Best Forex Brokers UK 2022 List
Forex trading in England and Wales requires an FCA regulated UK forex broker offering CFDs, currency pairs and forex trading platforms. To help choose the UK’s best forex broker we compared trading account spreads and features.

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Ask an Expert
I noticed that some overseas brokers offer higher leverage than the list provided here. Why is this?
The Financial Regulator of the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) restricts maximum leverage to 30:1 for major currency pairs and 20:1 for minor currency pairs. Professional traders however can trade with leverage up to 500:1. Leverage involves high risk, so if spread move in an unfavourable direction, losses can be crippling. For this reason, leverage is limited for retail traders to protect them as they may not have the funds to cope with such large losses or the skills to trade effectively with leverage.
Some overseas regulators have a more relaxed approach to leverage however these brokers are no approved for traders in the UK
Can use a broker regulated by CySEC rather than FCA?
If you are in the UK, you can use a broker regulated by CySEC at this time however if you are in Europe, you should use a broker regulated by a European regulator
I’m confused between forex trading, CFD trading and spread betting. I’m based in Manchester and want to know the difference especially when it comes to tax?
Spread betting is an alternative to CFD trading and is only available in the UK and Ireland. CFD trading and spread betting have some similarities in that they are both leveraged products that allow you to profit off the price movements of the same kind of financial products without owning the actual instruments however this is where the similarity ends.
When spread betting, you bet on how much you think a market will increase or decrease. You bet per point (or pips) how much the market will move from that point and the more it moves you win or lose a proportional amount. CFD trading is different, with this you buy a contract at the price matched the underlying instrument. You profit or lose when the price moves away from your purchased price.
Spread betting does offer some tax benefits over CFD trading. Spread betting is closer to gambling, since you don’t own the instrument or contract so there is no stamp duty or capital gains taxes. CFD trading is subject to capital gains taxed but unlike spread betting, you may be able to claim a tax loss if you lose.