Best Forex Trading Platform Australia Comparison

2. IC Markets – Lowest Spreads and Fees

IC Markets an Australian based CFD broker offering ultra-competitive forex spreads while charging low trading and account fees.

The regulated broker holds an AFSL (Australian Financial Services License) issued by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) and is seen as one of the best brokers for currency trading in Aussie.

The table below shows the minimum and average spreads for different currencies against the Australian Dollar. If ideal market conditions occur, you can trade fx financial instruments with spreads as low as 0.0 pips, with few brokers able to compete with IC Markets institutional-grade pricing.

The ECN-style spreads are because of the broker’s top-tier liquidity providers and no dealing desk (NDD) execution. To ensure you can access the tightest spreads possible, the regulated broker sources prices from 25 different financial institutions including major European, American and Australian banks.

Commission Fees for MetaTrader and cTrader Platforms

Commission fees vary between trading platforms. If you sign up to a Raw Spread Account, you will incur a commission fee of $3.50 (per lot/per side) when using MetaTrader 4, while those trading on cTrader will pay a commission fee of $3.0 per USD 100,000 traded.

Trading Account Fees

As well as tight spreads and low commission fees, most of the time you will pay no deposit or withdrawal fees when managing your IC Markets trading account. Traders’ face no fees when withdrawing funds via credit/debit card and domestic bank wire, but the broker charges a processing fee of AUD $20 for international bank wire transfers. When depositing funds into trading accounts, you have a range of payment methods available as shown below.

It is easy to start trading with IC Markets, signing up is efficient and the broker requires a low initial deposit of $200. Once registered, you can access a range of CFDs on top of foreign exchange markets, ranging from cryptocurrencies to indices, commodities, stocks, bonds and futures.

3. CMC Markets – Best CFD and Share Trading

CMC Markets is a London based, market maker forex broker but operates globally within various financial jurisdictions. The companies Sydney hub caters to the unique requirements of Australia’s retail forex market and traders and offers over 330 currency pairs among other CFDs.

CMC offers tight ECN-like spreads on more than just major currency pairs such as EUR/USD, with the ability to trade exotic Asian-Pacific fx pairs at competitive spreads too. As well as an extensive selection of forex pairs, you can buy and sell CFDs derived from an impressive range of financial instruments.

• 100+ cash and forward commodities
• 90+ cash and forward global indices
• 2000+ Australian shares and 9000+ international shares
• 1000+ ETFs (exchange-traded funds)
• 55+ treasury products
• 10+ cryptocurrency products

Proprietary and MetaQuotes Trading Platforms

As a CMC Markets clients,’ you can execute trades using their proprietary web-based platform, Next Generation or MetaTrader 4. If you want access to the broker’s full CFD product range, you will need to use Next Generation, as MT4 only provides market access to forex, indices and commodities.

The Next Generation platform has a wide range of inbuilt features to help you develop risk management and trading strategies, such as pattern recognition, watch lists, guaranteed stop-loss orders, Reuters news and an economic calendar.

As mentioned in our CMC Markets Australia review, when using the broker’s proprietary trading platform you can access your trading account via a web trader platform or mobile apps compatible with iOS and Android devices. If you are using MT4, a desktop and web trader platform are available, along with trading apps available for iOS and Android devices.

View CMC Markets Review >>Visit CMC Markets>>

4. easyMarkets – Best Beginner Trading Platform

EasyMarkets is a well-established Australian forex and CFD provider that holds an AFSL issued by ASIC. If you are a beginner trader and want an easy introduction to forex trading, easyMarkets is a great option with a user-friendly proprietary trading platform and easy-to-use risk management tools.

The web trading platform offers a much simpler interface than MetaTrader 4, providing an intuitive yet versatile platform if you want to gain experience. When using the broker’s proprietary web trader platform you gain access to a range of fx pairs with a simple pricing structure.

Fixed spreads on forex are inclusive of commission charges, while account management costs are low with no deposit or withdrawal fees. Minimum deposit requirements are low with as little as $100 needed to open a trading account. Additionally, easyMarkets prides itself in transparency, with information such as Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) and FAQs clearly displayed on the broker’s website.

