is only available on the Forex.com trading platform and only allows trading on 58 currency pairs.

Demo Accounts: The Standard, MT5, and Commission Accounts are available as demo accounts, but demo accounts will expire after 30 days and you will be required to open a live account.  The demo account also gives traders a real-time feel for market conditions.  

Scroll for more details

Broker

Trading Conditions

Base Currencies

EURUSD (Standard)

Commission

Trading Cost (Standard)

EURUSD (Best)

GBPUSD (Best)

USDJPY (Best)

FOREX.com

5/ 5

USD, EUR, CAD, JPY, CHF, AUD, GBP

0.70 pips

USD 0

USD 7

0.70 pips

1.10 pips

1.40 pips

CM Trading

4/ 5

EUR, USD

1.50 pips

USD 0

USD 15

1.70 pips

2.60 pips

1.70 pips

IQ Option

3/ 5

EUR, GBP, USD

0.80 pips

USD 0

USD 8

0.80 pips

1.30 pips

0.90 pips

Deposit and Withdrawal

Forex.com offers a limited number of deposit and withdrawal options compared to other similar brokers, but it does not charge any additional fees.

Like most brokers, Forex.com operates a “return to source policy” meaning that withdrawals can only be returned to the original funding source. 

Unusually for a large broker, Forex.com only accepts deposits and withdrawals via credit/debit card, e-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller, and bank transfers. See below for more details:

Scroll for more details

• Credit/debit cards: No fees are charged for deposits or withdrawals. Deposits are processed instantly and withdrawals are processed within 24 hours. The minimum amount per transaction is 100 USD and the maximum is 10,000 USD. 
• Bank Transfer: Forex.com does not charge fees for deposits or withdrawals via bank wire transfer, but clients should be aware that banking service fees may apply. Deposits and withdrawals are processed within 48 hours. 
• Skrill/Neteller: No fees are charged for deposits or withdrawals via Skrill or Neteller and both are processed immediately. 

Overall, Forex.com has a limited range of funding methods compared to other large international brokers, but no fees are charged and its processing times are reasonable.

Forex.com Base Currencies (Trading Account Currencies)

Forex.com has a very limited number of base currencies compared to other brokers.

At Forex.com, you can only choose from three base currencies: USD, GBP, and EUR. This is extremely limited compared to most other international brokers operating in Australia.

However, Forex.com does not support accounts denominated in AUD, which means that traders from Australia will have to pay conversion fees on all deposits and withdrawals. Conversion fees can make trading expensive, and affect profitability.

In this case, it is better for traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month) to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

Forex.com Trading Platforms

Forex.com offers three trading platforms which are excellent compared to other brokers.

Forex.com offers three platforms to choose from, its own Forex.com platform, MetaTrader 4, and MetaTrader 5. All platforms offer fast trading and advanced charting tools, including Expert Advisors, automated trading support, strategy backtesting, customisable charting, and a number of indicators.

The platforms are free to use and can be downloaded to your PC and all have web versions of the platform. They are also available on mobile Android and iOS devices.

The benefit of Forex.com offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can take their customised versions of these platforms with them should they choose to migrate to another broker.  See below for more details on forex.com’s trading platforms:

Forex.com Platform: The most powerful version of the Forex.com platform is the downloadable desktop client which offers professional analytics tools, over 100 predefined indicators, 15 time frames, and trading directly on charts. It also allows 6 order types, including Market Order, Entry Order, Stop Order, Limit Order, One Cancels Other, and Guaranteed Stop Loss Orders. The desktop version of the platform is better suited to more experienced traders. The Forex.com platform is also available in your browser, with slightly decreased functionality, sacrificing customisability for simplicity.

MetaTrader 4: The MT4 trading platform is the most widely used Forex trading platform and can also be used to trade other instruments like commodities, cryptocurrency, stock index, and stock CFDs. Though it is now showing its age, MT4 is still very popular for its auto trading features that enable algorithmic trading and strategy backtesting with expert advisors (trading robots).

Unlike most standard MetaTrader 4 platforms you will find at other brokers, Forex.com’s MT4 comes with fully integrated Reuters news, Forex.com’s research and analysis, and Trading Central.

MetaTrader 5: The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time, it has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has a larger number of pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4.

Scroll for more details

Broker

Platform Choice

Copy Trading

Platforms

FOREX.com

4.5/ 5

Yes

MT4

MT5

FOREX.com Web Trader

TradingView

CM Trading

4/ 5

Yes

MT4

WebTrader

IQ Option

4/ 5

No

IQ option

Overall, Forex.com’s trading platform support is one of the best in the industry.  It offers a proprietary platform, which is more beginner-friendly and easier to use and has enough choice to keep most traders satisfied.  

Mobile Trading

IC Markets’ mobile trading platforms are better than other similar brokers.

All three of Forex.com’s trading platforms are available on both Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets. Beginner traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop trading platforms, including reduced timeframes and fewer charting options.  

However, the trading platforms are generally user-friendly and well-designed. The MT4 and MT5 mobile apps allow traders to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit and loss in real-time and allow tick chart trading.  

