?️ Regulation CountryAustralia, Europe, UK
? Trading FeesVariable Spread with no commission
? Trading PlatformsMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, IRESS Platform
? Minimum Deposit$100
? Withdrawal Fees$0
?️ Instruments OfferedForex, Shares, Metals, Commodities, Indices, Crypto
? Credit Card DepositYes

Compare FP Markets to the following top forex brokers head-to-head.

IC Markets

Pepperstone

FP Markets Account Types

When it comes to account types, you certainly can’t fault FP Markets for its flexibility, but it does get a little complicated to understand what’s available and what you’re eligible for. So, let’s go through the options one by one.

The two main account types available are the Standard and RAW accounts, which offer slightly different pricing models.

Whereas the Standard account has a spread of at least 1.0 pips per trade but no commissions per lot, the RAW account offers the opposite: spreads start from 0.0 pips but there’s a fixed commission per lot. The exact charge per lot depends on your base currency.

  • 3.50 (AUD, CAD, or SGD)
  • 3.00 (USD)
  • 2.75 (EUR)
  • 2.25 (GBP)
  • 20 (HKD)
  • 250 (JPY)

The higher spread for Standard accounts only applies to forex and metals trading, but the other assets you can trade on the platform have the same spreads regardless of your account type.

In all other respects, the accounts are pretty similar. They have the same opening balance requirements, let you trade the same instruments (including cryptocurrencies and stocks), have the same leverage capabilities, and offer FP Markets’ signature extra-fast execution and the most common order types.

fp markets account type

So, which should you choose? If you’re an experienced trader, it tends to be advantageous to opt for a raw account to take advantage of lower spreads. This makes it easier to do scalping, day trading, and other similar activities. This type of account is sometimes called an STP or ECN account since there is no dealing desk which means spreads are provided by the liquidity providers without price intervention from the broker. This explains the lower spread cost.

However, the standard account offers a simpler trading experience, which makes it the best choice for beginners. It also makes more sense for those who trade over the long term, because the spreads won’t affect them as much when they’re only making occasional trades.

One feature that is impressive with FP Market is its execution speed. The broker is a no dealing desk broker (NDD) which means straight-through processing of orders. Several other brokers are offering this feature, so a comparison was made focusing on limit orders. These are orders when a trader sets a buy limit, buy stop, sell limit or sell stop. Based on 25 trades, FP markets achieved an execution speed of 80ms, which was the lowest as shown below.

IRESS

If you live in Australia, you’ll be able to open an IRESS trading account instead, which isn’t a million miles away from the accounts outlined above but does work differently. You would only choose this account if you want to trade stocks however selected other CFD products are available.

While all accounts on FP Markets have competitive ECN-like pricing, only IRESS accounts have Direct Market Access (DMA) — this means the prices you get will be exactly what the underlying market offers, and your CFD or forex broker won’t profit from you at all.

There are three types of IRESS accounts available: the Standard, Platinum, and Premier options. As you progress from the most basic to the more advanced, you’ll need a higher minimum balance to open the account but will be able to access lower brokerage and financing rates, and fewer fees overall.

The Standard and Platinum accounts have a $55 monthly fee for trading, but this is waived if you generate at least $150 a month in commissions; meanwhile, the Premier accounts waive the fee regardless of activity. Also, the non-Premier accounts require you to pay $22 for ASX live data unless you generate $50 a month, but this is again waived for the Premier account. The catch? Premier accounts are only for professional traders.

FP Markets Standard account is an excellent option for those who want a simple interface and to trade over the long term, while the Platinum account offers lower rates for those who are more serious about trading and will be moving more money in and out of their account. Finally, the Premier account is for professional traders with a high balance, so it will, unfortunately, be out of reach for most people.

Each account offers free delayed market data and free telephone trading.

fp markets iress account type

If you live in Australia and open an IRESS account, you’ll need to download the IRESS trading platform software, which we’ll explain in more detail later.

Islamic Accounts

FP Markets also offers Islamic accounts, which don’t involve any swaps or interest on overnight positions to stay in line with Islamic principles. Rather, you’ll be charged a fee on positions, which is deducted from your account balance.