Tools available on the web trading platform that are useful for traders new to foreign exchange markets include:

• Freeze rate: Allows you to freeze the current market price and place orders, meaning you can take advantage of favourable price movements in your own time.
• Deal Cancellation: You can pay a small fee to ‘insure’ trades for 60 minutes
• Inside Viewer: You can see market sentiment stats showing whether most traders’ are buying and selling a particular financial instrument.

The different Contract for Difference (CFD) products you can trade on the easyMarkets web trading platform include:

• 136+ forex pairs with fixed spreads, plus free guaranteed stop-loss orders (GSLO)
• Metals such as gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium
• Energy commodities including Crude Oil, Brent Crude and Natural Gas
• Agricultural commodities such as cotton, sugar and cocoa
• Indices that track major markets around the globe including S&P 500, NASDAQ, Australian ASX and the US dollar index
• Cryptocurrency CFDs derived from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple

If you want to sign up to easyMarket but the proprietary platform lacks the advanced tools you require, you can download MetaTrader 4 as a desktop trading platform. The easyMarkets MT4 platform provides access to the same product range as the broker’s proprietary platform, with a wider selection of order types and advanced risk management features.

Compare Beginner Platforms>>Visit easyMarkets>>

5. FP Markets – Good Automated Trading Tools

FP Markets is an Australian forex broker regulated by ASIC in Australia and CySEC in Europe. When trading with FP Markets, you gain access to over 10,000 CFDs derived from forex, commodity, index, shares and cryptocurrency asset classes.

When signing up to FP Markets, you can choose between a no commission Standard account or a Raw, ECN-like account that charges a flat rate commission fee but offers tighter spreads. Regardless of account type, you can conduct analysis and place orders using IRESS (the broker’s proprietary platform), MetaTrader 4 (MT4) or MetaTrader 5 (MT5), depending on the tools and market access a trader requires. MT4 and MT5 are available as tablet and mobile trading apps as well as web trader and desktop platforms.

Automated Trading

To utilise FP Markets extensive range of automated trading features, you should use either MT4 or MT5. Two types of automated trading are possible on MT4 and MT5, with both social-copy and algorithmic trading tools provided. You can develop trading robots (algorithms) using MetaTrader’s Expert Advisors, or copy the trades of more experienced traders using Myfxbook AutoTrade’s account mirroring service.

Expert Advisors

Expert Advisors (trading robots) enable you to develop algorithmic trading strategies using the MQL4 or MQL5 programming languages. Expert Advisors (EAs) fully automate CFD and forex trading, allowing you to save time monitoring markets and entering/exiting individual trades. MT4 and MT5 offer backtesting facilities to assess and optimise algorithmic trading strategies against historical data. You can only backtest a single currency at a time on MT4 while MT5 offers multi-currency backtesting.

If you are a beginner trader and do not want to write your own Expert Advisors, then there is the option to download EAs and indicators from the MetaTrader marketplace. As MT4 and MT5 are popular trading platforms preferred by many retail investor accounts around the world, you gain access to a vast trading community where you can share trading strategies and ideas with other retail traders.

Myfxbook AutoTrade

AutoTrade is a third-party account mirroring service that allows FP Markets customers to automate their trading strategies via copy-trading services. To find systems to copy, you can search for systems that suit your trading objectives by assessing different experienced traders’ history, results and risk profile. The copy trading provider also connects customers to the Myfxbook community, where you can discuss ideas and learn from seasoned investors.

To enjoy Myfxbook AutoTrade’s features for free on FP Markets MT4 and MT5 platforms, you must have been a Myfxbook customer for at least 3 months, executed a minimum of 100 trades and have at least $1,000 in your trading account.

6. ThinkMarkets – Best Proprietary Mobile App

ThinkMarkets is an ASIC, FCA and FSCA regulated broker offering a fully functional proprietary mobile trading app called ThinkTrader. Both the iOS and Android trading apps provide a great range of tools to help you with comprehensive analysis while placing orders on the go.