The Forex.com mobile app offers the best features available on the desktop version including the complete range of order types, trade analysis, and watchlists. 

Overall, Forex.com’s mobile apps are user-friendly and well-designed and offer most of the features available on the desktop versions.  

Trading Tools

Forex.com’s trading tools are excellent compared to other similar brokers.

Forex.com offers a number of useful trading tools, including VPS services, Trading Central, Autochartist, SMART Signals, and Trading View.

VPS

For traders with a minimum 5000 USD balance, Forex.com supplies free VPS hosting, allowing for a more complete automated trading strategy. It allows traders to run automated algorithmic strategies, including expert advisors 24 hours a day 7 days a week on a virtual machine. VPS services have the advantage of never suffering connectivity issues and have extremely low latency due to their proximity to major international exchanges. 

Trading Central

Trading Central is available to clients who register a live account.  A third-party tool, Trading Central’s professional analysts use the most advanced technical analysis tools in the industry to curate relevant information. This tool essentially supports traders without the technical know-how in making trading decisions.  Trading Central is one of the most popular trading tools available and provides excellent market analysis, and Forex.com does well to offer this service to its clients.

Autochartist

Autochartist is an award-winning automated technical analysis tool that plugs into MT4, MT5, and the Forex.com platform and scans all available CFD markets for trading opportunities. Autochartist monitors 250+ CFDs 24 hours a day and automatically alerts traders on key trading opportunities and forms trends with the highest probability of hitting the forecast price.  Some of Autochartist’s key features are:

• Chart pattern recognition
• Fibonacci pattern recognition
• Key level analysis
• Pattern quality indication

The market scanner provides statistically significant market movements and identifies important price levels that are catalysts for market movements.

Trading View

Forex.com recently added TradingView to its arsenal of trading tools.  TradingView is free of charge for traders who open a live account.  It is an excellent tool for researching, charting, and screening any instrument.  Additional features of Forex.com’s TradingView tool include:

• 50+ intelligent charting tools
• Over 100,000 custom user-built indicators and scripts
• Synchronised layout for multiple charts
• Advanced drawing tools
• Ten chart types.

SMART Signals

Forex.com offers SMART Signals, a technical analysis tool that provides live trade ideas by harnessing the power of trading algorithms. It also allows traders to see how SMART Signals have performed in the past so that they can decide how they may perform in the future.

Scroll for more details

Broker

Economic Calendar

Autochartist

Trading Central

Trading View

Free VPS

FOREX.com

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

CM Trading

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

IQ Option

Yes

No

No

No

No

Overall, Forex.com provides a wide range of useful trading tools to help traders make trading decisions.

Financial Assets

Forex.com offers a very broad range of tradable assets compared to its competitors.

Forex.com offers trading on Forex, indices, shares, commodities, cryptocurrencies, and precious metals.

Scroll for more details

• Forex pairs: Forex.com offers 91 Forex pairs to trade, including majors, minors, and exotics. This is an extremely broad range of Forex pairs compared to other brokers.  

• Commodities: Forex.com offers trading on 26 commodities, including metals, energies, and agriculture, a broader range than most other brokers.

• Metals: Forex.com offers trading on 5 metals, which is average compared to other similar brokers. Gold (XAU) and silver (XAG) are traded as spot metals. Spot gold is offered as XAU/USD, XAU/EUR, XAU/GBP, XAU/CHF, XAU/GBP, XAU/JPY and XAU/AUD. The symbol for spot silver is XAG/USD. Copper, palladium, and platinum are traded as CFD futures.  

• Stock CFDs: Forex.com’s stock CFD offering is extremely diverse compared to most of its competitors, with over 4500 stock CFDs available to trade, including popular US tech companies, ASX stocks, those listed on the NASDAQ, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the NYSE, and more. Traders should note that stock CFD trading is only available on MT5 and the Forex.com trading platforms.

• Indices: Forex.com offers cash and futures contracts on 18 international indices, including the Wall Street, S&P500, FTSE100, and the UK100. This is an average range of indices compared to other brokers.

• Cryptocurrencies: Forex.com offers trading on 8 cryptocurrencies, a reasonably wide range compared to other brokers. These include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ripple, and Litecoin.  Spreads on these currencies are variable and are significantly higher than Fiat currencies, but in line with other brokers.

Overall, Forex.com provides a very wide range of tradable assets, which should leave most professional traders satisfied.  

Forex.com for Beginners

Beginner traders will find Forex.com a welcoming environment, with comprehensive and well-structured education and frequent and detailed market analysis from the experienced in-house research team. The major downside for beginners is the limited demo account, which will expire after 30 days on all platforms.

Education Material

Forex.com’s educational materials are well-structured and detailed and cater well to beginner traders.

The education section at Forex.com has obviously been designed by an experienced team of Forex educators. It is intended to slowly build confidence and help beginners learn how to trade forex with a wealth of educational tools and online resources.

The first thing new traders will find is a Trade Type Quiz, which will help beginners identify what trading strategies will best suit their personality. From here you can link off to three different sections of educational material: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. You can also check out individual themes, such as technical analysis and risk management.