Although there’s no option to choose an Islamic Account when you sign up, don’t panic. You can switch to one easily by contacting FP Markets, so just set up an account like normal.

Unfortunately, the option is only available on MetaTrader 4 or 5 (not IRESS).

FP Markets Islamic Accounts (2)

Demo Account

As with most brokers, you can also open a demo account to test the waters before you trade your own money or pay a minimum deposit. This gives you access to the same tools and instruments as other traders without the stress of losing your money.

But unlike most other brokers, you’ll be able to supplement your “experimental” trading with webinars and tutorials to help you get to grips with how the platform works, which enhances the learning experience.

And if you have any qualms or roadblocks along the way, you can always turn to the stellar customer service team to help you out or clear any doubts.

The MetaTrader 4 and 5 demo account start with 100,000  virtual money however this can be modified. You can continue to access this account as long as you don’t leave it dormant for 30 consecutive days.

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>


Our Rating

The overall rating is based on review by our experts

8.17
Spreads
9 / 10
Leverage
9 / 10
Trading Platform
9 / 10
Risk Management
4 / 10
Range of Markets
8 / 10
Customer Service
10 / 10

Forex Spreads and Fees

As we’ve seen, the spreads you’ll be charged on your trades depend on the account you choose — the RAW account has lower spreads (or no spreads at all) than the Standard account, but it does charge commission.

FP Markets really should be commended for its ECN-style pricing, which is among the best in the market. As long as you choose a RAW account, you’re practically guaranteed lightning-speed execution, spreads as tight as possible (the EUR/USD forex pair has 0.0 pips on average 35.36% of the time), and a liquidity pool consisting of the very best providers.

The below module compares average spreads of the RAW account spreads with the average spreads from similar accounts from other brokers. FP Markets is consistently among the best of all brokers when it comes to ECN pricing accounts.

ECN Broker Spreads
0.10 0.50 0.10 0.40 0.20
0.14 0.35 0.09 0.27 0.17
0.20 0.30 0.20 0.40 0.20
0.50 0.60 0.30 0.50 0.50
0.30 N/A 0.30 0.50 0.40
0.20 0.83 0.44 0.40 0.42
0.24 N/A 0.17 0.54 0.30
0.30 0.70 0.20 0.50 0.40
0.30 1.10 0.10 0.60 0.50
n/a 0.30 n/a 0.60 0.50
0.34 1.14 0.27 0.81 1.06

Data taken from broker website. Accurate as at 01/12/2021

 

Compare Lowest Spreads >>


However, the Standard account does, unfortunately, entail higher spreads than the competition, so if you’re looking for something more suitable for long-term trading, you might prefer to look at an alternative like Pepperstone, IC Markets, or Markets.com

Standard Account Spreads
0.69 0.77 1.27 0.88 0.74
0.86 0.74 1.19 1.19 0.83
0.70 1.30 1.30 2.20 1.40
0.80 0.90 1.70 1.80 0.80
1.30 1.20 1.30 1.90 1.30
1.10 1.40 1.60 2.00 1.20
1.10 1.20 1.40 1.50 1.20
1.20 1.30 1.60 1.30 1.20
1.20 1.20 1.40 1.40 1.20
1.20 1.20 1.40 1.40 1.40
1.30 1.50 1.50 1.70 1.70
1.30 1.70 2.10 1.40 1.50
1.20 1.40 1.40 1.50 1.20
1.50 1.76 1.39 1.60 1.40
1.40 1.20 1.90 1.90 1.60
1.70 1.80 2.00 2.20 1.60

Data taken from broker website. Accurate as at 01/12/2021

 

Compare Lowest No Commission Spreads >>


If you’re using MT5 for CFD trading, you’ll also be able to trade equities that let you short or long shares using margins by mirroring its performance. The fees are the same for both Standard and RAW accounts, with the following commissions and minimum charges:

  • Australia: 0.1% and 10 AUD
  • Hong Kong: 0.2% and 10 USD
  • United Kingdom: 0.1% and 0 GBP
  • Europe: 0.1% and 10 EUR
  • NY NYSE: 3 cents per share and 10 USD
  • NY NASDAQ: 3 cents per share and 10 USD

IRESS Fees

As we’ve touched on already, fees and pricing work slightly differently on the IRESS account. For one, you’ll have to pay a $55 per month fee for some of the accounts (as outlined in the trading accounts section), although it can be waived if you meet certain criteria.