Account Types

Although ThinkMarkets offers an ECN-style account type (ThinkZero) with ultra-tight spreads, only a standard account type is available when using the broker’s proprietary platform. Unlike the commission fees charged to ThinkZero traders, Standard account holders pay no commission fees when trading forex with spreads as low as 0.4 pips along with other competitively priced CFDs.

Mobile App Features

The ThinkTrader mobile and tablet apps offer the following trading tools and features:

• A full set of advanced charting tools to analyse CFD and forex markets with 100+ technical indicators, 40+ objects, 12 timeframes and 10 charts.
• TrendRisk Scanner: a market trade scanner that detects trading opportunities and applies risk management tools.
• Traders can close all orders for a particular asset with one click using the apps multi deal closure feature.
• Even when you are not online or logged into your trading account, cloud-based alerts deliver alerts and notifications.
• Mobile traders can view four real-time charts with the apps quad display.
• In-app account management making it easy to deposit and withdraw funds.
• You can trade a selection of asset classes with major and minor fx pairs, commodities, share CFDs, indices and cryptocurrencies.

The trading app is well-reviewed on Apples App Store, with over 15,000 5 star reviews. You can use ThinkTraders mobile app along with the online broker’s tablet trading apps or the proprietary desktop trading platform, all from one trading account. ThinkMarkets also is a negative balance protection forex broker ensuring traders can’t lose more than there deposit.

View ThinkMarkets Review >>Visit ThinkMarkets >>

7. IG Markets – Best Market Access

Founded in 1974, IG Markets is a well-respected broker offering an extensive range of CFDs. If you want a diversified portfolio consisting of different asset classes, IG is an excellent option with 6 cryptocurrency CFDs, 68 currency pairs, 10,000+ shares and over 100 indices.

To start trading with IG Markets, you will need to choose either the broker’s proprietary platform, MetaTrader 4 (MT4) or L2 Dealer, a Direct Market Access (DMA) platform.

IG’s proprietary web-based platform suits both novice and experienced traders. You can utilise a range of useful features such as analysis tools, fast execution, and automated trading features to assist with the ins and outs of forex trading.

The L2 Dealer platform aims to provide experienced traders’ Direct Market Access to share and forex markets. Deep liquidity, full market depth and order books allow you to access competitive prices in a professional trading environment. When trading forex with DMA, prices come directly from major financial institutions rather than trading the brokers’ spreads. Commission fees vary depending on the trade size.

Many retail traders are loyal to MetaTrader 4 because of the automated trading features like AutoChartist and Expert Advisors (EAs). Similar to Pepperstone’s Smart Trader Tools, IG offers 12 MT4 add-ons such as Sentiment Trader and Market Manager to supplement the platforms in-built charts and indicators.

As well as webtrader and desktop platforms, IG Markets clients’ can place orders and conduct analysis via trading apps. Purposefully designed apps are available for Apple devices (iOS iPhone/iPad) and Android mobiles and tablets.

Open a demo account >>Visit IG Markets >>

8. eToro – Best Social Trading Platform

eToro is a popular option if you want to focus on copy trading using a pure social trading platform. With over 13 million traders, the broker hosts the largest social trading network worldwide. As well as oversight from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in Australia, eToro is regulated by US and European financial authorities and seen as a trusted broker by many forex traders.

eToro customers can use the broker’s proprietary social trading platform to copy the trading strategies of experienced traders (known as Popular Investors). The account mirroring service allows you to search for Popular Investors to copy based on their past performance, location and risk profile.

The eToro social trading platform is incredibly user friendly and will give you market access to multiple asset classes. Over 2,000 forex and CFD products are available to trade, including shares and cryptocurrency. Other eToro platform features include:

• One-click trading.
• ProCharts: a technical analysis tool to compare charts.
• Risk management tools such as order types. i.e. trailing stop-loss orders.
• Offline trading and demo accounts.

As well as copying Popular Investors trading strategies that involve a single financial instrument, eToro offers a portfolio management service called CopyPortfolios. This allows you to invest in a bundle of instruments and asset classes or a portfolio of the broker’s top-performing investors.

• Top Trader Portfolios
• Market Portfolios