Each section is clear, concise, and carefully tailored to the experience level of the trader. All the educational resources are free to all visitors of Forex.com’s site.

Scroll for more details

Broker

Beginner Course

Advanced Course

Well Structured Education

Education Quality

Webinars

FOREX.com

Yes

Yes

Yes

High

Yes

CM Trading

No

No

No

Medium

Yes

IQ Option

No

No

No

Medium

No

Analysis Material

Forex.com’s analysis materials are some of the best in the Forex trading space.

Forex.com has one of the best market research and analysis sections we have seen. Posts by the in-house research team and detailed and cover all aspects of the financial markets. Full of trading opportunities and insightful analysis, it is no surprise that the Forex.com Twitter feed has over 170k followers.

Posts can be filtered by author, market, theme, or trending topics, and the site is updated multiple times a day.

Also in the analytical section, you can find a good economic calendar and a very helpful pivot point calculator, very useful for on-the-fly technical analysis.

Customer Support

Forex.com’s customer support is average compared to other brokers.

Like most brokers, customer support is available 24/5 (from 10 am Sunday to 5 pm Friday) via phone, email, and live chat. While English is Forex.com’s main support language, support is also available in Arabic, Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, and Chinese, depending on the availability. You can also interact with the Forex.com teams via Facebook and Twitter. 

For the purposes of this review, we found the customer support responsive and well-informed.

Safety and Regulation

In operation since 2001, Forex.com was a subsidiary of GAIN Capital, an NYSE-listed company. In 2021 Forex.com was purchased by StoneX, a Fortune-100 company with a 100-year history. StoneX is also a NASDAQ-listed provider of online trading services. 

StoneX’s subsidiaries are regulated by 9 national and regional authorities depending on their geographic location. All are separate but affiliated subsidiaries of StoneX Group Inc:

• Europe: StoneX Europe is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
• US: GAIN Capital is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA)
• Canada: GAIN Capital is regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organisation
• UK: GAIN Capital UK is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Australia: GAIN Capital Australia is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
• Singapore: GAIN Capital Singapore is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
• Japan: GAIN Capital Japan is regulated by Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA)
• Cayman Islands: GAIN Global Markets is regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA)

Australian clients will be directed to trade with Forex.com’s sister company, CityIndex, which is authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Forex.com ensures that client funds are held with top-tier banks and segregated from the assets of the brokerage. Please note that in accordance with regulation, all client funds are segregated and separately accounted for to protect our client’s assets. As such, Forex.com has trust letters in place with all depositories that hold client assets and performs a daily client segregated funds calculation to ensure all client assets are adequately segregated.  In addition, robust bank review and monitoring guidelines are set by the Risk Committee of StoneX to ensure fund security.

With the additional financial reporting required from StoneX’s listing on the NASDAQ, and oversight from some of the toughest regulatory authorities in the world (NFA, FCA, MAS, CySEC, and ASIC), we are confident that Forex.com is a safe broker to trade with.

Evaluation Method

We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process that includes a detailed breakdown of the Forex.com offering. Central to that process is the evaluation of the reliability of the broker, the platform offering of the broker, and the trading conditions offered to clients, which are summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.

Risk Statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. Forex.com would like you to know that:  Foreign exchange and other leveraged trading involve a significant risk of loss. It is not suitable for all investors and you should make sure you understand the risks involved, seeking independent advice if necessary.

Overview

Forex.com benefits from being part of the publicly-listed StoneX Group and is able to offer excellent education and market research alongside competitive trading conditions. Though there is nothing too exciting on offer, the wide range of platforms and tradeable assets makes Forex.com a tempting option for traders looking for a serious market maker broker. While beginners will love the education and analysis available, they will be disappointed by the limited demo account.

Editorial Team

 

Chris Cammack
Head of Content

Chris joined the company in 2019 after ten years experience in research, editorial and design for political and financial publications. His background has given him a deep knowledge of international financial markets and the geopolitics that affects them. Chris has a keen eye for editing and a voracious appetite for financial and political current affairs. He ensures that our content across all sites meets the standards of quality and transparency that our readers expect.

 

Alison Heyerdahl
Senior Financial Writer

Alison joined the team as a writer in 2021. She is the Senior Editor for FXScouts.  She has a medical degree with a focus on physiotherapy and a bachelor’s in psychology. However, her interest in forex trading and her love for writing led her to switch careers. She has a passion for Forex trading and over a decade of editorial experience researching Forex and the financial services industry, producing high-quality content. She hosts a weekly podcast, “Let’s Talk Forex,” alongside her colleague, Chris, and has produced over 100 Forex educational videos for the FXScouts YouTube channel. She also writes weekly technical analyses and has tested and reviewed over 100 Forex brokers.

 

Ida Hermansen
Financial Writer

Ida joined our team as a financial writer in 2023. She has a degree in Digital Marketing and a background in content writing and SEO. In addition to her marketing and writing skills, Ida also has an interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Her interest in crypto trading led to a wider fascination with Forex technical analysis and price movement. She continues to develop her skills and knowledge in Forex trading and keeps a close eye on which Forex brokers offer the best trading environments for new traders.