The equity CFD fees are as follows for commissions per side and minimum charges:

  • Australia: 0.1% and 0 AUD
  • Singapore: 0.15% and 25 SGD
  • Hong Kong: 0.3% and 10 HKD
  • London: 0.1% and 10 GBP
  • Frankfurt: 0.1% and 10 EUR
  • NY NYSE: 2 cents per share and 15 USD
  • NY NASDAQ: 2 cents per share and 15 USD

These are lower than the equivalent charges on the MT4 and MT5 platforms.

And the fees for the international futures CFDs are as follows:

  • ASX SPI200 — 15 AUD
  • DAX, DJ EURO STOXX 50 — 15 EUR
  • E-MINI S&P 500, E-MINI NASDAQ 100 — 15 USD
  • NIKKEI 225 USD — 17.6 USD
  • NIKKEI 225 JPY — 1750 JPY
  • E-MINI DOW — 15 USD

There are also some other fees for certain assets, which you can find on the relevant page of the FP Markets website.

Otherwise, most forex fees are built into the spreads, except for forex and metals on the RAW account. In this case, the fees are the same as those charged on other accounts.

Other Fees

There are no hidden charges here — that means no withdrawal fees. However, there’s one exception. Although there are no fees for bank transfer withdrawals to Australian banks accounts, you will face a $6 fee per transaction to withdraw to international accounts.

Fortunately, various withdrawal methods are available (more on this later), so you can get around the problem if you’re prepared to do your research.

Leverage and the FP Markets Pro Account

For both the Standard and RAW accounts, you can trade with leverage up to 30:1, which means you can trade 30 times more than your account balance (resulting in bigger gains or losses).

This is less than some other brokerage platforms, partly because the Australian government recently restricted how much leverage individual investors (who aren’t Sophisticated Clients or Wholesale Investors) can access. Fortunately, you can get around this by opening the newly-introduced FP Markets Pro Account, which will give you access to a much “healthier” 1:500.

Only people who meet the substantial wealth criteria are eligible, but it should still be emphasized that 1:500 is a lot of leverage — think carefully before you use it, even if you do apply for this account type.

These are the amounts of leverage you can access for retail versus a professional account for each asset class:

  • Major forex pairs — 1:30 or 1:500
  • Minor forex pairs — 1:20 or 1:500
  • Major indices — 1:30 or 1:200
  • Gold — 1:20 or 1:500
  • Other commodities — 1:10 or 1:100
  • Minor indices — 1:10 or 1:200
  • Shares — 1:5 or 1:20
  • Crypto — 1:2 or 1:5

Traders outside Australia, the UK and Europe will be able to average the same leverage as professional accounts by default since they won’t have regulation protection from ASIC or CySEC.

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

FP Markets Regulation

FP Markets is part of First Prudential Markets Pty Ltd which is a regulated broker covered by regulators in Australia with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and the European Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). For traders in Australia, operates using an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). It’s also won more than 40 awards in the industry and gets liquidity from established blue chips like Goldman Sachs and Barclays.

Together with its customer service offering, this makes it a pretty reliable place to trade.

However, if you fall outside of Australia and Europe, you’ll have to join the subsidiary in St Vincent and the Grenadines instead, which unfortunately isn’t regulated. You’ll still effectively be using the same platform, but it’s good to take a little extra care since you’ll have different liquidity access.

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

Forex Trading Platforms

As with most trading platforms, FP Markets give you a choice between the MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5). But unlike most, you can also use the special IRESS platform if you’re in Australia.

