Best Forex Brokers In UK 2020 Comparison

Best No Commission Account = Swissquote

There are two entities in Europe when it comes to Swissquote. The first is Swissquote Bank Ltd and as a Switzerland licenced bank, it has a range of financial instruments and markets.  Swissquote Bank Ltd is not FCA regulated and rather is licenced by FINMA. Swissquote Ltd is FCA regulated and focuses primarily on CFD trading across, forex, energy commodities, metals, bonds derivates trading and stock indices. Swissquote Ltd has an office in the United Kingdom (UK) with its brokerage division (not bank branch).

Spread Only Forex Accounts Offered By Swissquote

Swissquote offers two spread only accounts which both have zero commissions. The most popular prime forex account has the lowest spreads but does require a higher minimum deposit of €5,000. The overall forex trading (also known as foreign exchange) feature of this forex account are:

• Spreads from 0.6 pips
• No commissions on trading
• 15 currencies to trade (including GBP, EUR, USD)
• Negative balance protection

Some example Prime account minimum spreads include:

• USD/JPY = 0.6
• EUR/USD = 1.0
• GBP/USD = 1.0
• AUD/USD = 1.0
• EUR/GBP = 1.2

Swissquote also offers two commission accounts offers an elite forex trading account that has the highest minimum deposit of €10,000. This account is a commission plus spread account which means that spreads are lower (from 0.0 pips) but a €2.5 per side, per lot, is charged.

Another key feature of Swissquote forex trading accounts is they all offer negative balance protection. This means that losses for a trader cannot exceed their deposit. This has been known to occur during extreme trading events with leverage leading to large losses which for some other brokers needs to be repaid.

Stock Indices And Bonds

As an indicator of an economy’s health, stock indices help traders benefit from broad movements in markets. Example of indices are the #SP500 which is the market-weighted top 500 US shares while the #NAS100 focuses on the top 100 technology and bio-technology shares from Amazon to Facebook. The #DE30 focuses on the top 30 shares on the Frankfurt Exchange while the #SMI focuses on the smaller Swiss market.

Swissquote offers indices in two different formats: the FORWARD contract which replicates the Future with the same tick value, the same expirations date and no cost for a position taken overnight, with the advantage of a micro contract available (0.01). On the other hand, the SPOT or CASH contract reflects the futures price with a convenient tick value of $1 or €1, a minimum tradable size of 1 lot, overnight costs but no expirations and tighter spreads than the Forward contract. These two options are designed to respond to daily and long term traders.

Bonds, on the other hand, are viewed historically as a risk management tool. Leverage helps magnify these relatively small movements which are primarily influenced by interest rate movements. Many traders based on this use bonds as part of their hedging strategy. The primary bonds are the US Treasure Bonds (US T-Bond), Gilts issued by the British government (UK Long Gilt) and the Bund which focuses on obligations (long-term) of the German government (German Bund).

Training Across All Markets

What makes Swissquote one of the best brokers is their education across their range of markets including online training (including videos), online seminars and offline training across Europe. Below shows an example of videos created by Swissquote to educate traders on forex markets. There are a variety of local and toll numbers for those are travelling or trying to reach us from abroad such as Cyprus which the number is 800 96595.

Swissquote Review

Swissquote

Swissquote is an international multi-asset broker with a choice of accounts with different entry points to cater for trader wishing to trade a wide range of trading instruments (bonds, CFDs, commodities, stocks, cryptocurrencies). Swissquotes offers commission-free trading with 3 award-winning trading platforms, multilingual customer support and automated trading.

MIN. AMOUNT

€5,000 (Prime Account)

MIN. SPREADS

0.6 (Prime Account)

MAX. LEVERAGE

1:30 Retail / 1:400 Pro

OUR BROKER RATING

7.67

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• Account Types
  Premium, Prime, Elite, Professional
• Commission (per 100k side trip)
  None On Prime/Premium, €2.50 with Elite
• Trade Sizes
  Mini-lot, Standard-lot (Premium Account)
• Trading Instruments
  Forex Options, Precious Metals, Stock Indices, Commodities, Bonds
• Trading Platforms
  MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, Advanced Trader
• Deposit Methods
  Credit Card (Visa, MasterCard), Bank wire transfer via eBanking Portal
• Funding Costs
  GBP credit card deposit 2.2%, USD credit card deposit 2.5%

• Regulation
  FCA: 562170
• Customer Support
  24/5 multi-lingual customer support, Live chat, Email, Phone
• Education
  Available
• Risk Management
  Advanced tools available
• Bonus Offers
  Refer a friend bonus, Introducing brokers
• Trust Pilot
  2.5 / 5

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Social Trading = eToro

eToro (UK) Ltd is FCA regulated and unique to the other forex brokers in the UK with a focus on:

1. Social Trading
2. Investing
3. CFD Trading

Social Trading

eToro created CopyTrader which allows individuals to copy the best traders in the United Kingdom and around the world. When you choose a broker their traders get copied and inserted into your account. This can be then managed in a transparent and simple way. Below shows an example of the social investor’s section of the site. You can allocate a set proportion of your existing funds to copy his or her portfolio. The person you’re copied also receives a small incentive from eToro for the more followers they receive.

