Forex Broker And CFD Provider NZ Comparison

CMC Markets – Best NZ Forex Broker

CMC Markets allows trading CFDs across the world with FCA regulation in the UK to ASIC regulation in Australia. Within New Zealand they offer contracts for difference (CFD trading) and countdowns across:

• Forex
• Indices
• Shares
• Commodities
• Treasuries
• Cryptocurrencies

CMC Markets Spreads

Below shows the spreads on the core markets offered from Forex to Cryptocurrencies. There are several further trading costs when CFD trading with CMC Markets including holding costs (often called overnight fees) for positioned held overnight. There are commissions only for Share CFDs while data subscription costs exist to view share CFDs price data within the trading platform. The final charges occur when a guaranteed stop-loss order (GSLO) is made and then triggered.

Leverage With CMC Markets

CMC Markets offers leverage on major currency pairs of up to 500:1. There is a high level of risk when trading at this level so only experienced traders with a high-risk threshold should consider choosing the maximum leverage available. Maximum leverage ranges for other products with 500:1 of indices, 400:1 for treasuries and 200:1 for commodities. You can view more leverage information on the CMC Markets review.

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Selecting The Right NZ Forex Broker To Suit Your Needs

When selecting a New Zealand forex broker to consider the following 5 aspects:

1) Brokerage Fees which primarily is spreads. Spreads are similar to those traveller views when going to a foreign exchange provider with a different price for ‘buying’ a currency compared to ‘selling’ the same currency. The foreign exchange provider makes the difference which is called the ‘spread’. Some forex brokers will move to minimise these spreads and instead charge a commission. This increases the transparency of forex brokerage costs and can lead to a lower overall brokerage. These types of NZ brokers are called ECN brokers. It should be noted that some NZ forex broker charge other fees for holding positions, trading exotics and certain funding methods.

2) Forex Trading Platforms help individual online forex brokers match individual traders with overseas liquidity markets. The main markets are in New York and London so the trading platform servers need to be close to these locations. Choosing the right forex trading platform will mean finding one that has a good interface, fast trading execution and it’s popularity. By using a popular forex platform like cTrader or MetaTrader 4 a broker can relatively seamlessly change the NZ forex broker they trade with.

3) Leverage is critical for currency trading to make it worthwhile for traders. With currencies often moving by fractions of a percent each day, leverage makes these changes more substantial. The leverage levels can up to 10x different so this element needs to be considered. It’s also worth noting that higher leverage is not necessarily better. This is because higher leverage increases the risks of forex trading.

4) Risk Management features can help forex brokers reduce the level of risk associated with leverage. Some management tools are in-built such as minimum balance protection which ensures an NZ trader doesn’t lose more than their deposit. Other features need to be enabled on individual trades such as guaranteed stops where a broker can determine the most they are willing to lose on a transaction. It should be noted that these features can increase the brokerage costs of the trader.

5) Regulation: The NZ financial service providers register created by the Financial Services Market (FMA) show locally regulated fx brokers. There are many requirements of the New Zealand regulators so choosing these fx brokers will reduce the risk of forex scans. The brokers listed on this page meet FMA requirements and you can view the FSPR (financial service provider registry) website. Another key regulatory bodies to note is the Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL) where complaints of financial institutions can be made.

FMA Derivatives Issuers

To view the NZ licenced provider list you can view the FMA register. The top derivative issuers which offer retail forex broker NZ services are listed below. As further licences can be added or suspended it’s recommended to check the FMA register website to ensure details are up-to-date. The list below was updated in January 2020.

Before trading, make sure you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Any leveraged product increases your chances to lose money when trading. Most fx providers will provide details of the percentage of retail investor accounts lose money. Make sure our aware that you can lose money when trading CFDs which may exceed your deposit.