Whichever you go for, FP Markets offers a few ways to trade: you can either use the WebTrader or download the software (for either MT4 or MT5 or IRESS) for your PC. MetaTrader is also an option for Mac but you need to be using an earlier version than Mojave 10.14 or earlier, later version will require an Emulator or WINE.

Let’s briefly look at each trading platform in turn.

MT4

MT4 is easily the most popular platform for forex trading — don’t be fooled by MT5 sounding like the new and improved version, because most people still use number 4. Why? It offers pretty much everything you could ever need, including a wide range of features like technical indicators and live price streaming, and a seamless interface.

FP Markets MT4

Key features of MT4 include:

  • 3 customisable charts across 9 different time frames and 24 analytical objects
  • Direct trading from charts
  • One-click trading for fast execution
  • Profiles that store your charting preferences and parameters and the ability to easily switch between these profiles.
  • 33 trading indicators and access to over 50 pre-loaded indicators and charts
  • 4 pending order types
  • free VPS for uninterrupted EA trading

MT5

Although MT4 will be the preferred option for most people, don’t rule out MT5. This advanced platform does offer some extra functionality if you know how to use it, such as the option to test strategies for algorithmic trading and the chance to develop your own custom indicators.

FP Markets MT5 features

Key features of MT5 include:

  • Trading of multiple assets from a single platform
  • Depth of market for market liquidity transparency
  • 21 timeframes, 68 analytical tools and unlimited charts
  • 38 trading indicators
  • Multi-threaded backtesting
  • Integrated economic calendar
  • Partial filling of orders
  • 6 pending order types

MetaTrader Traders Tool Box

To ensure you have the best MetaTrader experience, FP Markets also includes ‘Traders toolbox’. Which is a collection of enhancement features for MetaTrader 4 and 5. Major features include alarm managers, extra tick charts and trade terminals.

IRESS

The IRESS trading platform is for clients with the Australian arm of FP Markets only. This platform is best if you are intending to trade stocks (however a limited number of CFDs are available.

Once you’ve created an IRESS account, you can use it with the IRESS trading platform, but this is made slightly more complicated by there being a few different options.

You can choose between the more basic ViewPoint Essential or for mobile trading, Iress Mobile (which are both free and available on both Android and IOS). Alternatively, there is the IressTrader or Iress ViewPoint, which have a fee of $55 per month, this is waived if you execute a certain number of trades or make a certain amount of commissions.

All three IRESS account types outlined earlier include ViewPoint Essential.

Copy Trading

You have a choice of two social trading platforms with FP Markets. These are Myfxbook Autotrade and FP Markets social trading platforms.

Myfxbook integrates with MT4 (not MT5) and provides an automated social trade copying service from its community of over 90,000 providers. This platform has a rigorous screening process to ensure only quality traders can provide signals to their followers. This process helps remove the need for you to filter through poor performing providers.

In addition to automated copy, MyfxBook provides statistics to help you with your trading. Statistics include performance, drawdown over a certain amount of time and best and worst trades.

FP Markets social trading platform is similar to Myfxbook in that it is a social trading platform that allows you to automate the copying of other traders but is only available for traders in the UK. You can use either MT4 or MT5 but some providers may limit which platform you can use.

fp markets social trading

Signing Up

Whichever platform you want to use, the signup process is similar.

After beginning the registration process, you’ll be prompted to enter your personal details, including your name, address, and experience as an investor.

fp markets personal information

Then, you’ll choose your desired trading platform (MT4 or MT5), account type (either standard or raw), and base currency. If you’re in Australia, you’ll also have the option to select the IRESS platform.

fp markets choosing your account

The following base currencies are available:

  • USD
  • AUD
  • GBP
  • EUR
  • SGD
  • CHF
  • NZD
  • CAD
  • JPY
  • HKD

After making a declaration regarding your experience with trading, you’ll finish the sign-up process and be given an account number. However, for an account to be activated (which allows you to actually trade), you’ll need to prove your identity and your address.