It should be noted that copy trading is the most popular feature of eToro. They have over 3,000,000+ active traders worldwide providing a plethora of choice when it comes to copying a portfolio. This is assisted through filters based on returns, number of copiers and what markets they like to trade such as Bitcoin and other cryptos. Another option shown below is market portfolios, trader portfolios and partner portfolios which combines traders, top performance assets or specific strategies.

Stockbroking

eToro offers UK residences with a zero commission stockbroking service. This means there are no commissions on shares in markets across the world from the UK, Hong Kong to the USA. There are no limited on the amount traded and free stock analysis from a team of experts.

While there are no commissions there are fees when it comes to trading shares with eToro. These include conversion fees for most UK residences as the eToro platform uses USD. This means transferring your GBP to eToro for share trading has some currency conversion charges. Then there is a withdrawal fee which is $25 USD. Again, this should be factored into the cost when comparing with other share trading services.

CFD Trading

If you’re more familiar with traditional  CFD products you can start trading with eToro across shares, commodities, currencies, indices and EFTs. Leverage for retail UK traders is up to 30:1 which is the maximum set by the FCA. If you qualify for a professional account this can be increased by up to 400:1 leading to a high-risk environment. If trading with either a retail or professional account trying the free demo account first before a high-risk live account is recommended.

As mentioned earlier, eToro has UK regulation as it does with Europe and Australia:

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 583263
• Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC) 109/10
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) 491139

You can view the full eToro review article to learn more about the United Kingdom forex broker or click on the link below to start trading.

Open a demo account >>Visit eToro >>

Range Of Forex Trading Platforms = IG Markets

IG provides a range of retail CFD accounts focuses on retail investors who want to trade forex. The retail investor accounts offer a range of forex platforms including:

• L2 Dealer
• ProRealTime
• MT4
• IG’s own forex platform

Each of the forex trading platforms shown above also come with mobile solutions including a trading app. This allows you to trade forex on-the-go with the core functions needed for a smaller screen. IG also offers spread betting that can have tax benefits for UK residences.

You can view the best UK forex trading platform page for more comparisons of brokers based on their forex platform and other features.

Open a demo account >>Visit IG >>

Best Beginner Forex Brokers = City Index

City Index is the best UK forex broker for beginner forex traders based on their low spread only account. Below compares City Index to comparable spread only CFD brokers that don’t charge a commission on trades. Not only does City Index have the lowest spreads but also a low minimum deposit of £100.

City index offers beginner forex traders with comprehensive forex training from beginner to advanced traders. This starts with an introduction for CFD traders and moves to advanced trading strategies. There are also webinars and videos to further enhance traders knowledge of forex markets.

City Index has the Financial Conduct Authority Licence 113942 and the parent company is Gain Capital which is regulated in 8 jurisdictions. They have an online trading platform that’s ideal to use for beginner forex traders with the option of micro accounts with a minimum deposit from $0.

Open a demo account >>Visit City Index >>

More About UK Regulation

All the forex brokers displayed on this United Kingdom page are locally regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The authority is independently formed by the government and funded by membership fees. Forex brokers are required to hold a minimum of £1 million in operating capital in the UK by the FCA. This increases based on a formula aligned to the number of traders an fx broker has. Other requirements include:

• Segregating clients accounts from brokers so they can’t use it for operational expenditures
• Processing instantly withdrawal requests.
• Submitting to the FCA annual audited reports.
• Submitted periodic statements that show capital holdings ensuring capital ratios requirements are met.
• Meeting strict regulations for marketing and advertising their financial products
• Resolving customer complaints mutually and allowing any failed resolution to be arbitrated by the UK financial ombudsman.

The FCA has a compensation scheme to guarantee forex broker UK client funds. This is called the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The objective of the FSCS is to compensate CFDs traders when a broker has insolvency issues with protection up to £50,000. When a solvency issue occurs and liquidation occurs the FSCS provides CFDs traders with:

• 100% of funds back up to £30,000
• Up to 90% of funds back for amounts between £30,000 to £50,000

To make a claim a CFDs trader needs to make an insurance claim through the Financial Services Compensation Scheme website. Make sure the firm is listed on the FSCS website as compensation is only available when the body deems the broker’s assets are frozen or it’s in liquidation.

To avoid a scam broker it’s strongly recommended to choose a regulated broker. It may also be worth keeping up-to-date with the regulator’s website as recently a CFD like FXTM lost it’s Financial Conduct Authority licence in the United Kingdom.