Finally, you can go ahead and download your software of choice on the device you want. We gave the MT4 for Windows a go, and this is what it looks like when installed:

fp markets mt4 windows

Features and Tools

All FP Markets trading platforms have an impressive range of features. You’ll be able to open and close positions automatically, trading tools for charting and technical analysis, access the latest news and data. Autochartist is also included which alerts you of trading opportunities via email and notifications on the mobile app.

You can get help from Expert Advisors (EAs) to execute trades, and there are even options for copy trading, which means you can copy the moves of more experienced traders to both earn and learn more.

They also have a Virtual Private Server (VPS) service that can host your strategy, real-time and automate the trade execution without you needing to sit in front of the screen. It’s also free but subject to a minimum monthly trading volume.

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

Forex Pairs and Other Trading Products

There are more than 60 trading forex pairs available on FP Markets, which is enough to rival pretty much any major forex trading platform.

These pairs include various combinations of the following currencies:

  • AUD
  • CAD
  • JPY
  • NZD
  • SGD
  • GBP
  • EUR
  • JPY

As well as pairs with more unusual currencies, like the Swedish Krona and Turkish Lira.

Other Products

FP Markets is really a CFD broker since they offer more than just forex CFDs. In addition to the 60+ currency pairs, you can trade various other assets.

There are a few commodities available, including gold, oil, agricultural products, and silver. Plus, you can trade five cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin), more than 10,000 stocks, and 19 global indices (such as NASDAQ 100, S&P 500, and EUREX).

There are a couple of points to note when choosing CFDs to trade.

1. The selection of stocks is very limited if you are using the MetaTrader 4 trading platform. Only 4 stocks are available with this platform. So you are better off using the MetaTrader 5 or IRESS (Australia only) when trading stocks.

With MetaTrader 5, you can choose from 814 stocks across 9 global stock exchanges including some European exchanges that IRESS doesn’t offer. IRESS allows the trading of even more stocks as well as some futures and ETFs.
Shares

Shares – MT5 vs IRESS

IRESS vs MT5 shares with FP MarketsIRESSMT5
ASX (Australia) 2829105
NSADAQ + NYSE (USA)1380 + 1524168 + 287
LSE (London)97217
HKE (Hong Kong)1418105
SGX (Singapore)438X
IDK (Indonesia)23X
AmsterdamX26
FrankFurtX60
Madrid32X
ParisX13

ETFs – MT5 vs IRESS

ETFs with IRESSIRESSMT5
AXW (ETFs on ASX)102X
ARC (ETFs on NASDAQ or NYSE)198X

Difference between MetaTrader 4, 5 and IRESS

The main difference between MT4/5 and IRESS (aside from cost and DMA execution) is that IRESS allows for 24-hour trading while MetaTrader can only be used during business hours.

2. Cryptocurrency CFD trading is not available to clients in the UK as the FCA banned the trading of this derivative.

Not a bad selection.

FP Markets Trading Instruments

 

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

Customer Support and Service

FP Markets offer many different ways to contact their representatives, and customer service is open 24/7.

There’s a Live Chat option on the website, which enables you to get quick help. It’s operated by real people, and if nobody is online (this happened to us), you can still send a message via email and receive a response when someone is back.

You can also phone — there are toll-free numbers for Australia, France, Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the UK, and Germany.

Resources

One of the things we love about FP Markets is that there’s a wealth of resources available on the website to help you educate yourself on using the platform — and trading in general.

There’s quite a selection of methods too, including webinars, podcasts, eBooks, and glossaries. You could spend days just trawling through everything uploaded!

fp markets web resources

The broker has also recently launched what it calls the FP Academy, which offers three levels of trading education depending on your current experience level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. However, only the Beginner course is available at the moment.

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

Minimum Deposit and Funding

There’s a minimum deposit of just $100, so you can get started on the platform without being a millionaire or committing all your money. However, for IRESS accounts, you’ll need a minimum deposit of $1000 AUD, which might be higher for some account types.

How about the deposit method?

One thing that we liked about FP Markets was the number of payment methods you can choose between. In addition to the usual suspects, like credit card payment by Visa or MasterCard and bank wires (bank transfers can take up to one business day), there’s a range of more unusual choices:

  • Visa and Mastercard Debit Card and Credit Card(AUD, USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, CHF, HKD, SGD, NZD, JPY)
  • Volt (direct bank transfer)
  • Transfer from another broker
  • Neteller (AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, JPY, PLN, SGD, USD)
  • Skrill (international money transfers) (USD, GBP, EUR)
  • Zota Pay (good for Asia and Latin America)
  • PayTrust
  • Fasapay (USD, IDR)
  • Perfect Money (for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies)
  • Cryptocurrency (pay directly in Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, or USDT)
  • Ngan Luong if you are in Vietnam (VND)
  • Domestic and international bank wire
  • PayPal (AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, SGD, USD)
  • PayTrust (MYR, IDR, THB, VND)

fp markets funding method

This gives everyone a viable option, no matter where they happen to hold their money or where in the world they reside.

If you use an IRESS account, you can also fund your account with PayPal, POLi, and BPAY (in addition to the usual options of credit or debit cards, bank transfer, Neteller, and Skrill).

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

FP Markets: The Verdict

In a sea of different trading platforms that all have very similar offerings, it’s tough to stand out, but FP Markets really does go above and beyond. Above all, its ECN-style pricing is hard to beat, and the range of assets you can trade and types of accounts and trading platforms available are other winning features.

Still, you might want to consider an alternative if you plan to trade outside of Australia and Europe (since FP Markets isn’t subject to the same regulation outside these regions). Also, if you’re a long-term trader and only prepared to trade on a Standard account, you might find the spreads excessive since you can’t take advantage of the low spreads.

So, if you’re a beginner, it’s worth also checking out platforms with good Standard accounts, like Pepperstone and IC Markets. Otherwise, knock yourself out and experience what FP Markets has to offer firsthand.

View FP Markets Review >>Visit FP Markets >>

FP Markets Review

Yes, FP Markets is a safe forex broker by all industry standards. This brokerage trading firm is regulated in three tier-one jurisdictions (FCA, ASIC and CySEC) and your money is held in segregated accounts with leading banks (National Australia Bank or Commonwealth Bank of Australia).

At FP Markets clients can enjoy trading in over +10,000 CFD instruments spread across 5 asset classes, access a good range of trading platforms (MT4, MT5 and IRESS), spreads starting from 0.0 pips and ECN trading conditions.

Yes, FP Markets is an ECN broker in the sense they supply forex quotes from a wide network of liquidity providers including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, HSBC, Citibank, etc with no price intervention from the broker. FP Markets call this ECN Pricing

The benefits of trading with an ECN broker includes lower spreads, minimal slippage, lightning-fast order execution speed and deep liquidity. FX Markets clients can access the ECN pricing model through the RAW account with a minimum deposit of USD 100.

Yes, FP Markets accepts retail forex traders from Canada. Actually, FP Markets accepts clients from all over the world excluding retail FX traders residents in the US, Japan or New Zealand.

However, FP Markets is not regulated in Canada with IIROC, the Canada Financial Markets Regulator.

Check out a full comparison of IIROC regulated brokers here: Top 10 Canadian Forex Brokers.

Why choose FP Markets

About the author: Justin Grossbard

Justin Grossbard has been investing for the past 20 years and writing for the past 10. He co-founded Compare Forex Brokers in 2014 after working with the foreign exchange trading industry for several years. He also founded a number of FinTech and digital startups including Innovate Online and SMS Comparison. Justin holds a Masters Degree and an Honours in Commerce from Monash University. He and his wife Paula live in Melbourne, Australia with his son and Siberian cat. In his spare time, he watches Australian Rules Football and invests on global markets.

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Alex McDonald
Alex McDonald
1 month ago

I’m in Spain, can i use a CySEC regulated broker here?

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David Levy
Forex Expert
David Levy
1 month ago

Yes you can. All regulators part of the European Union are part of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

Regulators that are members of ESMA, are able to serve as the regulator to all other countries that are part of the European Union.

Reply